It was Remembrance Day today. This year has special significance to our family as my new brother-in-law Adam is overseas for 6 months. So please keep a special thought/prayer in your heart for him and his safety. He will be gone over Christmas leaving my sister Kat alone in the south. This comes quite soon after their wedding day and we cannot get down to her to visit. Please remember all in the military! Regardless of how you feel about current world events these individuals are amazing people who have sacrificed a lot to ensure that the world is a safer place. 

So yesterday apparently being told that since you did NOT follow simple instructions and do your schoolwork without grumbling you would NOT be getting your allowance today was grounds for a major full out screaming old fashioned temper tantrum. Well only if your name is Gavin. That was actually a huge surprise as he is usually my level headed boy who understands that behaviours have consequences. We simply had to have him yell himself out a bit in his bedroom (with the door closed as of course this occurs during naptime for Emanuel and Trinity), and then go downstairs and talk to Daddy. With Ken swamped with work lately we are all feeling the lack of Kenny time. 

The 4 kids DID manage some somewhat peaceful quality time working on Emanuel’s Thomas Mega Blocks trainset on his bed. I love it when they can all work together on something, there was chatter about the adventures the trains were on, the town they drove through…

Train set

We read our snowflake library books. Two of which were based on Wilson A. Bentley and his snowflake photographs. We drew our own snowflakes on black paper to look like his negatives and included a quote: No two snowflakes are alike. Gavin did a whole mini book of his own snowflakes to include in his snowflake lapbook. 

So pretty!

Today was a special day for the twins, they got to go to the Agri-trade show with their Uncle Wayne! So that meant we ALL had to be up and them ready by 9 am, early for our family. Since only the twins could go (handful they are and his truck can only hold so many) the little ones and I had our morning to ourselves. We started with popcorn and the jumperoo…

Popcorn

And moved swiftly into painting. There were some fridge magnet kits though the paint included in those was dried rock solid. Thank goodness we have a large  variety of colours, though I noticed my yellow is getting low. Trinity went one step further and did a painting as well… so of course baths followed! 

Painting together

Painting on paper

Last night I opened up my Etsy store! I haven’t posted much but it is a start! I need to get Ken to make me a logo and post up a few more items but I am starting small. Etsy charges 20 cents per post so I don’t want to go hugely into the hole and then find out I can sell nothing! So please click the link above and take a look… suggestions welcome, sales even more so! I have put the shipping low so far and will see how items go. I want to try and charge as close to what it costs me to ship as possible. 

Today was full of fun with friends… Trinity, Echo and I went out with Kathy and Karyn shopping for post potty training Kitty booty. She picked out socks (knee!) and a necklace/bracelet set (pictures to follow). Then there was the food court and Edo Japan (ok Arby’s curly fries for the picky Trinity) and then Michaels for a bit more shopping (oops). 

At the mall

Wore her out!

The twins had an amazing time with their uncle. They came back with a whole bunch of booty, memories and stories to tell… oh and yoyos. Again pictures to follow as after a fun day out I am too lazy to take pictures of all the goodies!!!

Oh and the most awesome of friends kept me company even into tonight! We had Little Caesar’s for cheap food… and chatting was done… and now I have to post this silly entry before I forget!!! Remember to go back to this entryand enter the draw! 

YAY company!

We have completed our short possum/opossum lapbook today… there was a little bit of writing, some gluing and word discussion to do and one or two more illustrations were added to the pile but we managed it. I think we will have to come back to the lapbook from time to time to work on our new words! And to admire the artwork and penmanship! You can find our links and videos HERE.

Front cover

I am out of staples so I had to creatively tape in our extra long pages

As far inside as you can get

Back cover, each of the twins wrote one of the words themselves

While possums took up our morning our afternoon was a crafty one with PAINT! Did you know that 4 kids with paintbrushes actually CAN keep the mess down to a minimum? The boys all used the palates they got last year from Nana and Baba, for some reason I can’t find Trinity’s… and Trinity used up the last of our ancient finger paints (from when the twins were tiny!! but with a brush of course as ALL our kids are finicky about their fingers) and some of our scarlet to make her masterpiece! 

Painting at the table

Now what brought on this sudden interest in all things messy and colourful? Well a craft I found on our favourite UK craft site – a Family Tree. They suggest this as a grandparent’s day craft, we are working on the boys really understanding WHO our long distance family are – there are 3 sets of Grandparents to remember and two sets are in the states. For our leaves I found a  template herethat Ken then shrunk down for me to a quarter page and printed out in green. The boys then cut them out and have begun the work of writing out names and drawing pictures of family members. 

Ready for leaves

We did another chapter of Stuart Little. Another edge of your seat adventure, this time on a garbage boat! Apparently Stuart can’t step outside the door without adventure catching him unaware.

4 more interpretations

I have begun my next round of owls for my “It’s a Hoot” page on Facebook. These ones are for H”owl”oween… groan I know BAD! I found some really neat socks and have been cutting them down to owl size. I have tried a couple different lengths with the camo – one a little taller and one the usual size. It is the re-purposing of the old shirts into owl stuffing that REALLY takes the most time right now… and cramps the hand something fierce! 

The kids ended their day with a walk down the block to the community garden with Daddy. They have a nice lot there next to the church that has enough room to run AND still a few plants to check out. Zander did run off home on Ken which was NOT good – we live only a building and the church away but he needs to realize he has to tell us…

Helping Trinity with her shoes as someone had to stay home with a sleeping Echo

A bit of a run

I managed to fill up another mocked up scrapbook page recently as well. A birthday piece!

