I love a good weekend and this weekend was a GOOD weekend. Although not the conventional way to celebrate a VERY special day… as of Satutrday June 16th Ken and I have been married for 11 years! Good and bad, thick and thin we have been together and I am so glad that we have decades more to look forward to! With my pet sitting vacation set up to start on the 16th we decided to celebrate more properly AFTER I get back. Instead, we simplified each of our lives by dividing up the child care. Trinity and Echo headed into the big city with Kathy and myself around lunch time and Ken and the boys remained at Grandma’s with plans of their own. 

We had a car full of stuff to bring with us including a playpen, stroller and the necessary carseats. I am always amazed at how much I need to take when visiting people who are not accustomed to babies and small children. Thank goodness for the 1.50 booster I picked up during JayWalkers at mom’s store. 

Boosted baby

Of course we had a few stops along the way… Mac’s on the way out of town (of course… company loyalty and all that for Kathy), and then a bathroom stop at the next city. THEN lunch! A late lunch but a YUMMY one! With all the Gasoline Alley had to offer we chose a family favourite – KFC! We had popcorn chicken and fries and gravy… and another potty break.

Lunch

After that it was on to Kathy’s and the kitties… settling in took little or no time, once we got everything out of the car and in the door. Mom’s playpen is smaller than ours so takes up less room in the spare room which is awesome. Thankfully Echo is tiny so really does not need much space to begin with. Once everything was safely stowed and kids refreshed it was grocery store time. Not the best trip as both girls were cranky but necessary. We picked up all sorts of fun foods all given the Trinity stamp of approval. This week is going to be a Trinity friendly meal week. She has not been eating much lately and I am thinking that is partially due to the creative meals mom has been making us. She is just in need of old familiars. So we are definitely obliging. 

Thus she was eating Kraft Dinner at like 9pm that night but she was EATING! 

Sunday morning Echo once again reminded me of how much she LOVES early mornings… 4:30, 5:30 AND finally 6:30 when we got up. Thank goodness we had no concrete plans… Ken and the boys on the other hand had FOUR viewings to go to back where we used to live and all this on… FATHER’S DAY! I did my part by having Trinity send her Daddy flowers online (yay app), messaging my dad through my stepmom on Facebook (I do not have US long distance available right now sadly), and making sure that the Father’s Day books the kids made at the library were given to Mike and Ken. 

After breakfast, kitty time, washing laundry, changing Echo MULTIPLE times and sorting through what we wanted to do for the day (not much thank you)… it was time to head to IKEA! Ohhh it has been an age since we have been! But first Trinity and Kathy decided to take advantage of the lovely morning weather (good plan as it did NOT last the whole day) and go out front and plant some flowers. 

Out in the sunshine

This coincided nicely with a bath for me and a nap for the early bird… then after we got motivated and into the car it was time to head to IKEA. Kathy needed plastic dishes and stools for Trinity. I love love love IKEA stools. They are the perfect bathroom height. And of course to check out the food section. 

Then it was time for Sobeys and picking up the groceries we missed on our tired walk through Superstore the night before. Trinity got her own tiny cart of which she was VERY proud! 

A Trinity sized cart

After cookie club and check out it was a mad dash out to the car as the weather decidedly turned against us. So of course, a drive through Starbucks was required and Trinity got her first fancy drink from there! Strawberries and cream milkshake thing… was she ever proud! And for supper we HAD TO introduce Kathy to the world of pita pizzas… she is another convert! We even had PINEAPPLE! What is there to do after supper but a bath for Trinity and some medication (she has a nasty bug bite under her chin I noticed on Saturday and it is taking FOREVER even with the Benedryl to go down) and then bed for her with Echo following around an hour later. 

The first I noticed it... it is smaller now and not as red

That left two adults up with free time… what better to do with it than play a Wii boardgame style game?? Seriously! Add in more cherry pie (we had that the night before), white chocolate Magnum bars and Pepsi and we had a blast. The kitties supervised of course. 

Neko

Ghostly Ozo

This is actually pie from Saturday with white chocolate ice cream but you get the idea

I have to admit, not having all the boys to chase and the house to tidy and the extra people in general to deal with was marvelous. I spent some time searching the elusive rental, enjoying time with a good friend, playing with my girls and generally being more… ME! A much needed respite even though I am missing Ken a lot… I am sure he is finding life a little more relaxing without his womenfolks! 

Girls together

Ozo looking gorgeous

And so we have the weekend… and after a horribly stress inducing second half of the week, a welcome reprieve. We had a Saturday to remember with friends and leaves and games and… FAMILY PHOTOS! Yup, Fydo and Kristen came out with us to a local (and rather pretty) leaf filled park and took pictures for us. I most definitely have camera envy!! We played in the leaves, tried to sit Echo in them (no go apparently she absolutely DESPISES leaves… good to know!), played in the nearby park (no pictures sorry) and enjoyed the rather crisp fall air. We got some absolutely lovely photos out of the experience and the kids had a blast in the leaves. 

The whole family in fall

Emanuel and his leaves... I have more to share and some not yet received, so another day!

