I figured today was as good a day as any to share some of the lovely cards Echo received for her birthday. I have to admit I do have a weakness for them… and probably save way too many but first birthdays are something special!

A lovely handmade card from Aunty Karyn... Butterflies and all!

Why Aunty Esther does! We do so love purple for our Miss Echo

Another lovely handmade card by Aunty Kristen. I love the little birdy on this one!

Cousin Elizabeth decorated both the card and the envelope and added a sweet message to hers (from her boyfriend Lyle as well)

From Cousin Veronika and her Adam... this has a textured front. As one of my other aunts remarked - Echo is our little lady as Trinity is the princess!

This is a special sort of card, you fill in the special memories from her first birthday party!

I was able to photograph the little book Lauralee made for Echo to go with the bookworm Karyn made her. Seriously these librarians come up with some wickedly creative and fun gifts! I have a picture of the outside AND the inside… 

It says... Once upon a time...

Echo met a bookworm! As Ted would say - TRUE STORY!!

I mean, come on, ADORABLE! I did a bit of creative work myself on our gifts for Echo, there was the handsewn bunny teddy AND the lucky stars I folded for her…

I doubt you can tell from the picture but those are Hello Kitty papers I used

I did up a couple jars of stars for Trinity for her first birthday as well. I figured what better than to give my beloved daughters stars to wish on? Perhaps then all their wishes will come true?

I have been up late last night working on the book I keep all of Echo’s milestones in. I want it up to date for next Monday’s genetic appointment in case there are questions I can’t just answer off the top of my head. I have one for each of the kids though they are really only seriously up to date for the first year. They are still boxed up in one of the boxes I have left to sort… well buckets really, I think. I actually ran out of shelf space before Ken’s folks visited and am trying to figure out which books can return to the buckets to make room for ones I really need and want out. With Ken’s stuff cluttering my bookshelf corner in the basement it is VERY slow going, but he tells me he will get some of his clutter sorted soon. He has just been totally snowed under with work (doubled edged sword that one!). 

This morning was a bit of a backwards one for us. I stayed up late last night so Ken could take a late nap and then finish up the issue on time. In return I got to sleep in… well sort of… the kids did their best to deter that. Everything from stomping like a herd of elephants to fighting outside and finally Miss Echo pitching an exhausted baby fit.

Kathy brought with her to the party some bags of craft supplies from a mutual friend of ours. I finally got some time to go through them today… there is a wonderful selection of items but the boys were the most excited about the little tub of dinosaurs. 

Dinosaurs!

I really appreciate it when people think of us when they are downsizing. So often we use items that others may not, the boys are VERY crafty after all. Included in the items is a little tin that I remember seeing Karyn use to make a scrapbook a while ago. Now I just need to use hers as a template and go from there. Christmas IS right around the corner after all (well, crafting wise…).

Cute little tin

We had to enjoy some more bubbles today with the lovely weather. The morning was rather cold but the afternoon warmed up nicely and without the brilliant sun in the eyes. Of course this meant another new outfit for Echo and some photo ops. I am not sure if you can tell in the images but it says Baby Sister. Too big on her of course but it worked. She is VERY interested in all things bubbles… to the point where we weren’t sure if she was trying to EAT the bubble or mimic blowing her own. 

Eating or blowing?

Watching a pro (Zander)

We got in another picture for our Summer Adventure file – this one about Echo’s birthday. So I think we are now all caught up, which meant it was time to work on some math as well. The boys are still a bit resistant to working and Emanuel needed his nap so badly he skipped out today but I am hoping by next week to be crafting it up with my kids again full force along with their workbooks and such. 

Finished pages

Math at the kitchen table

Karyn and I made a trip out to do some shopping but I will share those purchases TOMORROW. Tonight I need to get back to work clearing up my mess, sorting out our new craft supplies AND perhaps getting to bed BEFORE 2 am??? So check back!!

Emanuel and his bubbles

So we have dug into our Easter/Spring themed craft and decoration bucket. I am doing limited decorating as we ARE moving the weekend after Easter, but could not resist the lure of the pastel and cute. We are not planning anything excessive when it comes to our Easter celebrations, in fact, I am unsure as to how our yearly egg hunt is going to play out but I am sure something will be planned. Just once I would LOVE to have the snow melted and the ground dry enough to have it OUTSIDE but I am not overly optimistic about this year. After all, for all that SOME of the snow has melted MORE keeps coming down!

Bucket of stuff

So instead of a focused bunch we were all over the place with our Easter and spring themed games, crafts and other fun items in the bucket. I did find some worksheets for the boys to do: a maze that seemed to have them totally stumped for a while, a simple wordsearch (they instantly recognised the word EGG) and a colour by numbers (UK version). Here is a link to a series of spring worksheets of varying complexity. Tomorrow I have a couple poems to teach the boys as well as a more difficult spring wordsearch

Gavin and the colour by numbers

I have actually revamped my links on the right side of my blog. I tried to include my favourite homeschool related links as well as my personal sites and (which will be developed over the rest of the week) a series of craft links.

