I have decided to start a new little mini Christmas/Advent tradition. We printed out this page from our day 3 on our Advent Calendar. This year I had them tell me things they like about Christmas and I wrote them down. It will be interesting to compare future year’s answers. 

Things I Like About Christmas

Polar Express is getting along nicely. Though there were grumblings about writing words (gasp) and doing a word search (which in hindsight I was told was VERY easy)… I am hoping we can continue the last few parts and have a lovely lapbook for them to remember part of our year 2 homeschooling. 

Today’s craft for Advent was to make an origami box. Ken and I made one up out of red and green cardstock last night and had the 3 boys work TOGETHER to decorate it! I am planning to make a few more tonight so they can decorate some more, maybe put some of their ornaments in them to gift out! 

Our pretty box

Our filler time craft before sledding came from Education.com… Santa and his elves (we made two). I printed them on regular printer paper and had the 3 boys colour and cut them out themselves. You can find Santa HERE and the elf HERE.

Santa and two of his elves

Sledding with Daddy was another success today. Due to work he took them around dusk where they tried a new hill and played with other kids. They were out nearly an hour and came back with rosy cheeks and empty tummies!

Sledding at dusk

We had a busy evening. Ken and Fydo wanted to talk shop and with He Chris around Echo and I were able to join them and Kristen. I also had a few items to wrap and she has the wrapping paper in abundance! Of course this occurred during the supper hour so we decided to go to the nearest restaurant to their home – the Indian place! Ken’s first time, note his carefully separated food! 

Ken's careful plate

We wrapped the odd shaped stuff, chatted and enjoyed some adult only time while the boys talked about gaming and programming some and Ken snuck in a 10 min nap (they DO have a comfy sitting room).

Me and my baby

Played out

Emanuel and Trinity got spoiled with some special Aunty Karyn time – not only did they do jammie library time but they ALSO went by her apartment and got to see her kitty… by see I am told that they refused to actually go in and engaged in a staring match with said kitty! But in the end he was deemed to be a nice kitty so it is all good! 

I got home too late to talk to any of the children about their evening but I hear it went well! Now I just have to get to work on Emanuel’s handcrafted gift for the year – a feltie Elephant ornament that I am then going to blow up to a bigger size to make something more squeezable… with that I am done his list! YAY! I have to share today’s Advent video… Trinity had to watch it over and over and over again! 

And each time she watched it she had to tell me HER interpretation on events!!

Now to enjoy crafting while watching anime… oh and take a peek at the start of what Fydo and Ken have declared my “underwear fund”… Night

Quite the "fund" hey?

As we continue to attempt to declutter, organize and progress as a family I find myself often debating what to keep… do you keep every paper and piece of art? Choose the best of the bunch? Go random? Well, when I think about it… this blog IS my memory book. Every day I write down the mundane, the whimsical, educational, emotional… all the milestones are here, the art, the interest, the quirks and more… do you think my children will look back at some copy of this and sigh? Or maybe reminisce? More likely, with my bunch, they will shake their heads and wonder at the time mommy spent on this site… the insane focus on each and every step, the massive amount of photography… But I bet they WILL look back and I can say SEE you did this!! Now WHY am I thinking about this? Well on top of the above reasons I got an email last night that deals with keeping memories. You can check out the blog entry on the Confessions of a Homeschooler blog. She has a great free download for dealing with all the wonderful things you have around created by your children. For a schooling OR homeschooling family. 

Speaking (er typing) of milestones, today Echo did TWO shuffling steps! YAY! She was VERY unimpressed by it, would rather I had just swooped down and picked her up… BUT she did it! The twins were right there and saw it, I caught it out of the corner of my eye… and were very congratulatory. What wonderful big brothers she has. 

Standing on her own

Advent has begun here in the Reinsch-Johnson residence and we actually have quite a bit to do each day. We start with our regular calendar and a discussion about the day, then there is the I’ve been good chart that Santa WILL see, they have been told! After that our Perler Bead Advent countdown calendar that we add a shape to and then count the days left. Whew! And then this year the boys brought some items home from church. A little Advent calendar that you flip up a flap for each day and it has a verse and a book… a finding object book with a bit of the Bible to read each day. Today’s reading was Genesis 3, 1-7 about the apple. You then looked at the picture, found the apple and talked about trees and fruit and such. 

Some of the learning fun

But there’s more… today marks the beginning of Activity Villages’s Advent Calendar as well! This is a favourite of ours as it is daily and last year had us end up with 100 new ornaments! This year you make your own village! Most of the kids have opted to string their houses up but Zander is doing the table version. Added to that they have activities and such for each day too. Today was a focus on stockings. Emanuel did the colour by numbers to go with it! I love the series, especially with the time difference as I can access the next day early and get my print outs done and supplies organized early! I can’t wait to see our villages unfold!

Colouring their houses

And the final portion of our Advent season – this is for the twins really – our Polar Express lapbook. Today we did the first two mini books, read the story again (a first time for the little ones to sit through) and folded our folders so we can start piecing it together as we go. Our lapbook is from www.ajourneythroughlearning.com. When I checked their site briefly I was not able to find the exact one we used but if you search on Currclick there are a few options connected to the book. Once we finish the lapbook we will watch the movie again. It really is a very good rendition. 

