1001 posts! There is a bit of a rush knowing I have made it THIS far with sharing our life and resources with everyone! Remember to go back to THIS post to enter for your chance to win a feltie. 

This has definitely been a guy weekend. We had a group of Ken’s friends come to celebrate his belated birthday weekend with a traditional LAN party. There was even a cake (ice cream) thanks to Kristen and Fydo! (Inside joke on the slogan written on it).

CAKE!

Kristen, Echo and I spent Saturday out and about town… we started at the library (the branch closer to us) and picking up two books I had on hold for this week’s schooling. It is a complex actually so we looked into skating and swimming information. Seriously, if anyone wants to go swimming with us in November!! We need more hands than we have to safely swim with all 5 kids. 

After the library it was down to the south end and Michaels. There were some Christmas (I know ALREADY!) sales and coupons to use. There is a free make-it-take-it activity there on the 20th of this month I wanted to confirm was going on. I did pick up some more adhesive so I could get back to crafting. Duct tape is next on the list (some specific colours for Christmas gifts) but I figured I needed to get some scrapbooking out of the way to clear my crafting areas! AND it is Emanuel’s turn tomorrow to get his scrapbook page done. 

Bathing Beauty

A Girl and Her Sheep

We had lunch at a mall foodcourt where at Edo Japan I actually got right through the line! Faster than Kristen at NYFries! Odd that! And then over to the kids’ educational store. I had a payment order number and a wish to shop for another couple gifts for Christmas. Echo made minor messes (easily tidied thankfully) and crawled around exploring while I bought more than I had planned but remained well under budget. I even got them a toy for right now – magnetic spacial game. Though it was TRINITY more than anyone who was interested in it. 

Fun with magnets

In the evening we actually pulled out the game I got Ken for his birthday – Settlers Trails to Rails! Kristen, Fydo, Ken and myself gave it a go… it went A LOT longer than our usual Settlers game and was a bit more complex AND Ken did win AS USUAL… but fun! I look forward to playing it again with a firmer grasp of the rules AND starting earlier in the evening. 

All new Settlers

Today was a rather big deal for our little family – the kids sang at church with the Sunday School. It was Trinity’s first time! She was a little nervous and Emanuel was trying to chatter at first but they gave it their best! I was VERY proud! 

The lesson during Sunday School was a group craft one about Saints for All Saints Sunday. Everyone made a Saint Nicholas. Rather cute I think! 

Two of our saints

We had to say good-bye to our company today. Jeff and Zachary were onto the next leg of their vacation with Sean as their ride (he has been steadily getting sicker over the weekend but toughed it out and had fun). We feel so spoiled that they came and visited all the way from California! Kristen picked up Fydo around lunchtime so that left Alan and Ted to spend the afternoon and into the evening with Ken gaming and just hanging out. As much as we LOVE our new place, I do miss this sort of company. Feels so weird to see them so rarely after it being a weekly or more visit at our old home. 

A basement full of men

Uncle Ted helping Trinity watch Charlie and Lola

Watching the gaming

I finished up a few crafts sitting around as I set about putting the house back to normal. Echo’s bow board is finally done. I love the colours. The material was what Echo’s Birthday present was wrapped in from Victoria. I put the bows on that she received from a lovely lady who runs Hairbows for Princesses. Be sure to check her out! Aren’t the colours great?

Echo's Bow Board

Oh and we figured out why poor Echo is not only cranky BUT has a bum rash – she cut another tooth – a molar!! (what is it with this kid and the painful back ones?)… her back left bottom is cut now as well as the two top ones… OUCH 

This was definitely a weekend to remember, and now it is time to get ready for the rest of the month. Our facilitator is here on the 17th so we need to be sure we have our science stuff ready to show… I have a crafting event to plan, a van we need to get a date on for fixing, library meet up to plan… oh the list goes on. BUT I am hoping to move my focus to creating Christmas presents now! And that is exciting for us all… CRAFTING! 

Post church pretty

The answer is…. 6! We have truly arrived in our new home now – we have held a LAN PARTY! Men have gamed, beer has been drunk… fun has been had and all in my basement… Tradition has been met! Ken is a happy man and Sean and Ted are even here until tomorrow due to it being a long weekend here in Alberta (and they both have the day off). 

LAN party

Let’s see, back to Saturday… well the guys of course stayed up late Friday night to set up and game… by the end of Friday everyone but Alan was here and ready to game. Saturday morning we had Cousin Veronika here bright and early to play with the kids who were so excited to see her! We are already starting to get spoiled with them wanting here here more and more. Adam didn’t come this time, he was out camping and relaxing with my aunt and uncle’s rv (lucky man!). Apparently there wasn’t even cell phone reception where he was! 

