June 27-30

We ended our week with a chapter book finish. This time Zander was our proud reader.

We returned to our original park from Mother’s Day and our first go at geocaching (HERE). Sadly the sun was hotter than expected so it was not super long of a trek but we had a blast going to a different section of the park.

Tiny frog!

All the sunshine and heavy humidity spurred us on to get that pool back up and filled for the kids to splash in. We did pick up a portable air compressor… just a tiny one that needs to stay plugged in. But you really cannot blow these pools up without something like that!

Saturday started off quiet…

Ken was out at a guys only beer and gaming overnighter so we had to make do without his imput. Luckily Renee and her 3 boys got bored and stopped by. Jeffrey photo op! It is great to have a friend who is close enough to just drop by. Makes me a little less homesick for our old place and all the local friends and family who just dropped by.

Sunday was another at home day of course so we started with playing with animals on towels to make oceans and land…

Back out to the pool where all sorts of floating was attempted…

Creativity with garage sale find blocks!

Once Ken DID get back he, the boys and I all played Munchkin. Their being able to read has opened up so many new avenues of ways to spend quality time with them!

I think it was a great way to end a weekend! We had only ONE day until the real fun begins. Not only do we end June which has been a very interesting and rather busy month but we get to lead into celebrating TWO countries’ special days. But first… SCHOOL.

Cooperative block building play time…

And a craft that was perfectly themed for the first of our celebratory days – Red and white placemats made by weaving. You can find the instructions on Activity Village (on right) under their Canada Day section.

And then back into the front yard.

Trinity and I snuck in some time to make felt maple leaf hair things (again thanks to Activity Village). We have done similar ones for Christmas. Perfect to spruce up our red and white outfits!

Echo wore one as a broach for a while!

And that was that… time to enjoy being both Canadian AND American!

June 9-12

What to do on a Monday… a true summer holiday Monday? Well we went down to half days. At least we tried our best with a houseguest and the weather and the new knowledge for the boys that summer vacation really means VACATION grrrr. So to mix it up a bit I gave each of the kids a file folder to decorate. We will put their worksheets, colouring pages etc in there to get to when they want and when it is needed. Eventually I would love to have special boxes or drawers but until we have funds or space this is the go to measure for the year. If you notice Trinity wrote her name in the Chinese characters we have been practicing. I am still not set up to fully teach a second language but we are enjoying practicing our names and the numbers 1-5 (later to do 1-10). I got my numbers from the site Chinese-word.com HERE. The names are thanks to Aunty Xinny.

Echo and Trinity worked their pattern skills and helped me make our traditional thematic paper chains… this time in red and white for Canada Day. We definitely need a better stapler. The tiny one I have from MY school days is very hard for them to use and go through the papers safely but we managed.

I really quickly crocheted up a new object for our Geocaching trips. Thanks to CrochetSpot.com I got the instructions for making a water bottle holder. You can find these free instructions HERE. It is a quick stitch up and I used my favourite variegated Caron Simply Soft. I think I added a few rounds and of course reinforced my strap. I figure it frees up the boys’ hands when we need that bottle of water. Much safer for all the climbing about they do!

Seriously this year we have exchanged copious amounts of squirrels for bunnies this year! Everywhere hop hop hop. The kids are loving it, the greenery not so much. And every time there is one we HAVE TO take a picture !!!

Rabbits or not this did not stop the fun for the kids when Cousin Robbie showed up for a gaming evening. This brought our numbers up to 4. Ken and Sean were out when he got there which was perfect for the kids to get in their cousin play time (crucial if we want ANY alone game time!).

We played various games including my Christmas present – MUNCHKIN! Lots of fun!

And ended the evening in the basement with the PS3. It is great to have a family member who embraces gaming as much as we do! AND likes some of the games Ken likes and that I like as well!

On Tuesday Emanuel finished decorating his folder. We definitely had to bring out the sticker box. I am in need of adding to my stash finally!

We took some time to watch a Wild Kratts. The show is still being made which is AWESOME. I don’t think we will ever tire of making our mini posters. I have noticed the retention of information and the urgency to have me pause the show to write it down has increased.

Elf and Burrowing Owls

On Wednesday there was a garden to tend with Nana and Baba…

And Books to read through…

By Thursday things are getting busy busy. First Nana and Baba are working to get ready to fly out in the middle of the night with Joe and Faithe and the cousins for 10 days in Mexico. At the same time we have our half day of school and Sean’s last full day in Minnesota. Miss Echo is right in the thick of it with colouring sheets and her file folder. It is so wonderful to see her so interested in getting involved in our daily schooling though sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to keep her going and deal with the other 4! We are definitely learning to take our turns.

With the Pizza Hut summer reading program there is a dragon theme and one of the worksheets had the twins finding the different sorts of dragons in a wordsearch. We have printed a few of those out after hunting them down online and the kids are working on colouring them when they are interested. I love the time they are taking with these.

Back came the bunny as well… and rather persistently NOT scared of noises or anything from the sunroom. Not until the kids ran out to see it did it actually (and rather leisurely) hop away.

Since it was the last day for Sean we managed to finagle Nana and Baba as sitters and headed to Mall of America for dinner and some shopping. We had some amazing Japanese food and a fun run through the mall including my favourite stationary store Typo and an amazing hat store where Sean got himself a new hat for all the walking and jogging he does.

It was definitely an adventure… we hunted down the bubble tea shop, found out that the Sanrio store was gone AND had a flat tire in the best possible access parking spot. So I got to watch the guys put on a spare. Quite the entertaining experience and a further proof of how healthy Ken has begun… he was so calm and even able to joke about it!

And that was that… oh we did stay up super late to watch Hot Fuzz and hang out but Ken had to get up and drive to the airport and all that… A week that counted I really think! With a wedding coming up next!