May 23-24

After such a busy evening our following Thursday was slowed a little… With her helpful sister in tow Trinity busted through one of her workbooks for a completion!!

Busy together

Complete

We had a penguin craft to work on using hands and feet to make ourselves some adorable penguins!!! Lots of helping each other tracing and cutting and gluing!

instructions to follow in the resource page!

Each one unique

It was finally a relatively sunny day so the kids spent plenty of time outside assisting Nana and Baba in the gardening… pulling weeds… fun stuff! And highly educational!

Progress on the gardening

Wandering the bales

Trains expanded to being under a tent to keep out the sun!

Tented trains

And Echo even sported a braid for a portion of the day!!!

Braid!

Honestly Friday followed suit in gardening friendly weather so we added another day of outside learning. So much work to be done on those days that are NOT rainy!

Gardening in the sunshine

3 of the kids went out to buy soil so Gavin, Echo and I had a lovely snack  together…

Snack

And then some gaming

Gavin even pulled out his long ignored sewing. I am hoping June will be his month to return to it!

Cross Stitch

With our busy school schedule and the gardening going on in the backyard when the weather permits… we are getting in lots of activity AND learning. Spring in Minnesota.

Out in the backyard with Daddy before bed!

Even dolly is having fun!

May 21-22

It has been a rainy weekend into a rainy week… not the best walking conditions to be sure! We made do though, penguin things, a trip to aunty’s house… lots of rainy day fun inside with the siblings…

Channeling her inner Charlie’s Angel

I finished a sun hat for Trinity, though I made it big to last until next year potentially so it is a little loose. She has worn it CONSTANTLY since completion and is VERY proud of it. Stitch11 is the site where I got my pattern. They have varying sizes… I did add rows to the hat AND the brim to make it suit the coverage I like for her head!

Floppy brim and all

I have the boys working on sentences in their books that they write themselves and then we talk about any errors in the spelling… Gavin tells me TWO pages is the way to go… I am so proud of their working on this. It gives me insight on what rules are needed, what little tricks they don’t have yet and what they DO know!

A two page tale

It is nice to see the kids playing together… Memory is great for working on their concentration and they actually played WITHOUT fighting!

Memory

Wednesday was our dinner date at Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s. Poor Robbie got home later and the kids ambushed him in the door to go right out and bounce on the slightly wet trampoline. They absolutely love visiting, there are dogs, fish, turtles and ponds in the front and back yards! We had a lovely visit and dinner and stayed until all 5 kids were basically worn out and ready for bed!

Supper!

A special desert Uncle Jim made at work for us all

Echo and Aunty Judy

There was a lovely illustration of the way penguins keep warm in our Ready Freddy book, so I had Ken draw it out for us and the boys add the terms necessary as part of our learning.

3 layers of protection

We also discussed how we can keep penguins safe.

Keep them safe

Miss Echo is one bossy little thing… she has been dictating the building like a full out construction project!

Queen of the blocks

She DOES get results

Art for Kids had the instructions for a LION! As this is our next big animal unit (Zander’s request) we of course had some willing artists!

ROARRRRR

Quiet time was train time for the first time in AGES!

Quite the set up

Gavin chose his reading to be reading to his brother!

Story time

With a visit in the evening we brought home 5 VERY tired kids! It was nice to have something special midweek! This Ken working outside the house thing and 5 days a regular week is an interesting change for us!

HUGS

May 19-20

That was most definitely NOT a question for Trinity or Emanuel… but the twins… well we made the leap and not only got them lovely brand new bikes (the used stores just were not a good enough deal after researching the ones open on Sundays) but bikes WITHOUT training wheels! Yikes!! Oh and helmets, do not forget the helmets!

We took the whole family to Target and hunted the mighty bikes… there really is not much left for options so early in the season (though I saw a retro style bike for an ADULT at Walmart that if I had had 95 dollars sitting around… well… maybe later in the year?)…

Check out

The girls got sunglasses… adorable ones… 1.00. And Emanuel got a dinosaur (another 1.00 purchase… gotta love the dollar area at Target).

Sunglasses

Once we got home, and got the baby down to nap, it was time to bust out the new bikes and helmets and give it a go. Results are mixed and of course it is going to take some time… but I have high hopes for successful 2 wheel bikers!

Starting in the grass

Better on the pavement

Gavin

Zander

Daddy Son moment

Nana and Baba took the twins out on double bikes to try and work on balance, looking up and keeping their hands on the handles and feet on the pedals.

Off on the double bikes

Ken had a game that got rained out so that evening we snuck out for ice cream and together time… it was nice… I miss just us from time to time!

Some beautiful flowers around here now!

Monday marked the beginning of what feels like monsoon season. So much rain and muck, definitely not pro walking weather for us. We did start a mini multiplication book I was emailed as a printable from Peapod Labs… It is connected to an app but regardless, a fun way to start those tables going! You can find the printable HERE.

We started our Ready Freddy penguin themed book… which prompted a list of all the things we found interesting that we have learned about these flightless birds.

So much knowledge

And then there was an afternoon of the twins working on putting seeds on paper towels. They worked with Nana prepping the seeds to go on the straw bale garden. They learned all about the need to keep the seeds spaced and how the plants need certain things and certain space to requirements depending on the plants to grow properly. Oh and the math about the spacing, looking at the ruler board (inches!!). Quite the educational fun!!

Gardening prep with Nana

Lines of seeds

Trinity has embraced the workbooks. I love seeing her sit there and really get at it!

Pages done, pages to go

Miss Echo took two days of dress up fun… Sunday in her pretty dress thanks to a handmedown from Aunty Xinny… oh and a flower from Nana.

Darling

Super pixie!

And on Monday… TINKERBELL! I have to say, the highlight of my days at times is taking pictures of her partying it up in whatever outfit she chooses… but woe on you if you want her to NOT wear a dress… PARTY is her word for it! And the fancier the better!

Little Tinkerbell… Thanks to Aunty Holly

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I wish the outfit tag was now showing in this one.