Cousin Veronika with the minions

Later in the morning Karyn came for a pre-Saskatchewan visit (she is gone this weekend and into the week to help her mom downsize clutter and pack for their upcoming move). Once we were all awake, Echo fed and in nap, dressed and played out (well the kids willing to LET cousin Veronika free) we made tracks to the south end of town and Michaels. There were ribbons to be bought. On Veronika’s suggestion we asked Trinity if she wanted to come with us. She was VERY proud and excited to be allowed to “go with the girls.” Ken even installed her carseat in the vehicle we were taking to make it easy for her to go. 

After Michaels there was a quick stop off at Nutter’s so (She) Chris could get chocolate… and while she and I were in there the pet store for Karyn, Veronika and Trinity to get dog food for Combyne and Holli. Then to the bigger of the two malls in town to get a quick lunch (Trinity and I shared a poutine that I was told by my little one was DIRTY fries and a pop that she was SURE she DIDN’T drink most of…yeah right!).

Out with the girls

And then the all important buying of the lipsticks for the bride and maid of honour and bridesmaid. Even though Veronika is going to do our make-up we needed something for touch ups. The final decision was to go with a lip STAIN. I have never used one of those before! I honestly am REALLY looking forward to a few months from now when I may have some spare cash. I want to go out and do some shopping with Veronika and get some decent make-up that she can then show me how to use PROPERLY! As it is I am REALLY looking forward to when she does her lash extension course… I get to be a guinea pig! Ken is all for that – something about my playing with my COUSIN’S toys all I want! 

It was time to get going with the make-up trial for the bride when we got back from our shopping. Veronika was able to use this face to do her last of her 5 faces for her pre-exam work. Great timing. Kristen was over by then too so she could take a look at all the goodies. Trinity was also very interested in what was going on… she loves the feel of the brushes! We made sure to take a bunch of pictures so that (she) Chris can later use them in her scrapbook. 

Make-up trial

(he) Chris had the craving for ice cream cake… once Kristen mentioned it at least so Kristen, (she) Chris and myself went to Dairy Queen to solve the issue. Ice cream cakes are few and far between in this house so it was a super treat for everyone! 

Ice cream!

Veronika hung out for a while after the trial to visit, play with the kids and relax. I am so spoiled with this cousinly time (well sisterly more than anything which is something we both agree on!). Karyn had to leave soon after to go get ready to head east. Veronika and (she) Chris were sweet enough to watch Echo so Kristen and I could make a 7-11 run (where we were quite humourous looking with our large slurpee cups in tow). It was amazing to have so many friends around to spend time with and entertain the kids with. 

We had great intentions to play some boardgames last night, but with the guys gaming on the computers in a way that had them doing long spans of time at a go we found it easier to just sit upstairs and chat. Kristen headed home to sleep in her own bed (smart girl!) and then Chris, Chris and I finished up the seating chart… at least I HOPE we are finished. I have the half sheet of poster board to make the chart for people to find their seats and then I should be free and clear on that one! 

Kristen and Echo

Since I did MOST of the dishes last night and cleaned up as best I could before bed I was able to sleep in this morning. The guys were winding down so there was more sitting upstairs and visiting than gaming going on… (he) Chris got in some super snuggly cuddle time. She actually fell asleep on him for a bit!

Snuggles

Post Echo feeding (she) Chris and I ran BACK out to Michaels with some new coupons in hand to get a few more items for the wedding. She wants to have a scrapbook table for anyone who is interested to sit and make a page or two for their scrapbook. It is a different interpretation on something I saw at my cousin Katie’s wedding. They took photos first, printed them out and then everyone made a page for their photo! My kids LOVED it!

I splurged and with my 40% off coupon grabbed a stick of UHU glue. It is a favourite in the house and for some reason the one I had gotten right before our move went missing!!! I have set aside the receipt to go in our homeschooling folder for the next receipt return date. I am rather proud of myself, this weekend I bought the glue stick as a “splurge”… picked up the budgeted lipstick for 7.00 less than budget and took myself and Trinity out for poutine with the last of my birthday money. Definitely keeping a mind on the fact I should not be spending while still having fun and getting something we need! YAY! 

Chris and Chris left for home soon after we got back from the store with errands to run. Fydo had Kristen come and get him before I returned as well… she came with a gift for the kids! Some ADORABLE soap… they were so impressed and had to show me the ladybug on top. How sweet of her!

Thank you!

Alan left not too long after. Which left a VERY empty downstairs, worn out kids and yours truly set up to make ribbon bows… of course ONE of the ribbons is glittery so not only am I making bows but also making a MESS! The glittery ribbon at least, is an upstairs project. Not the fastest process but it isn’t impossible. Of course today is a glue gun free day…  I will face that exercise AFTER I get Echo’s tutu dress done. 

