September 20-25

I have been playing with favourite patterns and thinner yarn or different needles.. these two Cthulhu came out of that play. BABIES!!! Using light Caron Simply Soft. You can find the pattern HERE… or purchase a completed (and slightly larger) version on my Etsy site HERE. I plan on putting some wee ones up eventually… after the Christmas present rush.

Over the weekend we took a little time and finally got our act together to assemble our Shark unit book… the duotang was almost too small! You can check out our resources used, etc on our resource entry on the blog HERE. It was quite the unit.

On Sunday (AFTER Sunday School of course) we had a lovely visit with the Novaks. We were supposed to leave around dinner time for a coffee date but it fell through so it was a relaxing afternoon with good friends.

Snoopy was a willing subject for the camera as usual.

And we came home with some new reading material! Thank you so much Aidan for letting these gems go!

On Monday we had princesses at school… in MITTENS (super garage sale find for a quarter I think).

Gavin created an amazing FALL tree we later entered in the Art for Kids (link on right) fall art contest. I love it when they just go without instructions and really work with the Lego! We actually have the 3 boys enrolled in a once monthly class online with Currclick that is free for Legos. They are really enjoying it. They have multiple free and for pay classes through their site now!

Tuesday was so lovely we drug our new desks outside for craft time before they get placed in the school area inside.

Nature came out to share with our crafty time as well! Though after the scare elsewhere in the country with a fuzzy caterpillar that caused burn like rashes we kept our hands well away!

With a new school year we have also pulled down our previous year’s posters… so it was time to create a new fall scene for our walls. Can you believe it is fall already? Where did the time go???

We have had a jump with our learning as well. Emanuel suddenly WANTS to try and write out his own words in his journal and in letters. So be prepared… I correct the spelling above but you will get to see his creative management of letters in his words!!

We have taken to doing work in areas… videos on the DVD player for volcanoes.

One of 3 desks inside for an independent learner.

The table for the avid crafter. It seems to be working!

We are most certainly keeping busy!

August 7

Some of the new season of Wild Kratts have been really interesting… Crocogator was fun… comparing a crocodile and an alligator (Emanuel was later able to repeat this knowledge to a friend! So proud!).

We had another wonderful series of garage sale finds. I love finding books for a steal!!!

The night of the 7th was a parade! In fact, Karen (Renee’s sister) suggested we go to this one. It is a long time favourite of hers and we were more than happy to join here and Cory for the event.

Of course we got there early to get decent parking and lucked out with a Catholic church/school with an adjoining playground. We actually ended up at the end of the beginning of the parade so it was easy to know when to return to our choice spot.

Karen is a HUGE fan of parades and was right there with the kids trying to get the big trucks to honk their horns and cheering on everyone.

She was a great sport, even getting a big black mustache with oil make up that the kids were TOTALLY not going for.

there was a florist handing out roses to all the ladies as well.

And a group right at the beginning that gave out carrots. ECHO loved that as did Ken and Cory.

So many cowboy hats and as usual around here, princesses.

We finished off our evening with dinner and a visit at our house. Talk about an amazing once a year experience (as that is the grand total of parades Ken is willing to go to). Thanks for the heads up and for joining us Karen and Cory!!

April 17-19

And… back to snow for one last hurrah… we hope! The bigger kids have really stepped up and now love having Echo out there with just them. They are growing up so quickly.

Spot the bunny

We squeezed in a Wild Kratts…

Black Footed Ferret

And Artistic Endeavors (that really do need capitalization! We are one with our creativity lately!!)

And then Easter Eggs! The girls did the traditional dye.

But the boys and Ken tried out this new way of doing it using shaving cream and dye… though if you plan on eating the eggs after it is highly suggested you switch the shaving cream with whipped cream. You can find instructions HERE.

Our Friday was a bit more quiet with a  half day to allow us to deal more with getting ready for the weekend and EASTER SUNDAY! We worked more on England through our Little Passports.

And got packages in the mail from Gammie.

On Saturday morning I dressed the girls up in LAST year’s Easter dresses. My cousin’s little girls said that they looked like the princesses off Frozen.

We paired those with the shirts Holly sent us from Canada and Voila perfect pic op!

We downsized Echo from super fluffy to a purple piece that was Trinity’s ages ago.

So we started our Easter with dress up and pictures. Easter 2014 is off to a great start! Enjoy the overflow!