September 19-20

Our first real friend sleep over was a success! It took the kids a while to fall asleep, of course, but in the end they all did. Trinity got to drag her princess couch into the boys’ room so that she was not left alone. I love how Quinn just fits in with all the kids…

Sleeping buddies

Steven came over late Tuesday night and slept over. It was fun sitting up and watching game shows with the guys… Family Feud and such. So when the kids woke up (and I was the first adult standing) and ate breakfast I let them know that Steven was here. The guys slept in, as did Zander of all people so it was just the 5 kids and myself up and playing. 

Breakfast with Quinn

So of course… trains! 

Trains!

And then there is time to play outside in the now cool morning air. I am amazed at how quickly it gets cool here, though by the afternoon it was gorgeous out!

Getting into trouble behind the cover of the tree?

And in the front in plain sight

After Steven and Quinn headed home (tired boy in tow) I checked the mail. There was a package in the post box for Echo from her Grandma. A special dolly handmade that is just like the one my mom had made for her by her mom. Something called a Golly-wog, but without the race connotation. It was a handmade dolly out of used items – a woman’s stocking and stuffed with socks. Also included was a letter explaining the dolly, a picture of my mom as a toddler with hers and a dress for her to grow into. Trinity is now talking about how grandma needs to make HER on. 

Hello dolly

A book I reviewed way back when called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society mentions the doll on page 24 a comment on an urban dictionary noted. If you feel the urge look up the dolly but keep in mind the version my mom had and now Echo is not with the same connotation. In fact there is no bright red mouth on either… they are a simple handmade dolly. In fact, my mom still has hers and treasures it as a part of her mom and dad – Grandma used Grandpa and her socks to create it!! I think we need to come up with a new name. Something that is indicative of the love and self that is put into these two dolls… maybe a lovey doll or something? Ideas?

With dolly

Anyway we headed out to Jo-Ann’s again to look at yarn… I am determined to learn the Granny square and so we went to find something that I could start that with and then create a blanket or something out of later. Variegated of course so that I can get more skeins later to add to if I want it to be bigger than one ball can make. Oh and FINALLY the snaps to finish my original learning project – the headband. So here’s hoping once I get those snaps put in it will look as good as it does in my mind.

We have some great colouring pages to share… first off it is time to move into Fall… so of course back to Activity Village for their terrific fall themed images. The detail and the sweet scenes are a hit with our kids. You can find a choice of them HERE. Zander specifically asked me to print off something that would take him time to colour (now that is a totally NEW thing with him and a great show that his concentration and ability to sit still is growing!). I remembered the beautiful Mandala images I have seen and figured I would find an intermediate series he could pick from. You can find those HERE. We have started a folder of the coloured items… the day before it was dot to dots that you can find HERE. I want to keep things under control. If you let the kids colour and do these illustrations and not collect them in a single place you easily get overrun. And if I have learned anything from our lengthy adventure it is that it is not necessary to spread yourself thin. Instead, why not collect them all in a single book to page through whenever we want and if need be remove pieces to gift out. I really need to find a stack of binders somewhere!! They work much better for items you need to add and remove on a regular basis. 

His Mandala

Thursday was SUPPOSED to be the day that Nana and Baba returned from their 3 weeks in the Dominican. However, due to mechanical issues (a 2 hour wait on oil??) they ended up delayed to the point where they were not making to back to Minnesota until the next day. That gave us the whole day to clean up, finish projects and generally get ready… oh and ice the cake – for a belated birthday Baba cake. 

Farmer Boy

Emanuel and his penguin

We finally were able to coordinate getting Trinity’s hair washed and freshly brushed, some spare time and my wedding dress out in the front room to do up some photos. This was an idea I had seen on the internet… you dress your daughter up in your dress as a child and then save the picture for HER wedding. She was so excited to wear it and it was so fun to pull it back out and remember the day. I plan on doing a solo entry of the dress pictures later. But here is the teaser I posted on Facebook.

Our darling girl

It was so much fun, finishing reading the Farmer Boy book (FINALLY), continuing with Trinity’s letters… just generally getting things done. Though we realize that Zander really needs more time to learn his spelling words. I am  trying to get him unstuck from them having to be in a specific order.

Working hard on our learning

A weekend with the Reinsch-Johnson family NEVER goes as planned. We HAD thought to meet up with Steven and Quinn in the afternoon on Saturday for play time and picnic type foods. Sadly, Steven got called into work (sad for us, great for his pocket book) and by the time he was done his shift he was too worn out to meet up. What do to do with the day instead? Well… spend time with Ken NOT on the computer! After a week of Ken working on code for jobs and on the phone for interviews (2 in 2 weeks!) we were all feeling the lack of time with him. 

So we packed everyone up and headed out, first to mail off our intent to home school forms, complete with immunization records at the post office which closed at noon and then to the park! The kids were off and running as soon as the vehicle was parked and the seatbelts removed. They had a blast climbing, sliding, running… we really needed that time out without a string of errands to go with it. 

Digging

Swinging

Sliding

After some park time Ken figured what was better than checking out the walking path? So, we did! Sadly our walk included a dead bird but we managed to work through it (and walk AROUND it) and check out the grasshoppers (plentiful), leaves (everywhere) and trees (some cut down and left and one HUGE one marked for cutting that was noticeably dead).

Walking

We ended up in a little neighbourhood at the end of a path. There were some dogs to see (one with an invisible fence, a first for me) and some interesting vehicles and such and then we realized we could not find the path that continued on the way back to the park so we had to turn back and back track. 

