June 3-5

We had some very exciting moments when the mail called for Echo to get a pair of scissors… one look at her smile and those child safety scissors in her hand and I sent Trinity and her long and seemingly TEMPTING hair in the opposite direction. Together we were somewhat successful.

With 4 scooters in the house and the hunt for a 5th ongoing the kids are really working together to share and teach EVERYONE how to ride them. I think we lucked out with the 3 wheel version I found Echo at a garage sale. Definitely a confidence builder for her so far!

We continued our week with a walk first thing in the morning to the nearest park. It was quite the walk, we had to avoid the usual walking path and bridge with all the rainfall… too many bugs and the water levels everywhere are so high it seemed smarter to walk the roads there. We spooked a bunny… they are all over the place this spring…

And then we played our hearts out at the park. It is so nice to go and have Echo able to handle herself pretty much solo now!

Super exciting… we managed to assemble our Texas binder! You can find our resource page HERE. I did not link all the books we used but have listed titles and authors. I am always amazed when we go to assemble at the actual AMOUNT of stuff we have completed to put into our books. This will definitely not be our only time visiting Texas as a topic but we certainly enjoyed our first experience.

We also had a run to the mall on Wednesday… errands coupled with education about water tables…

AND geocaching in the sunshine!! Ok maybe more playing in the sunshine but we did find at least one!

So much nature!

Echo decided to round off our day with officially starting our Canada overview. After all what is July 1st but CANADA DAY!

The weather so far has been so accommodating that on Thursday we were finally able to go to the rather well known Minnehaha Falls. The water level was SUPER high so we did not do the whole circuit. But we saw some amazing vantage points.

Got to enjoy the beautiful green everywhere while we Geocached…

And even dipped our feet CAREFULLY in the water. The current was amazingly strong all over the place and a portion of the river where you could normally wade rather far in really wasn’t overly safe.

But it was gorgeous!

After all that sunshine it was back home for another journal completed! Well done Trinity!

I love looking back at these days and portions of weeks and seeing just how much enjoyment we are taking from all aspects of our days! This is going to be a summer to remember.

Too many pictures for our Minnehaha/Valentine’s Day entry so here is the overflow!

SweetHEART

In order of age

So grown up (thanks for the dress Aunty Esther)

The next two pictures and video are all together… our Valentine Boogie Baby!

Baby got moves

And grooves

Back to the photos…

Hugs

Walking tall

Sleepy

And outfit #2

It was a beautiful day!

February 13-14

A VERY Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! We celebrated at home with a special meal etc. But first our Wednesday…

I have to say, Ken having Sean here and wanting to show him some of the beauty of Minnesota (even in the winter) has worked in our educational favour. He decided he wanted to take him up to the Minnehaha falls, but to take all of us would require two chairs. So… Ken and Sean took the 4 kids and I stayed home with the napping Echo to clean up some of the messes that had been bothering me around the house. I always feel so much more in control after cleaning and Echo was kind enough to let me clean up a few problem spots (aka our room). Of course then she was up and demanding BUBBLE GUPPIES (I am soooo tired of that show!).

Informative plaque

So much beauty

With Uncle Sean

More pictures of the falls to follow in a companion post!

Before all the outside excitement we had worksheets (Activity Village and Education.com) to finish – Valentine themed of course, books to read, spelling to practice… the usual.

We made our paper heart chain… And the twins made some white roses to add to our red (and chopstick) display. I do love a pretty centerpiece!

Making the paper chain (Gavin left)

So pretty

I love the roses! Thanks Art for Kids!

We made chicken with the meat rub I actually made up with Ken to give people for Christmas. You can find instructions for how to make it HERE. We made the Tandoori rub for Chicken. (the guys had the weekly gaming night)

YUM

I made a themed lunch for the kids  on Valentine’s Day- strawberry jello with cool whip, chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting, Fanta strawberry pop all with curried chicken on rice. Lots of pink and red on that table! Add in the kisses in the bowls (pink, red and white) and our festive decorations and I think we did good.

Festive!

Of course we took some pictures. Trinity had her pretty red dress thanks to Aunty Esther. Echo had TWO outfits, though her main was the new shirt I bought when out shopping with Bree on SALE! They both added in their dressy shoes and tap tap tapped their way around the house all smiles.

Dressed in pink and red

Showing some Valentine’s Day love

The second outfit

Watch for a future filler blog entry with the Valentines Day overflow!

Yours truly tried a new hairstyle – the milk maid braids thanks to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries… specifically the Jane Bennet Twitter feed. The instructions I used can be found HERE. Next time I need to wet down my hair more to facilitate easier braiding AND use some spray afterwards. BUT for a first try for someone who SUCKS at doing her OWN hair… not bad!!! I am just going to have to do it over and over again to perfect it!

Attempt 1

Together

I tried something different with one of the Easter cupcake bags… I am playing around with colours. After all Trinity AND Echo each already have a bag so a second bag has to be different. What do you think? I rather like the effect, almost like a vine around a flower.

I rather like these

I got my own little gift from Ken – a card and a container of chocolates. I gave Ken a card (made by me) and a little box of Jelly Bellys worth Valentine themed words on them.

Our dinner! And my gift!

We had a fun Valentine’s Day themed craft to do as well, we waited until Echo napped and brought out the paints to make Handprint Hearts. I love Activity Village and their easy to find themed areas.

In the paint

The hearts

So quite the enjoyable couple of days!

Echo obsessed with ATTEMPTING to remove Sean’s sock??