October 1-2

Mondays are always a bit of a minor struggle… after all we have been PACKING our weekends full of fun. And with the friends in school and the job hunt on weekdays we feel our difference between weekends and weekdays more than ever. So we hit the ground running, right into spelling, book work and colouring. Echo is especially interested in having her own page or colouring book while everyone else is working.

Baby at work

Of course we had the difficult dinosaur NODOSAURUS… with an under the weather Emanuel (I will have those links etc on another post), and Trinity had her usual book. However, Trinity was over the moon with the chance to work on one of the new workbooks Gammie sent us. She sat down and traced the patterns with great gusto. I love it when she gets motivated.

Ready to go

We officially started our Pizza Hut sponsored reading program with a colouring sheet and a book each. We lucked out, one of the set of pictures uses a family favourite – the ring-tailed lemur. Even Echo had a picture to colour. 

All 5 with their pictures

The boys are working on their personal projects, Gavin in his cross stitching and Zander colouring in the new books. With a new box of craft supplies from a friend of a friend on Facebook I am hoping to get them both into some new art projects! I am very happy to have new supplies to add to our slowly growing supply. Of course as part of a thank you we HAVE TO make a card… and then there is the letters and thank you pictures for Gammie… we have had a slow down on our pen pal responses so I am thinking we will send out some letters to some of our families to kick start in case  of missing mail!

So thankful

Tuesday was an at home day as well… we covered the basics – spelling, reading (gotta get those books in to get pizzas), a little math for one, some colouring for another… all in all we were WAY productive. Our new favourite art site added ANOTHER how to… so of course all work stopped so Gavin could make his attempt at drawing a bat according to the (once again) amazing instructions!

Bat with an original ghost

Surprisingly ZANDER then wanted to have a go!!! And with his lower concentration it was HUGE that he could follow through and really create with success… what a confidence booster! And then to top it off… Gavin created his own step by step instructions to draw a cow!

Step by step cow

Then to fill the time we decided to get creative on a smaller scale… black construction paper and white crayons! Spoooooky pictures for fall and Halloween! Even Echo sat down and had a go!

Zander and littles

Echo’s

We actually had a series of Gavin creativity during the beginning of the week… there was his AMAZING chalk creation with a dragon…

Amazing chalk image

His leafy creation… using nothing but the stems of the leaves to hold it all  together…

Leaves

And his outdoor table for Trinity…

Table for 2?

With Emanuel just LOVING the dinos and Trinity diving head first into the new workbook that just leaves a passion for Zander…

Creativity

September 21-22

Nana and Baba are home safe and sound and only one day late! So we did the minimum of schoolwork and awaited their return. Farmer Boy is officially DONE! I think we all breathed a sigh of relief!

Not sure WHAT those faces are about

Each chapter illustrated and written

the lapbook portions I found online

Two extra illustrations to enjoy

We coloured, we tidied, we wandered around putting the house to rights and then – they got home!! Talk about some TANNED grandparents… and Nana’s hair – lovely!!! Echo especially just ate up the added attention. She REALLY missed her Nana and Baba and took turns sitting with them, playing and of course babbling away! Still no “Baba” yet…

Nana and Baba!

There was presents to see and then of course Baba’s birthday cake!!

Cake

Saturday was full of family time. Ken had to program another test code for another job application. This was a time consuming one so we were pretty well grounded. Which worked in our favour as Ken’s aunty Judy, Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica) came by to spend half the day with us. Judy is Ken’s dad’s youngest sibling and only sister. We caught up on everything and had an amazing visit topped off with pizza. We hope to go visit at their house really soon… maybe meet up at the zoo?

Drawing pictures for Aunty Judy

Baba and Uncle Jim

With Judy, Robbie and Jessica

However, he did have time to run with the kids… well run them with the remote control car. I am so glad that that little gem made it through our move. I am wondering, though, if we are the only people with kids who chase the car? Oh well, at least they had fun doing it!! 

Chasing the car

It was the first day of fall… and boy has fall come to us. The leaves are still mostly green but there is a definite chill in the air. We had to pull out the sweaters, long sleeves and even some pants. I am thinking my many scarves (and those Karyn made last year) are going to come in handy!!!

Miss Echo

And so the weekend progresses… amazing how busy we feel when we are standing still!

Trinity and her braids thanks to Nana

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