So it has been quite a while since I have done a REAL blog entry. I am hoping to continue remedying that from now on. First off – Zander had a BIG completion, he finished his review ABC book for Grades K-1. He asked to go over everything again after starting a harder book and as always I am fine with that. He burned his way through this one, working on sounding out words… printing his letters in a more consistent way. (that is a bit of a chore with him as as soon as he gets bored or even semi distracted he gets messy and lackadaisical). I have to say I am DEFINITELY seeing a difference now that he has the glasses. I can only imagine what the over focusing was creating when he tried to see words and numbers close up! So of course we celebrated with a picture that he wanted me to promise to post on the blog!

Hmm what else… Well, in honour of Palm Sunday we completed a simple but fun mini poster. The twins shared their palm leaves to colour and cut out while Emanuel did his own. The end result was some wonderfully rainbow inspired palm fronds. Then they glued them onto the page with Jesus on his donkey. I coloured the paper for them as the amount of work spent just doing the palm fronds had them making faces when I even SUGGESTED colouring the rest. I actually really enjoy colouring myself.

Our week’s end stress was compounded by MORE snow… seriously? I had just about packed up the winter coats, HAD packed up the mittens and hats… and then SNOW and not just a little bit… enough for it to stick! So not fair. The kids are sick of it, we are sick of it and seriously, I need to get that backyard sorted through and every one of our toys picked up for our June 1st move!

Oh yes, the new potty plan for our Miss Trinity! I believe I mentioned stopping in at Michaels earlier in the week… well I lucked out with the Hello Kitty merchandise and for 1.50 I picked up a package of 4 pen top stampers, self inking. I had a piece of white poster paper hanging around so we have set that aside as “Trinity’s Potty Sheet.” Every time she SITS on the potty she gets ONE stamp, pees 2 and poops 3. So far we have been doling out stamps one at a time. Sadly we came VERY close… lots of fluids, sat on the potty for almost and hour, nothing, put the pull up on and… she peed. BUT she did tell us right away so that is something. I just want to make this all as positive an experience as possible for her. She is VERY proud of her poster!

Oh the big milestone – yesterday Echo SAT BY HERSELF! I was behind her to make sure we didn’t have any falling flat on her back action but other than that it was all her… too bad by the time we grabbed the camera she we leaning heavily on poor Petite Sheepette, but TODAY I got a cute picture of her sitting solo. She doesn’t do it very long but the minor shifting to adjust and stay seating is very visible and exciting. I have to admit as much as I like taking newborn and infant pictures, once they are sitting alone the REAL fun begins!! PROPS!!!

Yesterday during the little 3’s nap I got in some quality Lego time … mainly with Gavin this time. We used 3 colours and created – a skateboard park! Definitely a first for me. Apparently the boys are SURE I didn’t have Legos as a little kid which is “sad” to which Zander replied – well we had Legos when we were kids… and Gavin piped up – we still ARE kids… Note the addition of trees and a few flowers… I don’t remember having those pieces when *I* was little!

The original plan was to have our traditional Easter Egg Hunt and Egg Dying yesterday afternoon, but with the end of the week being a bit soul crushing instead I was booted out of my own home by Ken to enjoy an extended outing (after breastfeeding Echo one last time of course since there was not a lot of room in the car to take her) with Karyn, Lauralee and Victoria. We window shopped to our hearts’ delight including the Scottish store in our travels (Karyn needed to get her dad a birthday present). The tiny kilts and dresses for little girls were soooo cute but definitely NOT cheap. I picked up cotton candy while we were out at the money spent on it went to a charity AND because along with the kids I do love cotton candy!

So with the change in plans we moved our busy Easter fun to today, that meant that instead of packing up the girls to watch the service for Palm Sunday we stayed home, played some Easter games, tidied up, watched Kai Lan for a while and packed a box… oh and boiled eggs. This left KEN to photograph and video the boys. They processed in AND sang a song!!!

I used these instructions to see if it worked better. Ken said they seemed to peel pretty easily. We used the cups I mentioned previously that we got at Walmart. They also came with dye, an egg holder and the egg crayon.

Of course BEFORE this I sent the kids in the basement to wait while I hid the eggs in the livingroom… we laid out the ground rules – no running, no pushing… make sure Trinity gets to look too… and remember we will sort everything out evenly anyway after (I mark all the eggs to make that easier). So it went really well!

I got to put out our family eggs that I have cross stitched over time. 7 in total now… from various patterns that my mom in turn finished off for me. I can’t choose a favourite honestly, they all turned out so sweet!!

After decorating eggs they got to go nuts with the stickers (Easter themed of course). We got some lovely creations out of that that I am going to put up on display before I head to bed. Zander chose to have me print off a picture to colour but everyone else went the foam and sticker route.

One of the most EXCITING toys they got from our hunt were the dinosaurs that grew in water. Emanuel even took some time to hunt through the dinosaur book and see if he could guess what one of his dinosaurs was. It was vague enough to be quite a few which was a lot of fun for the boys.

Of course we have the games I have been buying over time – Dollarama and Walmart dollar and 2 dollar sections. And the matching games (eggs or bunnies) that I have printed out and saved. The novelty of something that comes out for a brief period of time is so helpful! Especially since the snow is still not quite melted.

Oh amidst the upset and frustration of the end of our week we got a great pick me up – a package in the mail. A very sweet lady out east send us a variety of sweet and thoughtful gifts!!! Some play money for the boys – with the coins actually close to the right colours, felt (we can ALWAYS use more felt), some HOMEMADE hair scrunchies (I used to have ones my mom made me, they are a favourite of mine), and for our resident girly girl – Hello Kitty stickers AND the cutest little barrettes shaped like pretty lady’s hats! The smiles on all of our faces were a welcome addition to our day. Gavin was quick to use the coins as references and talk about the numbers on the bills… Zander took a moment to peruse the felt colours and comment on the variety and Miss Trinity – well she picked a pink hat to wear while doing important Lego building.

My mom dropped off an Easter sign for us when she came to the party last weekend so mid week we will be putting that up and having the kids stand in front of it before Gavin leaves for his Grandma trip. It is weird to be doing everything so early! But we will still have our small gift for the kids on Easter Sunday – Kinder Surprise Eggs have been requested! I cannot wait to get Trinity into her new dress. She has sweet little dress shoes to go with that still fit as well though I have to hunt down her dress socks. She has two pairs and they are definitely getting small.

Today we read two Easter/rabbit books. We have a couple more to read before Easter, and then I am hoping to start The Trumpet of the Swan that Karyn has lent us. I do love books that are right on par with our festivities.

OH and a big YAY for me personally – my all time favourite anime – Gintama is BACK ON!!!!!!! They had taken a hiatus, and now I even have a couple episodes to watch tonight on Crunchyroll… bonus! Tuesday marks the new season of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Canada. Last season my favourite captain passed away so I am interested in how they will move on from that and whether or not I will feel the same about this series as I did before he died.

So my plan for the evening is to pack a few boxes (thanks again everyone from Karyn’s work!!! We so have to make them thank you cookies), stitch some more backstitching – I will share another image of a portion of that tomorrow… and catch up on my beloved Gintama!