Tag Archive | Jessica

Company On Top of Company

August 18-24

The girls are over the moon with their mini fashion shows. We are so spoiled that Gammie can and does send us so many outfits.101_9281 101_9285 101_9287 101_9313 101_9317

In celebration of Jeff being here AND he and Daddy being busy in the sub basement we had an outside lunch on the front stoop.101_9289

Right after that I realized that We had missed a rather special LARGE present that had been mailed previously from Texas. I think she got the most excited opening this one. The way it was rigged up the large caterpillar sort of popped out for her. Instant favourite.101_9290 101_9291 101_9295

That evening we had special plans. Jeff headed out with Chris for beers and visiting and the rest of us were off to Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s for a special family celebration of Echo’s 4th birthday complete with a cake made especially for her by Uncle Jim! He works for the Pilsbury company and makes an AMAZING cake!101_9301 101_9303 101_9304

I really can’t think of a place the kids get more excited about visiting than “Robbie’s House” and he wasn’t even there that visit!20140818_204537 20140818_191820 20140818_174959 20140818_194011 20140818_194035

In the morning the kids pitched in and worked on Echo’s birthday present from Jim and Judy – a Barbie lego set! With a little blue pool.101_9305 101_9310

We continued our learning… mostly shark related…101_9311 101_9314

And then we paid each of the kids and extra dollar of allowance to spend the week pulling weeds! What an efficient crew we had out there from the biggest to the smallest.101_9308

And the guys continued their gaming… interspersed with cleaning out of the sub basement. This all went SUPER well until they were at the tail end and found… a leak. Sigh. I am so proud of Ken for jumping in an working so hard to create space and organization in our world. This new and improved healthy Kenny is AMAZING.101_9283

We had company on Wednesday, well additional company. Robbie and Alicia came over for dinner and gaming. The kids are in love with these two, rightfully so. And it is doubly amazing that they can enjoy boardgames with us.101_9319 101_9321

101_9329I found a spare moment and finished up a special wallet for my Renaissance Festival outfit. It will loop around my handle so that I won’t lose my ID etc. I love it, I altered a basic billfold style wallet pattern to fit what I needed and there you go – no lost nothings when I go out this year!101_9322

There was time for playing outside AND checking out the garden with our guests.101_9323

101_9325 101_9326All this while Ken and Jeff made us dinner – Curry and a yummy sort of pudding pie. SPOILED US!!!101_9328 101_9327

On the 21st you can check back and see our Treasure Box we got in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Mike HERE. We evened that day out with Munchkin (game) and time outside.101_9341

All the weed pulling led us to tweezers and patience as we removed burrs that attacked everyone pretty equally.101_9342

The kids have been loving another adult in the house. Especially one that knows all about Canada. Eases the homesickness a little, just like Grandma’s Canadian Treasure Box.101_9345 101_9351 20140816_175127

What a week!!!101_9358 101_9357

 

Really… can we keep Jeff forever? Because Ken has been so positive and the kids and I have enjoyed the company so much! We had all of Saturday and half of Sunday to enjoy with him and some lovely weather.

 

But then it was time to say good bye! Definitely a hard one… I don’t think anyone who visits us down here really realizes how much their visits and packages mean to us. A taste, touch, sound of home… thank you so much everyone for remembering us!

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Happy Easter

April 20

Happy Happy Easter!

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Or… Happy Bunny Egg Day!101_7118

We started Easter with dressing EVERYONE up for Easter 2014 pictures. Trinity and Echo wore MATCHING dresses… too cute! The boys their Aunty Holly shirts. Not a bad looking crew, if I do say so myself!101_7090

101_7105101_7109bWe also had our Gammie/Mommy/Daddy/Easter Bunny baskets to open and rummage through.101_7091

101_7092101_7094101_7095After the family photo op we headed off to church for Easter Sunday service… a bit of a challenge but we had a good time. Echo and Ken snuck out to spend time in the nursery and make new friends. I worked with the twins on reading hymns and seeing the changes in the music written on the page.101_7120

