Tag Archive | pinewood derby

Fabulous February

Well BUSY and fabulous… as always! 3 birthday boys, Chinese New Year AND Valentine’s Day. Not to mention it is also Nana’s birthday month. I think February has ALWAYS kept us hopping. We tend to not do a huge celebration for Valentine’s Day but we do send out quite a few Valentines. Chinese New Year is always a bit of a big deal. We clean the house, wear new shirts (usually self decorated) and eat special foods. Although we will ALWAYS miss our friends back home who made Chinese New Year so special.

We celebrated Emanuel turning 10. Double digits it is!!!

And made our very own igloo.

It was Emanuel’s turn for a workbook completion.

The boys were very grateful for their lovely birthday gifts from all sorts of loving friends and family.

With treats for the girls. Thanks Gammie!

After all, the twins are now 12!!! Where has the time gone? Next year — TEENAGERS.

We had fun with the Schwartz family.

Swam our hearts out.

And in the world of crochet – a heart scarf I gifted to a sweet friend as a pick me up.

Hung out with the Novaks (gotta celebrate with our friends on those birthdays).

Had the guys over for game night.

Raced cars with the scouts… Not only Emanuel this year!

I got in sewing time of course – I made a jellyfish mobile for the girls’ room and for a friend back home – a hat that has a likeness to a hat on a certain Sci Fi series.

So a happy belated Valentine’s Day… etc… to everyone!

Fast and Furious February

Jun11

I think that we have not had a relaxing and laid back February since 2004 and the birth of the twins… compound that with Emanuel being born in 2006 two days before their second birthday and we start our month off with activity already. Then it is Valentine’s Day and often Chinese New Year. 2015 was no different than years past. It helps that we absolutely LOVE Chinese New Year thanks to our adorable god daughters… Anna and Isabella and their families. There is so much culture and beauty we have yet to see and experience, sadly not in person… but through our learning. You can join us with our resource entry HERE for 2015’s year of the goat/sheep unit.

Dragon Puppet

It was a rather unique birthday for the boys as we didn’t have the big old family and friends party. February was also the beginning of Nana and Baba’s vacation in the Dominican Republic.

We had MULTIPLE parties, really more suppers with friends. One of those was a totally fun and bad for you movie and snack night with the Schwartz family.

And the other dinner with the Novaks!

Of course we had the usual, Home Depot.. swimming.. life in fast forward it seems…

We also hit our 100 days of class mark! This was a fun challenge, I had each of the kids come up with some piece of art or even just something fun made out of 100 pieces. We had Legos, popsicle sticks, stickers… it was great! Trinity glued on sparkly confetti and yours truly made a special poster of heart stickers.

We babysat our favourite baby – Jeffrey… the girls absolutely eat him up!

Emanuel basically made his scout car all by himself with minimal help from Daddy. While he did not win he came home proud.

We drew…

We learned…

The girls showed off their princesses to go with my crocheted versions. You can actually purchase her wonderful patterns (Kristen’s Kords) HERE.

We had readers and rather good listeners. It is always a bit of a a buzz to see them reading to each other willingly.

It is hard to believe that we now have two 11 year olds AND a 9 year old! Who gave them permission to grow up?

We even had a completion of workbook… I swear Trinity is just busting through hers! I am so proud of all these kids and their drive to learn. It wanes at times but we all end up inhaling books and searching down facts.

Of course we ended up at the YMCA swimming pool, that is pretty normal, BUT we also had the twins BOTH get their pink wristbands. This gets them free reign of the pool! And with them old enough to be dropped off… this could be a GOOD summer for them. Pictured below in the lane pool (deepest area).Don’t forget about Valentine’s Day when we had our red, pink and white lunch and SPECIAL GUESTS for dinner – Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn!

Dr. Seuss’ birthday was also in February so the girls went to Lakeshore to enjoy the festivities.

So February was a colourful month full of celebration and love… you can check the overflow of images with some events I did NOT cover in this entry HERE. Look forward to reflecting BACK at March next!

And In Blows May

Jun3

May 1-4

We started May with Wild Kratts.

Flying Fish

And Echo modelling a little purse I made her known as a church purse or cradle purse. I remember having one of these made for me by my grandma Reinsch. Though I think mine had a plastic soap container bottom. I chose to go without to avoid sharp corners. Complete with a tiny blanket for the baby doll. You can make the purse turn into a baby cradle. Perfect for quiet play at church… if Echo would stop losing it! Though I have to work on my knots for my drawstring. I am not pleased with how they slip after my 3 1/2 yr old has tugged and gone at it for a while. Would love suggestions on that!!

The next day, to cover another Scouts extra we all made instruments out of pieces of what not we had around the home! Talk about a noisy and fun craft.

We also made a trip to a bakery… an Italian one. Where we got some amazing pastries. We got to watch the baker in the back mix something up in a rather impressive giant mixer.

My treat!

We also busted out the chocolate bunnies… nibbles on ears and bunny tails…

And then, suddenly… MAY WEEKEND! The first Saturday of the month so OF COURSE we have Home Depot. We went to a different one than we usually did and not only did we make flower pot holders but we ALSO got 10 craft pins. Something our home Home Depot did not offer! They also do a 25 I think so guess where we are going for that milestone month!!!

We actually had a reason for our change in Home Depot venue. This was the closest one to the district Pinewood Derby races! Held at a car dealership no less. The boys were able to sign up not long before their races (both Emanuel and Aidan) and trophies were awarded right after. For our first districts Emanuel did awesome – 4th place over all pretty much! Aidan took home first! Everyone had fun watching the cars and it gave the adults some visiting time.

We had PLANNED to head to the free comic day at The Source… up until we drove by and realized that they were lined up literally AROUND the building! Though there was some amazing cosplayers out there to keep people company!