July 21-26

The days in July are ticking away as is the kids’ time with their cousins before they make the move to Florida. So when we have the chance and they are over school is set aside in favour of play. But the week STARTED with half days.

Trinity finished her booklets about her July 4th experience and the 4 days of VBS (she did a page for each day)… sorry about the fuzzy pictures. We had a drawing and then a couple sentences that talked about her experience or what she learned.

The girls have been working together a lot lately. AND Miss Echo made her first real go at using scissors… it was… interesting!

Of course we took advantage of our recorded Wild Kratts episode. The same on Tuesday.

Tuesday was a backwards day with pool and tent trailer in the sunshine THEN school.

Wednesday was a day of worn out toddler… but there was a silver lining – Baba snuggles. She seemed to have caught a slight bug.

The weather is definitely holding lately. With the whispers of another cold winter I am chucking these guys out NOW to enjoy all the sunshine and run out the excess energy! Clothed or not!

Thursday was another of our limited time only cousin get togethers. It is so weird to be on the opposite side of the visit in Minnesota! We have tried to tell the kids to take advantage of their time with Gabbi and Zachary. And I think they did a decent job. Of course we had school in the morning before Nana and Baba returned with the cousins.

Then it was out into the yard… the tent trailer was finishing airing out before heading over to Joe and Faithe’s for them to stay in as they finish their cleaning out of their house for the big move.

And the backyard garden was just screaming for us to come and pick and poke around.

Don’t forget the pool! We inherited new water guns that were not slated to head to Florida for the kids to play with as well.

The next day it was breakfast all together made by Baba, of course. Followed by a very special tea party with REAL tea hosted by Miss Gabriella.

Chicken noodle supper rounded off the meals (a common cousin request).

So much cousin fun.

Saturday the cousins went home and we made do just as us. Inside and outside we made Saturday count WITHOUT electronics.

BUT that night… BONFIRE and just for Ken and myself! Shandai (my bestfriend from Canada who moved here blah blah blah) had moved into her new rental with her boyfriend Ravyn (super nice guy). We left our kids with Chris Schwartz until Nana and Baba could get home and had a blast… booze, food and a bonfire… oh and two snuggly kitties. Not only did we have a blast but Ken got in a nap. With the cats!

I have to admit… I have not drank so much in ages but it was so much fun! We were out past 3 am I think!!

I was finally able to gift my housewarming present… when I was growing up my mom always took spider plant cuttings potted when someone moved into a new house. I can never remember what plants are cat safe AND am not able to keep many plants right now so I figured why not make some to gift!! I also made some to sell. I have plastic pots for those. For Shandai’s I used tiny clay pots and saucers I purchased at Walmart.

So we have been busy and made good use of our days…And our evenings. Mid week Ken and I snuck away and went to Chris and Renee’s KIDS FREE to drink, have a bonfire and hang out.

I swear I intend to catch up but we really followed through on our pledge to make every day count in May as much as possible. Living in the moment and finding the amazing in every second!!!

May 12-17

We are very blessed with our main penpal… Gammie has become instrumental in our writing and letter practice. We get more letters some months than we can almost keep up with but every one is answered! This newest installment came not only with letters but with a rainy day (and we have had a few) fun craft using pom poms.

She has added a new incentive for our school work… sending the girls their own work pages to mail back to her. Echo calls it doing her mail and I am happy to say she was VERY interested in doing it. We actually budgeted in curriculum overview books for the kids this month which includes one for her that she will start later in June or July.

There was also a new card game … whack a mole in card form?? The kids LOVED it!

Geocaching is going to be life changing for this family! Now even and every day trip to the store could be expanded to include a treasure hunt as well! We quickly are doing up all the local (walking distance) ones.

And on these outings we are finding more and more examples of winter being truly done and gone. After such a horrible winter each and every little indication is so AMAZING!!

Tuesday Trinity was teaching Echo how to concentrate on her pages…

Zander finished ANOTHER journal. Each book has higher expectations of the writer. This newest book means he has to have a title for every entry, the date and around 7 sentences! Anything to get the creative writing juices flowing! Well done Zander!

Another chapter of Treasure Island later…

And later in the day we made another trek out into the parks of Minnesota to find more Geocaching locations. This time we took Echo and while she and Mommy did not venture into the wooded area we did enjoy our walk. And met a nice puppy.

Wednesday was full of paper work.

Osprey

With the boys in the pool in the evening. I am not sure when we will sign them up for the next series of sessions but man are they improving. We honestly  cannot afford the large number of sports a lot of kids are in right now but what we do do seems to be so appreciated lately that I feel like as long as we keep taking advantage of what we can afford and maybe create our own opportunities we will do just fine!

On Thursday we were indoors and watching BBC nature shows. The kids made a lovely poster after.

The boys assembled some amazing Texas mini lapbooks. The links to these will be in my Texas Resource entry at the end of May.

More Wild Kratts…

Roadrunner

And reading…

And a Dirty Jobs about mosquitoes (I had to share Gavin’s picture… that is one HAPPY insect).

Emanuel learned about South Africa as well.

On Friday since everyone BUT the kids and I were out and about I snuck out with Ken and brought them home CHOCOLATE DONUTS! Yup we miss our Tim Hortons!!!

And I mean we REALLY love the geocaching. I would totally suggest it to any family (or person for that matter) that wants something to do that is really on your own terms. We have downloaded an app for our smart phone but you can get a GPS unit (we want one one day). We have been picking an area that has multiple caches to find and do our best to get them all. We have our own special bag of things we need (that is still evolving and I will share the total list in the future I promise) and try to keep the kids as involved as possible.

Nature was out full force as well. Amazingly enough all this was close to Sam’s (ok so we combined a  good trip Geocaching with shopping…). A Saturday well done.

Spring has sprung full force here… and this is our best year yet for taking advantage of it!

July 15-16

Thus another week starts… AND we are back to our summer half days, for all 4 of the 5 who are schooling. That is one of our bigger changes, the moving of Trinity from just walking in and out of schooling into being a part of planning and portions that are consecutive and repeated.

First things first, time to check on the budding beans… one week later and there had been some growth in both cups thankfully!

We had some journaling time (Trinity had to get Gavin to help her draw the pictures on her new t-shirt from Nana and Baba).

And some story time…

And of course made our poster (finally! OOPS!) for the month of July! I do love seeing what they associate each month with.

I love that also to be included in what you see in July is EMANUEL!

We had the added excitement of a lost front tooth! I figure it adds to the total adorable package that is Emanuel!!!

In fact, we were on a half day roll! I love when they all find a spot in the room and really focus on their learning!

Trinity even had a completion! She and Emanuel have the added goal of getting all their “on the go” workbooks completed before the fall so we can bring out a whole new set at a new and higher level!

This completed playset is an absolute joy, as I have mentioned in the days prior to this. Though with Echo and adult really does have to be out with her to supervise.

And after Echo’s went to nap we got out our paints and our Home Depot unpainted crafts and the kids got down to it. I prefer painting outside… easier clean and the fresh air is nice too!

With a Wild Kratts to watch… we now know much more about the hummingbird! (I think the kids are angling for feeders when we move)

We lucked out in the evening, while on the playset a bunny came through the yard – lucky for the kids… not so lucky for our gardens! Though they do not seem overly interested in the onion garden.