February 13-14

A VERY Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! We celebrated at home with a special meal etc. But first our Wednesday…

I have to say, Ken having Sean here and wanting to show him some of the beauty of Minnesota (even in the winter) has worked in our educational favour. He decided he wanted to take him up to the Minnehaha falls, but to take all of us would require two chairs. So… Ken and Sean took the 4 kids and I stayed home with the napping Echo to clean up some of the messes that had been bothering me around the house. I always feel so much more in control after cleaning and Echo was kind enough to let me clean up a few problem spots (aka our room). Of course then she was up and demanding BUBBLE GUPPIES (I am soooo tired of that show!).

Informative plaque

So much beauty

With Uncle Sean

More pictures of the falls to follow in a companion post!

Before all the outside excitement we had worksheets (Activity Village and Education.com) to finish – Valentine themed of course, books to read, spelling to practice… the usual.

We made our paper heart chain… And the twins made some white roses to add to our red (and chopstick) display. I do love a pretty centerpiece!

Making the paper chain (Gavin left)

So pretty

I love the roses! Thanks Art for Kids!

We made chicken with the meat rub I actually made up with Ken to give people for Christmas. You can find instructions for how to make it HERE. We made the Tandoori rub for Chicken. (the guys had the weekly gaming night)

YUM

I made a themed lunch for the kids  on Valentine’s Day- strawberry jello with cool whip, chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting, Fanta strawberry pop all with curried chicken on rice. Lots of pink and red on that table! Add in the kisses in the bowls (pink, red and white) and our festive decorations and I think we did good.

Festive!

Of course we took some pictures. Trinity had her pretty red dress thanks to Aunty Esther. Echo had TWO outfits, though her main was the new shirt I bought when out shopping with Bree on SALE! They both added in their dressy shoes and tap tap tapped their way around the house all smiles.

Dressed in pink and red

Showing some Valentine’s Day love

The second outfit

Watch for a future filler blog entry with the Valentines Day overflow!

Yours truly tried a new hairstyle – the milk maid braids thanks to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries… specifically the Jane Bennet Twitter feed. The instructions I used can be found HERE. Next time I need to wet down my hair more to facilitate easier braiding AND use some spray afterwards. BUT for a first try for someone who SUCKS at doing her OWN hair… not bad!!! I am just going to have to do it over and over again to perfect it!

Attempt 1

Together

I tried something different with one of the Easter cupcake bags… I am playing around with colours. After all Trinity AND Echo each already have a bag so a second bag has to be different. What do you think? I rather like the effect, almost like a vine around a flower.

I rather like these

I got my own little gift from Ken – a card and a container of chocolates. I gave Ken a card (made by me) and a little box of Jelly Bellys worth Valentine themed words on them.

Our dinner! And my gift!

We had a fun Valentine’s Day themed craft to do as well, we waited until Echo napped and brought out the paints to make Handprint Hearts. I love Activity Village and their easy to find themed areas.

In the paint

The hearts

So quite the enjoyable couple of days!

Echo obsessed with ATTEMPTING to remove Sean’s sock??

We are coming to the end of our two months of off and on company… It has been amazing to have that lovely touch of home here in Minnesota. Though now I am rather aware of the move back to our family unit standing alone. I really do appreciate (as does Ken) the visitors we HAVE had AND the people both friends AND family who have agreed (for various reasons) to wait until we are settled. I know it is not fair that some can come and visit so easily but I really want us to enjoy our visitors to the fullest and in some cases that really requires more room than we have here sharing with Ken’s parents. While that time will be some months yet it is not an impossible dream. 

In the meantime I would love to invite people to Skype, Facetime, MSN, email, Facebook and of course call us. With the first two be sure you don’t assume we are online… I don’t always hear it. The kids speak often of everyone we have left behind and I try to call people when they request it! It is amazing how small the distance is with all the current technology. 

I think it is rather clear from the blog entries that we are settling in, while I miss things and people our life is smoother here. Wish me luck as we continue the immigration process and please don’t hesitate to say hello! The kids LOVE getting mail! 

I absolutely ADORE digital as I am sure you have all noticed… the ability to share everything so easily and have these multiple images is such a blessing!

Careful painting

Resting baby

Sweet little fairie

The adorable kitty thanks to Aunty Xinny

Goofing around with Uncle Ted

My Kindle Fire cover

When men get together EVERYTHING is a competition… here they are blowing up balloons!

The final result was terrific though

Pretty in blue thanks to Aunty Esther

Adorable in orange

Now reclining

Cuddles with Uncle Ted, or as she calls him Dada- not to be confused with DADDY.. for some reason the “T” sound is too hard

3 girl cousins together

I love this picture. There is a corresponding one of the 4 boy cousins HERE. Some day as adults I am totally going to have to reproduce this.

