Tag Archive | mini golf

The Appearance of April

April holds Trinity’s birthday. And spring. Both worth celebrating. Don’t forget Easter and sunshine and Grandma’s visit. Wow was April ever a fun one! AND a lot of it you already know… Click on the words above that will bring you to each event.

Easter display at church

Easter display at church

Trinity had her first Communion class.IMAG0927

We had a super special opportunity to try out a local put put golf place that was closing down after decades of service. Renee and Christopher had gone there, and I think Ken as a child. So it was a fun way to get our kids in on something they remembered. Even though it was rather cold. 20170429_150716

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Renee lining up her shot.

Renee lining up her shot.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey

We went from the golf course to a soda shop. Not just any soda shop: Blue Sun Soda & Sweets where Renee spoiled the kids with letting them chose one soda each!!20170429_162502

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CLEARLY CANADIAN!!!

CLEARLY CANADIAN!!!

And then time to hang out at the Schwartz’s. With Mystro and all!IMG_20170429_205159_040

With their sodas!

With their sodas!

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We have been trying really hard to make Friday night a weekly date night for Ken and myself. Not only to get out for a nice and quiet meal, but to spend quality time on us. This is AFTER my Friday night workout class, so it has been fun to work really hard and then shower and come out pretty and ready for fun.IMG_20170428_223514_550

Ready for class

Ready for class

Noms!

Noms!

We have taken full advantage of our time at the YMCA as usual.IMG_20170424_230042_248

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IMG_20170401_165706_816And continued our trend of watching our godson kick butt in soccer on weekends.IMG_20170422_222724_464

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20170422_200702Trinity has been playing with her camera, and other lovely gifts.DSC00090

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April has been a regular month of school, of course. With lots of completions to celebrate. IMG_20170427_110709_315

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By Echo

By Echo

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Aimee (fellow homeschool mom) and I made it out to a major textile garage sale and found some gems.IMG_20170422_174400_404
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We rode bikes and visited the local park.IMG_20170425_144820_302
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Found some early spring flowers.20170425_134545
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Of course I snuck in some crafty time.IMG_20170424_230135_558
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Crafting in the sunshine

Crafting in the sunshine

A good and busy month.

Putting a state study together (Gavin)

Putting a state study together (Gavin)

A new tack board!

A new tack board!

Grocery shopping!

Grocery shopping!

Learning in the sunroom

Learning in the sunroom

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Another view of the crew

Another view of the crew

Trinity Birthday EXPANDED

April 26

So I wished our biggest little girl a happy 5th on the day of her birthday with a quick single picture entry, now it is time to share in the day properly. Of course being as the 26th was a Friday we did have to do the usual spelling, printing practice, etc… But once that was done it was time to enjoy the day with Trinity for EVERYONE!

We started with pictures of the birthday girl who chose to have herself and her sister dress up in matching dresses that had been purchased last year. At first Echo was VERY against sharing the spotlight and actually shoved the birthday girl out of frame!!!

Happy Birthday Trinity

In their matching dresses

From the back

After enough pictures were taken to make Mommy happy and the girls adamant  that they were done we packed up the boys and girls and headed to Walmart for the next phase of Trinity’s birthday DAY. Ken had taken on an extra project the days before and worked long hours so that he could have the whole day off! We were unable to purchase Piggy Paint like I had hoped to as the Walmart near us was not one of the ones that carried it but instead each of the girls picked out a colour of their liking from a fast dry line. Trinity waffled between a fire engine red and the purple we purchased while Echo swooped in and grabbed her new word of the day off the shelf – BLUE!

After purchasing was lunch, and what better lunch for a 5 yr old and her siblings than ICE CREAM! We took everyone to Dairy Queen and everyone had their own treat… no one was hungry after that!!!!

Birthday’s girl’s choice

LUNCH

Then it was back to the house for the painting of the nails. Both Echo and Trinity did amazing. And yours truly alternated both colours to match BOTH kids.

Girly nail time

PRETTY

With my nails

Supper was Nana and Baba’s choice as Ken and I had a double date with Cory and his fiance (congrats you two!!) Karen. I am told they did desert before dinner with giant chocolate muffins and then hotdogs… popcorn to round it off and movies.

We also had a surprise mailing! Our ant farm ants arrived… tubed ants with food… it was unnerving opening up the package to find LIVE ants (no queen). So of course we HAD TO take time out of our day and assemble the farm. Leaving the ants in the tube for too long could have killed them after all!

Assembly

ANTS

So our birthday girl was well pleased and ready for the next phase of Trinity celebration – afternoon and evening at the Novak’s. But first… the double date! We decided to go to Mall of America (more food options) and start our fun at the mini golf. I came in an unsurprising LAST, and Ken, of course, came in first with Cory and Karen tied.

Ready to golf

Karen

Cory

Me!

Karen and I could not stop giggling that the guys would go THIS far to check out MINI golf holes.

So we really had a terrific 26th of April!!! Trinity is 5, we had our first double date in AGES… our ant farm project is started. Ken having the day off made all the difference in the world. I will include some of the spill over from today in another entry immediately after this one… birthdates make me photo happy!

Birthday girl and all of her siblings

Two Adventures in Two Days

Let’s make our way to the weekend! The weather has been pretty predictable in its sunny wonderful-ness this week. The kids have LOVED it, the dog has LOVED it… I have to admit I have loved it too! We worked it out in advance so that Ken got enough work done to take his morning slow and we (as a family no less!) scratched ANOTHER thing off our list. Visiting Grandma’s work while she is there! And with the lovely weather how better to enjoy the event than to go for a family walk there, once we covered our Trinity’s blisters with bandaids, packed up the baby’s necessities and convinced the boys that walking WAS much better than the van. 

