After discussing our local squirrel population and putting pencil and crayon to paper to create an image of one what better is there to do than read about ANOTHER squirrel… Thanks to Karyn for the wonderful SIGNED copy of the book, Scaredy Squirrel continued our furry critter trend. A much more… neurotic squirrel we join him with his party planning and come along as he celebrates his very own birthday. I had the boys ALL draw a picture and then the twins and I went through the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the story. Emanuel opted to write the name Scaredy Squirrel all by himself and then we talked about what HE remembered from the story. So much fun and some really creative pictures! The actual book is called Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party. I need to unearth our other book in the series and maybe hunt down the cartoon Wiki talks about HERE. 

What with Ken’s folks on their way out of country and continent early tomorrow morning I kept it rather basic with the schooling so that we could just go with the flow… so instead of a lot of written work the boys set to work on some special Perler bead patterns… the Canadian and US flags by Zander and Gavin a lovely Hello Kitty for Trinity. You can find these patterns and more HERE. Emanuel opted to go through one of the idea books and made his very dinosaur. 

Beading

The boys came across a new tv series they seem to really enjoy – Wild Kratts. The combine animation and real life portions to create a wonderfully educational show about animals and environmentally sound behaviour. With gadgets and such to boot! This is right up there with Dino Dan. A terrific Dinosaur themed live action (and computer graphics) show. This one is created with the assistance of the Tyrell Museum (remember our Jimmie birthday??)

Even more amazing… Echo’s newest word, while she refuses to say BABA she went so far as to say BUBBLE when pointing at our ocean in a jar! She is growing up so quickly! 

Wednesday was Trinity and Emanuel’s turn to play Clue Jrwith Daddy… I think in this case it was more of an educational lesson for Daddy on keeping his temper and not getting frustrated even though he won in the end. I think they all had fun! At least they wanted to play again though we ran out of time and couldn’t do so. 

Clue Jr.

Thursday marked the start of Nana and Baba’s 3 week vacation and our day of do nothing. Well nothing but the basics… no organized schoolwork (which is hilarious as it seems like all our friends back home are STARTING this week), no massive cleaning, no errands… just sit about and enjoy the day. I actually found it harder than I thought… this doing nothing is a definite art! So of course a nap was in order… the kids just loved being inside playing, outside playing and of course watching some educational tv. 

Wearing Nana’s shoes

I did break my goal of doing nothing in the evening and with good reason! Shandai (my best friend all the way back from high school if you can believe it) is a pro at knitting and crocheting AND as an added bonus, like me SHE is left handed!! We sat at a table and chatted and caught up and worked on our projects… met some new people and were a part of the SWATCHcommunity. The bag Shandai made while we were sitting there will go toward Saturday’s installation. I am really excited that we will be able to take the kids to that!

A start!

It feels good to find a new interest… and luckily my mother in law already had the necessary supplies so I could dive right in. I need to practice for consistency in the tightness of my stitches but I am enjoying it so far! Something new to do that is portable is ALWAYS a good thing… now I just need to learn how to turn!

Today we worked hard on having fun… the kids all did a bit of workbook work as we are still working on review work… this ended with Zander FINISHING his review math! He was so proud and now I have a good idea on what ideas and concepts he needs cemented.

Sudden Workbook time

Completion!!

Then it was time to pull out the original spirograph! They even remember that Uncle Wayne was the one who gave it to them! I love that the things we HAVE saved in our move are so treasured. Though only ONE of the kids actually had something to show once they finished with it this time. I think I need to take advantage of the sales and get some more gel pens. 

Busy hands

A few attempts

Our weather is still absolutely brilliant. I booted the kids out in the afternoon to run and climb and burn off energy and apparently race Trinity around in a stroller with giggles following along with them!

They’re off!

I have found our fun USA book to add to our Minnesota unit and a box full of stickers now collected together. We are definitely a work in progress on the planning, but my desk is uncovered and I have high hopes of getting a chair in front of it and the laptop or netbook or both booted up on there for the kids by the end of what I am NOW remembering is a long weekend! Regardless we will start our September with our Back to School books, continuing the unfinished from our previous year and of course MINNESOTA! I got wonderful news this morning that I won a draw for our very own Wonder Box! I am sure people who check back here often know of my love of the site Education.com… well I cannot wait to receive our box and blog all about it!!!