When we got home the cousins were already there so it was right into the Easter baskets. The 7 of them were crazy happy to jump in and get those presents opened!101_7121

101_7122101_7125101_7128After gifts Aunty Judy, Uncle Jim and cousins Robbie and Jessica got here and the kids ran wild until dinner.101_7133

We had one of the most delicious hams ever. It was a GREAT Easter.101_7138

101_7139I hope everyone else had as lovely and family filled day as we did!!! Happy Easter 2014!101_7111

101_7102101_7127And for those interested in a couple resource books:

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New play outfits

New play outfits

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And a reminder of how she looked PRE play time

And a reminder of how she looked PRE play time

A Touch of Warmth

March 8-12

Another weekend, another series of visits. Saturday afternoon/evening Ken and the boys went to a sleepover at Joe and Faithe’s. Total boy time. That left Echo, Trinity and myself to dinner and a rather quiet evening of a movie and popcorn.101_6440

Oh and dress up!!101_6437

We have some fairy hackers coming along it seems.101_6438

Trinity and I even took some time to start her Hello Kitty scrapbook.101_6439

And at bedtime we called Daddy to say good night.101_6441

With our ride gone overnight there was no Sunday school for us. Just some quiet play time before we had to get ready to go out.101_6442

101_6444Ken and the boys picked us up around lunchtime so we could head over to Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s for a visit. And to return their now fixed computer. Robbie and Jessica were there also, along with all sorts of puppies, a kitty, ducks… fish… and so forth.101_6445

We had pizza for lunch and hung out until almost dinner time. It was a great visit on a beautiful day.101_6446

101_6447101_6449101_6453Monday was the last session for the  twins’ first set of swimming lessons. With all the weather delays we actually went almost a month late. So the next session that we decided to schedule all 3 boys into gives us only one week grace to get Emanuel’s swim gear ready. They are all very excited to get to it. The twins have a little more work to move out of the beginners group to advanced beginners. But they are learning and loving it. Which is all we can ask!

Trinity was so excited… she completed her first addition AND subtraction book! With minimum tears and fuss no less!101_6454

With all the visiting and excitement we had gotten behind on our Art for Kids (HERE) drawing instructions so we had an art session using a variety of the newest ones.101_6455

We had penpal letters to illustrate…101_6458

And India to learn all about… a light lesson as sadly EVERYONE was getting sick.101_6459

101_6460Oh and I have to share our follow up on Paul Bunyan! Quite the interesting legend and a perfect chance to discuss how a story can be real or really cannot. I used two library books:

  • Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg
  • The Story of Paul Bunyan by Barbara Emberley

We had three worksheets from Education.com:

  • Tell Fact From Fiction HERE
  • Coloring Page HERE
  • Write a mixed up fairy tale HERE

We are finally seeing some spring like weather… Perfect opportunity to go out in our light clothes and scrape some of the muck off the driveway. Now let’s not get too excited about this sudden warmth… it IS Minnesota and spring is not something winter allows easily here!101_6461

101_6465Ken and I got around (finally) to assembling a long forgotten shelf and organizing our school stuff even further. Organization is always a calming influence on my soul I swear! And now with some labels thanks to my Christmas present from Ken I even have some spiffy LAMINATED labels for three of our section. The kids were impressed by the fact that they could now SEE some favourite games and puzzles on the bottom row and keep better track of their workbooks.

Pre labels

Pre labels

I am loving the bigger boys helping the little kids. Their reading skills have smoothed out enough that at time they will VOLUNTEER to read the other two their workbook assignments!!101_6470

Ken and Trinity did our grocery shopping for the day on Wednesday… and Trinity made sure to come back with a special treat just for me! So sweet!101_6471

We finally got around to decorating our Valentines Day folder. It is also more full than expected! But everyone had a blast colouring hearts and messages on our folder.101_6472

Of course Echo had to bring out our 100 day markers and draw us up something nice. I think the past 100 school day have had their rough patches but were honestly very nice!101_6473

We are forging right on through the weeks with school mixed with fun! March is certainly following February’s lead!101_6468