August 13th is a very special day for our family. The baby of the group is officially FOUR! And still not on a Friday. We had already had a mini party with Chris and Renee and their family but today was THE DAY. So we dropped everything to do a wee bit of celebrating. Echo got to wear her new birthday dress (her gift from Mommy and Daddy this year that she helped to choose). Grandma and Grandpa Mike called for their birthday call and we went over to the local library branch where they had a beautiful flower display.

Then over to the park where Echo opted to open her gifts from Gammie and Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie. It was a special request… gifts opened ON the actual birthday. Who are we to deny such a reasonable request?

She was in love with ALL of them and not the least bit upset to not get the chance to run the park. Instead she walked the babies, tried on the backpack and checked out her new book.

With a run to the grocery for park snacks it was back to the house in time to open the gift from Aunty Faithe, Uncle Joe, Gabbi and Zachary mailed from Florida… Barbie movies!

Light lunch and we packed back up for Andrew’s Park complete with splash area and all! And best of all… Darcy and all 4 boys (though Anthony came and went).

Aidan with his belated (way) birthday present… I made him a soccer ball, he just happened to be wearing his jersey!

We had a blanket for the adults set between the wet and dry areas, a container of snacks and birthday CUPCAKES! We were set for hours and happy as clams.

Ken in my new hat

In and out of the water… up and down the park stuff.

Echo opened her very special gift from the Novaks complete with a mustache and TWO special teddies from Alex’s personal collection. She LOVED it all!

The kids seriously INHALED the cupcakes…

And of course splashed their hearts out…

Anthony’s dramatic hair dry

It was an amazing afternoon and the company could not have been more fun or entertaining.

We came home to a strawberry twinkie “cake” for miss Echo to blow the candles out of in front of Nana and Baba.

And topped the evening with Daddy building Echo’s special gift from Aunty Holly and family which she and Trinity combined their ponies and sets and smiled until bedtime!!!

So thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and those mentioned above for today’s gifts… our baby is growing up so quickly!

Of course I cannot resist sharing the very first holiday I have EVER spent girls only! I think we did a rather good job making memories and friends to remember. We were invited to a family and friends bbq by the mother of the bride from the wedding in June (her daughters are Renee – Chris’s wife and Karen – Cory’s new bride). Renee was a total sweetheart and though she had to miss it for a family reunion (Chris’ side) she helped coordinate our ride – Cory picked us up after work and drove the van so I didn’t have to show my ineptitude at moving Echo’s carseat to a new vehicle! YAY!

But first… Ken had slept the night here with his evening appointments and left in the morning… AFTER helping fill the pool with air and taking out the garbage of course! While he was doing that and collecting any last minute necessities of course we had to bring out the American flag garland and our thematically perfect red, white and blue paperchain for some very adorable July 4th pictures. Sadly you cannot see in the picture but I am also wearing a USA themed tank top I picked up at Walmart (oops…).

After the pictures it was time for the first of our special treats – ding-dongs.

We did a quick with Daddy photo before hugs and good byes and then the fun REALLY began!

All girls all day… so we… made sticker pictures with July 4th ants picnic stickers…

Watched the original My Little Pony videos (and then moved onto MOST of Mastermind the movie)…

We ALL coloured pictures… I got them through a subscription to the site Little Learning Lovies (here) as a freebie for subscribing.

Then after lunch in the sunroom of buns and apple slices we did a wee bit of our mail schoolwork… Trinity is determined to learn to tell time to receive the reward Gammie has promised her and Echo likes nothing better than doing her worksheets.

Around 3:30 Cory collected us and the van and it was time to head to the party.

We got there at the perfect time. The family we met at the groom’s dinner who have 3 girls right around our’s ages were in the pool with their mom so the girls got changed too and hopped in to play.

There was a playset to play on…

A hill to dare devil drive down (which they ALL did successfully)…

And a delicious picnic dinner that included fruit and various salads and AMAZING chicken drumsticks all topped off with chocolate cake. Trinity cleaned her plate perfectly I was so proud!

After dinner was s’mores… Echo let me have a few bites of hers. More visiting… and then…

Cory

SPARKLERS AND FIREWORKS!

Cory and Echo hanging out together

Karen

A new little girl – Chloe

This is Trinity with a sparkler and the camera set on Fireworks!

We did not make it home until almost 11 o’clock. We had an amazing day, met tons of new people and played and ran and honestly had our best 4th of July yet (ok it IS our second but it was grand!).

November 4-6

One day and counting until Aunty Karyn gets here. What to do what to do??? Well not only is Aunty Karyn visiting and fall here to stay BUT it is also the month of American Thanksgiving so it was surely time to be… Thankful!

It was time to look at our Australia unit thanks to Little Passports. I got some books from the library and hunted down a few printables. I have a blog entry just with our resources from that short mini unit HERE. They even included a fun scratch card craft.

We drew up some “what if” stories about what sort of amazing and impossible adventures we could get up to with Aunty Karyn if we could do ANYTHING we could. Of course we photocopied the twins and took pictures of the littles to be able to give the originals to Karyn.

With visit imminent it was simply time to  get the house under control, tidy up and do our regular homeschooling bits and go to bed with the knowledge that by the afternoon on the 5th we will be up the EIGHT people in the house!!

Talk about excitement when we got Karyn home! Baba and I went to the airport to collect her. Her flights was delayed (of course) but we managed to meet up quite easily. Thus begins a week of fun with Aunty Karyn and a time of low school work levels but high levels of fun! I love how we all congregate around our electronics… here the girls were watching My Little Pony.

This quickly morphed into EVERYONE watching Aunty Karyn’s iPad!

Our first FULL day with Aunty Karyn started with stories and reading in the livingroom.

Then running out (for the kids) to enjoy the very first and VERY minor snow fall.

Trinity had special time with her God Mommy and got her hair braided.

And in the afternoon there was time for boardgames!

That evening we had a rather major Echo milestone – her very first big girl bed!!!! Of course she came out MULTIPLE times that night but definitely a success!!!

Trinity’s old bed

A handmedown from cousin Zachary!

Of course the girls had to end their day with some Aunty Karyn time…

And we still have DAYS to go!!!!