October 25-27

Our next book on the grocery store unit covered the food pyramid in a fun story version. Emanuel and Trinity drew their own pyramid and we had a rousing discussion about NOT eating tons of sweets (a very good conversation to have so close to Halloween).

The days are running down to the end of our first month of reading program as well. I have set our goal at 20 sessions each per month.

Our special Daddy activity was an artistic one. A piece of our IKEA roll paper and the box of markers (I need to start replacing those… they do wear out over time and some of ours are ANCIENT) and the simple direction to – draw something Halloween-y – I love the results! I walked away from this one so I had ZERO input beyond the originating of the idea.

Saturday it was Zander’s turn to update his winter look with a new winter jacket thanks to Nana and Daddy.

Otherwise it really was just a quiet Saturday afternoon… napping, tv and stories… and… DONE.

This was all for the best as Sunday… AFTER Sunday School (of course) was Cousin Zachary’s birthday party at a malt shop. But first… a mini fashion show thanks to Gammie. She sent each of the girls and adorable Halloween themed Hello Kitty dress. I had them put on their new sparkly purple leggings and we were set to impress. (I wore my last year’s Halloween Hello Kitty shirt too to match!)

So you can see the pictures better

There was delicious malts to try…

A Skylanders themed cake…

And the birthday boy had to open his presents (he seemed to love his sock owl… Halloween themed for October).

After all that fun we headed over to what Nana and Baba call the Net Park and the kids climbed and ran until they were cold and pooped out. Everyone except Echo was climbing like a monkey out there.

And here are some more party pictures! Enjoy!

June 10-11

I wonder at the rain in Minnesota. I am told it is NOT normal for the season… our Father’s Day learning is in full swing, we covered the history of and how to celebrate and now we are learning more and more about Daddy everyday. We have had to put up with extremely long hours for Ken lately. The large project he has been working has been a doozy. On the plus side we reaped the benefits of all of that on Tuesday with a TOTAL day off for Ken! What to do, what to do?

Well, we have visited the mall with the carousel in it a couple time.

Sun was in their eyes… note the really neat water feature that plays music behind them!

A rather environmentally friendly mall on the outside!

Last visit we realized that tickets were only 2.00 per kid. Quite affordable for our family to do as a special thing. I took pictures and the kids and Ken enjoyed the ride.

In line

Zander, the only one who rode on a horse

Post ride stamp

Right behind the carousel was a pretzel shop. I am a total sucker for the freshly baked SOFT pretzels. Now add in a special… 1.00 each every Tuesday at this outlet for the month of June and we were in pretzel heaven. Talk about being in the right place for the right day. AND we got to watch them make them all!!!

After our fun at the mall we went to one of the parks local to us for fun AND for a picnic! We made in a half day of work BEFORE we went out… including story time with Daddy listening in.

Local park

Eating the last of our Aunty Xinny treats!

Monday (oops I am writing backwards timeline wise this time) was a day of fun with the cousins. Starting with WAFFLES!

Breakfast with the cousins

After we said good by it was time to go outside…

and bum around playing in the house of course.

Peanut butter face

Emanuel even illustrated our trip from Sunday’s IKEA adventure.

Image on right

What a great 2 days! Especially UNINTERRUPTED time with Ken! Bonus!!!

Sassy

June 8-9

Weekends count with Ken’s new 5 day schedule, and we are working hard to make them count. Sadly the weather did not work exactly according to the original schedule.

I did forget to mention that on Friday we had to take the money Gammie had sent us treat treat the kids, and with no slurpees in sight… we went with Icees! Thank you so much for 5 happy kids!!

Sugar crash under the dolly blanket thanks to Gammie also

It is definitely garage sale season in our neighbourhood. So we spent a little more time hunting for some gems… Saturday was our day.

Pretty headbands at a steal

Our other prizes

Took Trinity forever to get her turn with the crown

Sunday was supposed to be a picnic at one of the many many lakes here in Minnesota. Sadly Sunday was the day that the rain decided to pour down. So instead of the picnic at a park we packed up and drove into the city and had an IKEA visit. MEATBALL STORE!

Waiting for food

We wandered, we checked things out, we planned for the future and all with Bree, Lily and Scott. Our Lily Bean is growing and growing and growing… of course I had to make Ken hold her…

What a face

Lily Bean

And get in my own picture time.

Lunch with friends at our favourite store is a good compromise to a rainy day. Scott mentioned to Bree after that he had a great time talking with the twins. It makes me so proud to know they can carry their side of a conversation with an adult they are just really getting to know without my help or intervention.That got us home in time to spend some quality time with the cousins. THEY are done school for the summer so longer visits on different days are starting up. This time they were home over Sunday night into Monday.

Gaming time

Popcorn!

Not a bad couple of days!!

Baby with her Baby