Walking together

We made good time and brought Grandma a bottle of water, as we all know hydration is VERY important. We met some of her co-workers, played with some toys and made two important purchases. As this is the weekend of Jaywalkers everything was 50% off so I got Echo a booster chair for 1.50 to take to Kathy’s when we pet sit (oh and for her to play with as it is officially her new favourite seat).

A chair AND the Tupperware cupboard

Ken picked out a boardgame. The main reason? It is still in the shrink wrap with a copyright date of 1974! So here’s hoping it is an interesting game! At least it is a good conversation piece for a piddly 2.50!

New game

On the way back Trinity’s feet started hurting again so she got a ride from Daddy. She is so nervous about heights that it took a little time to calm down and get comfortable with it. 

Best view

That got us home in time for lunch and schooling. Of course we had to do our page for the books… they are getting quite full of all sorts of adventures!

Gavin working on his library book

The twins each took some time in the afternoon to help me out with my craft sale items. Each of the boys has made their own duct tape change purse to sell for 4.00 like mine. They picked their own colours and Gavin even took the time with a messed up piece to draw and cut out a duck to embellish his. 

Gavin with duck

The inside on Zander's is silver

There is a measly 1 week left until the craft sale! I am going to link the event HERE so please, if you are in the area on the 9th, come by, buy something however small and help out a great cause. 10% of ALL my sales for the day go to the charity and I am also donating a doorprize. My  table SHOULD have the sign It’s a Hoot and Friends on it (gotta get that done yet!). I am personally selling owls, bows, duct tape items and some headbands. I will post some teaser images later this week as well as this link again and again! So check back! 

So many owls

Anyway after Grandma got done work and we had supper there was some kid and Grandma quality time while Ken and I ran out to get groceries. Some alone time for us and some nail polish time with Grandma. Echo’s first time! She got sparkly stuff and Trinity some gold. Zander had his done as well though we removed that Saturday as we have a special Sunday planned. I am just so glad they are getting some fun time with family in. We hadn’t visited in quite some time and we need to take advantage of this and have new memories and adventures made. 

Echo and her fancy nails

With Grandpa gone to the city for a conference it was bed time and then JAYWALKERS… yup two items in two days! Jaywalkers is an event where the downtown is blocked off from vehicular traffic. Instead booths are put up, carnival games and rides… there was snacks, shopping and even a 4-H booth with some animals! 

Checking out the animals

Bunnies

Echo in her seat

We tried to win free passes for the mini golf/petting zoo/corn maze just outside of town. All 4 kids tried and failed to make the shot but she gave us a pass anyway… after all there is still the REST of the family to pay for! The kids had a blast trying though! Each with a different coloured set of balls. 

Mini golf

And then we paid 2.00 for 6 balls to try bowling for 1,000.00. Ken came rather close but we did not win. It was fun though!! Each of the boys took a turn. 

Bowling

Next came the two things Ken and I absolutely LOVE about Jaywalkers – mini donuts AND lemonade (we tried the cherry version, I still prefer the original). Yummy, though the prices had gone up! Of course it would not be an outing without an injury. On the way back to the van Gavin wasn’t listening and climbed on some cement parking blocks, slipped and biffed it big time! Both knees VERY scratched up. So we cleaned him up as best we could with what we had in the van and after a brief stop off to pick up a medium sized diaper cover (yup I love SPRINKLES). took him home to clean and bandage properly. He did a professional job of scuffing himself up royally! 

OUCH

With Ken’s help, I spent some time making Echo a miniature version of Trinity’s purse… 4 inches long and with a shorter strap. She is very pleased and I was able to just use bits from all of my remaining rolls!

Echo's purse

We had a surprise visit from Tammy and her girls while the kids watched a movie from the Library and I got in some visiting time. She brought some of her older pieces of dressier clothing that she no longer needed/could wear for me to try on later and some company on an afternoon that went from sunny to drizzly rather quickly. 

Supper was homemade hamburger courtesy of Ken and then the kids played  games with mom while I got in some chatty time with Ken. I think we are starting to really feel on the same page on more and more things. I am hoping he can get a few more minutes here and there to homeschool with us in the near future as well. Though I do think we are doing rather well. I would love to do more in-depth things and hope to find some ways to get back into the crafting, math and sciences in a way that actually brings in the boys’ interest willingly. As it is I hope to get started on the United States on Monday. I have a few books from the library to use, and a couple files printed out from my resources. Sunday night I hope to do some more searching. Any suggestions are welcome! We plan to spend the whole month on it! 

It was a great day for together time. And I snuck in another weather page as for the first time in forever the weather changed visibly through out the day. Tomorrow it is the dedication for the costumes mom made the church. I look forward to it, and the last day of Sunday School. I hope to see some local friends, pick up a few items at some stores not available here and maybe stop at a park or two. Gotta keep the adventures going and two more things on our list to cross off! That is without going over the information the Information Center gave me about some local things. There is a great aboriginal event towards the end of the month and I know the library has advertising about a Father’s Day event that includes pictures on a fire truck! 

So my attempt to stay positive and do the day as the day standing alone worked rather well… the evening not so much but you know what? That sometimes gives way to talks that do help… I still have plans to make paper… just need a blender no one cares about, a screen and some paper to shred. Everything is doable if you keep your heart and mind set upon the path. 

A big sister being a big help