Tag Archive | New Year

Beginning 2016 Blog Posts…

BEFORE 2017… Go figure! And wow does that sound EVEN WORSE when I say it out loud! Anyway, after December comes January and more winter fun. The end of Karyn’s holiday visit. The continuing of homeschooling and the start of our Chinese New Year unit, because if there is one thing you can count on in OUR curriculum it is that we will somehow cover Chinese New Year. (this year it was a bigger focus on the country CHINA itself even! You can read and find resources for that HERE)DSCN1435[1]

But enough with the generalities… time to get with the specifics. We had our monthly trip to the Home Depot for the craft, of course.imag2103

Snow… sort of… the boys complained that this was a disappointing winter with its lack of huge snowfall. Amazing how the whole arctic cold of last winter has been long forgotten.img_20160114_212546

img_20160124_110406We had the cousins up from Florida for a bit of a holiday visit. DSCN1416[1]

DSCN1417[1]And said “see you soon” to Aunty Karyn – if you ask Trinity we should be her very first and most important destination for any and all holidays (and I cannot say I don’t disagree).DSCN1418[1]

imag2127imag2130Gavin finished a workbook…DSCN1421[1]

And we had all sorts of crafty moments.DSCN1430[1]

img_20160129_213343PLUS Ken helped us create our large map of China. Nothing is more fun than working together on something we will then showcase in our schoolroom.DSCN1432[1]

We even managed a visit to Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn’s to pet the kitties – well Echo, Ken and I did.DSCN1419[1]

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And had the Schwartz family over to play.img_20160118_182438

OH and swim lessons… cannot forget our amazing instructors at the YMCA. The twins are in swim crew!DSCN1429[1]

img_20160114_212520January kept us hopping and was full of visitors and fun. I love this reflecting back and reminding myself of how much joy there is in a passing month!DSCN1425[1]

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Christmas Countdown With the Novaks

December 20-22

Our last weekend before Christmas had us with one more day of “real” school. AND seeing that Saturday was the first day of winter, a return of more snow and some cooler temperatures.

In our Gammie packages there was a craft kit so how better to end the last full week before Christmas than to get to work making Santas? And when we ran out of beards… elves.101_5615

More books of course.101_5608

We greatly enjoyed our read by Gammie story!101_5616

And then Ken and Nana executed Trinity and my idea of a box puppet house. Activity Village (link on right) put up a previous Advent’s printable Christmas people pages and so we printed those out and put them on popsicle sticks for our puppets. Supplemented by any finger puppets we found laying around.101_5617

101_5619Ken had registered the kids for a special Christmas Home Depot craft – snowmen made out of paving stones. VERY cute!!!101_5618

20131221_114148Sunday was the last scheduled Sunday School session until after the New Year. Miss Trinity wore last year’s finery and looked absolutely adorable. Our family and only a handful more kids were there but they had a blast. And came home with chocolate for all.101_5623

101_5625101_5666We rounded off our morning with cookie making and decorating! So many sweets in the house right now!101_5626

101_5628There was a reason for the last minute icing. Our afternoon/evening Sunday was our Novak/Reinsch-Johnson Christmas gathering over at the Novak’s. Talk about excitement and chaos… it was PERFECT! We had supper and snacks (oh the variety of snacks including our cookies) and games and visiting. Definitely an amazing way to spend Christmas with friends who are so much more than just friends. Chosen family!101_5629

101_5631101_5636101_5643We were there super late and drove home in somewhat nasty weather with kids who were full of Christmas cheer and exhaustion. Now enjoy the rest of the party pictures!!!

Christmas colouring

Christmas colouring

More present opening

More present opening

Alex the musician

Alex the musician

DINNER

DINNER

Godson and I

Godson and I

Action hair

Action hair

Fishing for words

Fishing for words

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Hanging out

Hanging out

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A room of artists

A room of artists

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The first 3 were made by me, I am not sure where Aidan's is (I think he keeps it in his room) but I have cross stitched stockings for all the Novak boys.

The first 3 were made by me, I am not sure where Aidan’s is (I think he keeps it in his room) but I have cross stitched stockings for all the Novak boys.