January 4-5

Ending the first week of the new year it was so nice to have it be on a high note – in the mail – Ken’s renewed passport! Now we just have to wait for the separate mailing of his old one. AND the even BIGGER news, the one I teased you all with at the end of 2012… Ken went in to sign the paperwork to finalize his employment as a lead programmer! Definitely an answer to our prayers, though a bit of a nervy thing for me. Ken has not worked outside of the home since right after Trinity was born! It is going to be quite the adjustment!

While Ken was gone Emanuel and Gavin set up to watch one of the movies Gammie sent us – Planet Dinosaur! They really enjoyed it… I think they watched almost 4 hours before becoming bored. So of course we had to draw pictures of their favourite parts… Gavin for his journal and Emanuel his dinosaur binder!

Watching the dinosaurs

The movie

Illustrations from the movie

Life seems, right lately… now don’t get me wrong, I personally am lonely and it is no simple task to keep the boys occupied and learning with stuff in storage and items downsized drastically… but we are where we need to be. That has become glaringly clear with how happy Ken is, with the kids’ interactions with their American family members… with how we are figuring things out. Now this is NOT forever, but for NOW and NOW we need to be HERE. I am just working to really wrap my head around that.

Trinity and Echo gaming together

We had some time of creativity as well… Emanuel made us long necked dinosaurs out of Lego.

LEGOS

And then Echo forced the issue and got Nana and Baba out to see the snow creations in the back… She was determined to spend a little time in the snow. There was the completed structure.

Taking Nana to the backyard

Gavin and the igloo

And one they have just started with the block makers Ken and I picked up at Target recently. 

First layer down

Our Saturday was rather fun… it is the first one of January so Ken and his dad took the boys to their Home Depot free crafting activity. This time they made BIRD HOUSES! So along with the houses they also gained their newest pin for their aprons! Talk about proud boys.

The finished houses

My proud crafty boys

The boys even shared their Home Depot popcorn with the girls!

In the afternoon Ken and I had the opportunity to take just Emanuel and Trinity on a field trip to United Noodles… an Asian grocery. We were on the hunt for anything Japanese, well anything Asian and interesting. Sadly they did NOT have any Bento Boxes but Emanuel picked out some lovely chopsticks.

Fishy chopsticks

Trinity picked out Jelly straws… which were… squishy…

Jelly Straws

We also picked up some interesting chips, more of my noodles and some ideas of bowls and soup spoons that when we get our own home I am so going back for. The lovely ones you eat won tons with. Which has Ken interested in learning how to make our own won tons from scratch! So not finding a Bento Box was ok because we DID find treats and chopsticks and a place to come back to and hunt for hidden gems again! Ken of course came home and immediately hunted down a Chinese bakery… butter explosion buns were NOT to be had where we were. So, our next expedition will be there!

Very garlic-y

Of course the twins took our time away to play Skylanders… we are starting to majorly cut back their time on there now that the new toy has worn off a little bit. So a special day for all of the kids pretty much!

On a special field trip

January 2-3

The second day of the year was slightly anti-climatic with Ken’s appointment being rescheduled in the wee hours of the day to Friday… of course though the email hit his computer at 7 am, he did not realize this change until after noon AND after he had already shaved. That was the biggest laugh of the day as Ken HATES shaving, and having done so on the 2nd would have to do it AGAIN for Friday!! Talk about super pout!

Of course, with Echo throwing up for most of the previous night I really couldn’t blame him. She really CAN eat a lot and was very upset when she was sick. Thankfully except for some extra laundry she managed to miss herself, other people AND carpet and furniture. Not bad! 

Anyway, with it being the 2nd it was also time to start back up with the homeschooling. I was surprised, Gavin was more than willing to sit down and do math with me! We definitely need to do some more fraction work, but it is coming along. I love that I can just hop onto the internets and print off help sheets. This time a sheet from Education.com was the answer. 

I have to say, the new boardgame we picked up for the twins for Christmas is a huge succees. The kids are determined to play it over and over again. 

Boardgame time

We started our work on the months of the year and the days of the week again. While we talked about each one I wrote them out in marker on some lined sheets and made a page for January… 

What does January make YOU think of?

We ALL learned about the tarsier that was featured on Wild Kratts. 

Tarsiers

Don’t forget Play Doh… a must on a quiet day. Here is Emanuel’s elephant with ball.

Very blue!

The third day was equally quiet, well except for a night time trip to Target for Ken and myself. Really this week has been a bit of a bust for excitement, but after Christmas and all that, I think it is what we needed! By request we have started the dino a day up again… Emanuel figured we had had enough of a break from the fossilized learning and needed to get right back on them. 

We have made our thank you cards… well started to, and wrote some pen pal letters… but all in all, our start back has been more of an ease into… and that is ok.

Echo and her Aunty Shandai mittens

December 9-10

It really IS beginning to feel like Christmas. Sunday hasn’t been a church day for us in quite some time, but this second Sunday in Advent was different. We were invited to celebrate Christmas with the children’s concert at the Novak family’s church (a Lutheran one, yay). Of course this coincided with the first REAL storm… 16 inches (around 41 cm) of snow in 24 hours… great for the kids… not so hot for the roads. But with some careful driving we made it all the way safely to the church just before the special service was to begin, thankfully Andrew and his grandparents and cousins were able to save us a pew.

Waiting for the service… note the RED lipstick Bree and Veronika… did I do good?

It was a great service with the Nativity story and lots of singing and 3 of the 4 Novak boys involved. We did have to take Echo out of the sanctuary a few times to trundle around but all in all once I separated Zander and Emanuel we did rather well.

Aidan… There will be an entry following this with the picture overflow. The expressions on the boys’ faces as they did their songs and parts were just too cute to not be shared!!

Alex looking dapper

Anthony the shepherd (left)

The final group number

After the concert there was birthday cake…

CAKE

And then pictures…

Emanuel, Echo, Gavin, Zander and Trinity

11 kids!! (Gavin left)

And in front of the tree (Zander left)

Then back into the snow to head over to the Novak’s for playing in the snow…

So much snow all at once!

The second fort

Baking and decorating cookies…

Making cookies with Maggie

Darcy and the girls

Andrew manning the ovens

Visiting AND some presents! I have to say, I have never had my owls go over so well as when I give them to the Novak boys!

Present time

Andrew playing Santa

With the owls

With all that lovely snow sticking around Monday the boys bargained with me to let the morning just be outside play. So much snow and sunlight and fun for the kids!

So much bright white snow

Chill-axing

Post snow smoothies (peanut butter banana) thanks to Nana

We did not end up starting the reindeer unit as of course there was a REPEAT out in the snow in the afternoon. It really does eat up the time, but they had so much fun! Gavin DID find some time to make our Art for Kids picture of a CHRISTMAS TREE!

A tree

With brand new puzzles thanks to the Novak family we of course had two boys sit down and right away want to complete one. These were NOT easy as they are holographic! But Emanuel and Gavin managed.

Emanuel and Gavin

We ended the day with Ken and Baba putting together the tree… slightly pre decorated and rather pretty. Add to that phone calls for work and immigration, mailing to deal with and Christmas crafting to feverishly finish and we are REALLY busy! But in a cheerful and Christmasy way!

SNOOPY