Well BUSY and fabulous… as always! 3 birthday boys, Chinese New Year AND Valentine’s Day. Not to mention it is also Nana’s birthday month. I think February has ALWAYS kept us hopping. We tend to not do a huge celebration for Valentine’s Day but we do send out quite a few Valentines. Chinese New Year is always a bit of a big deal. We clean the house, wear new shirts (usually self decorated) and eat special foods. Although we will ALWAYS miss our friends back home who made Chinese New Year so special.

We celebrated Emanuel turning 10. Double digits it is!!!

And made our very own igloo.

It was Emanuel’s turn for a workbook completion.

The boys were very grateful for their lovely birthday gifts from all sorts of loving friends and family.

With treats for the girls. Thanks Gammie!

After all, the twins are now 12!!! Where has the time gone? Next year — TEENAGERS.

We had fun with the Schwartz family.

Swam our hearts out.

And in the world of crochet – a heart scarf I gifted to a sweet friend as a pick me up.

Hung out with the Novaks (gotta celebrate with our friends on those birthdays).

Had the guys over for game night.

Raced cars with the scouts… Not only Emanuel this year! 

I got in sewing time of course – I made a jellyfish mobile for the girls’ room and for a friend back home – a hat that has a likeness to a hat on a certain Sci Fi series. 

So a happy belated Valentine’s Day… etc… to everyone! 

January 4-5

Ending the first week of the new year it was so nice to have it be on a high note – in the mail – Ken’s renewed passport! Now we just have to wait for the separate mailing of his old one. AND the even BIGGER news, the one I teased you all with at the end of 2012… Ken went in to sign the paperwork to finalize his employment as a lead programmer! Definitely an answer to our prayers, though a bit of a nervy thing for me. Ken has not worked outside of the home since right after Trinity was born! It is going to be quite the adjustment!

While Ken was gone Emanuel and Gavin set up to watch one of the movies Gammie sent us – Planet Dinosaur! They really enjoyed it… I think they watched almost 4 hours before becoming bored. So of course we had to draw pictures of their favourite parts… Gavin for his journal and Emanuel his dinosaur binder!

Watching the dinosaurs

The movie

Illustrations from the movie

Life seems, right lately… now don’t get me wrong, I personally am lonely and it is no simple task to keep the boys occupied and learning with stuff in storage and items downsized drastically… but we are where we need to be. That has become glaringly clear with how happy Ken is, with the kids’ interactions with their American family members… with how we are figuring things out. Now this is NOT forever, but for NOW and NOW we need to be HERE. I am just working to really wrap my head around that.

Trinity and Echo gaming together

We had some time of creativity as well… Emanuel made us long necked dinosaurs out of Lego.

LEGOS

And then Echo forced the issue and got Nana and Baba out to see the snow creations in the back… She was determined to spend a little time in the snow. There was the completed structure.

Taking Nana to the backyard

Gavin and the igloo

And one they have just started with the block makers Ken and I picked up at Target recently. 

First layer down

Our Saturday was rather fun… it is the first one of January so Ken and his dad took the boys to their Home Depot free crafting activity. This time they made BIRD HOUSES! So along with the houses they also gained their newest pin for their aprons! Talk about proud boys.

The finished houses

My proud crafty boys

The boys even shared their Home Depot popcorn with the girls!

In the afternoon Ken and I had the opportunity to take just Emanuel and Trinity on a field trip to United Noodles… an Asian grocery. We were on the hunt for anything Japanese, well anything Asian and interesting. Sadly they did NOT have any Bento Boxes but Emanuel picked out some lovely chopsticks.

Fishy chopsticks

Trinity picked out Jelly straws… which were… squishy…

Jelly Straws

We also picked up some interesting chips, more of my noodles and some ideas of bowls and soup spoons that when we get our own home I am so going back for. The lovely ones you eat won tons with. Which has Ken interested in learning how to make our own won tons from scratch! So not finding a Bento Box was ok because we DID find treats and chopsticks and a place to come back to and hunt for hidden gems again! Ken of course came home and immediately hunted down a Chinese bakery… butter explosion buns were NOT to be had where we were. So, our next expedition will be there!

