July 6-9

Friday marked the beginning of TWO adventures… We coordinated with Karyn AND Esther to work everything out relatively smoothly. We drove from the Bleau’s in the morning stopping off at Karyn’s work to collect her keys and say hello… oh and drop off two owls for Lauralee and Victoria! From there it was time to drop off the female portion of our little family at Karyn’s apartment in time to terrorize the cat and tidy the rooms. 

With Esther running behind schedule (as per usual) even with a quick stop off at Dollarama for a few necessities (ie. toothpaste for Trinity) we had enough time to get the dishes mostly done and carpet vacuumed before she appeared for a quick snuggle and visit. 

SNUGGLES

 That marked the beginning of the boys’ adventure – Aunty Esther collected them at Kristen and Fydo’s where Ken was finishing up with our sort  through and helping with some furniture movement into their now almost completely finished basement and they were off to the city for THEIR holiday from US!! 

In the meantime the girls and I sat back and enjoyed the quiet that is Karyn’s apartment and waited on Karyn finishing work. Now how to spend the evening? Well with girly things including doing HAIR…

Note the pro action with Echo

And blowing bubbles.

Bubbles

And apparently eating cereal with unicorns!!!!

Snack time with Unicorns

The next day it was time to enjoy our day to the fullest. I had received something rather special in the mail thanks to Karyn… a birthday card from my Dad and StepMom with spending cash. Karyn’s bank was open so we were able to change it over to Canadian and it was  time to head to the mall and get to the serious business of shopping!! But before that a special homemade breakfast by Karyn – raspberry pancakes, fresh bacon from the Farmer’s Market and Pepsi… cuz we rock that way!

Pre breakfast sunshine

Note the sheep inclusion

Breaky

Let’s see… we started at the MACS counter where I purchased a brand new foundation with some extra sponges. 

Dressed to impress

Then there was the Body Shop (of which there are TWO in Minnesota… I checked! One in Mall of America and the other at the airport??) with its clearance items and a lovely 3.00 lip colour. We wandered some more just to see what there was to see and then headed over to Winners where Trinity got a special shirt – Hello Kitty of course – for being such a well behaved girl. 

You can see the shirt here

I waffled over a maxi dress that after checking out Old Navy with no success I returned to purchase along with a new pair of sunglasses (finally, that morning my old ones just sort of popped apart after years of use and abuse!)… 

Shoe break

Don’t forget lunch! A mall lunch of anything we felt like… Trinity had frozen yogurt and I got myself some Umi Sushi Express. Don’t forget our traditional poutine which was Karyn’s meal of choice. 

Lunch at the food court

We were SUPPOSED to have dinner with the guys as Ted and Sean came up to help Ken search through his Magic cards for the ones he plans on selling (seriously we downsized EVERYTHING). BUT they got all jumbled in their meal choices so we gave up on waiting and ordered in another favourite! Indian Flame Indian Food!!!!! SOOOO good!

Supper

After some more time on the balcony enjoying the sunny day the girls went to bed and we settled down for another special treat – Blue Eyes tea and cherries. Remember Blue Eyes from the Library High tea? Well I was able to pick some up from the source for the event and bring it to share with Karyn. And it was worth it! Combine the lovely tea and fresh fruit with HEDGEHOG time and silly movies – Spice Girls AND the Beatles movie… and our day was… AWESOME! 

Tea

Kitty

And hedgehogs oh my

Sunday morning was a little more stressful with a tired and hot baby and a cranky little girl. The weather has held out at warm for so long everyone just feels sticky. So we sent the girls along to Ken that afternoon and took a couple hours of together time which included finishing laundry AND going to DQ for food and ice cream. 

Ted and Trinity’s new sweater

Sean and Kristen

We ended up at Kristen and Fydo’s for some more visiting… Sean and Ted had already left but got to play with the girls some… and then it was time to say good bye, head back to Karyn’s for the stuff we left there and head back to town. WITHOUT the boys! As, until Sunday evening they were at Esther’s and then that evening gone over to see their cousin Jimmie. So not only did we see MORE people, do MORE things but we did it with TWO kids!! CRAZY!!!!!

Just the girls, note Trinity is ASLEEP!

And that was my weekend… WOW! 

Oh and a special thanks to Kristen who snapped this one one night this weekend!!

It is hard to believe it is Sunday already… but here you have it! AND I got to go out for a while (without kids!) with Kristen and do some much needed Christmas outfit shopping. Karyn started me on the path of loving Winners and today’s trip cemented it! I did try to find a shirt for under 10.00 (would have been a real coup) but had to “settle” for a 19.99 sweater style dress. And then I splurged and got 9.99 tights, lovely thick ones in black. So red is the theme this year and I am thinking my Holly brooch made into hairclip will be my accessory. 

I am down to needing only 3 more pairs of pj’s for Christmas… I picked up Trinity’s set at Old Navy on sale for 12.00. The boys are always the hardest, they tend to go up in price so quickly, the larger sizes… and I am going slowly to ensure my budget stretches! BUT Kristen helped me come up with an idea for one of the kids I have left that I can do here at home AND she helped me make sure I picked up my gold pipecleaners for today’s craft! Again back to Activity Village’s Advent Calendar, Day 4! The little houses are starting to add up and our 4 separate collections are marvellous! 

