Ok so I DON’T have November done… take a peek back… waaaay back at October for now!!!

Yup too many pictures for a month in a blog! So enjoy the fall fun!

Emanuel finished his journal in October. Time to move onto writing his own sentences.

Lots of reading and drawing our own illustrations for the books!

The family who games together…has some rather interesting arguments and a 4 year old who plays in a way where EVERYONE dies OFTEN!

Resident Scout at his day camp with giant dominoes.

We got some amazing mail from Texas. Gammie spoils us so!

Tiny adorable pumpkins mailed from Texas!

Gotta read all the time lately!

We are definitely seeing progress in our cursive!

Enjoying a good story (thanks to Aunty Karyn) in honour of the Pizza Hut Bookit program.

The twins are starting to REALLY enjoy making lunches for everyone. Microwave skills developing!

Miss Echo is a creative one lately!

Although she also caught a bug and slept a day away.

As did Trinity on the way home from Scouts Day Camp.

Emanuel ALSO finished his grade 1 math book curriculum!

Talk about an amazing way to work on our estimating, counting and sorting skills… our tub of Legos we got at LegoLand. The kids did GREAT well over 400 pieces!

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!

August 1-2

While Nana and Baba were seeing off the family we were out and about ourselves on errands and the like. I had a fun finish on the 1st – a pair of SHARK SLIPPERS I had commissioned by a twin mom for another twin mom. We are all in the same egroup and have been for ages! They are such a silly thing but turned out so lovely! I was glad to be able to get them in the mail before they needed to be taken across the border to Canada for a visit!

We did stop at a fun park while I sewed the eyes onto these. The kids have fully embraced the sunny days, though the heat can be rather stifling and make for shorter play times.

The twins assured me that after all that play some quiet tv time was in order.

The 2nd was the first Saturday of the month and so HOME DEPOT day…

Pencil boxes

But we made the day doubly exciting by being registered for a program at the Alexander Ramsey House (HERE). They do a once a month time capsule on the first Saturday and have a walk through of the house with a tour leader. It is so much fun! Limited photo taking opportunities but we did have a blast. And each of the kids ended up with a time capsule with little pictures of things they learned about in our tour. We plan on going again in October!!

Such a beautiful house!

And the kids got to get involved in the kitchen making hardtack (HERE)! Very cool!

Miss Trinity came home to a good bye present from Gabbi – a backpack and matching blanket that she is utterly in love with.

And I had an amazing gift – a drawing of the crochet items I gave her for her birthday. Thank you sweetie!

And a few more from the house…