I am firmly remind that as the months pass so the kids grow. Where did baby Echo go? And when did Trinity all of a sudden mature? Don’t even get me started in regards to the boys… seriously SLOW DOWN WORLD!

Anyway… April… Easter you can check out HERE with a brief foray into the images and simple day we had. Traditions upheld of course.

Hello Cookie meet your predecessor Fat Sheep and live in fear of the love of Echo!

Trinity’s birthday is ALSO in April… You can read more about her special moments HERE.

Of course we must draw attention to the slick hair cut Mr. Emanuel sported over April as well! His curls… all gone. Not sure if I should be sad or impressed at how mature he looks?

Miss Echo spent some of her April educating her Baba on all the current card shark techniques…

And spent plenty of time introducing Hugo Bear Dog (otherwise known as Bear Dog) to her teddies, her night time routine and her life in general.

We had nature walks in the lovely spring weather…

And made sure to make use of not only our playset in the backyard, but the sport equipment set Gammie gifted the kids. Once spring is here and light sweater weather is on… we just have to grab those moments and get outside!

We had a bit of a religious/faith landmark reached for the 3 boys as well… at this Lutheran church which is ELCIA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of American) instead of ELCIC (in Canada) they do first communion at an earlier age with a one night special class for the kids and parents. We got to make the bread for communion and learn about about the Jewish roots of the service. We then came to the Ash Wednesday service for Communion. It was an interesting class and I think the boys got something out of it. Still very different for me as all this was part of Confirmation growing up! I am still muddling through how I feel about these little and big changes in our faith system being in the States instead of Canada. 

We have continued out swimming lessons with great results. 

We have been having tea time as often as possible… tea, snacks and good books read together. anything increase our interest in reading right? 

Made kites and actually did a whole study on different kinds of kites and things as well as covered a few scout requirements in the making! HERE

April was my stash busting month… everything I made was made out of yarn I had on hand! Here are a few finished pieces!

We even snuck out and took just the boys out for Taco Bell! I think we did rather good with our April…

And now for the rest of our spring fun… scout activites, backyard fun… a wee bit of green and some dress up. Spring is sprung! 

Checking out the dishwasher with Baba

Batgirl in disguise… Mustache style.. thanks Alex!

We even wore them out a few times!

It has happened… I am nearly TWO MONTHS behind on the blog… which begs the question… are we even INTERESTED in rehashing October? So I think, instead of a day by day reflection I will do an overview of some highlights. Let’s see…

We had a pretty amazing experience with working in pairs on the little guys’ Halloween lapbooks AND solo for the twins on their own. I have made up a resource page for our items. I apologize in advance for not linking up all the books but I am sure if you check your local library or bookstore most could be found! A library card is a wonderful thing is it not? Our Halloween resources can be found HERE.

We started up with the Pizza Hut Book It program once again as well. There is a new app to go with it that we are getting used to. There were a few hiccups. We had to just go by Johnson for their last name. No hyphenating. But the kids are so excited to be earning their pizzas once again. You can check out the program HERE.

Ken is also jumping in to help us finish our long enjoyed VOLCANO unit. He had a really creative way to show the creation of a volcano using wash cloths of all things!

This is another blogged resource page. You can find all of that HERE. We took longer than expected but enjoyed it all the same. Some years we bust through these major unit studies… others… not so much!

Of course in October we have Home Depot! November has TWO since they are not doing the normal one in December. Doubly difficult as we have our swimming lessons Saturday mornings so we have to rush from the pool to the store to make it there  before the program is over!

The weather is cooling and the kids are starting to bundle up. It is always a but of a shuffle to go through all the clothes and find out what fits, what leaks and what is worn to pieces.

our big excitement was having Andrew with younger brother Alex in to BABYSIT for us! Ken and I had one last chance to take burnable stuff over to Chris and Renee’s and wanted to really enjoy it. We brought Cousin Robbie along, had drinks and dinner and stayed out SUPER late. Andrew managed fine and is already agreeing to sit again for us!

The boys’ newest addiction along with playing Pokemon is to play Munchkin.. my boardgame! They are even attempting fair play with their siblings! NOT BAD!!!

To celebrate CANADIAN Thanksgiving we not only called Grandma to say hello but did up a poster of things we are grateful for.

Then to top it off we had dinner at KFC (a Reinsch family tradition). Nana and Baba came as well as they plan to be in Florida over the American one. HAPPY THANKSGIVING CANADIAN FRIENDS AND FAMILY (BELATEDLY).

We had some crafting fun…

A trip to Mall of America to thoroughly enjoy LegoLand and spend some of their Gammie treat money on a container of hand picked lego pieces! Not too bad of a family excursion. We also brought snacks which always smooths the road.

AND a homeschool special for the aquarium in the mall! Everything from jellyfish to sharks to a tide pool you could touch!

We snuck in a babysitting experience or two with the Schwartz boys. Jeffrey and his brothers are a family favouite.

Emanuel, Trinity, Ken and I went to a Scouts day camp that included siblings. Sadly we lost our rocket to the great unknown but did it every FLY!

Indoor games and colouring were the favourite with Trinity now in love with the idea of archery.

OH and a messy snack!

We got another dose of baby time…

Celebrated Daddy’s birthday with PIE!

Carved pumpkins… sort of… and sent the seeds to Future Uncle Ravyn for roasting! Aunty Shandai came over especially to share the good news! Mommy is now to be a part of an OCTOBER wedding! We are so pleased for them! CONGRATS YOU TWO!!!!!

We crafted it up…

You can enjoy our leaf experience in an additional blog entry HERE.

And see our Halloween AMAZING costumes HERE.

Yup basically October in a rather lengthy picture filled entry!

July 18-20

A wee bit of schoolwork, just half a day… is all we need to earn a special treat on a decent summer day.

Now for the treat… going to the beach with some of our favourite beach buddies – Renee, Nathan, Evan and Jeffrey. We simply do not get bored of this lovely beach.

Even Jeffrey got in on a little sand… not for a lack of our trying to keep his grabby fingers out of it. He is growing up so quickly!

Every time we drive there and back we pass some amazing gates… I had to share a quick picture of them!

On Saturday we grew our ranks by one… Aidan came for a sleepover. He is definitely a welcome addition.

The girls got a special mailing from Gammie… pretty dress up bits they were more than willing to share between them. Sadly I think TRINITY walks better in heels than I do!!!

We ended our Saturday with a movie in the livingroom… and popcorn of course!!

Sunday was the final installment of our VBS… the kids all came together (some in their special shirts) and sang a song for the congregation. We stuck around for the song but had plans after that with Aidan. It seems like our summer has zipped by. Sundays have been so tied up with cousins leaving and friends needing us that we have not made it to church like I would have liked.

After singing we packed everyone up with a picnic and sunscreen and headed out to the beach. First stopping at the park…

It was even windy enough to fly kites!!! Clearance find at Walmart at the end of last season.

Of course the main attraction was the beach and lake itself.

Aidan is a blast to have with the kids. They took turns being covered with sand and everything.

Definitely wore them out.

And with Aidan being a fellow Lego lover, he was a great help in building the new Mixels sent from Gammie.

Throw in creativity and some time in the sunroom and I think we showed Aidan a fun sleepover! He definitely is a family favourite!!!

And some extra photos to enjoy!