Very garlic-y

Of course the twins took our time away to play Skylanders… we are starting to majorly cut back their time on there now that the new toy has worn off a little bit. So a special day for all of the kids pretty much!

On a special field trip

December 13-14

With the cousins here when they are not at school or clubs until the beginning of the next week accomplishing schoolwork during the traditional school hours has become a must. They slept the night on Wednesday and then were gone before we were up to school, so Thursday had to be a work first snow later sort of day. We have TWO packages left to mail, both American which required hand crafted cards or specially coloured Christmas pictures.

Ken spent some time with the boys finishing up their reindeer factual section. Lots of difficult words and interesting facts about reindeer digestion I am told!

Back around the table

The snow fort/igloo HAS really progressed… though with the weather getting warmer in the afternoon and then cold again I have made VERY sure they realize that unless there is someone on the OUTSIDE of the structure they are NOT to go in it. Hopefully this lovely weather holds, Wednesday they were out for hours and hours!

Quite the building

Room for 2

Even Trinity went out and joined in the fun for a bit. That is a first this week as she has been under the weather. Poor Emanuel AGREED to have a nap! I have to say Trinity looks so cute in her purple gear.

Out with her brothers (Zander standing)

We had ANOTHER Wild Kratts episode to watch and create a mini poster for. This one all about the porcupine. I have to admit, I am learning right along with the boys! 

Porcupine

Really with the lovely weather being outside has taken priority with the kids. I do have to admit – the final creation outside is quite impressive! Friday was a completion day of course! AND the end of our reindeer unit. Each of the kids got a Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer song bookmark to celebrate! You can find those on Activity Village HERE.

Zander left… of course

Emanuel and Trinity and I had to create our reindeer food – oatmeal and glitter. This is something we did at the local library up in Alberta LAST year. They had so much fun making “Magic” reindeer food!

Creating the mixture

Reindeer food!

To celebrate NOVEMBER’s reading accomplishments the twins got their pizza again. It really does help to motivate the reading for the next month. Though we are not doing as many stories in December, 15 to the usual 20 and even that is a bit of a struggle with all the to and fro and excitement of Advent!

Proud readers

Trinity and I made a Christmas angel to hang on the tree – we printed it off of Activity Village and then coloured, cut and pasted making sure to put our string through the top first. I think she is LOVELY! 

Angel

Our story of the day: Here Comes Jack Frost. I personally loved the illustrations in this one! There were very few complaints when I asked them to draw a picture in their books based on this one as the shapes were actually rather fun to reproduce for ALL ages. 

Here Comes Jack Frost

We had ANOTHER Art for Kids activity to enjoy, this one a 3D piece much like the turkey  from Thanksgiving. A 3D reindeer! Simple and fun. 

3D Reindeer

I lucked out as I have the ability to use my mother in law’s Prime Amazon account. That means that we can watch tv episodes for free streaming on there. So I was able to find the Dirty Jobs episode from season 5 titled Reindeer Farm. The boys absolutely thought it was a gas that it took forever for them to TRY and feed the reindeer. I actually find that Dirty Jobs is an awesome resource when you want to get the kids interested in something! I would love, someday, to own the series on dvd for the kids! I took our usual book journal pages and had each of the twins draw and write about the episode.

Thank you Dirty Jobs!

I also took some pages from Activity Village and had the boys each come up with some facts that they learned about reindeer. Not surprisingly, they were VERY clear about the predators! 

Reindeer facts retained

We finished our reindeer and really just enjoyed our day… until the evening when mid interview phone call I had to pull Ken OFF the phone to come help me extract a Lego with tweezers and a flashlight from EMANUEL’s nose! When asked WHY he simply said because he didn’t know he shouldn’t? Ummm I am rather SURE I covered that lesson multiple times. BUT at least it was a tiny Lego and easily extracted. Oh and the phone call was able to be picked back up!!

Excitement feels as if it is our cornerstone lately! But honestly, in a much less… hair pulling, brain wracking and traumatic way!

Building in all seasons, that’s our boys!