For Emanuel's book

And now it is back to owl creating… cleaning… dishes… laundry… the list goes on and on. I am sure tomorrow’s entry will be much better organized! Well I hope!

Didn't Ken catch the perfect light on this one?

Another rough night courtesy of a sniffly sick little girl. Trinity woke up this morning with a horribly runny nose and the sneezes. Of course she made sure to keep me up off and on for most of the night. I am hoping that all the snuggles and a nice warm bath today will help her feel much better tomorrow. Maybe? I would LOVE a good night’s sleep after all.

This morning we were a little rushed – Ken had his dr’s appointment where he moved from the individuals he has been dealing with to the long term care people. This is the group that will help him manage his health issues over the long term. He got the opportunity to meet quite a few people who gave him some wonderful insights as well as some plans for the next 4 months or so (he will be busy for at least a couple hours every Wednesday night it seems). My personal hope is that this will lead to Ken even dealing with his procrastination issues which have been in existence since before I have even known him and I find has affected our family more than I would like. There is a lot of hope in these new meetings and individuals and I like that.

Of course after we saw Daddy off we were off and running with the letter N. Nuts, Noah’s ark, and nails all came up in discussion and activity. Each of the kids has an n in their name so it is a very important letter and on that Emanuel actually enjoyed tracing! We did our computer time and then had to do some of the vowel songs and of course redo a couple of letters (K for kitten is a favourite).

Letter N (Zander right)

The finishing of N led to the request for CANDYLAND! Oh dear I think we need to get another game… we played twice today… Emanuel is finally getting the hang of the twists and turns on the board.

Candyland Candyland Candyland (Gavin middle)

I had each of the boys illustrate yesterday’s story. I re-read it to them and then they picked their elements. Zander drew the corn at the corn maze, Emanuel (with some help from Gavin on the houses) Harley and Mike’s bike, and Gavin Harley and Grandma’s house. All very inspired!

Zander

Emanuel

Gavin

We made more frames today… I am definitely in dire need of brown paint so I can start with the tree shaped ornaments. Green spray paint would not go wrong either. Painting 2-3 coats on green puzzle pieces by hand is so time consuming!

4 More Frames

I did have a minor glitter glue accident – the black was stopped up and when I squeezed… well there you go! I put as much as I could in a plastic baby fruit container – we’ll see if it is sealed enough to be used later!

Glitter Glue Explosion!

The boys spent lots of time outside today – what with Trinity being sick and all a lot of my plans went up in smoke. For the most part they got along though I did have to call them all in for time outs twice (Zander always has the biggest fit when I do!).

Outdoor Fun (Zander red)

Last night we faxed the Canadian Government Loan the forms to reassess our payments, today Ken headed out to pay any back owing from the past month. Fingers crossed THIS division of the government actually feels the urge to be kind! I did notice that they had the wrong number of people in the family (5 instead of 6) so maybe that will even help my case further? They say we should know by next week either way! So fast compared to the last situation!

It was another happy mail day today! Well, other than the mailman ringing the doorbell with two registered envelopes (Trinity was NOT impressed but apparently she is almost the same age as his little one!). No, today a very kind teacher from Texas that I chat with on one of my sewing egroups sent me a wonderful reference book: What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. I took a brief peek through and found that a lot of the stuff I want to do this year is there as well as some more ideas! What a gift!!

Thank You So Much!

Today’s cooking was contained to 3 trays of apple leather. I love the smell of the applesauce being warmed up like that… the whole house smells like cinnamon and baked apples. MMM This time I put more applesauce on each tray and did not smooth it out as thinly, I am much happier with the results… after all I need some for our trip 3+ hours south next weekend and some for my brother’s family.

We are currently working on ideas for a math lapbook for the boys… so far I have a matchbook style center piece, the numbers 1-100 and the math match game we made previously to go in an envelope pocket. I just got another email from a lovely homeschooling mom chock full of links to check. I signed up to use another site that has free lapbooks and am awaiting to be accepted. It feels good to have a plan – Ken and the boys are going to do insects next – there is a basic lapbook I got for free on Currclick that we are going to add to.

We let the boys eat outside tonight. Figured with the weather holding a little longer they should enjoy every moment they can of it!

Dinner in the Backyard (Gavin orange)

Speaking of Science – the boys started their crystal project with Daddy. Even the test tube they came in was interesting (it is a 2L bottle before the inflate it for pop!)… for tonight they dropped their colour bits into water to dissolve.

Then they added the crystals to take in the moisture. Tomorrow they take those crystals and put them into the test tube and then leave THAT overnight. Heck they were amazed by the fizzing colour and surprised by the growing crystals… tomorrow should WOW them!

Sewing was severely curtailed with a weepy baby on my hands, so tonight I am attempting to make up for lost time. A friend asked Ken and myself to help her adjust an image to stitch so we are definitely getting that done tonight, but my next project is not yet ready for stitching which leaves me the stocking. My goal is to actually have something to show on here tomorrow that will illustrate a definite movement towards finishing this piece. I am quickly getting to the point when I will have to deal with the blending filament. I am a little concerned as to how much of the pearl (032) I have in the house. Seems to be the most popular colour in patterns and of course NOT the cheapest.

So tomorrow should be another interesting day, we are not going to any sort of activities outside the house that are preplanned as Ken needs to get work done and next week we are spending a whole day out of the city. BUT I may see if we can get in a walk and a play time at the park! Wish us luck with our sniffly baby!

Working on Bouncing Back?