Tag Archive | Kenya

A Week in a Nutshell (well up to the weekend)

August 25-30

Well everyone has already experienced our amazing Renaissance Festival fun on the 25th. You can find that day HERE. But after so much fun in the hot hot sun it was back to normal on the Monday.

Zander finally finished his grade 2 mathbook so soon we will bring out the 3!101_4366

We even made time for a Wild Kratts.

Gila Monster

Gila Monster

On Tuesday we continued on with our Lion learning. I love using storybooks to supplement our finish products and these scratch paper pictures are terrific!101_4368

101_4369Amazingly enough Trinity and Echo had a “do everything together” day!!!101_4370

101_4371Middle of the week was Emanuel’s turn to shine with a completion…101_4373

And the whole gang worked on getting in the day’s harvest from the straw bale garden!101_4374

101_4376Thursday was back to work…101_4379

101_4380

Kenya

Kenya

Look Esther!! They drew you!

Look Esther!! They drew you!

and back to the pool! Any time we can get some fun in the yard is always a bonus!101_4382

The kids really excelled in their schoolwork. So we drove over to McDonald’s and treated them all to ice cream. 59 cents a piece is always an amazing deal, especially when you need to buy 7!!!101_4388

101_4391We ended our week with Zachary over for the morning. He, Gabriella and their parents were going camping with Nana and Baba for most of the Labour Day long weekend. So he came over Thursday night to leave Friday morning. Though his asthma was acting up in the extreme humidity so they had to stay inside to play.101_4393

After the campers left we ran outside to check our beans… which apparently grew best if we ignored them completely!101_4395

Play on the playset…101_4396

And just generally mug for the camera.101_4399

101_4400And that is our week in a nutshell!!!101_4372

Hello Baby….

August 4-6

Sunday is always an up and down day… but we totally lucked out with Sunday afternoon COMPANY! Lily Bean and our girls are fast friends already and this time Bree brought Quinn!!! Talk about a great afternoon!101_3954

101_3956101_3958101_3962photo (82)101_3973Our Monday moved right back into our daily patterns. While I love flexibility and all, the constant spelling, folder work, and together time has been doing wonders on our progress and our attitudes.101_3981

We had two rather important completions! Trinity finished another of her Pre K books and GAVIN moved onto his grade 3 math. A little ahead of schedule and with some things we will refocus on later, but what a confidence boost!!!101_3975

101_3980On Tuesday we started our true discussion on Lions and what we know already about them. I was quite impressed by the amount of facts the kids already have about them. We plan on learning a bit about Kenya and Tanzania as well, with some books, lapbooks, worksheets and random shows I think we will do just fine on our 3rd major animal unit!!101_3983

101_3984Of course we had to enjoy some sunshine. With the AC sometimes we forget how lovely it is outside as well. But wow is it nice on those super hot days!101_3989

 I am sure there will be another picture blog with the rest of our Lily and Quinn time, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I have posted! It is so nice to visit with our friends be it planned or surprise drop ins!101_3965

Wove…Twoo Wove…

I can only remember bits and pieces of my wedding day which is now over 10 years past. But I do remember the excitement… getting my hair done by a favourite hairdresser… the dress… the family and friends and of course Ken… oh the list goes on and on. Today was Chris and Chris’ day and we set out to make it grand!

Veronika and I were up early to get to the hairdresser… the appointments STARTED at 8:30 but with 5 people in total needing hair done at the salon and 3 of those needing their make-up done by the amazing Veronika we decided to head out of the house by 8am (we also had to swing by a machine to get the cash for my hair style anyway). We beat EVERYONE there in true family style (after all MacLeans are not on time unless they are AT LEAST 15 min early, right?) and after the hairdresser cleaned up after her earlier appointment (for another wedding) and had a smoke (ummm yeah)… it was my turn. She Chris, Mae and She Chris’ daughter Amanda made it to the salon a couple minutes before 8:30 thankfully WITH the circlets. Mine was a bit too big for my head so there was some creative bobby pinning done to make sure it would stay put. She basically did a bunch of curls in the back with a few tendrils in the front, though those went flat after a while anyway… thankfully they still looked good.

