Tag Archive | Michaels

Ending the Week

For all resource links please check out the entry “Saint Patrick’s Day Resources“.

March 8-9

We started our day with slightly successful spelling tests and then jumped right into a chapter in our book and a video of Ireland!

Of course we had our St. Patrick’s Day book… St. Patrick’s Day by Anne Rockwell.

Zander and our poster item

We made THREE birthday cards using thumb prints. I think they turned out creatively cute… especially since the boys made critters instead of people!

Happy Birthday March peoples

I finished up a hat for Echo, I had to add a few rows to it and changed from a HDC to a DC but I am very pleased! It is just waiting on the yarn around the top of the brim… I have to measure out 7 lengths of the pink. You can find the pattern I used and altered HERE.

The hat

We had to run out and get my yarn to begin my big project. Coupons in hand of course… it is harder now to get out to JoAnn’s as we do not live overly close to one like we do Michaels but there is not the yarn I like at Michaels…

On our way out

We are having fun at home… and I have kept busy with baby projects. I cannot wait to measure up little Lily and make her some more pieces now that she is here and cuddle ready!

This onesie gave me a real giggle

Sadly the 9th went pear shaped with a rough night for baby and mom… no visit for me. BUT I did get in a nap, some quality bath time and booted at least some of the kids out the door for fun in the snow. Oh and the chance to sit and photograph Echo all dressed up! She is in a pretty dress phase. Enjoy!

In her boots of course

Little darling

Enjoying the flowers

This entry was posted on 11/03/2013, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Ending our Seuss Themed Learning Week

For all our Dr. Seuss resources check out the blog entry: Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

March 1-3

Well, it has been 5 days of reading and learning with a Seuss theme… so what book did we end our focus on? Why Horton Hears a Who! Oh and I read them all Fox in Socks… next year it is KEN’s turn to do the tongue twisters. The kids got a laugh and a half out of it though so it was all worth it. We had Horton themed worksheets AND general Dr. Seuss themed ones to complete…

And then there was our quick run out to Michaels to get the beginnings of my Saint Patrick’s day necessities… the next big colour specific holiday (hmmm green paper chain anyone? An awesome way for the little ones to work with the big ones on patterns and careful stapler usage). And the folders we needed from Walmart so we could jump right in on assembly of our Dr. Seuss folders. I decided to go folders instead of binders and such just because of the bulk of our work being worksheets. A little different from a binder but the right colours for our theme. I love how each of the kids did a different colour scheme on their Cat in the Hat hat for the cover.

Absolutely Seussian

Adding to the Dr. Seuss party excitement is the fact that QUINN and Uncle STEVEN are coming too! A party is always more fun with a guest right? We brought out the Dr. Seuss felt board set that I got on clearance this past summer. The twins did up math equations for each other.

I am so in love with felt boards… I need to find an affordable large one for us!

I had to take advantage of a crochet link my cousin Veronika linked me and make a crown for Trinity! It was a super quick stitch… though I noticed AFTER that that she had an IMPROVED pattern for the princess crown… so guess what is next? Of course Echo wants one and there is baby Lily to Be who needs an Easter gift…

Pretty in pink

What do for lunch when you don’t have a strict plan? Ask the children… CEREAL!!!

Yum

We had a good and strong ending to our Dr. Seuss week! Which leads me to Saturday and our PARTY!!! Of course there are certain elements you MUST have to have a good party… decorations.. check (in themed colours), guests (Quinn and Steven)… check, and FOOD! Now we had a selection… One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish goldfish AND blue water jello with some fish as well (gummies), Cat in the Hat themed fruit (we had no skewers so I just lay them on the plate), marshmallows (because in The Lorax the movie he threw them to the animals), and Truffula trees made out of cotton candy and pretzels in chocolate cupcakes. We tried a drink but it didn’t really work quite right but we ate the fruit anyway after.

Our party set up

Most of the spread… less the eggs and ham

I wish that we had had all our colour toners… but they were readable

Trees!

But before all that was the morning errands… the twins and Ken had much needed hair cuts… then to Home Depot for the wood craft – making little cars and racing them… and then stopping at the library to drop off books and pick up my movie. Ken also had to grab some last minute supplies because for supper we had… GREEN eggs (well Ken tried) and ham.

The eggs took the colour way too easily

Our test subject with his new haircut

We had a change in plan early in the day and it went from a party to a party AND a sleepover! Talk about excitement!

Party time!

Cotton candy for the win

One Fish Two Fish RAINBOW Fish

The guys got in their boys time, but I simply could not pull off my visit. Lily to Be made sure her Mommy stayed home.

