Well well we have made it to March and the countdown to spring. Of course with it being slightly warmer I had to take advantage and photograph the kids! I have been lax in doing this of the whole group.

It was nice enough that we were able to photograph a couple of my completed crochet projects outside! Again check out Kristen’s Kords HERE!! She rocks!!!

Tinker Bell!

We had the Schwartz kids over again to watch while their folks were busy. Visits with them with parents or not have become a highlight of our weeks!

Miss Echo has totally embraced all sorts of creative imaginative play. Tea parties are so exciting for the stuffed critters and dolls in this house!

We finally opened our Chinese New Year lucky candy holders. That yummy strawberry candy is a family favourite.

We also have a new family member… Hugo Bear Dog generally known as Bear Dog… he joined us thanks to Amy Sue, the amazingly talented seamstress who is creating dresses for Shandai’s wedding! He is an instant hit and has become Echo’s new favourite snuggle buddy. I have to share her page HERE. I absolutely cannot wait to see how Shandai’s dress and my own turn out! They are going to be spectacular.

School has continued on swimmingly. I am so proud of the kids for trying their best to expand their knowledge and try to face the hard stuff with less and less whining and complaining.

Don’t forget about Dr. Seuss’ birthday! We had a added experience for the girls – Dr. Seuss themed activities at Lakeshore.

And food that suited our theme… red and white fruit to represent the Cat in the Hat’s hat… One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish jello with gummy fish… and eggs and ham (trust me… GREEN eggs does NOT go over well). I also had each of the kids write their own RHYMING book. Ken, Karyn and I worked out our own book. Talk about fun. Though the kids struggled a bit. You can find our resource post HERE.

Snow…

The igloo

Home Depot…

Lakeshore Saturday crafts…

A brief foray into pet ownership with the short lived TRIOP!

Movie night with popcorn at the YMCA! (101 Dalmations!!)

Don’t forget St. Patrick’s Day lunch (we did a minor unit this time… previous years have burned us out a little on that theme) but any chance to have a themed meal! You can find our resource page HERE.

Leprechaun escaped our trap once again!

Themed craft

End the month with… EASTER EGG HUNT!

And it was a well rounded month. March is always that little bit more packed when Easter is early April… Let’s see… Dr. Seuss, Home Depot fun, St. Patrick’s Day, early Easter activity… I think we can say we kept good and busy!

March 2nd marks the birth of the author Dr. Seuss… this is our second year celebrating that day. Last year we lucked out with a library program, but this year I was on my own for the most part. So we did what we do best… searched the internet, picked friends and family’s brains and of course requested books and movies from the library! Like with Chinese New Year and the Platypus I am collecting all my links, books, etc into one entry for easy searching! So here goes!

Day 1: The Lorax

• We were most interested in the colouring pages but HERE is a page with multiple resources directed to focus specifically on the Lorax.
• We had the maze for Trinity and Emanuel focused on recycling HERE.
• Our other very important exercise was to write a letter to Mother Nature telling her how we would preserve her… each of the kids wrote a letter (Emanuel and Trinity had me write it for them). We talked about options and the importance of simply CARING! It was a fun and helpful conversation for us all. You can find the letter HERE.
• A Lorax themed Word Search HERE.
• In fact, Activity Village has a whole section devoted just to the book The Lorax with how to draws and everything. We just wanted to keep it somewhat briefer than their content. HERE is the link for that.

Day 2: Green Eggs and Ham

• Colouring page straight out of the book HERE.
• Word search for the bigger kids (though not overly difficult) HERE.
• A simpler word search for your younger child HERE.
• A themed tic tac toe board HERE.

Day 3: The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

• Simple math for the little ones HERE.
• Dot to Dot of the Cat himself HERE.
• Crafty handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2 HERE.
• Hat Craft Template HERE.
• Make your own Cat in the Hat hat. We are using ours as a table centrepiece HERE.
• In fact you can pick your own colouring page from the list HERE. Mostly Cat in the Hat.
• Come up with a word that starts with a letter in the title Cat In The Hat HERE.
• Rhyming fun with a list of words HERE. (One Fish Two Fish… theme)
• Our chosen One Fish Two Fish colouring page HERE. I love the ones that are right out of the book.
• An exercise in opposites HERE.

Tv and Movies

• The Cat and the Hat Knows A Lot About That thanks to PBS kids. They have the show on pretty much all week AND the website with games HERE. You can watch whole episodes there.
• The Lorax the movie (2012). I love the ending to this one, it shows that there ARE people who care.
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We got the newer movie. Not exactly by the book but with additional back history on the Grinch that was rather unique. A little scary for Trinity but the boys loved it.
• Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
• Horton Hears a Who! Tv Special (1970)
• Dr. Seuss On the Loose… Green Eggs and Ham and Other Stories (1973)

General Crafts

• Well, with a party in the making for the 2nd what more can we ask for than some simple decorations! Well since we didn’t have any blue cardstock we made a white and red paper chain and combined it with a blue table cloth! RED WHITE AND BLUE are the colours for Dr. Seuss after all!
• Dr. Seuss themed crafts and activities HERE.
• 14 Dr. Seuss Craft and Treat Ideas HERE.
• A Cat In The Hat inspired food HERE.