Hug the dolly

Now back to reality and daily life… Sunday afternoon into the evening had all of us Reinsch-Johnsons relaxing and napping. Myself with a wet cloth over my eyes was the first to succumb. Thankfully that rest plus some eye drops have helped. But the rest of my not so little family ended up in the middle of the livingroom in a huddle with the tv on. It was actually rather nice to wake up to a group cuddle

Cuddles

Sunday evening Ken finally was able to make good on his promise to play a boardgame with the kids. Thank goodness I labeled those buckets! This is Carcassonneone of Ken’s favourites. But they play the VERY basic way. Just roads and cities for points.

Gaming together

Monday was back to schooling and amazingly enough ANOTHER pen pal letter to respond to… this one from their cousin up in Canada Jimmie. He even sent each of the girls a colouring sheet. So first thing we do – respond! We got the letter Saturday I do believe and Monday the response was in the box and ready to go!!!! So much fun!

Colouring her colouring page

We have our workbooks now and printouts for welcoming us all back to school. I have decided our official first day back with be NEXT Monday, when we have the first of the week to ourselves… I don’t know that we will get too high in the activity until later in the month but I am excited to have the kids started thinking and learning more consistently. We have some things from this summer to finish up and I am working on ideas to start. I just wish we lived closer to a dollar store!!! Poster paper is expensive elsewhere.

In the meantime here is Gavin out being creative

Of course we had to spend some time outside. The day was beautiful and I am constantly sorting and organizing what we DO have… I would like to start the boys on scrapbooking again but that is not really possible until all the stuff in the house is sorted neatly to make room for those buckets to come in temporarily. I think in the next blog entry or so I will outline our loose goals that I have so far. I really can’t plan too far ahead a lot depends on working further with what we DO have at hand until Ken is employed again.

Miss Trinity and my original Cabbage Patch doll!

Speaking of employment, there has been lots of emails and action in that respect. Ken is working hard every day to contact, apply and network. I have to say thank you to everyone who is helping us network and get Ken’s resumes out and and about. 

OK has nothing to do with the above statement.. but CUTE (the clothes on that doll are from my very first baby doll… sadly can’t find doll but this one fits the clothes!!)

In the afternoon I spent more time cleaning and organizing and left the boys and Trinity to watch educational tv. There is only so much I can do with the kids with the stuff in total disarray. At least we found BOTH of Gavin’s painting/art sets and such. Sadly one bucket of toys we THOUGHT we saved (a really neat set that made a castle and stuff) was not set aside like we had thought but managed to get misplaced into the sale piles. A little disappointing but as we had not mentioned the possibility to the boys they are not upset by it. This downsize has been a real eye opener. I think that I will amass more items with much more forward thinking from now on. 

We did perk up the girls’ evening with some splendid PINK mashed potatoes thanks to Nana!

Pink potatoes

Now today was quiet and slow but we managed brilliantly to get things done. I have some links to share next educational blog entry but we worked on our Welcome Back to School banner… and of course drew some MORE pictures (easy filler for a day when everything else feels blah) that then we talked about and wrote descriptions for for our Minnesota file. The best drawings, in my opinion, we accomplished OUTSIDE though. After lunch when the kids ALL went outside we brought our journal books and the boys all drew pictures of the squirrel we see constantly outside. The copying of my words is getting better and better and come mid September I hope to have them writing their own sentences without much help from myself or Ken.

Drawing outside

The result

Impromptu storytime with a book out of one of the last boxes

For Trinity and Emanuel the big excitement was a special craft just for them! This one was off of Education.com (a favourite site). Creating an ocean in a bottle. You can find the instructions HERE. We are debating trying other oils and doing one without oil… and we did change out glass with a plastic container that was already here. Oh and the glue gun for the time being. I think I will seal the OUTSIDE of the lid as if I put glue on and then tried to screw the top on the seal would not be as good! But again Trinity and Emanuel, so pleased!!! And now they have their own waves while Nana and Baba are gone to the ocean! 

Creating

Completed

In the meantime we are debating what next week’s project will be… I would like to have a fun craft a week for the younger kids in the family… so something a little more complex that they HAVE TO do with me or their daddy or another adult. After all, all of our PAST crafts are gone and a lot of our supplies given to other people in our move so if we do this we have an excuse to add to our stash.

