We have completed our short possum/opossum lapbook today… there was a little bit of writing, some gluing and word discussion to do and one or two more illustrations were added to the pile but we managed it. I think we will have to come back to the lapbook from time to time to work on our new words! And to admire the artwork and penmanship! You can find our links and videos HERE.

Front cover

I am out of staples so I had to creatively tape in our extra long pages

As far inside as you can get

Back cover, each of the twins wrote one of the words themselves

While possums took up our morning our afternoon was a crafty one with PAINT! Did you know that 4 kids with paintbrushes actually CAN keep the mess down to a minimum? The boys all used the palates they got last year from Nana and Baba, for some reason I can’t find Trinity’s… and Trinity used up the last of our ancient finger paints (from when the twins were tiny!! but with a brush of course as ALL our kids are finicky about their fingers) and some of our scarlet to make her masterpiece! 

Painting at the table

Now what brought on this sudden interest in all things messy and colourful? Well a craft I found on our favourite UK craft site – a Family Tree. They suggest this as a grandparent’s day craft, we are working on the boys really understanding WHO our long distance family are – there are 3 sets of Grandparents to remember and two sets are in the states. For our leaves I found a  template herethat Ken then shrunk down for me to a quarter page and printed out in green. The boys then cut them out and have begun the work of writing out names and drawing pictures of family members. 

Ready for leaves

We did another chapter of Stuart Little. Another edge of your seat adventure, this time on a garbage boat! Apparently Stuart can’t step outside the door without adventure catching him unaware.

4 more interpretations

I have begun my next round of owls for my “It’s a Hoot” page on Facebook. These ones are for H”owl”oween… groan I know BAD! I found some really neat socks and have been cutting them down to owl size. I have tried a couple different lengths with the camo – one a little taller and one the usual size. It is the re-purposing of the old shirts into owl stuffing that REALLY takes the most time right now… and cramps the hand something fierce! 

The kids ended their day with a walk down the block to the community garden with Daddy. They have a nice lot there next to the church that has enough room to run AND still a few plants to check out. Zander did run off home on Ken which was NOT good – we live only a building and the church away but he needs to realize he has to tell us…

Helping Trinity with her shoes as someone had to stay home with a sleeping Echo

A bit of a run

I managed to fill up another mocked up scrapbook page recently as well. A birthday piece!

For Emanuel's book

And now it is back to owl creating… cleaning… dishes… laundry… the list goes on and on. I am sure tomorrow’s entry will be much better organized! Well I hope!

Didn't Ken catch the perfect light on this one?

What a weekend! Definitely kept me hopping. There were a few lovely surprises, lots of terrific friends and family stopping by and of course a nice and extended birthday party for Ken.

Friday night of course, marked the start of Ken’s weekend lan party. We had a nice group of guys over – Sean, Fydo, Ted and Nathan (though Nathan didn’t make it over until 11 or so after he was done work – he works afternoon/evenings). I guess they mainly played WoW but everyone seemed to have a great time, though they ate a batch of my frozen sugar cookies for a snack – with permission – so now Ted and Ken have to replace them for me! Yay!

Ken received some rather nice gifts – a couple movies, some alcohol and of course from Ted – Master and Commander the BOOK! Definitely an inside joke – Ken HATES the movie – so for Christmas Ted got it for him on Blueray and now the book! The look on his face was PRICELESS!

Saturday morning was a treat for the whole family – Grandma and Mike came up for a visit WITH Harley!!! Silly puppy stole a sugar cookie off the table when I walked away for a moment but otherwise was a lovely, well behaved puppy. The boys went out into the backyard and ran wild with the dog. Mom brought Ken a lovely gift – a US flag in a flag box… oh and an ornate over the top desk decoration!

US Flag!

Then to top it off they treated us to McDonald’s which was a first in a while for our family… Trinity had apple slices with the skin on and did so well! Since we did not have time for the play area as a treat we all went to PetSmart with Harley and grandma treated us to a brand new catfish! A big one (and once the tank is cleaned up better I will take a photo). Harley was on her best behavior there but the REAL star of the show was this guy:

TURTLE!!!

That’s right an honest to goodness TURTLE!!! Young I guess, only 8 yrs old but AMAZING. The guy let the boys touch it and everything. Although Trinity’s favourites were not the fish or the turtle but KITTENS! She went almost crazy looking and talking to them! Makes me wish we COULD have one, but in this rental they do not want us to have any 4 legged pets. So once we are in a new long term rental or even bought our own place I am definitely going to see what I can do!

Kittens! (Gavin)

Harley the Not So Little Puppy!

Sadly with the addition of Kitty the 2nd two of our neons disappeared! We figure they died and were sucked up into the filter. Since 2 neons is just not ok for this family – what sort of a school is that? – we plan on waiting until Thursday to let the tank settle and tidy it up a bit and then go back and get some more neons. A fun field trip for the boys as we can go through and talk about the different animals, see if they can count them, etc etc.

