I am so far behind it isn’t funny! Well, actually… maybe it is a little! Anyway, mid week on my week long vacation from boys and spouse… we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Wednesday… but not completely. After all, there was so much still to NOT do, and two adorable (when they weren’t pouting, whining or pitching a fit) girls to enjoy it with. 

Sitting back

We started our morning with quiet time in the livingroom… thank goodness I got my iTouch back from its temporary home at Kathy’s cracked screen and all. I downloaded a couple new apps for Trinity (free versions of course) and let her go at it. A certain Dora and a friendly kitty topped the choices. 

Playing quietly

Breakfast is always entertaining when there is a deck being built! Gotta get in that sunshine. The activity going on right outside the window was an added bonus. 

Breaky

BANANA

They actually made some awesome progress over the early portion of the day. With country music to boot!

Men at work

Progress!

When watching the workers paled and Echo needed a nap TRINITY watered the flowers she and Kathy had planted before Kathy left for Ontario. She was adamant that it was HER job and I was only allowed to watch and take pictures. 

Water the flowers

After lunch it was time to relax and wait for Kathy to get in from her flight. I think her kitties were VERY happy to get their mommy back and Trinity was excited to have someone new to explain what all we had been up to lately! We had further plans for the evening though. A cross stitching friend from yahoogroups and Facebook came by to finally meet in person! With her came some treats for the kids and some things for myself! It was a great visit. I hope we can do so again. 

Neko

After we saw off our friend Terri it was time to prepare for our next visitor… and use one of the gifts – CHALK!!! Trinity was so excited to have a brand new box with a whole variety of colours. Echo had to get in some lines herself and the cats took the chance to explore the immediate front yard and check out the grass. 

CHALK

Supervising

After dinner for the girls and bedtime it was  GAMING time! With Bianca (a friend from my university years), nachos and a good boardgame. Seriously this has been one of the best weekends for visiting time!! So many friends and family! 

Bianca and the boardgame

So Wednesday was not all that busy BUT we had fun… and got lots of sleep so that we could face the next day which also was… wait… check back in the next entry for all the excitement!!!

Bye! Check back tomorrow!

Since we decided NOT to take in the 3rd day of Comic Con that freed us up for a leisurely Sunday morning. Once everyone was fed and dressed and ready to go it was time to head back to pick up the boys! Trinity AND Ken were less than enthused about the notion. 

Impromptu nap before going to get her brothers... but she wasn't tired!

I wish we had gotten this artist's name... I still need to see if I can figure it out. BUT this is another of our Comic-con gems from Saturday.

We managed to get there in good time after stopping to get chocolate for Aunty Holly to go with her Little Vampire swag. And then it was time for an abbreviated visit. 

Aunty Holly and Jimmie... they had way belated birthday presents for the boys to open before we left

Trinity was completely burned out so had snuggle and quiet time. It was nice to have a relatively stress free visit with Holly while the boys cleaned up all their messes. 

Emanuel and one of the kitties

After hugs good bye it was time to head back to Kathy’s house for ANOTHER special Trinity birthday celebration! We had original My Little Pony to enjoy (the boys were exposed to the new version at my brother’s… I never did SEE my brother by the way! schedules just did not match up), and the kitties to admire. 

Kathy had ran out to IKEA and picked up meatballs to cook at her house so we had meatballs for supper again. The boys were in heaven! Sadly Trinity was just off all day. It really came down to her brothers returning. Both she and Ken walked into the situation cranky… had to have a couple chats with them about being GLAD we are all together again. She did sit up and perk up a bit for ice cream cake (Dairy Queen ice cream cake… SPOILED!). 

Ice cream cake

The belated birthday girl

Echo had to have some too!

There were MORE presents… Kathy had a pinkie pie bitty pony and an adorable kitty necklace. We finally gave Trinity her Hello Kitty txting machines. We still need to read through the instructions but she was very pleased. According to our resident 4 year old it has been an amazing birthday!