Gavin has decided HE wants to sew some gifts as well. I am keeping one of his personal designs but after that am giving him free reign to gift out. Right now he is working on a UK pattern (they are great as they don’t use half stitches). It is a joke card and very cute. He has a lot of patience for this and persists even when he gets knots and stabs his finger. 

Hard at work

Zander has opted NOT to sew, instead he focused on time with Echo (he is my sheet holder when I attempt pictures), fun with Lego and he was the first one out the door this afternoon to build a snowman. His exuberance did finally convince Gavin it was a good idea and they BOTH built snowmen… all I have for today is the works in progress but they went for the REAL deal… rocks for eyes and mouths and a carrot for the nose!

Well on its way

Work in progress

Emanuel was my indoors boy with his workbook excitement and a mini craft… We couldn’t find my 3 sided beads (I have them in holiday colours darnit!! But I will find everything in the end… I am down to my last closet to organize). What we did find was a bunch of Christmas ornament craft supply my friend Kathy gifted us a year or two ago. With some pipecleaners, imagination and careful creation of patterns Emanuel was the proud creator of TWO beaded candy canes. The blue and green one (not pictured) was VERY short and chunky but we managed. I am sure AFTER Christmas is over I will find my bead stash!

Traditional Candy Cane

In order to get in a bath I needed 5 min to myself so I dug out my surplus stickers and embellishments, got everyone a piece of paper folded into a card, had the boys help the little ones and snuck off. We ended up with 4 very different Christmas cards (including two pinks!). I just have to add in our moo cards to each one going to someone and check them off my list. Slow going as I am trying to keep organized but it is going! Last night I finished TWO gifts and crossed off some more people. I hope to do the same with a US package. 

Completed cards

I received some mail today! I ordered some blue hair extensions off of eBay and they finally got here today. I will have to play around with them and trim them down to size but I am so excited! I wanted to dye my hair blue but have heard some real horror stories so this is the next best thing! AND they were under 3.00 for all 3!

Hair things

So with snowmen, Advent calendars, talk about trains, sewing and all the other random occurrences we seem to have kept busy! I wouldn’t say the time has flown by but I blinked and it was past 3pm! Yikes! Take a look at THIS Lego creation! The boys now want that many Legos too! 

And the crafting goes on… for me as well. BUT I did manage some time in between crafts to clean up my ribbons (the kids dumped one container and the other container was a mess by my own work). Now the kitchen table… well… yeah let’s just ignore that one for now! I know I have! That leaves my laminating to trim up, a house to “assemble” for Zander…and of course a hunt for something for Trinity to “do” tomorrow… 

Echo's embellished pj's

Baby with her cube

CHRIS B!!! Who sent me a lovely email asking to be entered into the draw as my number THREE entry!!! I will send you out an email asking for your Feltie idea! Thank you for entering everyone! I had 11 entries on my very first draw! Friends, family, people from near and far! I feel very thankful for all the comments on the site and in emails as well as all the interest my blog has had over the years. I look forward to continuing on with it! 

We have begun our week on much the same note as we ended it. Some resistance to working on school things but the willingness is there! We had a peptalk before bed on Sunday about how if we DO get all our work done in a timely manner there WILL be more time for fun! And I was right. The boys both worked on pages in their reading and math books successfully before going onto a Michaels buy. Mini activity books with a Christmas theme. There was 6 in the pack and they should be ok for Emanuel to do as well so I am limiting them to a book a week which will hopefully slow them down on the rushing through. 

Workbook time

Sunday was a special day for Trinity – she got herself a brand new (to her) bike! It needs a bolt for the one training wheel and I am debating some paint and Gavin suggested brightly coloured tassels so I have some searching to do to find the best way to make those in a way that will be weather resistant. Thank you Freecycle! Though by the same merit, a lady dropped off a box of clothing for the twins that they said were size 7/8 and then up to 14. Well… I really didn’t see any 7/8 and their 14 yr old must be a TALL boy! So I am planning on holding onto them for now and then if she does not contact me I will pass them along! 

Bike!

I have been working on MORE bows and now a new craft project – though thankfully meant for Christmas presents! Of course, felt and rather a quick stitch! You can follow the instructions HEREand make your own… though they are NOT for resale.

Done so far

I have a stitching completion after WAY too long – an ornament – well it is now (the pattern originally calls to make it a pin). I am not sure who will get it for Christmas but I have decided it was way too much fun to create to keep for myself… This one had more assembly than my santas… I had to attach the hat and tree! 

COMPLETION!

We are at work on our November letter package to head off to my brother-in-law overseas. This one has a much more winter/Christmas flavour. So far Trinity drew him a picture on her favourite purple paper, Emanuel made him a Christmas card printed off of here and the twins are each writing a letter with a picture. I have to write up my letter before we send it and I think the kids want to make him a small gift… Maybe a bracelet or something? 

One thing that IS making me very happy is how much Zander and Gavin WANT to play with their siblings, suggesting they play trains in Emanuel’s bedroom… later working with Echo to teach her new things (Emanuel did this too!). She is one lucky baby to have so many teachers! 

Building with Echo

With lots of gaming time yesterday and my crafting today… I have quite the mess to tidy tonight. But I think that the past few days have been GOOD days! I am hoping we continue an upwards trend! 

Sitting pretty