We painted today… and decorated our toilet rolls… the rest of today’s craft will be done tomorrow, when we are SURE everything is dry!

Painting

It was craft day at Sunday School and all 4 kids came home with a beaded snowflake. Just like real snowflakes no two were alike… AT ALL! Very pretty and they were all very proud! Next Sunday is the pageant and we all should be going to practice, service, lunch and then concert! It will be a rather short concert but the boys are working hard on their verse! 

Snowflakes

I can share a craft I just finished personally! Trinity’s birthday buddy is a HUGE fan of Ponyo so between Ken and myself (and the helpful advice of some anime savvy friends) we created a feltie pattern. I am told she is wonderful! I have yet to watch the movie but Ken did watch some bits and we both searched through pictures. She is a very interesting character with a lot of changing features. 

Ponyo!

I had a minor laminating machine issue that had to be resolved by opening the darn thing and removing a rather tight and stiff roll of plastic (oops). Thankfully it seems to be ok as I need to use the thing daily for the month of December! The only casualty was Trinity’s day 4 house and she is always up for more colouring so we were not overly upset. 

My list is getting shorter but so are the days until Christmas! ACK But we are enjoying the creating and crafting together. I think tonight instead of a picture I want to leave you all with this video. Please listen to the children who seem like they need a shoulder… 

Ok, so time to start with the prezzies… First off Trinity – well she got a sweet Alaska t-shirt in the always a hit pink (apparently Hello Kitty does not venture so far north on THIS continent).

Miss T

Emanuel was over the moon with his new hat – from when Karyn and her folks were on a train (I got to see a few of the pictures taken from the train ride – amazing). Emanuel does love a good hat.

Hats rock

The twins each got a sticker (more a decal) and either a pin or zipper pull. We are going to put those on their fall coats. They were very pleased as well.

Train themed and all

Echo got spoiled with a PINK mini sock monkey (instant hit with its yarn hair, a real giggle inducer) and a sweet little outfit (note the slogan!).

A PINK sock monkey

Here's hoping she can become a lovely Social Butterfly

Ken got a shot glass and some bbq sauce – yup that IS a beer bottle it is in and with good reason.

Shot glass

Totally bbq sauce

I am only going to share ONE of my gifts today (the other will have to wait until Saturday), a t-shirt. A great gift for me, I am finally done going through my clothes and sifting through them. I have had to downsize by a whole garbage bag for various reasons. Always a little sad to have to give some favourite pieces up.

Isn't it cute?

So we got spoiled, sadly I do NOT have a picture of Lauralee’s new llama. Just trust me, it is ADORABLE! And most likely WILL appear on Fat Sheep’s site eventually. In fact, very shortly Fat Sheep’s blog should become VERY busy. There is lots to share from Fat Sheep AND her extended family.

I have been thinking lately (as Ken starts running for the hills), I find it rather incredible how different it feels here in our new home. And I don’t think it is just that we have walls a colour I enjoy or a basement we can utilize in its entirety. We haven’t entirely put down homeschooling roots but I have made the first steps. My interest in crafting has been renewed starting with making some cards (I will share those AFTER they are given). The kids are becoming more and more excited about things… even stuff like learning their words are more exciting and sought after. I wonder why exactly this is. I know that a lot of our big worries and concerns (financial, health or otherwise) still exist and are NOT being ignored but it feels more… conquerable.

I can honestly say I don’t feel as stressed as I did. I have tossed out things we kept for years for some unknown reason as well as found items I had been hunting for as long. We have started at our new place with homeschooling in mind. Educational objects all over the place at KID level. I feel more in control of their schooling when I can say – go on pick something out of the game box and let them at it instead of having to stop everything and dig things out. While I can’t say we are in our forever home we ARE happy here and that is amazing!

So today was a reading day with another chapter of our novel done and some more sight word work. But we were relatively lazy. I loaded up Starfall and had them rotate turns while one of the non players sat with Echo which freed me up for a little doze on the couch. This cold just won’t let go of me, today it was sinus combined with a sore jaw (I think I was clenching it last night for some unknown reason!).

Another chapter

I ducked out with Kristen, Fydo and Karyn and went to a craft garage sale. There was tons to be tempted by but I narrowed it down to 3 spools of ribbon and some Christmas themed fabric (I couldn’t turn it down for only 1.50).

My garage sale haul

After that success Karyn and I ran out to take advantage of my birthday money. First to Winners for sunglasses and a shirt and then across the parking lot to Old Navy for two skirts. Pretty much everything was on sale. I always have the best luck shopping with Karyn. She even found a few cute pieces at Old Navy for herself. They had some sort of spin to win thing and we each got buy one, get one half off. Which included our sale items. BONUS! I am so thankful to Ken’s parents for their sweet gift! Though I have to admit I always find it hard to spend it just on myself… I did creep over the kids’ sections at each store but I managed to NOT buy anything.

So a great ending to the day. Although the rain did not help. Time just zips by so quickly no matter what I do, and I have so many things I want to do. I think next week I will have to make a little bit of crafting my focus. I have pictures waiting for me at Best Buy… which means time to focus on scrapbooking once again! YAY!

Echo's other headband... totally click my Hooked on You link on the right!!!