Tuesdays are many things – garbage day, the second day of the week… our first really focused school day of the week when we take the weekend off. This Tuesday you have to add in some sort of stomach bug/cold thing. Nothing extreme just Emanuel, Echo and myself feeling a little under the weather. Though Emanuel felt bad enough to suggest in the morning that he NOT go to the library!!! 

This has not slowed our learning about the Inuit people. I have even MORE videos to share with you all today! Including the interesting fact that what we call an Inukshuk generally (the one that looks like a person) is NOT called that by the Inuit. Instead they have another word for them that mean false person! 

And an interesting piece on hunting and fishing that the boys really enjoyed.

And a very interesting and informative pod cast about Inuit games! I love the creativity and not a single battery to be seen!!

Zander and Ken are still battling out math but today he did a marvelous job reading his Starfall story to go with his book. I am so thankful that someone passed these books along. The site does not require a membership for the stories the books cover so he is able to work his way through without costing me more cash. I honestly cannot thank people enough for passing along their unused and unwanted things for our children. Last night Karyn dropped off some items a co-worker didn’t need for her kids anymore. We actually held some of those back for their birthday! We honestly would not have such a fun school area (ok house) without the generosity of friends, acquaintances and family! 

Working on his reading

We had haircuts tonight with the amazing Cousin Elizabeth who Gavin says must do ALL their haircuts. That meant a visit and TREATS! Such a talented cousin I have! 

Post haircut treats!

So cute!!!

I have been working on a baby necklace. I now have a VERY good reason to purchase more beads as I am about out of my cute and fun shaped ones. Though I have enough alphabet ones to make sentences! I haven’t done a nursing necklace in a while so this was a fun change of pace! I forgot how much I enjoy working with beads and patterns! Time to check out Dollarama. For some reason they tend to have reasonably priced beads. 

Beads

Trinity and Karyn made it to the library and back again without incident. I opted to stay home with cranky baby and wait for our spectacular hairdresser. I am working on multiple crafts right now anyway and Echo was in a horrible mood with her runny nose and slight fever. Now I have a list of crafts to complete, tidying to do AND the movie Clue on Netflix to watch! 

Just a little smile to close with

3 days … well ALMOST 3 full days at Grandma’s house after THREE MONTHS of not travelling = sad kids and Mommy when it was time to go home! BUT the time there was a blessing. Do you know, I think we are the only family with a TOILET at the top of a Christmas tree at Grandma and Grandpa’s?? Seriously! It won second place at the college. 

Isn't it awesome?

Close up

With Ken having work to finish and laundry running we made it to Grandma’s around supper time on Thursday. Oh and  you would not believe how long it takes to get to Grandma’s… ever so long… and it is SOOO boring… (got too dark to play UNO too quickly I guess). We made sure to leave room in the van for the return trip. One of the few times I miss the old van. I am proud to report that our newest repair by Canadian Tire held and was terrific, though we still smell some burning coolant (and will due to puddles that froze). So another trip to the Grandparents’ is in the works already! 

Grandma's house is the best I am told!

We were all up late and Trinity was, as usual, in our bed splayed all over. Mom and Mike have a boarder over the holidays when he cannot be on dorms. He is VERY nice and great with the kids and apparently eats anything. We ousted him from his bed for his last night there but he was a great sport… and planning on being out and about that night anyway. 

Friday was our first WHOLE day at the house in ages… tv’s were rediscovered, a toy room trashed and eventually cleaned up, backyard explored… no one was bored! AND Ken got a TON of work done in the basement in his corner. Zander, mom and I went out and got his glasses straightened, stopped in at the baby store (no size mediums to be had boo) AND stopped in where Gavin’s godmother Christine works (pharmacy) to see when she was in (4-12). Later Ken and Gavin took his present and saw her at work where she was invited to stop by before she headed off to her parents’ on Christmas Eve. 

Mom did a lot of the cooking for Christmas Eve dinner on Friday so that Saturday we had spare time. Mom did some crafts with the kids as well… She and Trinity finished an angel ornament together! 

Crafting with Grandma

Oh and we cannot forget the traditional decorating of the Christmas tree (the one WITHOUT a toilet at the top). We had minimal breakage and TONS of fun. With Echo in the thick of it UN-decorating the tree to boot! We put on maybe half the ornaments mom has collected over the decades on the tree… the new black tree is smaller than the old green one (it is the one that found new life as a maintenance themed tree). 

I had to take various pictures with various camera settings of course!

With Grandpa Mike AND a stool to help

Echo helping Grandma

So pretty!

Don't forget about the Christmas train set - with added stops for fun of course

Saturday was Christmas Eve of course which meant even MORE excitement… by 10:30 or so we had Christine AND her two puppies Bella and Jasper over for a visit AND mom’s dip. It was a visit long overdue and we chatted well past noon and her projected leaving time. While she was here Uncle Wayne got in for the day as well. 

Bella

Jasper

It really is true, in Mom's house the KITCHEN is where it is at!! Having dip and hanging out!

Before she left for her family gathering we HAD TO open the presents! Lots of crafty things for the kids (which we did by Christmas Day of course!). And the maintenance designed tree had to be shown off of course!

PRESENTS!

Just a happy boy with his God Mommy

It was an important first for Trinity too – Grandma gave her her first trim!!! Just a tiny bit off the bottom to get rid of the dry bits. Very exciting!

