August 14-15

I got the lucky opportunity to take our not so little family over to the Novaks’ house first thing in the morning to help Darcy out so she could make an important appointment an hour away. Ken had class, his last before the test, so for him it was a drop and run. I got there AFTER Darcy had left (gotta love the older boys who can manage for shorter periods of time).

We had the computers running Minecraft, the oldest still sleeping away, cartoons on the tv and a lovely day to enjoy.

Lunch was simple – veggies, crackers, cheese and juice.

Apparently celery without peanut butter is NOT cool!

We stayed well into the evening as Ken not only had class but afterwards everyone went out for dinner.

SNOOPY~!

Andrew and Anthony took all but Echo out to the nearby park. I think we completely wore out all 5 of ours but it was a great day… not only did we have a massive playdate BUT we also had a lovely bit of downtime before Thursdays first annual assessment test for the kids officially registered in homeschooling (ages 7 and up).

birthday cookie!

With her Snuggly Worm

The test was a long awaited final requirement for the state of Minnesota for the year and a total weight off my mind. While I do not believe in sharing grades and really in grading completely at this age I can do the proud mama (and teacher) brag and state that ONE of the twins is 2 full grades ahead in math and the other almost 1 1/2! We do need to work on spelling (not a surprise) and general knowledge (well DUH, we are teaching them NOW what the kids here have grown up knowing) so no real surprises… except how well they are doing!!! Good job boys!!!!

We were hoping to start swimming lessons Thursday evening but the swim club ended up short of numbers so we are waiting for the second session. Instead I took the (apparently) courageous move to walk all 5 kids (with Echo in stroller) along the major road, over a bridge and hill to McDonald’s for a special dinner! What I thought was a decent length walk turned out to be a total 3.4 mile walk!! ACK (that is with return trip, 1.7 each way) We had a lovely dinner and even won a free smoothie!

Starting out all excited

Freebie!

Ready to head home

Emanuel figured once we got there we should have contacted Daddy and had him come get us but we were made of sterner stuff  than that and walked all the way home and directly into the shower!

We came home to undies for our no longer baby… not sure she understands what they are for yet!

A day of milestones to be sure!

August 7-8

We have started a new thing with the little two… they have a special story time without their brothers where we read a chapter out of their book and then they draw their favourite parts and tell me what they remember from it. We finished our first book and boy were they proud! The next book is about tiny people with tails called The Littles… am I the only one who remembers these?

We finally got around to starting our Science project book… osmosis as shown by putting gummy bears in water overnight. I am not sure how quickly we will get through the box as Science is always our hardest to keep up with, but this dollar book from Target was a wonderful find!!!

Miss Echo is still attempting sporadic potty sitting… no results but we are giving it our best!

I am so glad there are tons of Wild Kratts yet to go through. I think we have learned more interesting tidbits about animals from them then anywhere else!

Basilisk Lizard

Of course we ran outside and enjoyed the playset. I am sure everyone is getting tired of these, but the smiles and joy is just too precious to not capture and share!

The 7th was also Lily Bean’s surgery on her birth mark on the back of her head. It was a day surgery and went off without a hitch but it meant that Scott and Bree had a long day and were more than willing to have me come over the next day and lend a hand! We spent a nice and quiet day keeping her from rubbing her head on anything, snuggling and chatting.

This is some amazing work! The scar should be minimal and the healing already looks good!

See how well she listens to the doctor who says leave the hat on to keep from rubbing… HAH

And now for the eye candy

NOMS

Bree and I had a mommy break at a place called Turtle Bread that had the most amazing soup! Broccoli Cheese (vegetarian).

We also walked to the nearby Dairy Queen to support the hospital that she had her surgery at … it was a buy a blizzard donate a dollar drive!

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the flower but the colour… love it!

A nice long day away from my own kids helping with my American baby. I felt so spoiled!!!!

July 8-9

After so much fun and Nana and Baba returning in mere days I decided to call it and give the kids one whole week off! Well, once we planted our seeds of course. Two different kinds of green beans with cups and papertowels… we followed the basic instructions from Instructables HERE. The twins are jointly weekly recording and Trinity and Emanuel are putting their observations in the nature journals.

Out came the Play Doh…

Gavin

And then with the now firmly installed slide, a rash of screaming, laughing and fast sliding!

No fear!

We had the perfect weather to take out our alternative to the traditional water balloons. We used the instructions by the website How Does She? HERE. We did have to attempt regular sponge sponges when we couldn’t get to Dollar Tree before Aidan’s birthday party but I am  telling you now, not cool! The best is what they list on the site – plastic sponges from Dollar Tree. We bought 6 packages and I ended up with 29 due to sacrificing two for the paper making. They leave no plastic pieces on the lawn to collect, and all you need is a bucket with water. Echo didn’t even mind getting hit in moderation! Sponges were 1.00 for 10 and the elastics 1.00 or so as well and I have well over 3/4 of a bag of those left!!!

Add water…

Our sponges

What is better after a good waterfight in the sunshine than big glasses of lemonade???

We gave the potty and some juice in front of the tv a try… still no real results sadly. BUT we talk about our potty usage constantly. My goal is to give it a real push in September when we are once again living solo.

Of course it is the perfect time to have a tea party.

Picnic…

AND tea party

And end the evening with a lovely LATE dinner with the newest season of Futurama and some lovely Chinese food… just the two of us!!

Not a bad end to our two weeks without Nana and Baba!