So it was just me and my little princesses

Guys at play

The kids’ version of gaming – Skylanders

They ended the day with Horton Hears a Who!

Movie time

Trinity and Quinn are officially best friends and bummed together all Saturday and then again on Sunday morning.

Racing cars

Best buddies

Sunday, after we said good bye to Steven and Quinn the Dr. Seuss fun continued with a visit to the Novak’s with our Truffula tree CAKE. Anthony helped me with the assembly.

Our cake

We had a great time just hanging out while the kids ran and played.

Snoopy!

On the iPad together

Supper was chaotic and busy and totally yummy.

Anthony, Zander and Andrew

The rest

Ken and Andy worked together to repair the family laptop.

Hanging with the babies

Which somehow morphed into Minecraft???

We played so hard that Echo passed out on the couch! Sign of a day well played.

Played out

After Dr. Seuss is all up and done I will have to post my best of Anthony pictures… he seems to have gotten the hang of my camera very quickly and took quite a few wonderful pictures! I will post one here and then… well the entry will make it up in short order!

Incidentally also the only picture of Darcy… and there is Ken working on the laptop! I love the soft colour the no flash gives.

I got my playdate in after all! I am going to leave you with a wonderful quote from Dr. Seuss thanks to Cori, a Facebook friend.

Dr. Seuss

This entry was posted on 05/03/2013, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Enter the Platypus…

FOR PLATYPUS RESOURCES PLEASE GO TO “PLATYPUS IN DEPTH

February 19-20

Of all the creatures out there the kids chose the Platypus to learn about… This rather unusual and unique mammal has been on their minds for some time. Actually since their first viewing a the children’s show Phineas and Ferb with its spy/pet character Perry the Platypus. With my still getting over a rather nasty head cold we didn’t dive right into our library books BUT we did discuss what knowledge we already had – regarding the platypus AND Perry. There had been a brief post episode chat about the platypus on Wild Kratts too, the boys told me about it. So I was rather impressed as to what facts they could come up with!

Zander’s “real” platypus and Perry as a spy out of Lego

Gavin’s Perry the pet and Perry the spy (note the hat)

Of course you and I know that P is for Platypus, but did you know that platypus can be rainbow coloured? Trinity assured me that it is very possible!

P is for Platypus!

We will be posting an entire blog that stands alone with all of our platypus links and resources. While I really am not the person to be creating a lapbook etc myself I love being able to collect and share all the items we combine together to supplement the lapbooks etc others have come up with. Like I did with the Chinese New Year poster I plan on doing so with the rest of our unit studies. Emanuel has requested PENGUIN after we are done the platypus and, also to look forward to, we are covering St. Patrick’s Day (poster) and Dr. Seuss’ birthday (mini folders) on March 2.

The boys with their tracks and the animals that make them

Zander and his Platypus with moving legs (not sure about the crazy smile, I think he just likes making faces!)

Emanuel and his Australian colouring page

Today Emanuel and Trinity watched Dinosaur Train on the laptop and then drew me up two meteor showers! Very pretty! I am looking forward to being able to read to them and get to the real story time and dinosaur fun!

Meteors

Of course Echo had to make her mark on our day… first with a mess, then dancing and then… pouting… she is talented!

Turn your back for a minute…

Boogie baby

/pout pout

Wednesday had us reading our first platypus book – Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras. We discussed where Australia is in comparison to where we are in North America. I have a tiny globe I picked up for a dollar or so from Michaels that worked to show them where we are, Australia is, where China is and of course where Aunty Esther and Uncle Ted are from… oh and where Nana and Baba are right now! I really want to invest in a good globe eventually. They tend to run rather expensive for the fancier ones with stands but I think it would be a great investment.

Sorry about the flash, but the link above will take you to purchase or has the info for you to find the book at your local library

We are starting to touch on St. Patrick’s Day a little too, just colouring pages and word searches but it is always fun to start thinking about it now. It think this is going to be a rather impressive poster, heavy on the green and gold!

St Patrick’s Day themed math problems

There was a new Wild Kratts to enjoy – we learned all about termites this time! I love how excited the kids get about each episode.

Termites

Gavin spent some time on his sewing. We are trying to get back on track with that. I love sitting together working on our crafts!

Stitching away

So we are not the most exciting of people to read about this week BUT we did learn a lot about the platypus! And thanks to the existence of Facebook I was able to share an image a friend posted of the most adorable baby platypuses! A combination of iPad, Facebook and absolute cuteness! I promise much more in the way of platypus knowledge and more interesting endeavors as this cold subsides and we move onto all the other interesting schooling items we have planned so check back!

Awwwwww