Just a TRIM now

We decided to open the rest of the presents before dinner as Mike got called into work due to a boiler issue that took some time to correct. Paper flew, toys went wild and the kids were over the moon!! 

Uncle Wayne and the fancy tree

Girly presents

Chaos!

We had supper around 3… well most of us did, mom and Mike ran out to a coffee that ended up being 2 hours long. But it was delicious. 

Turkey dinner

After mom and Mike got back we had Mike open his presents, played some and then it was time for a rather tearful goodbye. AND packing the van to the gills. Of course Mike got called back into work AGAIN and managed to make it back just in time to see us off. 

Watching Grandpa Mike open... the wrong present !!

Mom's gift from Mike - those are black and white diamonds!

We decimated this dip! While they played Clue Jr. Mom, Uncle Wayne and I finished this puppy off

Our drive was uneventful though there were tears still shed and some boredom. We got home, piled out and then the great emptying of the vehicle began… SO MUCH STUFF! AND a phone call to boot – Esther! Well worth the interruption. She has given us some lovely tax advice and calmed some fears in the same regards. Esther you are our hero and certainly do NOT visit your little Reinsch-Johnson Canadian family enough (you do know it is too late – you ARE one of us). 

Once we got in, put on new pj’s, put the baby to bed and tidied it was time for our Santa picture! Santa got chocolate milk in a WINE glass AND a plate FULL of oreos. Of course the kids had to sample first! 

Cookies and CHOCOLATE milk for Santa... with our key ready to go into the mailbox

Then bed for the kids and finishing touches for the adults. Christmas Eve was a lovely day and ended with everyone tired and ready for the big day!

And the verdict is in… we are doing just wonderful with our homeschooling plan! YAY! Our facilitator came today (he was a little late due to road etc) and we went through what the boys had been doing, how they were progressing and discussed some of our personality struggles. I always feel WAY more confident after one of his visits. We are VERY blessed with our facilitator and do so love our board. 

Celebratory Slurpee and our Light up snowman (shared by all - both)

And now back to another two day blog! Today we declared a snow day after the facilitator left. That is another of the bonuses to homeschooling – we can create our OWN snow days… and yes… it IS snowing! In fact we woke up to snow coming down. The kids are so excited and I have put a bowl out for tomorrow to catch fresh snow to be brought in and played with in the morning. Tomorrow will be another brief day, as much as organized schooling as we are heading to the local library branch in the afternoon to see if any other homeschooling families can come and meet up. And if no one can make it… well we get to go to the library – win win right? 

SNOW

Anyway… after getting through the facilitator meeting pretty much unscathed (Zander only acted out a little) I decided to put Trinity and Emanuel down for VERY needed naps and let the twins go down and play a game on the PS3. Sadly the basement is a bit of a mess as we are moving stuff around in the main closet in there and had to get into the other closet for Christmas stuff… 6 or 7 buckets of stuff later and there IS some space in the closet… but it is still a mess! 

Gaming

Our pre-meeting morning was a Lego morning, easier than pulling out stuff we already had sorted and thankfully they kept it pretty much all in the same place. Gavin actually made a ZOO!!!

Fun with Legos

A zoo

Yesterday we worked hard to get some workbook work done…

Workbooks

We started our felt ornaments. Trinity and Emanuel didn’t stitch theirs but rather decorated… lots of glue and sparkly bits! 

Fun with sparkles

Gavin stitched and decorated his own. We used templates from Activity Village… the one I am most excited about getting to is making the Christmas Pudding Beanbags. I don’t know that the boys will do a blanket stitch but as long as I put the beans or rice in a ziploc bag first I think we should be ok.

I have the patch now to get going on that pink top and bottom set a friend sent Echo… VERY cute, I got it off of eBay (of course). I figure I will match little bows on the cuffs of the pants and maybe on the sleeves…

Bunny patch

Last night was ANOTHER planned visit – my cousin Elizabeth came over and cut the boys’ hair (thank you so much!). I didn’t get any pictures while she was cutting it – we were too busy visiting. BUT I do have a good picture of post cut hair and Emanuel! Doesn’t he look so grown up! I love having family over and the haircuts saved us a bundle. So many talented family members!

Looking sharp

I stayed up late last night working on Christmas projects and will most likely do the same for the rest of the week. Time is ticking! I cannot believe how fast November is moving along. We are still stuck in city but are working on busying up our weeks a little more.

The crafting day is still on on Saturday though we may be small in number in the end (the weather is VERY snowy). In the meantime I am working hard at getting rid of a particularly nasty bum rash on Echo. We almost had it beat and she had a nasty poo and burned right through the cream and the new skin. So baking soda baths and lots of changes tomorrow onward. At least with the cold weather it is not a huge issue to be home to do so.

Queen of the Christmas Barrel

Since I have found my lost photos that are now awaiting nails to go on the walls the hunt has turned to two pairs of missing skates… I am running out of places for those to be hidden so may have to cave and get two more used pairs. BUT we wrote our letters to Santa (in Trinity’s case I wrote something and then she drew a picture). Those are getting sent this weekend. The kids want me to write a letter for Echo so we will write that tomorrow. I took my paper from here, and if you are in Canada hereis the information for writing to Santa.  Now I am sure more has occurred in the past two days but my mind is totally full of Christmas prep and Christmas crafting! I will be so much happier once some of these projects are done!!! 

Ready for Bed!