We wore ourselves and the kids out and then headed to the stores for some groceries (Ken and Emanuel scouted out some sales for us) and Michaels to check out the teacher discount. Apparently they do not give out a card but rather have you bring in proof. Not something super simple as the proof I have is my intent to home school forms. BUT we managed and I picked up some more crafty bits (on sale or super cheap to begin with). Just a few more items and I have some rather cool crafts to create with the kids! I have to say, I prefer Jo-Ann’s for yarn (more selection) and crafty kits (again more selection). 

There was even time to wash out the pop bottles we need for a craft I have in mind for the kids to do. Lots of soapy water OUTSIDE.

Sudsing it up

We followed up our Saturday with a Sunday with the Novaks. We did NOT make it to church – we are just not organized enough as well as needing to have Ken home to code lately and working on that job hunt has slowed our search for a new congregation to join. I am hoping we can make to the church that the Novaks belong to and try it on for size some time really soon. 

Anyway, instead we tidied, got the kids ready and ran to Target for birthday cupcakes (belated) for Echo to share with the kids. Ken even went out of his way to get us out of the house with enough time to spare for me to stop by Jo-Ann’s with coupons in hand to purchase TWO balls of yarn for myself to create my OWN project… a… scarf of course. A friend on Facebook asked if it was a Cat in the Hat scarf… oops! I was going for Canadian/Valentine’s Day/Christmas colours… but that works too! I almost bought a sparkly blue to add to the mix but red white and blue just didn’t work for me. 

A beginning of my personal project

After our shopping trip it was time to head to the Novak’s and then onto the soccer game. Another one of Anthony’s in his new league. There were not enough kids in Anthony’s age range to create a team so he was moved up to the older kids. He really did hold his own. Sadly, they did NOT win but the little kids had a blast at the nearby park and the adults (with Andy there and all!), Echo and Andrew enjoyed the game. 

Running drills

Action shot

It was a lovely sunny day and I not only got to finish the actual crocheting of Ken’s scarf but put my red and white yarn into balls for my next project. Add in a tiny soccer ball for Echo to kick, some snacks and good friends and we had a wonderful afternoon. It was great to have (big) Andy there, we have seen so little of him since we moved down here. He and Ken have been friends since elementary school! 

In the sun

After the game we went back to the Novak’s for the rest of the day. Hot dogs and brats for supper… good company and… CUPCAKES for Echo! Target has some really yummy ones that are a good price. We didn’t do the candle and song and still she cried… until Andrew helped her out with her cupcake.

Not too happy belated birthday girl

Soothed by cupcake

We stayed past 8pm when the kids had to get ready for their bedtime routine and Echo had already voluntarily crawled up on Ken to nap. So I think we managed to fill our Sunday with joy, friendship and celebration. Just what we needed. AND we have planned a Tuesday cupcake get together with Quinn and his family here at home so the fun continues! I am hoping we can plan more get togethers with people… more games to see and more moments of joy with others.

Hanging with the Daddies

September 11-12

There are days when you question your parenting and days when you rejoice in it. Tuesday was more of the former and less of the latter. We are still trying to drum through our twins’ VERY thick heads that listening to Mommy and Daddy and telling the truth right off the bat is the best choice. We still stand by that if you tell the truth and come to us then the punishment will diminish or in many cases there will NOT be a punishment. Sadly after acting up the day before and losing their computer time they still felt the need to tell fibs, disregard instructions and generally be difficult. The punishment – they lost almost half a day to time outs and went to bed immediately after dinner missing out on popcorn and movies with the 3 littles. 

Movie time

I am very thankful that we managed a productive morning. With Ken freed up from his search and code work he took over the Minnesota unit and they blasted through portions of it. Yours truly is working on talking to other homeschooling families via egroups to find some good affordable/free areas to visit that are not too far away. I have already started talking via email with a lovely and helpful momma here in Minnesota who is a fountain of information. 

Emanuel’s Minnesota colouring page

Trinity practicing her Y’s

I made up a special counting game for Trinity to practice her numbers 1-10. It is a great print out you can find HEREcalled Lickety-Split Numbers Craft. Anything I can find to get her interested and practicing! 

Just need to glue some stiff cardboard to the back

So with our absolute shut down on the twins that was the end of that. I am hoping that the fact that when we punish we follow through and are absolute will lead the boys to altering their behaviour. This is something I really appreciate about homeschooling. When there is an issue I can stop the world and deal with it. Not worry about others and continuing the day. 

Filling the spare time with a kitty picnic

My laundry helper

Wednesday was an overcast and rainy day so really we were stuck indoors. On the plus side the boys kept working on Minnesota with Ken and we FINALLY got in time making our twirling toys science craft! They all had a blast dropping them over the railing.

The lesson

The application

Then there was our trip out to Jo-Ann’s. A homeschool mom alerted me to the fact that as a homeschooling mom I can qualify for the teacher’s discount – 15% off entire purchase, coupons and sales included! All we had to do was take in our intent to homeschool forms and BINGO! That meant that I had a 50% off coupon for a regular priced item and then got stuff on sale and on top of that 15% off. So we got another ball of yarn to complete Ken’s scarf, some Halloween themed stickers (to begin the rebuilding of the Halloween stash), and a Perler bead idea book all for 5.00! Then when we got home the kids set to work with the beads. 

Beading

Ken had ANOTHER set of code to make up Wednesday night… not going to put those eggs all in one basket so until there is a guaranteed job he keeps the looking and code writing and interviewing. I have great faith in Ken and his abilities and really appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts and networking everyone is doing for and with us! 

I am on the hunt for Fall crafts, ways to get Trinity going and confident and of course… affordable fun! I am hoping to have more links to share! I have added All Kids Network to my links for Homeschooling. They are becoming a great resource for some crafty ideas. As always there are my favourites – Education.com AND Activity Village! If you know of any links you just can’t school/live/craft without – please send them my way!

Our baby and her kitties