Additional books, Echo friendly

• Dr. Seuss’s Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet! (based on and inspired by One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish)
• Hop on Pop
• The Foot Book (Zander read this to Emanuel as part of his daily reading challenge), while this comes in board book form, ours was a hardcover.
• Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Though Echo didn’t enjoy this one as much as Trinity and Emanuel did!)
• Fox in Socks (I read this tongue twister gem while everyone laughed at me)

Family Crafts has a page with all the links separated by book. I did not do all the books listed and actually only had Echo listen to Hop on Pop instead of doing any sort of work sheet. You can find their link HERE. Many of the above links are off this page, I figured I would share as we used and as we found.

If you are interested in planning a full out birthday party here is a great link with the food ideas, games, crafts, etc to go to. I got a lot of the ideas for our party HERE. Or check out this general Pinterest Dr. Seuss party themed page HERE.

Want to make something to represent the Cat in the Hat’s hat? We didn’t have skewers so I laid them out in a pattern on the plate… worked well! Instructions HERE. We did not use grapes.

Want some food labels? HERE is the link specific to those.

Our extra reading! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

For all our Dr. Seuss resources check out the blog entry: Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

March 1-3

Well, it has been 5 days of reading and learning with a Seuss theme… so what book did we end our focus on? Why Horton Hears a Who! Oh and I read them all Fox in Socks… next year it is KEN’s turn to do the tongue twisters. The kids got a laugh and a half out of it though so it was all worth it. We had Horton themed worksheets AND general Dr. Seuss themed ones to complete…

And then there was our quick run out to Michaels to get the beginnings of my Saint Patrick’s day necessities… the next big colour specific holiday (hmmm green paper chain anyone? An awesome way for the little ones to work with the big ones on patterns and careful stapler usage). And the folders we needed from Walmart so we could jump right in on assembly of our Dr. Seuss folders. I decided to go folders instead of binders and such just because of the bulk of our work being worksheets. A little different from a binder but the right colours for our theme. I love how each of the kids did a different colour scheme on their Cat in the Hat hat for the cover.

Absolutely Seussian

Adding to the Dr. Seuss party excitement is the fact that QUINN and Uncle STEVEN are coming too! A party is always more fun with a guest right? We brought out the Dr. Seuss felt board set that I got on clearance this past summer. The twins did up math equations for each other.

I am so in love with felt boards… I need to find an affordable large one for us!

I had to take advantage of a crochet link my cousin Veronika linked me and make a crown for Trinity! It was a super quick stitch… though I noticed AFTER that that she had an IMPROVED pattern for the princess crown… so guess what is next? Of course Echo wants one and there is baby Lily to Be who needs an Easter gift…

Pretty in pink

What do for lunch when you don’t have a strict plan? Ask the children… CEREAL!!!

Yum

We had a good and strong ending to our Dr. Seuss week! Which leads me to Saturday and our PARTY!!! Of course there are certain elements you MUST have to have a good party… decorations.. check (in themed colours), guests (Quinn and Steven)… check, and FOOD! Now we had a selection… One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish goldfish AND blue water jello with some fish as well (gummies), Cat in the Hat themed fruit (we had no skewers so I just lay them on the plate), marshmallows (because in The Lorax the movie he threw them to the animals), and Truffula trees made out of cotton candy and pretzels in chocolate cupcakes. We tried a drink but it didn’t really work quite right but we ate the fruit anyway after.

Our party set up

Most of the spread… less the eggs and ham

I wish that we had had all our colour toners… but they were readable

Trees!

But before all that was the morning errands… the twins and Ken had much needed hair cuts… then to Home Depot for the wood craft – making little cars and racing them… and then stopping at the library to drop off books and pick up my movie. Ken also had to grab some last minute supplies because for supper we had… GREEN eggs (well Ken tried) and ham.

The eggs took the colour way too easily

Our test subject with his new haircut

We had a change in plan early in the day and it went from a party to a party AND a sleepover! Talk about excitement!

Party time!

Cotton candy for the win

One Fish Two Fish RAINBOW Fish

The guys got in their boys time, but I simply could not pull off my visit. Lily to Be made sure her Mommy stayed home.

So it was just me and my little princesses

Guys at play

The kids’ version of gaming – Skylanders

They ended the day with Horton Hears a Who!

Movie time

Trinity and Quinn are officially best friends and bummed together all Saturday and then again on Sunday morning.

Racing cars

Best buddies

Sunday, after we said good bye to Steven and Quinn the Dr. Seuss fun continued with a visit to the Novak’s with our Truffula tree CAKE. Anthony helped me with the assembly.

Our cake

We had a great time just hanging out while the kids ran and played.

Snoopy!

On the iPad together

Supper was chaotic and busy and totally yummy.

Anthony, Zander and Andrew

The rest

Ken and Andy worked together to repair the family laptop.

Hanging with the babies

Which somehow morphed into Minecraft???

We played so hard that Echo passed out on the couch! Sign of a day well played.

Played out

After Dr. Seuss is all up and done I will have to post my best of Anthony pictures… he seems to have gotten the hang of my camera very quickly and took quite a few wonderful pictures! I will post one here and then… well the entry will make it up in short order!

Incidentally also the only picture of Darcy… and there is Ken working on the laptop! I love the soft colour the no flash gives.

I got my playdate in after all! I am going to leave you with a wonderful quote from Dr. Seuss thanks to Cori, a Facebook friend.

Dr. Seuss