Bows galore

Ken took Emanuel out for a solo walk to the convenience store… he has been feeling rather left out at times and wanted some special one on one time. He was so proud of his special surprise treat bag and had to show Trinity and myself right away. 

Booty!

With a to of crafting to do, 3 men in the basement and a post party clean up almost done I am definitely having a busy evening but this coming week the mornings are going to be QUIET! Yikes! 5 half days of the boys at VBS! 

Feeding the baby

We are basically back to normal here in the Reinsch-Johnson home… well as normal as we get! We are right back into the little organized schooling we do do in the summer – mainly math and sight word work… oh and our illustrations with a couple sentence description for the Summer Folder. It feels good to sit down with the twins at the table and work one on one once again. Zander is finally starting to really grasp some of the more complex (at least more complex than addition and subtraction) mathematical concepts… and Gavin is going hard on his sight word books.

Working together all 3 of us, Zander on math, Gavin sight words and yours truly checking on the new educational website

I have drug out my book What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know to sift through and see how far we have gotten. I need to source out a copy for the 2nd grader level but I do like to have this as a basic (very basic) reference to give me some guidelines as I go along. So far my goals for early in the year are to cover fractions in detail… focus on the months of the year (we have the days pretty well covered) and of course time. Beyond that I want to get the boys through VBS, the wedding, Echo’s birthday party and Nana and Baba visit before we go absolutely gungho on the studying. August is going to be a whirlwind month for this family!

Ken was not able to pick up some of the items we need in the city due to long lines at the dump and a need to take time out half way through the day to do some necessary online work (have to love the ability to take his work with him as long as he can find an internet connection). So we still do NOT have the grade 2 level math books… Gavin is not impressed, though he has yet to complete the grade 1 book. He loves to have things lined up in front of him. I absolutely love the books we bought for the year – they are Canadian based and cover pretty much everything in a way that the boys find very accessible. It is the Complete MathSmart and we were able to purchase them for under 20.00 a piece!

Love this one, Gavin is ALMOST done the whole thing...

I don’t know if I have mentioned it but Emanuel has made up his own little activity to accomplish using a piece of green construction paper, a crayon and the ABC magnets. He likes to sit down, sing the alphabet song until he gets to the letter he needs to write, he then finds the appropriate magnet and sets it down to copy it. He made it to G before I knew he was even doing it as he had chosen to do it at the blue table while I was working with the twins at the kitchen table. He is a very independent learner unlike his brothers who prefer hands on one on one time. It amazes me how different our boys (and girls) really are. 

Emanuel and his ABC page... so proud of his initiative!

I was contacted today by someone connected to a free educational resource site who had come across this blog. So of course I had to run and check it out! I am very glad I did. As always I suggest a membership to EnchantedLearning BUT here is another resource to check out for people who like to have printables… the site is called Education.com. Here is the actual worksheet link. I will be adding the link to the main site to my links on the blog! 

We had the neighbour boy come over today – unannounced as per usual… and of course arguments, rule breaking, etc ensued. I let it go as long as I could but when he went home and brought back a tennis ball and nerf bat and proceeded to hit the ball OUT of the yard and onto the house I stepped in. And when they wouldn’t STOP playing baseball in our little yard with arguing I called time. I am sure he is a nice boy but for some reason when he is here… it just doesn’t work. Then add to that Emanuel and Gavin having a run in on the way in the door ending with Gavin hurting his knee and I was mentally planning supper and maybe a summer movie before bed. 

A moment of calm at least... note the little chair Trinity is sitting on - Grandma brought it when she came to get Jimmie!

I am determined to have a crafty night… bows, stocking, tutu dress… maybe some scrapbooking. Wedding, Birthday and Christmas all in one night! With some random special event thrown in by the scrapbooking. For some reason that makes me VERY happy! And after the LAN party (LOCAL AREA NETWORK in case people were wondering… I had it pointed out to me that I had never explained that!!) I will make sure my crafting area is photo ready so I can take a picture and show everyone!

Just a bit of black there

I have a new decoration idea for the kids’ room I will share with everyone tomorrow… the twins just have something they have to do first before we can finish up. I still haven’t found the box of photos to go on the walls BUT an idea has been born to help the twins feel like their room is more decorated! 

The boys working on Emanuel's decoration

I really hope I can get some more crafty ideas going… I think I want to make Trinity a wand for Christmas… she is REALLY into them.. I just need to figure out what to make the stick part out of… my dowels here in the house are too short really!

Our resident butterfly and her half dressed sister (you can't see it but the little shorts say CRABBY)

Bitty baby