September 9

So, parades… REALLY not Ken and my cup of tea but one of those memories we all have of growing up, so when Steven mentioned that the town he lives in was having a parade and that as usual Saturday was his Quinn day… well we had to head out and join in. We dressed up and headed out relatively early and met up with the boys at their house.

From there we drove to a parking lot to park and walk to the street the parade was on. We chose the end of the parade so had a bit of a wait.  I am so glad that we purchased that blanket at the Tyrell Museum. It comes in handy and is so easy to take along!

Hanging out

The kids DID get bored as we had to wait well over 30 min for the parade to get to us but it was worth the wait.  The kids were much more interested in candy collection, once we explained to them what was  going on that is. They were very sure candy was only available during Halloween so this was all new to them.

Waiting on candy

Post parade and candy and even watching someone launch a t-shirt into the crowd (that REALLY can’t be safe!) we slipped off before the parade ended and got out of the parking lot with minimal issues.

A float

Then it was time for LUNCH! The daddies were in charge as yours truly is STILL trying to finish the dolly blanket and kept and eye on the baby while she trundled around in the garage. Steven’t parents have put up a large mosquito screen across  the one side of their garage and made a baseball themed seating area that is absolutely amazing! I could totally see homeschooling in there through out the warm months. They had a wall between the double garage section and a single car area so you could close doors and all that but it was a great idea! 

Hello puppy!

Steven’s backyard is a great place to be. They managed to get their hands on a rather amazing play set that is big enough for Quinn and our entire brood to enjoy! Add to that a lovely hill that the boys asked to come back and visit in the winter to sled down and some random toys and we had some VERY happy kids.

Fun in the sun

Lunch was hotdog and hamburgers with chips and grapes and juice pouches. I think everyone was full up when we were done!

Lunch!

Add to that a break in the basement with Thomas the trains and the Netflix version as well!

TV break

It was a great visit and a welcome break to being here at our house. After our visit we stopped in at a few stores… Jo-Ann’s of course finally! I am going to have to watch on sales and coupons as they do have some interesting bits and pieces… we picked up beads and plastic string this time. OH and Ken’s yarn for the scarf HE wants. I ran into the Dollar Tree at that location and was a little disappointed. I DID get my poster paper to create our Pen Pal display. We are going to make pockets for each of our correspondents. I also picked up google eyes and pom poms. What a difference from my usual Dollarama hauls, I am holding out hope that that was just a smaller store and that a bigger one (say like the one near Darcy) may hold more hope. Otherwise I am going to have to keep hunting sales and coupons. 

Totally enjoying the chance to keep my hands busy

I have started our craft bucket though, we are already saving our toilet rolls, collecting the crafty bits I DID bring down here and sourcing out options. I found some bags of bits and bobs a sweet friend and fellow homeschooling mom had sent to me when I was still in Alberta and had forgotten I saved (thank you BJ!!) so we have some sequins, glitter and random fun things to use… I am going to save my yarn bits as well as I remember using those for crafting as a child.  Now our end of the week was more of a play but there is so much merit in learning through play so I feel forgiven if not vindicated! We will just keep on going and trying over the next week and tweak what we are doing… oh and watch the mail, I have a few things of great importance coming in the post! So check back as I share how we get along!

Basically Birthday Buddies

With the cold weekend the weather has turned positively warm today! Which meant a slurpee WALK for me once the kids were all set and settled and Ken aware I was out. YUM. 

Today was a bit of a crafty day for all involved. There was glitter for the SECOND day in a row (yesterday it was Emanuel and Zander and their tiny snowflakes). We did much better yesterday on keeping it contained. For some reason keep the glitter at the table and after mommy’s bath she will come see meant walk with it through the kitchen, down the hallway to the washroom to show mommy a container of OPEN glitter… 3 or 4 attempts at sweeping it all up later and I am sure I missed enough that days from now we will be reminded of the event. BUT we have some lovely glittered paper snowflakes. 

Emanuel and Zander glittering

Since every year the kids make their own gifts to give the people in their lives we needed to come up with something new for them to do this year. I have some white Model Magic clay stuff left so I took some of that and our Christmas themed cookie cutters and had the twins sit down and create. They made enough for all 4 of the kids to paint once they dry out. 

With supervisor Echo

Who then supervised Daddy as well

With some work on math, snowflake worksheets and crafts sorted… while not a hugely busy day we did manage forward movement. I am debating which would be better – trying to borrow a copy of Polar Express from the library or purchasing my own. I have the files to make a lapbook with the twins. We have the movie as well, so we will do the lapbook and then finish up with the movie. It may be a bit tough to get our hands on a copy in December. 

I finished a few owls over the past two days… Christmas themed of course. Though the first two I did up are already gifted, I will have two to post for sale (the best/cutest of the two will go up on Etsy as my 5th ad). I do love working with Christmas themed materials. 

Christmas cute

I actually completed two people on my Christmas list over the past two days. It feels good to actually cross people off but the list is still distressingly long and my crafting time limited. We watched the Santa Claus Parade on CTV.ca today. The boy were most excited about the Lego float! 

Watching the parade

Tonight’s big goal is to go through all the presents I have saved up over the months. Some go in bags but the ones to wrap are making an extra trip to Kristen and Fydo’s on Thursday to be wrapped. We have a sitter for 4 of our 5 and are going to go and enjoy some adult (and Echo) time while we pretty up some packages ahead of schedule. 

Karyn, Trinity, Emanuel and I were the only ones at the library for pj storytime… it seems everyone else was at the parade and tree lighting. Our kiddos were set on the library and I was right there with them on that one! With the twins seeing their parade online and the baby really NOT needing to sit in the cold the library was the best choice. We had stories about winter clothes, sang songs and did a craft. We lost a mitten on the way home (paper) but I replaced it! 

Dressed for winter in paper form

Tomorrow we will assemble our snowflake lapbooks… there is cookie dough ready to bake which will require the help of CLEAN little hands. Maybe I will let the boys make their own at the blue table… depends on our level of focus! We do love to bake and gift out some of our yummy results! Now if only I could get SOME sort of order on my busy kitchen table… maybe?

I had to try and get some Christmas shots.. thanks to Cousin Veronika and her sheet!

She would NOT sit still!

But cute all the same!