All Gavin needs is some Legos!

With joining a local chapter of Freecycle on my to do list for the week and trying to get all the pertinent information for homeschooling in Minnesota it certainly feels like I have a full plate! I am just glad that we are traditional homeschoolers, so much flexibility with my rather fluctuating learners. BUT we are feeling forward movement and planning and the kids are happy… THAT is what counts!!

Baby in a tree

With a bit of a hello tacked on to boot! So let’s start with the most interesting… as was pointed out to me in a comment we should probably have rehung our chrysalis right away. Well we took some mesh and made a hanging sort of bed and gave our butterfly (when it arrived) the means to climb up and hang to dry off… we did not have long to wait! We checked our butterfly in the morning and then after my bath closer to lunch there she/he was! Since our container was tiny and our butterfly… not… it was time to head out to the bushes and give it the best start in life. So we found a portion of the bush that was out of the wind and let it climb out to dry off. It managed to end up behind  the leaves (for privacy?) and we said good bye and let it be. Emanuel was absolutely in love with the colours in the wing. Of course the boys ALL had to draw their own butterfly and once we get to the library we will talk all about the cycle that that lovely specimen went through.

In our container

On the way to freedom

Now anyone who has watched this blog for the last few months has got to have realize that once a plan gets put in place with this family we zip right along to completion. This was no exception. When we came down here we had our massive downsize and accompanying garage sale (thank you so much again Kristen, Fydo, Karyn and Sean!!!). Well the remains of that went into a storage unit, one box to Victoria, a bag forgotten in Karyn’s car (Bob) and Christmas items and tires left at Chris and Chris’. Well… FINALLY the forward motion has been taken to collect those items and bring them here… bring them HOME.

We looked at various options – U-Haul, fill a pod to be shipped, professional movers, the list goes on… and in the end, this morning… we came to the realization that the best thing to do is simply rent a U-Haul and use the Envoy to pull it to Canada and back again. Well, with the knowledge that Ken’s first interview of the Minnesota job hunt is MONDAY (ACK) and not tomorrow… the plan went into overdrive. A trailer was found, collected and hitched up… the menfolk ate supper, collected the necessities for a long drive (Ken turned down our Hello Kitty packed backpack and repacked in something much more… boring…) and off they went! Watch the whiplash! 

Watching a movie before bed

So that leaves yours truly and Nana as the adults in charge and for the first time EVER the girls outnumber the boys!!! 4 to 3! I am not sure what that will mean for the weekend but it HAS put our plans to spend Saturday with the Novak family on the backburner. Thank goodness we have all the weekends we want to fill with visits with them. We are HOME… I can honestly say I feel that now. While I miss A LOT in Canada… the list seems to unexpectedly grow at the oddest times. Did you know that there are no Cheezies in the US? Yup, add to the list… there is a lot to learn, see and do here. 

Working on some art together

Really I am finally starting to see the reason why we are here… we have family and friends to reconnect with, lakes to visit, and a whole new life to live. We absolutely canNOT forget about Canada and everyone and thing that mean something to us there but a new start is nothing to scoff at. Now if we could just get registered here for homeschooling… no word on the hiring and now we may be able to CHOOSE between two school districts we have some research to do. I am not sure if there are uniform benefits but it is worth doing the leg work. 

So we end our week on a brand new note… one full of excitement and all that for our stuff will be here by Sunday… Ken will be interviewing Monday and the rest of the month is there to be planned!!! Oh and did I mention we got our first letter back from our penpals! This was a lovely series of cards from Jimmie’s Gammie. (remember her from the Tyrell Museum trip or Echo’s Early Birthday?) She also included money for them ALL to have a slurpee… or in the case of Minnesota’s availability… Icees. So now we just need to pick a date to head out to a gas station and enjoy a replica of what we are used to. 

Thank you Gammie!!!!

So while life is NEVER perfect (I don’t care who you talk to) ours is pretty amazing! We have some minor ups and downs lately but life is settling down. The kids are happy, the time with family and friends absolutely amazing and the future plans are in the making. Of course a lot hinges on this weekend getting accomplished and Ken’s employment but that all sounds attainable! Feels good to feel optimism.

Trinity and her response to Gammie AND her name written out by her solo (not sure you can see it.. the y looks a little like an x but still WOW)