Miss Trinity has learned where the most fun is to be had and when Kristen and I were nominated to make a grocery run for dinner (to which they treated us – thank you so much you two!) she was quick to fuss about coming with. Well a booster in the back of the car later and we were off to Superstore where she ALSO went to the potty in the store! What a big girl! In fact, all weekend she had only one incident, we put a pull up on her for bedtime and she pooped… she was devastated! We are not holding it against her dress tally as she came as quick as she could to tell us but after a slurpee, pizza and other junk foods it is hard when you are a new trainer.

Such a big girl!

We ended Saturday with boardgames and Sean joining us. A new game first that was a 4 player so I sat out and sewed on beaks on my owls and then Settlers. Echo joined in on that one and attempted a coup by throwing her toy through the board! So much fun and a much needed dose of games, company and companionship I needed after my ick week ending.

Echo misses her Sean so much!

Settlers

Sean stayed the night and the girls and I saw our boys off for Sunday School Sunday morning. We tidied, played and then… then the popcorn baby was joined by popcorn blondie… apparently popcorn is a major bonding point in this family!

Popcorn Baby and Popcorn Blondie

After Sunday School there was time to tidy and eat and then FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS… oh and FAMILY too! What a needed reprieve from being home as a family… First it was Karyn and Victoria who came in time to drive Zander and I out on a VERY special errand – we had to go get a Halloween costume while they were 40% off at Superstore! A 3 day sale that ended on Sunday… I won’t disclose the costume but I got it for less than the container of laundry soap I also had to pick up! When we got back the number of visitors had grown by 3 with the arrival of Esther (oh yes REALLY!!!), Grandma AND Grandpa Mike! Grandma and Grandpa Mike came bearing gifts, including some school storage (yay!).

Playing Emanuel's favourite Thomas themed boardgame

AND two workbooks – a Kindergarten one AND a Preschool one! The little ones were absolutely in raptures and drug Aunty Esther over to get started. Trinity mostly follows the instructions and is loving every minute of it! I am VERY blessed to have kids who complain when I say we CAN’T do schoolwork… it took some convincing to get them to understand that I needed to clean the table FIRST. They can certainly exhaust a person with their enthusiasm at the end of a long day. But it is a wonderful exhaustion.

Right to work and on a Sunday... with COMPANY!

We ordered pizza as a group after Grandma and Grandpa headed out for home (Mike wanted to go out and do a ride on the bike)… Echo did the potato wedges and the kids were over the moon. I managed to eat a couple pieces of pizza, go out for a wonderful walk with ALL the kids, Victoria, Karyn and Esther for slurpees (they suckered Aunty Esther BIG TIME) and feel much better by the end of the evening.

Walking to the store

That left my evening cleared up to work on wings and owls… one done by 10 and I was done in though… long week, not enough sleep and VERY happy kids to see all these Aunties, an Uncle AND one set of Grandparents! They have been rather grandparent spoiled what with all the Skyping with Grandpa Reinsch… I am hoping the trend continues! I am loving being in better contact with my dad.

Monday was a wee bit overwhelming with the sheer level of energy the younger two of our big 4 had for their new books. It is a bit of an uphill battle to explain how we have to TAKE TURNS having Mommy one on one learning time, but it is a great one to have. They WANT to learn, to try and to do… that makes it all the more exciting. Though I do admit to some losing of patience AND headaches on my end!

We read another chapter of Stuart Little today… we are up to chapter 10! I asked for suggestions with my local egroup and plan on doing some mouse related research and maybe finding some short stories about OTHER mice. We do have the Disney movie to watch at the end of our story courtesy of Cousin Veronika and her Adam… I want to do more with this book than I did with Trumpet of the Swan and this is no longer a summer read! In fact, Karyn found out that the downtown branch of our city library has a pj wearing storytime Tuesday nights so next week I think I will send Ken, Trinity and Emanuel which would leave the twins and me some game time!

Stuart Little

We did finish our Family Tree – you can make your own according to these instructions. We went Grandparents, parents and then kids… I love how it turned out and there is room to add some more extended family later! They were VERY proud of their work and we seem to have somewhat of an understanding as to which sets of grandparents directly belong to which parent.

Our Family Tree

Quiet time was badly timed with the waking up of Echo so she went and played animals with the twins… with strict instructions that she could PLAY but not EAT the toys… we used sheets and towels for terrain and until Echo went monster giant baby on the landscape it was rather organized and amazing to look upon! 

Animals in the bedroom

Ken gave me an evening break by sending me to the basement to lay on the couch and watch tv (Murder She Wrote on Netflix) while he and the kids had a daddy evening. I am told Legos were played!!! My evening is left up to do crafting, blogging and tidying… I am happy to report I am eating more again BUT Trinity had a potty accident at bedtime… we are soooo close… not a pee accident to be seen and I am VERY pleased. One more poop on the potty and I have to go buy her a Hello Kitty dress! I am really looking forward to that purchase! 

I have finished a couple H’owl’oween owls… even had an interested party on a 3rd! It feels good to make things people actually want! I am determined to make October GREAT. 

Pink Popcorn Bears MUST stay on the alert... popcorn is stolen MUCH more often than honey!

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?