With her friend Evan

Birthday Boys! Zander, Gavin and Emanuel… 9,9 and 7

The joys of 3 birthday boys – the need to relight candles to blow out!

Outside enjoying snow, sunshine and her sister’s hat

Gaming like old times

With Bree and Lily to Be

Paper roses

You can find the instructions link on the blog entry HERE.

Quite the fashion plate

T & Q

January 6-7

Well, we are coming to the end of our time with Ted… his flight home is the evening of the 8th – after the guys plan to go to a 3D showing of Top Gun at an Imax theatre. They are only showing it that way in select theatres and only for 8 days! A terrific final event for an amazing visit. Having Ted here has been amazing… we have had time to chat, time to play and time to just sit and hang out like we used to. Trinity and Echo has renewed their love of time with Uncle Ted and the boys have had him playing Skylanders and Legos and more. As you can tell from Trinity’s photo blog entry HERE, his iPhone was a hit as well!

And snow on top of it!

Ken dropped his parents at the airport hours before the rest of us were awake. They are gone for 7 weeks in sunny Mexico. It was definitely different not having them here… though we did take the day at a more relaxed pace. Any big change to the household seems to work best for us if we do that. So with a FINISHED Lego crane to enjoy I could not help but allow them to enjoy it to the fullest. They earned that one!

LEGOS

We watched TWO new episodes of the Wild Kratts… on Blue Jays and Grey Squirrels and the Caracal. I love it when there is an animal that I know nothing about as well like the Caracal.

Family favourite

Blue Jays and Grey Squirrels

Caracal

Our Chinese New Year work continues with Thursday being our date to start the poster assembly. We have quite a bit so I am thinking there are going to be some pockets to make and some creative space use. One more book to share… once we finish reading it… and of course our crafts to complete.

Even Batman preps for the poster

The guys have enjoyed more gaming time with Ken working from home, one break at lunch for a game and the rest of the time just us with Ken locked away. It should not be much longer before he has a desk at the office! Renovations and reorganization still to be accomplished. Such a weird but AMAZING thought – Ken is WORKING again. YAY! One more step completed, next… we work toward the ability to get our own special home… not forever as I cannot say we will be here in Minnesota forever (in fact, I am sure we won’t) but a long term home full of security and normality. Just what our family has always been working towards.

Gaming

I am rather proud of our Thursday – we wanted to get going on the poster and we did! There was cutting and pasting, taping and folding and even some using of markers. I am sure we will dabble on it a little more on Friday but it is pretty full! Granted, less of China the country and more about stories and celebrations but I think this year we had a lot of fun and learned more than a little about Chinese New Year!

We had one more book to finish with – Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures in Imperial China. We got a lovely list of inventions in this book, things like silk and umbrellas…

Our book

Inventions list

Ken worked from home again, in fact… he was AHEAD after yesterday so was able to run Ted and Sean back to the Source, (a first time for Sean) to pick up something Ted had seen and liked last time. That left me home alone with the kiddos. We tried something new today – I set up different Valentine themed stations, mainly crafts… it worked pretty well though I need MORE ideas or at least more COMPLEX ideas to keep them there long enough to actually get my bath accomplished in a relaxing fashion.

Around the table

This time round we had paper chains, making paper roses, a placemat activity sheet I got at Target, a Kai Lan book we are all working on (super simple purchase from Dollarama last year, not so much Chinese beyond Kai Lan herself but fun) and the book project the twins needed to finish. You can find the instructions for our paper roses thanks to Art for Kids on the Homeschool Classroom site HERE. I honestly think that these roses would be a great gift for ANYONE any age! I was going to put up the paperchain in the tree outside but when we laid it out with our roses in their cup… well they look so pretty together in the sunshine on the table!

Flowers and paper chains

We had another Wild Kratts to watch as well… this one about BEES!

Bzzzzzzz

I ended my evening with a visitor on top of our other visitors! Bree managed to have a decently light day of work and so was able to head over here after and spend some visiting time. She finally got to meet and talk to Ted and Sean… in fact, she played WoW with Ted eons ago! It was great to see her and Lily to be… we are on a day by day wait on the birth of the lovely Lily. When rush hour was over we headed out to Joann’s finally! I was in desperate need of some new yarn… I have a second toilet paper scarf to make AND the need to do an infinity scarf for myself. OH and I couldn’t resist the socks.

Visiting with Bree and Lily to be

Soooo soft

I am hoping to get my Facebook page sorted out for selling again this month as well! I think Bree has caught the crafting bug too… she picked up some supplies to get back to crocheting too! I love it when a friend picks up a craft again. That means someone to chat with and craft. I have missed that here in Minnesota. I had quite the crafting group in Canada.

There is nothing more fun than a box