Tag Archive | penguin

Easter Monday

April 21

Easter Monday… well the Monday after Easter was the perfect day for our family to head to the Como Zoo… it is a donations only entrance so way more affordable for our small budget than the state zoo. It may not have ALL the animals but there are more than enough to make for a fun and fulfilling day.101_7148

We started out with the seals and penguins where we picked up our second plastic mold creature – a seal (last time it was the gorilla). The kids want to collect all of the ones available at the zoo. One animal at a time.101_7149

101_7209101_7152101_7156We got some spectacular pictures of the polar bear.101_7165

101_7166101_7163101_7167We had a snack in front of the lions who were napping in the sun.

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And other cats as well

And other cats as well

There was the newly renovated gorilla enclosure to check out as well.101_7182

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Don't forget about the monkeys!

Don’t forget about the monkeys!

101_7191101_7192We had a quick stop off at the gift shop to look around and get a postcard to send to Cousin Jimmie back home. And then it was out the door and into the sunshine.101_7195

Time to head home for the OTHER big activity! Gammie sent the kids a box full of Easter Egg Hunt fun! Pre filled eggs and peeps for all!! I had Ken set it all up –  the pretty eggs in the front yard in pretty plain sight for the girls and the backyard full of  the others in harder to find places. The girls were so excited to have easy to find and the boys totally loved the challenge.101_7196

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Ready to hunt

Ready to hunt

101_7203After we ran and hunted and laughed it was time to take all the booty up to the sun room to hang out in the sunshine as we painstakingly opened each and every egg and pile up the treats… jelly beans and rockets (US Smarties). Each egg was carefully emptied, closed back up and put into the bag to be saved as I am told we MUST repeat this procedure next year!101_7207

Throw some more fun outside with a tiny bit of school and I think we made it an Easter Monday to remember!!!101_7211

Ending Memorial Day Weekend…

May 27-28

and starting our week! Monday was ANOTHER overcast day but that did not stop the Johnson family. We all packed up and drove over to Stillwater to visit the family’s favourite park. It is a very scenic town. Sometime I would LOVE to go there on an actual sunny day and maybe even check out the little local stores we drove past!

Our own little Pippi ready to play

Our own little Pippi ready to play

Johnson Brothers

Johnson Brothers

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Even gorgeous overcast

Even gorgeous overcast

101_2166There was a tree to climb (freaked me out)…

Up a tree

Up a tree

101_2164and a park to enjoy…

With Cousin Zachary

With Cousin Zachary

Gavin

Gavin

101_2174with new friends to make.101_2184 101_2148

This little cutie was determined to play too

This little cutie was determined to play too

After all the fun was had and everyone was hungry and getting a little tired so we headed to Acapulco and had a late lunch/early dinner… 7 kids and 6 adults! Full table!! Great food!

Colouring before dinner

Colouring before dinner

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Ken’s meal

Mine

Mine

All 7 grandkids From oldest to youngest (Zander is a little over a minute older than Gavin)

All 7 grandkids From oldest to youngest (Zander is a little over a minute older than Gavin)

Tuesday was our Monday and it was a rough start… I think everyone was ready for another day of fun! BUT we have much to accomplish for the week. The boys are working hard on their little stories in their journals. We are really focusing on them writing their own sentences and then we discuss how they made a mistake or what rules they need to learn better. Trinity drew a rather amazing picture about her visit at the Novak’s.101_2192

We had a new Wild Kratts to enjoy… though we are pretty sure that we have done this one, just focused on a different animal. Episode Seasquatch shows so many animals… I just love how quick they are to WANT  to sit down and learn a little more!

Angler fish

Angler fish

Our penguin lapbook is coming together. I am amazed at how much we actually did learn. There is so much fun and memories in this book. It makes me hopeful that this momentum will continue when we return to animals and deal with lions! But that won’t be until July as we have Father’s Day and July 4th to learn about first!101_2194 Emanuel also made up a thank you card for the wonderful Dinosaur poster we got on the weekend.101_2193 So, we ended the weekend well and started the week rather strong, though not exactly easily. More memories to hold dear.

Coming up on 12 years!

Coming up on 12 years!

Oh…. and….

PIGGIES

PIGGIES

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Mid Week Mayham

For all of our Easter resources please refer to the blog entry titled “Easter Resources“.

April 3-4

I am pleased to report that we have COMPLETED our Easter lapbook… all it took was a little time Wednesday afternoon and a good glue stick. I hate how when you run out of one key supply things can grind to an absolute halt! I am quite pleased with the end result. Ken picked up some of those soft binders to put our platypus (and later penguin) books in and another for the Easter one. Job well done!!!

A couple of our pages

We have jumped in with both feet on our penguins and have already amassed some lovely links to share in the end (or contact me for them in the meantime of course). Mr. Popper’s Penguins is a lot of fun already. One chapter a day, with as much of the suggested activities the lapbook we found online that meet our age range plus additional links… I see the purchasing of a blue paper pack (varying shades of course) in my future!

Our National Geographic cover pages!

Our second book of the day was Penguin Says Please by Michael Dahl. Very cute lesson on being polite!

Poor runny nosed baby

Of course we crammed as much as we can in for a reason – tonight the cousins (Gabriella and Zachary) are here for a 2 day overnighter (this week is their Spring break). So effectively no school Thursday. Which gives me a day to tidy, organize and maybe hide a little?

Enjoying the penguin book together

We also recorded our Easter song: Jesus Christ is Risen Today! words by Charles Wesley. We are having some issues getting the video up so I will have to link it later!!!

We finally got our practice chopsticks in the mail. Sadly all the instructions on the back are in Chinese so I am not sure if I can alter them for a left handed person…

Chopsticks

Supper was special… all 7 kids out at a favourite Chinese restaurant. We survived but it was by no means a LEISURELY meal.

SEVEN kids

YUM

The 4th was not only Thursday BUT also our God Son Anthony’s 11th birthday! Where has the time gone??? I am waiting to hear on the birthday plans but in the meantime was able to wish him a happy day over IM on the iPad (the joys of modern technology!).

I squeezed in spelling practice and writing for Zander but otherwise, it was kids and grandparents’ rule and lots of gaming… after the girls (less Echo) made a run out to JoAnn’s.

Trinity’s wand, self decorated

We had Minecraft and PS3 games going on.

Gamers galore

With homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner…

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

And ice cream floats for desert…

Floats

Add in a movie and the day was complete.

Princess Bride

 Definitely a kid filled two days!

Mini E