Opening presents

After tucking Trinity in in our room (aka the library) and the boys in the livingroom with even MORE classic pony it was time for boardgames. We played Fullhouse and this time only Ken was the one who had never played before… and guess who won? You got it, KEN! Kathy said it was one of the best games of that she had played in AGES. 

Boardgame

The next day it was time to face reality and head back to Chris and Chris’… but not until AFTER breakfast with Kathy and the collecting of all of our stuff. Of course I still managed to forget something… though that could be blamed on Echo who seemed to have hidden my iTouch in the couch! Of course I did not notice until well after we had left and gotten back to our home base! 

It was our first time driving the shorter drive to and from the city. It felt like a skip hop and a jump! We did stop at Superstore first and get bread, meat and cheese for an on the go lunch that was super affordable. And once again heading back with much MORE than we left with! Not that I am complaining, though Ken is… just a little! It was not easy to settle back in, the kids are just as impatient as I am to get on with the next step of our move! 

Such a pretty 4 year old!

Boy has the weather gone downhill here. Cold, blustery and all together blah. I know that that certainly affects my mood and the kids’ as well. So it was a good day to just play around… I had some laminated games, colouring pages and cleared space for toys to be out. Not the most productive day but we worked on learning new things and cementing old and ATTEMPTING cooperation and sharing… mixed results but we keep on working on it. 

We did make time for a dance party in Trinity’s room. Sadly we couldn’t get the iTouch to work on the upstairs laptop as the library of music is already on the downstairs so we used the Leapfrog toy set on the music setting to boogie down. Even Echo got in on the movement. 

Dance party!

The twins worked on their site words with this nifty printable I got from the Moffatgirlssite. I did the pages half page to shrink the size of the circles and save on paper. The boys used their dry erase markers and tried to read what they could on their own. I then had them write out a list of those words and next time we will see if they can do more. 

Sight word practice

The little ones played with their Pumpkin Graphing pages and the dice. These can be found on this site. They played their own rules but were working on making graphs rolling the dice and using the dry erase markers. So much fun!

I took my times of silence and near calm to do up some scrapbooking pages. I am hoping to get through the pile of pictures I printed out months ago finally… use up the paper I have and do my best to be creative with what bits and bobs we have around the house.

Trinity's 3rd Birthday party for Echo

Valentine's Day 2011

Echo on the toy riding car

Echo and our Canada Floor Puzzle

I took another moment alone when the 3 little ones had their afternoon nap and photographed the two newest owls… hanging out with Fat Sheep. She has been rather quiet on blog and Twitter but you can check her out using the link on the side bar.

Fat Sheep and Owls

With our own celebrity

There was a reminder of how many lovely people there are in our lives though in the post of all places (I know I know – the bulk of all mail is NOT happy mail but today I have been blessed with ANOTHER package!). This was a lovely package from a lady who inspires me to be a better homeschooler. What you can’t see is the tea and coffee she sent since she couldn’t send slurpees. My mind is already spinning with ideas for the little shirt and pants set she sent for Echo… maybe some bows at the ankles… but what to do with the front of the shirt???

Thank you!!

The special treat for the day was time with Daddy (TWO sessions!) working on their traditional foam kit Halloween decoration… this year – a “spooky” Haunted House. Even Echo tried to get in on the fun.

Morning start on the house

With Echo helping

Proud completion

Which meant the day was over! What with the playing (cars were brought out and messes made and then cleaned up), the dry erase marker fun, the games with Mommy (Gavin and I played the gobble up game again)… we managed to have a rather good day. AND finish putting together the Stuart Little books!

4 completed books

I am still not sure how tomorrow will play out. We are down to the wire on the Canadian Tire getting us in to repair in time… which tears at my heart. But I would rather be stuck here and safe then on our way an hour and a half out and end up stranded in the fall weather with all 5 kids!  So fingers crossed! Ken IS a miracle worker!  

Flower baby with cookie in hand