Last night Karyn and I sat down and scrapbooked – I had ordered some photos for a few Trinity related events ages ago and had the paper and no idea what to do with them. Karyn brought her Cricut and we worked out some really lovely pages. I explained to her my idea of how I want our Christmas cards to turn out and she seems to think she can help me out with a template. I find that is one of my main problems with making cards and pages – I often have an idea of what I want but can’t execute it! Although I would LOVE a Cricut!!!

From Our God-daughter Isabella's Birthday Party

Trinity's Birthday Party

Easter

Of course our biggest source of excitement and mess was the pumpkin carving party! Chris and Chris, Karyn, Ted, Sean and Fydo all were around for the momentous event. We had a total of 4 nice sized pumpkins to gut and carve. 3 were done on Saturday, one left for tonight for Ken to work on.

Ready to Go! (Gavin left)

Chris did the carving while the kids “helped”. I am not sure who had more fun, though it was obvious out of all the boys that Zander was the most dedicated to getting every little bit of the ickies out of the pumpkins.

Zander and Daddy

Aunty Karyn

The Carving Pro!

I am hoping to get some pictures off the kids in costume this week with the carved pumpkins, just have to find a spare moment and a nice spot in the house to do it. Oh, and convince Trinity that tutus are not torture! She is unsure of the poof.

Pumpkins and Kiddos (Zander left)

We had a nice assortment of snacks and a lot of visiting time.

Mmm Snacks!

And tonight a nice tray full of pumpkin seeds  to roast for latter. I  roasted those tonight and tomorrow plan to make more beans before starting my serious Christmas baking. And of course, here is our recipe:

Step 1: clean the seeds. When you are carving your pumpkin, separate the seeds from the pumpkin flesh and strings. Was them well (usually putting them in a big bowl of water and rubbing them between your hands is a fast way to clean them) and let them drain in a strainer for about 30 min, then spread them out on a baking pan. Now just use a hair dryer to dry them quickly!

Iti s time to start preheating the oven. Turn it on and set it to 275 F

2. Spread the seeds on a cookie sheet and season them.

Spread the seeds evenly over a cookie sheet and lightly baste the seeds with melted butter, margarine, or vegetable oil.  There are many variations.  Here are the most popular, in order or popularity (we chose Halloweeny since that is what we had all the seasonings for):

1. Savory: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and 2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
2. Lemony: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon ‘Mrs. Dash” or lemon pepper
3. Halloweeny: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt,  and 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice.
4. Spicy: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
5. Natural: 1 teaspoon sea salt or other salt, 4 tablespoons melted butter

3. Roast the seeds.

Heat them in a 275-degree oven for 10 to 20 minutes until golden brown. DO KEEP AN EYE ON THEM, checking every few minutes and stir about every 5 minutes. Some ovens run hot and it can be as little as 10 minutes or as long as 30 minutes to roast them. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot or cold.

For milder flavor, simmer the cleaned seeds for about an hour in salted water and fry in deep oil. Or mix a tablespoon of oil or margarine to each cup of nuts and roast them at 250 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes until they’re golden. Sprinkle them with salt.

Mmm Seeds!

Tonight’s pumpkin story: From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. Terrific illustrations it explains everything from how the plants get water to what the different leaves do in nice, simple terms.

From Seed to Pumpkin

The boys and I spent some time today working on our pumpkin lapbooks… the outsides are not done but I am very happy with the interiors! This marks the end of our P is for Pumpkin study so now we are spending  the rest of the week doing HALLOWEEN!!! I am not sure how complex of a book we will make but I am sure it will be fun, maybe B is for Bat or something of the same idea???

Emanuel's Pumpkin Lapbook

I got the basic Pumpkin set up from a free lapbook. Some of the links were dead so we improvised: For the rhyme Peter Pumpkin Eater we found another link for puppets, and instead of the section making words out of the letters for pumpkin we found a prayer to include. We took full advantage of the boys’ interest in perler beads and made pumpkins (Emanuel made HIS into a jack-o-lantern). I also hunted down a picture of a hedgehog with pumpkins that I will get pictures of tomorrow for the back cover. They are VERY happy with the resulting books!

Sewing has not been a priority this weekend BUT I have made some progress on my Santa and Ken has PROMISED me a plethora of patterns this week to get me caught up with all my ideas. I am looking forward to having my site properly running… then I have to start with advertising and the like… but it will be a NEW challenge and I LOVE those!

Fuzzy but You Get the Point

Since tonight is my local stitching group chat night and I have perler beading to do I really must get a move on! But all in all a busy and HAPPY weekend!

Mike and His Wee Girl

Another rough night courtesy of a sniffly sick little girl. Trinity woke up this morning with a horribly runny nose and the sneezes. Of course she made sure to keep me up off and on for most of the night. I am hoping that all the snuggles and a nice warm bath today will help her feel much better tomorrow. Maybe? I would LOVE a good night’s sleep after all.