Hugs!

I am attempting different ways to complete my Velcro bows for Echo. The first one I used a regular needle and thread and after using the adhesive backing stitched the Velcro to the ribbon. Time consuming and a couple of times painful. After a while my needle got sticky from the adhesive and bent from the pressure of going through the ribbon and the Velcro backing. I also did one that had NO stitching across the lengths of Velcro, just to pinch the end together like a hinge. So I will try BOTH and see how they work (wouldn’t it be GREAT if the non stitch version worked??).

Two completed (stitched Velcro is the white one)

There was a bit of excitement with our little Echo – today with MINIMAL help of her nursing pillow she was sitting upright! We are so close to her sitting on her own! I took as many pictures as I could and wished I had my blue sheet up. BUT what is important is I captured the moment.

Working on sitting on her own

A friend edited one of my last pregnancy photos for me, I finally got around to getting it from him and posting it on my deviantArt account today. Hard to believe that was almost 8 months ago!!

38 Weeks

My goal is to do this exact same pose this summer NOT pregnant. I figure half way through summer, once I have had some quality time with the stroller and getting to know our new neighbourhood.

So Fat Sheep has a new adventure – she has come up with a new form of YOGA on the suggestion of my Cousin Veronika (thanks for the idea!!!). Wooly Yoga, you can read all about it HERE.

I spent my evening off the track when it comes to FINISHING projects… Hello Kitty has a SILHOUETTE setting… oops!

Hello Kitty!

But tonight I am going to finish the last of the Lucky Stars AND get started on that pattern Ken keeps teasing me with! Wish me luck.

Ooooo

Well the weekend went by quickly as we kept ourselves nice and busy. As of today all the available boxes are filled (no word on a rental yet) and visits made. In fact, for the second weekend in a row we ALL went to church! (thus the picture from yesterday – taken during service but AFTER the children’s service when the boys head to Sunday School) Echo was quite intent on stealing Trinity’s Colour Wonder paper and pen and trying to eat them. And, once again, she wore her Hello Kitty dress and I was unable to get the picture I wanted. I guess sometime this week I will just have to sit her down in the outfit and stage some photos.

All Dressed Up

Our Church in the new fallen snow

Saturday we lucked out, Ken and Ted had a working weekend – on their game they are programming (alpha testing to follow!! I will announce to get testers). With a movie on for the boys (Toy Story 3) we were able to grab the girls and head out to the stores. We were SUPPOSED to make it to the local (and beloved) thread store but we got there at 4 and they closed at 3 on Saturdays (total frustration), so it was right on to Walmart. It is so much easier to shop with a baby in a seat and one little girl running semi wild.

Piggy Back

We were able to pick up a fortifier for Echo to mix in her cereal and started her on that on Saturday as well (yes it DOES change the taste and yes she DOES realize that…). We won’t know immediately if this is going to substantially increase her weight gain but it is worth a try!

Sunday morning was, of course, church but right from church we headed to the den Otter home to visit for a lovely chunk of the afternoon… which means… MORE BABY PICTURES!! 2 weeks old this time! We are probably going to head over for a couple more visits… after all the kids are having a blast and we ARE moving in May…

So sweet

Sweet little Izaac

Today we had to run out to the church – to pick up the wet diaper bag I forgot in the washroom there (thank goodness they found it for me) and then back to the thread store to pick up two skeins of blending filament. I LOVE the colour – this i to be a part of my sister’s wedding sampler. I get the pattern (Ken assures me) tomorrow morning. So I will be a busy stitcher after that – I want it sent by the end of the month so it gets to South Carolina in plenty of time. I will have to send it unframed.

Shiny

Gavin finished his little Math workbook this weekend! He was determined to have it done before Monday and worked VERY hard. The concepts AND counting are coming much quicker though I am still having issues with him and making mistakes. He takes it VERY personally when there is anything wrong with his work!

Completion

I got the last set of Lucky Star paper from Hong Kong today… before a smaller item I had ordered previous to that BUT at least SOMETHING is coming. Our mail has been horrible lately! So I have to do up the last of the Lucky Stars for the 1st birthday recipients and that will be off of my list. Anything I can do to NOT move with unfinished projects!

We had Fydo and Ted over tonight. Fydo was in town for 2 days so it was awesome timing to have the 3 guys get together and talk shop… at least that is what I THINK they were talking about, most of it was over my head.

Fydo

So the rest of the week is pretty much an open book… we would LIKE to get over to the den Otter’s again, there is a trip to the zoo to plan AND this coming weekend some company and a trip to Grandma’s to see Great Uncle Wayne… We are making the most of our time here in the city while industriously looking for that new rental… please keep a positive thought and for those of your near and around where we are moving – an eye open!!!

And, as always – check out Fat Sheep. She has been a busy blogger!

Lego!