My hair was not without hiccups – while she was barking at one of the other hairdressers she singed the back of my hair which then had a bobby pin jabbing that spot until well into the evening. And she was rather light on the hairspray (my hair drinks the stuff up like it is water) but both were easily remedied. Veronika had some spray that we liberally applied and eventually I DID move the pin… thankfully it did NOT cost me the 60+ dollars I was originally quoted.

As first one back I was able to get my make-up done in good time. As always an enjoyable experience. Seriously I may be horrible at putting it on myself but having someone else that I TRUST do it – awesome! And she even helped me pick up a lipstain so I have that to use and am confident looks good! Thankfully there were plenty of people on hand to wrangle kids and by 11am Sean and Ted left to pick up flowers.

My amazing make-up

In the meantime mom and I worked together to get our Trinity all prettied up. Mom braided multiple braids into her hair and then combined them into one in the back that was wrapped with a matching ribbon and topped with the ribbon clip I made months ago. 

Braids

She was so stoic that Mike had to step in and make her smile for a bit. In fact, as soon as it was all done she burst into tears and needed some hugs but then it was dress time and she was all for that!

Smiles for Grandpa Mike

I am VERY proud of how she looked all done up! In her Grandma Dress with her pretty hair and then Fat Sheep to hang out with we HAD TO take pictures… PHOTO OP! 

All done

From the back

With Fat Sheep all purty

And the rings!!

She Chris and Amanda were the next ones back after mom with their hair all prettied up. So time for bridal make-up! That left just Mae at the hairdressers to be picked up.

Note the pinned up circlet! Be sure to TELL your make-up artist about such things! We forgot to tell Veronika!

Mae’s make-up was the final thing to be completed before dressing but first it was lunch time. I thought ahead and made sure to send bread, meat and cheese with the menfolk when they headed over to dress with Chris and Sean. After all can’t have them all go hungry. 

Some of our menfolk

By the time the bulk of the ladies had eaten the ushers arrived with the flowers – gorgeous as promised. We quickly sorted them out and then made sure the ushers ate something before they started delivering. 

The bride's bouquet

Dressing the ladies was quite the adventure as most outfits (if not all) were put on over the head with ties and arrangement of layers to be dealt with. There was one final alteration to be made to the bridal gown – a loop on the train so that She Chris was not dragging her dress everywhere. Simple and quick but very important. 

Lacing up

Sewing on the loop

After breastfeeding Echo and getting into my own gown it was time to dress the littlest of us all. She was NOT impressed as we woke her up from a nap and everything. BUT the end result was an absolutely adorable little Echo! 

Lacing me up

Me and my baby!

Since the bride always looks her best right when she has her dress first on and the photographer was not there I grabbed all the cameras and had those of us there line up and take pictures… mom and Mike do have a lovely yard for photos all green and fresh and the day was sunny… and warm, did I mention that yet? VERY warm! 

Bride and her flower girl

Mother and daughter

The girls

With Echo, mom and Fat Sheep

Of course Victoria and Esther managed to get here well in time to enjoy the dressing up and photo taking. They both looked fabulous, Esther in an outfit made out of cloth she brought back from Kenya and Victoria in one of her first sewing projects – a Roman outfit. Add to that our lovely Karyn in her poodle skirt and the ladies were ready to party! BUT you have to wait for that picture until later… they were the anachronistic ladies… and their picture was taken AFTER the ceremony but you CAN see Cousin Veronika looking hot!

MY cousin!

There were also flowers to distribute… I love this one of Amanda and She Chris.

Flowers for the daughter of the bride

And Mike and She Chris… someone even got a cute one of Mom and Mike together.

My mom and her man... or is it Mike and his love?

Then we were off to the Legion, an hour early no less! With Ken as the ride for some of our ladies… Mike taking the bride, daughter of and bridesmaid. I opted to NOT go in the convertible and go with Karyn and my two little ones.

And the rest… well you will have to WAIT for that! So many images already and only half way through our day!!!

Echo and Grandma in their matching outfits

A romantic kiss?

Ken and his girls

This entry was posted on 01/09/2011, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments