April 4-6

Now onto the weekend of fun and friends. First our Friday… Miss Trinity finished her dot-to-dot workbook… she is now becoming quite the pro at counting from 1-50!

Emanuel got a book on his birthday on how to draw dinosaurs. So to get a wee bit back into dinosaurs after our relative dry spell he has started a large paper picture using the book. I plan to start posting our back dinos and start new ones soon.

We had all 5 of our fish coloured, named and ready to take back to the consignment store on our way to the Novak’s.

With the fresh dump of “blizzard” snow I kicked the twins out to play and wear themselves out. Apparently it was PERFECT sticky snow but the kids were quick to tell me that they were DONE with winter and would love to go to a lake RIGHT NOW. From near nothing to waist height in one evening. UGH

With another chapter of Treasure Island under our belt and illustrated (I am still not reading ahead… and the kids are still NOT impressed by this fact) we were ready to get out the door… run a few minor errands and go to the Novak’s house.

Darcy once again outdid herself with the cake… this one themed zombies. He actually had a second cake that we ate that night (this photographed one was eaten the next day at his friends’ party).

The kids had a blast playing.

And Anthony loved his ninja. I do love to include a handmade item even if we are giving our now TWELVE year old godson a gift certificate.

After presents Ken and Anthony spent the evening building his new weight bench. I am so glad that we are here for all these firsts and activities. He is growing up so fast!

After a busy day we were up bright and early again for Home Depot Saturday. This time Ken left with 4 kids and came back with 6! We inherited Alex and Aidan Novak for an overnight sleepover so Anthony could have his birthday party solo. The kids were so excited. They had been DYING to have a sleepover.

So that was the beginning of 2 days of wild kid fun. Alex and I sat and crafted quietly at times (he brought his bracelet loom and I brought out ours to add to his supply).

Or they ran outside and burned off that energy.

Second day melt off

Meals were a blast.

Fruit Salad

And that evening we had TWO Ice Age movies with popcorn. 5 boys in one bedroom at bedtime and another day of fun to follow.

We skipped Sunday School in favour of special playtime.

Instead of dropping them off or having Darcy to a run by pick up we had them over for slow cooker lasagna and homemade chocolate chip cookies Sunday evening. Apparently Andrew had fun at his friends staying up all night and Anthony had a great birthday. So all 4 Novak boys were well pleased with our two asking to come again! Talk about a wonderful weekend.

Making cookies

Lasagna

Add to that dying my hair a bright and fun garnet with Ken’s help and I am one happy Mommy.

Sleepovers, birthdays and shopping as a family. With some schoolwork thrown in… not bad not bad.

November 19-20

Mondays always feel a little hectic. And this Monday we felt doubly rushed as we really had a TRUE weekend with visits and errands AND a lazy Sunday morning. It was fun!

Trinity: Hello Kitty

Emanuel: fire trucks

Gavin: flowers

Zander: being able to read

Gratitude Turkey

Monday was Ken’s day to teach for once. We worked on a list of to do stuff for them the night before and set it all up so they could work together without me. So I actually got to SLEEP IN properly on a WEEKDAY! It was so nice! And as an added bonus, they did pulleys together! Note the amazing drawings in their journals.

Fun with pulleys

We watched a Wild Kratts episode on Geckos so the boys drew pictures and we recounted what we learned on a special page. The boys are talking about making a poster of random animals of interest. I am all for that!

Geckos

I got a package in the mail that included some special Halloween craft supplies for the kids! I am doing an exchange with my Christian cross stitch group and am almost to the point where my gifts are ready to go! 

Thank you!

With ink in Nana and Baba’s printer (though colour is eluding us) Tuesday was a Thanksgiving print out frenzy! Of course first we had to decide what we were thankful for!

Zander: for Thanksgiving

Gavin: the earth

Emanuel: Echo

Trinity: dolls

Zander and our turkey

We also taped our poem… it took FOUR tries with Echo definitely not in the mood to perform and some miss starts to get it going. This poem was a lengthy holiday one I found in one of my saved resources and a lot of fun as we came up with various gestures to go with it!

Thanksgiving Poem

After worksheets and a dinosaur and some cleaning it was time for GUESTS! Bree and Quinn came to play… and to make us real honest to goodness homemade lasagna. (So amazing!) This also meant that Bree and I got a chance to run out kid free to Target to get supplies, wander a bit and talk about girly things (I am still on the fence as to what colour I should colour my hair!).

With Aunty Bree

The kids played indoors and outdoors but mostly trains!

Playing trains

Their outside creation

Teaching Quinn about Minecraft

And then Echo decided to see how big of a bump she could get with tipping a kitchen stool onto her head!

And trust me, it looked worse later… check back to see!

Thankfully she has terrific big brothers who are willing to hold the cold cloth and ice to the bump for a while while they watched Jake and the Never Land Pirates!

Poor baby

With an AMAZING lasagna for dinner already there for me to warm and serve my evening was mainly crafting and dealing with an injured infant. Time to welcome the Nana and Baba home! Those 3 weeks sped by.

Thank you so much for the supper Bree!