This morning we were a little rushed – Ken had his dr’s appointment where he moved from the individuals he has been dealing with to the long term care people. This is the group that will help him manage his health issues over the long term. He got the opportunity to meet quite a few people who gave him some wonderful insights as well as some plans for the next 4 months or so (he will be busy for at least a couple hours every Wednesday night it seems). My personal hope is that this will lead to Ken even dealing with his procrastination issues which have been in existence since before I have even known him and I find has affected our family more than I would like. There is a lot of hope in these new meetings and individuals and I like that.

Of course after we saw Daddy off we were off and running with the letter N. Nuts, Noah’s ark, and nails all came up in discussion and activity. Each of the kids has an n in their name so it is a very important letter and on that Emanuel actually enjoyed tracing! We did our computer time and then had to do some of the vowel songs and of course redo a couple of letters (K for kitten is a favourite).

Letter N (Zander right)

The finishing of N led to the request for CANDYLAND! Oh dear I think we need to get another game… we played twice today… Emanuel is finally getting the hang of the twists and turns on the board.

Candyland Candyland Candyland (Gavin middle)

I had each of the boys illustrate yesterday’s story. I re-read it to them and then they picked their elements. Zander drew the corn at the corn maze, Emanuel (with some help from Gavin on the houses) Harley and Mike’s bike, and Gavin Harley and Grandma’s house. All very inspired!

Zander

Emanuel

Gavin

We made more frames today… I am definitely in dire need of brown paint so I can start with the tree shaped ornaments. Green spray paint would not go wrong either. Painting 2-3 coats on green puzzle pieces by hand is so time consuming!

4 More Frames

I did have a minor glitter glue accident – the black was stopped up and when I squeezed… well there you go! I put as much as I could in a plastic baby fruit container – we’ll see if it is sealed enough to be used later!

Glitter Glue Explosion!

The boys spent lots of time outside today – what with Trinity being sick and all a lot of my plans went up in smoke. For the most part they got along though I did have to call them all in for time outs twice (Zander always has the biggest fit when I do!).

Outdoor Fun (Zander red)

Last night we faxed the Canadian Government Loan the forms to reassess our payments, today Ken headed out to pay any back owing from the past month. Fingers crossed THIS division of the government actually feels the urge to be kind! I did notice that they had the wrong number of people in the family (5 instead of 6) so maybe that will even help my case further? They say we should know by next week either way! So fast compared to the last situation!

It was another happy mail day today! Well, other than the mailman ringing the doorbell with two registered envelopes (Trinity was NOT impressed but apparently she is almost the same age as his little one!). No, today a very kind teacher from Texas that I chat with on one of my sewing egroups sent me a wonderful reference book: What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. I took a brief peek through and found that a lot of the stuff I want to do this year is there as well as some more ideas! What a gift!!

Thank You So Much!

Today’s cooking was contained to 3 trays of apple leather. I love the smell of the applesauce being warmed up like that… the whole house smells like cinnamon and baked apples. MMM This time I put more applesauce on each tray and did not smooth it out as thinly, I am much happier with the results… after all I need some for our trip 3+ hours south next weekend and some for my brother’s family.

We are currently working on ideas for a math lapbook for the boys… so far I have a matchbook style center piece, the numbers 1-100 and the math match game we made previously to go in an envelope pocket. I just got another email from a lovely homeschooling mom chock full of links to check. I signed up to use another site that has free lapbooks and am awaiting to be accepted. It feels good to have a plan – Ken and the boys are going to do insects next – there is a basic lapbook I got for free on Currclick that we are going to add to.

We let the boys eat outside tonight. Figured with the weather holding a little longer they should enjoy every moment they can of it!

Dinner in the Backyard (Gavin orange)

Speaking of Science – the boys started their crystal project with Daddy. Even the test tube they came in was interesting (it is a 2L bottle before the inflate it for pop!)… for tonight they dropped their colour bits into water to dissolve.

Then they added the crystals to take in the moisture. Tomorrow they take those crystals and put them into the test tube and then leave THAT overnight. Heck they were amazed by the fizzing colour and surprised by the growing crystals… tomorrow should WOW them!

Sewing was severely curtailed with a weepy baby on my hands, so tonight I am attempting to make up for lost time. A friend asked Ken and myself to help her adjust an image to stitch so we are definitely getting that done tonight, but my next project is not yet ready for stitching which leaves me the stocking. My goal is to actually have something to show on here tomorrow that will illustrate a definite movement towards finishing this piece. I am quickly getting to the point when I will have to deal with the blending filament. I am a little concerned as to how much of the pearl (032) I have in the house. Seems to be the most popular colour in patterns and of course NOT the cheapest.

So tomorrow should be another interesting day, we are not going to any sort of activities outside the house that are preplanned as Ken needs to get work done and next week we are spending a whole day out of the city. BUT I may see if we can get in a walk and a play time at the park! Wish us luck with our sniffly baby!

Working on Bouncing Back?