The weather has changed and this time it is definitely for the BETTER. With the temperature topping off at over 0 Celsius the kids were overjoyed to spend most of their late afternoon in the backyard which is full of packed down snow.

Sunshine, snow and warm weather!

Perfect for a mini sledding hill!!

Mini sledding hill

This gave Ken and myself the opportunity to attempt (notice I said ATTEMPT) some pictures of Echo in the snow in the FRONT yard… she really was having nothing to do with it so our best image is one from the BACK.

The best shot!

Today was the first day of our Math Week, and I think a success. We started off with some dice games – Balloons and Mountain. They have in turn taught Daddy how to play Mountain. Tomorrow Gavin is going to teach Emanuel to play Balloons.

Teaching Daddy

We then moved to colour by numbers where you have to do addition equations to find out what colours to use. This had them reading their own colour words for the most part (YAY). And best of all – dinosaurs! Those finished we worked on our Math workbooks. Mid week the plan is to play with our cash register and see if we can work on recognizing money.

Our Math Week supplies... well some of them

The wish to sew more bears has continued over the weekend, so I started Zander on another bear and have hunted down a bunny pattern for Gavin. After all, if they want to sew I am more than willing to work with them on that!

And now for the pictures… way later than I had originally planned, but here are the new 7yr photos of the twins to pick the best of the best out of! So please email, comment here, etc etc which you think is the best to put on the wall as an 8X10!!

A

B

C

D

E

F

Fat Sheep has continued to blog, add photos and of course expand the bucket list! You can follow her HERE or add her on Twitter (phatsheepette).

Modelling one of MY tutus!

Last night I took a little crafting time for myself and finished my last few printed out photos!

Trinity's

Echo's - note BOTH have Hello Kitty die cut pieces

So life is busy busy here, we are hoping to meet baby Izaac tomorrow, the immunization replacement appointment is maintaining an illusive status, and I have a  thousand unfinished things rushing through my mind. The short list is still intensely long – there is the lucky stars I have yet to fold for girls unnamed, my stepsister’s wedding present, helping Chris and Chris with their August wedding, packing, embellishing an old dress for Trinity… and that is not even the whole short list! ACK!

She has been in a pretty good mood the past few days!

This Sunday we did something we don’t usually do – we ALL went to church. It can be very wearing to keep Trinity active and Echo calm during a full service, with the boys all in Sunday School, but we managed. We have a toy bag all packed up and ready for events like this and I have taken to packing a bowl of Echo’s rice cereal with water to mix it and a spoon so everyone was happy.

Mmm sippy

After Sunday School ended and we collected everyone up, spoke to the minster and got complimented on various children we packed everyone BACK up and headed over to the conservatory. There was a drop in program celebrating spring… and the 60’s of all things!

The whole family

Just the girls

The tulips are not quite in bloom yet so I am so glad we have our pass for a little longer. By the end of the month we plan on visiting with our crayons and papers and do our final drawings of flowers. What better a model then a sea of tulips??

At the water feature

There was an area in the feature pyramid with noise makers that Emanuel especially found fun, he had a lot of one with one of the volunteers. They were all so wonderful there.

Hanging with the volunteer

Echo got serenaded – You are My Sunshine by a sweet lady as well! She laughed at the music and perked right up!

Are You My Sunshine?

I finished the Dr. Who cross stitch pattern today! I am hoping to get it up for free dowload here before too long (along with my Dr. Who bow tie one). In fact, I am hoping we can start posting our patterns again… if Ken doesn’t get too busy with work! I am rather proud of this one!

All done!

On the topic of crafts – there were TWO at the conservatory today. First was beading necklaces or bracelets. Trinity really took to that one and wanted to do it all on her own!

Beading necklaces

The other was using bingo daubers to make headbands. Gavin took his time on that one and had an absolute crafty blast!

Making headbands

It was a great way to spend a Sunday. And now tomorrow we begin Math Week. I am hoping we can have as much fun with it as we did Reading Week (I am still getting requests for another Reading Week). I actually found a gem while packing last night – an absolute favourite of mine and a must buy for every little girl in your life – The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. The princess has her prince kidnapped by a dragon and in the end… she tells him off (the prince that is – and he deserves it!)!! Seriously, get your hands on it and give it a read!

Awesome book!

We took some lovely pictures of the twins today and tomorrow I will post the best to have the voting done so check back! In the meantime Fat Sheep has started her blog!! Check it out HERE. And of course, you can follow her on Twitter – Phatsheepette.

Miss T

Today our kitchen was a definite casualty against the mighty Lego, I was feeling a teeny bit under the weather and Ken had work to do so a major Lego party took over our kitchen covering not only the kids’ table but a nice portion of the floor. We actually have a big Rubbermaid tub of Lego downstairs and a half sized one up here full of what they got for Christmas this past year and a box of Legos Ken got was back when we were first together. Legos always feel so…. educational what with all the work they do on a project – counting, colour co-ordination, use of imagination… structural integrity has become a major issue… the list goes on! I am so appreciative that my college friend Kathy gave us all her (and her brother’s) old Lego… the kid still talk about how wonderful she is!

Lego table

Today was Zander’s day really for crafting with Mommy. I don’t know if everyone remembers our last trip to the Reuse Centre. But you can read about it here. Some of the objects we brought home were for the assembly of a teddy bear for Echo. He picked the purple cloth because it is our colour for Echo and found stuffing for the inside. We used this template. I think a felt or fleece would have worked better but Zander was set on his more satin material. Ken cut it out for us and I started the threads and tied them off as needed but almost ALL of the stitching was done by him with minimum amounts having to be taken out and redone.

Echo supervising the sewing

He was so proud (as am I). It is exciting to be able to share one of my passions, though he is not up to cross stitch yet. We may just have to make some more teddies.

Completed Teddy

Last night the boys had a sleepover in the clubhouse we built for Emanuel in his bedroom (he was well enough behaved to have it after taking a proper nap). There was not a lot of room between the bed and the bookshelf but they contrived to fit all 3 boys in there. Snug and sound asleep.

Asleep

I have finished all the stitching on my newest Dr. Who piece and am starting on the backstitching tonight. The difference should be quite marked. I am looking forward to the finished product.

Waiting on backstitch

We are trying something two of my Facebook friend suggested with the Cricut sheets that are no longer sticky. Instead of buying more we drug out our spray on adhesive (that we bought for a reason we can no longer remember), sprayed it on them and let them sit… now they are sticky again! And the paper is removable. I will have to see if we have to reapply but I have already suggested Karyn bring more of her used sheets to be done the same way. What a money saving idea! So I am back in business and have cut out more Kitties, and other Kitty related items.

Tomorrow is Echo’s 6 months shots (twice rescheduled). I have convinced Ken to take her in cloth diapers (by way of having run out of disposables but still). I am still VERY nervous BUT she is eating like a trooper. 3 meals a day and yesterday we made her up fresh sweet potato purée. It was actually quite yummy. I still want to try avocado but have no clue how to go about picking one!

Sweet potato

Ken trimmed the twins’ hair today and will finish up tomorrow so I can FINALLY do up their yearly photos. The timing is actually good as we are going to the conservatory on the weekend for a drop in program (Sunday) so not only will they be in nice clothes but at a pretty place. So fingers crossed I can get something great to put on our wall.

Tonight I will be cutting more shapes, cross stitching and hopefully tidying as much as I can. I already sorted through all the outgrown clothes Trinity has passed down and have a massive back to hand along to Nathan and Ada for little Anna. I don’t want to move anything we aren’t going to need or use. Now we just have to figure out when they can come by and get it all!

Baby in shadow