Ok so I DON’T have November done… take a peek back… waaaay back at October for now!!!

Yup too many pictures for a month in a blog! So enjoy the fall fun!

Emanuel finished his journal in October. Time to move onto writing his own sentences.

Lots of reading and drawing our own illustrations for the books!

The family who games together…has some rather interesting arguments and a 4 year old who plays in a way where EVERYONE dies OFTEN!

Resident Scout at his day camp with giant dominoes.

We got some amazing mail from Texas. Gammie spoils us so!

Tiny adorable pumpkins mailed from Texas!

Gotta read all the time lately!

We are definitely seeing progress in our cursive!

Enjoying a good story (thanks to Aunty Karyn) in honour of the Pizza Hut Bookit program.

The twins are starting to REALLY enjoy making lunches for everyone. Microwave skills developing!

Miss Echo is a creative one lately!

Although she also caught a bug and slept a day away.

As did Trinity on the way home from Scouts Day Camp.

Emanuel ALSO finished his grade 1 math book curriculum!

Talk about an amazing way to work on our estimating, counting and sorting skills… our tub of Legos we got at LegoLand. The kids did GREAT well over 400 pieces!

September 13-19

Sometimes you need a bit of a quiet weekend, especially after the last month or so of go go go. The twins are still set on playing and collecting Pokemon cards. They have quite the personal stash going and are doing amazing at keeping their cards in their boxes and actually trying to play the game properly. I do believe they have even stopped the copious amounts of cheating! Which means soon we should be able to head to the local comic book store (The Source, though it is so much more than a comic book store) when they have gaming table set up. Emanuel cannot wait to read well enough to be able to start his own collection.

Miss Echo has resurrected her love of her Little People sets… it is quite the sight to see her drag all her sets and toys and the bucket they go into out into the living room to play. Always this must be done ALL BY HERSELF.

All too soon it was back to the daily grind. But first we had to have a discussion about what we wanted to be for Halloween. After all costume creation is never overnight. I do love hearing their crazy and not so crazy ideas, though Zander has opted to recycle last year’s costume and be a ninja two years running.

We have thrown ourselves into our new curriculum books with Echo the ever diligent supervisor.

We have begun our series of volcano learning. The goal for the twins now is to have them cherry pick their own special facts and information from tv while they watch it and record it themselves. The idea of sifting through something to find the important bits. Volcanoes is definitely a SLOOOOW unit, potentially structured over two months. We started with Magic School Bus and their visit to a volcano.

Even Echo got a turn at the worksheets. She uses her pencil with gusto!

Art for Kids (link on right) have changed things up and now are doing a once a week email out to those who subscribe where you get a few of their art instructions in a printable format. The link is good for a week and then gone. I would totally recommend you sign up. These instructions are great for any age!

We are having a bit of a teacher assistant situation going on lately. The twins have become amazing helpers!

This week we also saw off our scout for his second year of scouting!! How exciting. Note the badges sewn on AND the new neckerchief!

The boys got brand new tshirts in the mail from Gammie! They had to strike a pose and take a photo!

On Friday Renee and Jeffrey collected us (minus Echo) and we headed over to the Speltz family home. A hobby farm! We were spoiled rotten with a puppy to play with and vegetables to pick… Thank you so much to Mr. and Mrs. Speltz for the veggies, especially the hand chosen pumpkins! And Renee for the trip!

We got a few green pumpkins that Trinity has guessed with take TWENTY days to turn orange (I am rather certain it will be more than that but what a fun experiment!).

Copious amounts of carrots has us ready to make freezer carrots and enjoy the fresh veg on an everyday basis.

Later in the day Trinity and I walked down the street to a local garage sale. I love it when they are in the neighbourhood.

We ended our week with a birthday cheesecake for Baba and a group of worn out dirty kids. Showers all round and bed! What a week!

 Enjoy the extra images!

August 5-7

With the ending of our epic Wisconsin (almost cow free) road trip our visit with Karyn was also drawing to a close. It is always hard to say good bye to visitors doubly hard when it is a dear aunty. So on the 5th we snuck out, just Karyn, myself and MISS TRINITY for some girly shopping time. Just the normal stuff… Joann’s, the mall, Caribou…

I have to say Trinity is a fun shopper. She and Karyn picked out a special book for her to bring home and read. It was our last chance of true visiting time before we had to see her off and it was so much fun!

The next day it was time to see off Aunty Karyn as Ken drove her to the airport.We were all a little downhearted at this point.

Though the kids snuck off with Ken to the Home Depot monthly craft first. We have missed ONE in the past couple years!

We did have some fun mail to balance off our sad good bye. I had won a draw on Facebook for some nails. I need to find a moment to sit down and work out how to apply them! Thanks Heather!

We also had a lovely package of Canadian snacks for the shark slippers I had made and mailed off. I made sure to request a bag of ketchup chips for the kids. A once in a while special treat.

OH and another exchange… baby booties and socks for Canadian school supplies… favourite scribblers with the familiar map of Canada on the front and duotangs… folders with prongs. A family favourite. Thank you so much Tammie! I hope you enjoy the crochet bits.

On Sunday we had our first day of Sunday school for ALL of the kids! I was so proud of Echo. She went off willingly with her siblings to the music and then onto class. She is growing up so quickly! The twins have a good friend in their class and were very excited to see him for the first time since VBS.

In the afternoon we were off to Shandai and Ravyn’s for a special belated(VERY)Christmas celebration. They have such a nice home to visit at. Though we do have to keep a but of an eye on the kids. We had so much fun… playing in the backyard (which is gorgeous), watching a Disney flick in the basement and playing with the cats.

We had a delicious dinner and then opened presents. It was so gratifying to see how much Shandai liked her crocheted items. She is such an amazing artist that I love that I can make her something she would enjoy!

So we made up for our sad with a rather busy series of happy times. We miss you Karyn!!! Thank you so much for visiting.