Well there are some days where blogging just does not appeal and yesterday was one of them. I want to thank my friend Elaine for coming up with the idea of Wordless Wednesday… it gave me the chance to share one of my favourite spontaneous and recent shots of Echo. AND she was in pink in honour of the anti-bullying day to boot! So I hope everyone enjoyed the cuteness (I have to point out that the little hair thing in her hair – felt bow – all me!).

That is not to say that yesterday had us at a standstill! Far from it… St. Patrick’s day is just over a week away and the worksheets, videos and craft ideas keep coming. If you are interested in the bulk of the worksheets I have been talking about here you can check them out in my collection titled St. Patrick’s Day on Education.com. I do love this site as the resources are free and any and all issues I have had with a worksheet or information have been followed up SUPER quickly. As usual I am going by my old gaming name – Ayjah if you are trying to find me, though I HAVE reviewed MOST of the worksheets I used which also pops up on Facebook. 

I made the kids a special poster for St. Patrick’s Day to welcome people. You can get all the info for that HEREfrom the Original Kids Crafts site. 

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes

While watching the Discover Ireland series on YouTube we came across a sports segment that had an unknown sport with a ball and stick involved… and it was definitely NOT hockey, so of course we had to look it up! And found out all about something called HURLING! Seriously! 

I don’t know that we will attempt to play above game when it warms up but they really did enjoy learning about something new. You can find a link to what seems to be an official kids’ club colouring pages HERE. And HERE is the Wiki info. I had one of the twins colour the Hurling colouring page and the other Soccer as they are both major sports in the Republic of Ireland. And then we wrote interesting things about each sport on the back of the coloured sheets to go into our St. Patrick’s Day File. I am seriously thinking about doing their next year in a Notebooking format! They just make too many interesting things! 

I shrank down the template for this craft project as we didn’t have full sheets of green foam, and substituted one sheet of yellow and one of brown for two of them (note to self, need MORE green foam!)… we have rainbow cord (thank you whoever gifted that to us we LOVE IT!) and Ken made me up a simple 4 leaf clover template to use as decoration. I did Trinity’s sewing portion for her and the boys cut her pieces but she had fun being involved in it. You can find the original instructions HERE.

Emanuel at work, he did it ALL himself

Four completed bags

Our little Echo is quickly becoming a rough and tumble girl and has the bruises to prove it! Don’t ask me HOW she got this one, but what I THOUGHT was marker on her cheek smudged mostly off seems to be a bruise (maybe on one of her death defying climbs onto Trinity or Emanuel’s beds???)… I struggle between wanting to wrap her up in cotton and cheering on her adventurous spirit! Size is most certainly NOT slowing her down! She even tried to climb out of the tub to Daddy last night… he firmly told her no and sat her back down but she JUST is tall enough to get that foot up there on the side! 

I have spent MORE time on the WIP… features and fine details are starting to pop out which I have to admit is spurring on my interest greatly! Maybe I WILL get it done and perhaps by June! It will depend on other projects of course… and my focus but I guess if I keep the silly thing in my face more it will get worked on more! 

So February has come to a close… we survived the short month and while the van is NOT fixed (part still on its way grr) and some things are still in the works other issues have been solved! AND we have managed to get out some fun events as well! We have learned about the Inuits… Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated Valentine’s Day AND Chinese New Year AND 3 birthdays… Now we face March. My brother and my Father’s birthdays are in March… and this year so is Echo’s surgery. I think that is going to weigh heavy on all our minds for the next 20 or so days. I would like to ask that everything think positive thoughts or say a prayer for Echo as we creep up to her date. We want her to be as healthy as possible beforehand and the surgery to go through without complications. 

Tomorrow the kids and I have to start our paper mache project… and there is a felt project Ken and I are working on altering to make it easier on little fingers. So I will have MORE crafts to share!

Rough and tumble + overalls = CUTE!!!

Sunday can mean many things, though rarely (for this family) a day of rest. Today was no exception. Echo and I bribed Ken with an extra hour of sleep so that we could remain home during Sunday School. Echo was in sore need of a nap by 9am and class starts at 9:30. Yours truly was feeling much the same way, so I dressed the other 4 and saw them off before crawling up under a blanket on the couch for my own snooze. A little beam of sunshine, a warm blanket and the silence that is a virtually empty house. In fact, it was so quiet I could hear music playing in the other side of the duplex!

Pretty in Pink

I was woken up 5 min before the family returned by people asking to shovel our walk (that’s ok Ken needs the exercise…). With Echo still firmly asleep and the kids changed out of their church clothes I returned to my snuggle on the couch while they played, coloured and generally kept busy. That is until lunch time… a light lunch, some sorting of winter gear and lining up the return of our borrowed van (thanks again Chris and Chris) and we were ready to head out to the pond and our next big excitement – a sledding and skating party! 

Our backyard right now

We have had a massive amount of snow come down the past two days… I think well over 20 cm and with no wind and the sun out it was pretty much a perfect day for the event. There is a little building there that had washroom and rentals and even a little snack shop so bathroom breaks were easy! We lucked out and were able to have a little bonfire right in front of the ice and off to the side from the sledding hill. 

The first go down the hill Zander and Gavin bonked heads but went on for more. Trinity and Emanuel did ONE run with Daddy down the big hill and Trinity was DONE… Emanuel went with a sled and made his OWN hill off to the side and had a blast! He can be so independent!

Heading up the hill

Spontaneous snow angel

Zander was the only one who tried skating, though Gavin showed interest and got distracted. We borrowed a pair of skates for a couple days so that he can go on a special outing on Tuesday with Ken to give it a go! He did rather good for a first try and had a blast doing it.

Skating

There was hot chocolate, hotdog and marshmallows as well as some bags of chips and things. Lots of people to help with the making of it and the kids ate their fill and then some! I got to sit and chat with one of Emanuel and Trinity’s teachers and Echo was passed around a little. She was less than fond of her snowsuit and wiggled one hand out to hold her binky so we had to wrap her in her blanket as well. She and Alaskan Sock Monkey just laid back and took it all in rather quietly.

Snacks

Echo and Alaskan Sock Monkey

We stayed much longer than we expected and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, it was not until the drive home (poor van) that we realized how chilled everyone BUT Echo was! So it was home to get into pj’s or in Emanuel’s case a bath first THEN pj’s and then quiet playtime before a light supper and bed. Poor Ken ended the evening feeling WORSE than he started off so I had to make the trek to the convenience store for sauce for noodles (and no slurpee… me and exact change math were not happy and it was too cold to walk back with it tonight). 

Sitting by the fire

There is some prep work for different St. Patrick’s Day crafts still to be done. Tomorrow the plan is to make smelly Shamrocks, and have the little ones colour some rainbows. I have found instructions on how to make paper mache pots for gold (instructions to follow) and I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate Celtic knots. The boys each have a mini book to complete and some other worksheets and then there is the hunt for green clothing to be set aside for the celebration. Maybe I can find something special for Echo as well! And now it is time to get the blog post up and maybe see an earlier bedtime… maybe. 

BRIEFLY standing in the snow