July 2-3

I have to say, having the reason to celebrate BOTH Canada Day AND Independence Day has made our July much more interesting. Of course since one is July 1st and the other the 4th we DO have two days in between. This year was unusual as everyone (including Joe, Faithe, Gabbi and Zachary with Nana and Baba) was going camping starting on the 3rd… Except me and the girls (Mosquito allergy) and Ken (leaving the morning of the 4th after his appointments). This marks one of the VERY few civic holidays that Ken and myself would not celebrate together. As I mentioned in a previous July 4th entry HERE, we 3 girls did manage a fun time without our boys. But we did miss them!

Anyway… the 2nd and 3rd… We started with a half day of school. Mainly reflections on what it means to each of the twins to be Canadian…

And pictures of things that represent Canada to Trinity and Emanuel.

The boys are very serious about improving their reading. The twins are thick into chapter books and Emanuel is struggling less and less.

The kids got their newest souvenir from Nana and Baba’s travels… animal puzzles!

And then it was time for cousins and playing.

They are set to move to Florida at the end of July. Quite the big move and a wee bit unexpected so I made sure to grab early July 4th group photos. I even dressed the kids up in their colours. I couldn’t let a holiday go by without that! (I posted an image or two from this photo shoot HERE.)

Especially without a group shot of the kids. Every year we do it!

On the 3rd we saw off everyone BUT Daddy, but really snuck out before the chaos and met up with Renee, Nathan, Evan, Jeffrey and Renee’s sister Karen (you will remember her from the amazing June wedding Ken was in HERE).

This is a pretty amazing series of parks. There is a play park, then a splash pad (not a park, just a cement pad with water spraying out) and then the manicured and lifeguard included beach!

Ken was odd man out as usual but the kids had a blast, and it was so fun to get to see the sisters together. Now that Ken is healthier and working on becoming the healthy and HAPPY man we always knew he could be he is the first out the door to allow for the possibility of us expanding our social life. Karen and Renee are such a welcome addition to the list of people I have locally to hang out with. I feel so lucky that they include us on outings and time with the kids! (Karen is an amazing math teacher as well! And so interesting to talk to about possible school ideas… something I have been missing here in Minnesota what with all my librarian friends up north!!)

The girls didn’t even miss their wayward brothers and even made up for the lack of boys by playing with Nathan and Evan.

I was amazed at the absolute confidence Miss Echo showed. We didn’t have to convince her into the water or even follow her around!

Of course we brought lunch!

After our playdate it was off to Joann’s to spend the amazing gift card my sister in law Holly sent me for my birthday. She sent it with the direction to “buy yarn” so I went all out random.  And since it was clearance time spent way less than expected!!

With just the two girls and then Daddy gone to appointments was our afternoon and evening ever QUIET!!! So weird, not only having just girls but only 2!!!! But a nice break before the next special day!

Enjoy the beach filled overflow!

April 7-9

Sometimes it is fun to curl up under a blanket and watch shows together.

Especially when we have a Wild Kratts to enjoy. That third season is finally out. New animals!!!

Kangaroos!

We had a fun spring/Easter themed book to read and draw a picture from.

And Miss Echo took a dress up break. She is definitely our princess of the day.

The kids did a venn diagram comparing what we know about Jesus and the Easter Bunny to see what sort of celebrations and such corresponded… things like bright colours and family together time of course.

Emanuel and Daddy snuck out to get spiffy… brand new haircuts! Though the lady did go shorter than we usually like with our curly haired boy.

That left the twins to follow suit with showing off their buzz cuts thanks to Daddy!

That evening we sat down and built our next science kit… a solar car. Sadly the next day when we tried it out it was not very willing to drive. Ken figures some tweaking is required. So I brought out the tiny solar grasshopper we got last year on a steal.

On Tuesday we gave a new method of egg dying a spin… Volcano eggs. You mix the dye (liquid) with baking soda using a bit of water, spread it on the eggs like paint and then add vinegar and watch the fizz. We used our plastic eggs that we picked up at Walmart though the results were not brilliant. I need to check into different dyes and the like for next year. The fizzing did please all! Who doesn’t love a good volcano activity?? We found our original instructions on Toddler Approved HERE.

Emanuel has started earning arrow points for Scouts. One of the ones they are doing with the den is a puzzle. They each have a part of it to assemble on their own and bring in a couple weeks to the meeting! Exciting!

We had a lovely sunny day to enjoy and a trip to Sam’s to take so photos first in the sunshine and then off we went.

Of course after that we had to enjoy just a little more sunshine in the backyard… it is a bit of a mucky mess but we managed.

We have been talking about the religious roots of Easter lately. The kids are starting to grasp the full life of Jesus now and it is interesting to see and hear how that impacts what they figure THEY should do – be kind, share His story, share…

We had planned to do family photos but with the snow still apparent I settled for some cute ones with the girls.

Echo then played in the sun room while the kids took their recess and played out in the backyard. It truly is starting to look like spring… so far.

Emanuel had his big wheel out…

The grass in our dish is starting to grow…

And we even found time for another chapter of Treasure Island…

An Easter themed storytime…

And a Wild Kratts!

Hermit Crabs!

Spring is here at least for the moment and we are trying to face every moment with a smile and our best intentions. New life, new start, new us!

Even a touch of green outside!

February 13-18

Slow but steady, our family motto when it comes to all things is – if you start it you FINISH it! So Thursday the 13th we got right to work on our RED poster for our Chinese New Year unit. I think we did a rather good job on our assembly and quickly realized that this is a poster AND a binder unit! Sometimes we are caught off guard as to how much we really do as 5 kids all working on portions of a unit.

For our Olympics unit we printed off snowboard templates and each of the kids designed their own. We talked about how some will have slogans, labels for selling things, images they like and enjoy seeing and then used their imagination and got to work. This was found on Activity Village under their snowboarding section HERE.

Further proof that Art for Kids drawings are amazing – Miss Trinity was well pleased with her results drawing her own snowboarder. She had to do a second for Echo. I just love how accessible he makes more complicated drawings for kids (link on right) and adults !!

Emanuel made us what he told me was a Chinese style building out of Echo’s wooden blocks… quite nice! She liked it.

We have been working on our Valentines Day themed worksheets. They are really helping the confidence with numbers and colour words!

We also set up a table so the kids could take a week or two and just bead up a storm! Perler beads are simply a family favourite!

Friday, of course, was Valentines Day! And so we had our cards and such to exchange. Ken and the kids had TWO cards for me and a bag of cookies and cream kisses! How spoiled am I?

I made Ken his very own crocheted Kiss… you can find the pattern itself HERE. This site does not allow for sale of completed projects but has a lovely list of free patterns to make of different kinds of food.

Of course we dressed up in red and pink and white to match the theme.

We spent our morning on puzzles and games. Lots of team spirit!

Lunch was full of pink and white and red… we had waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, red jello with whipped cream, pink juice and heart shaped cookies. Add in some suckers and hugs and the kids were over the moon with the variety of snacks.

Our centerpiece!

In the afternoon the kids got white t shirts and fabric markers and made themselves up some fancy t shirts. No theme on those just what they wanted to make but they had a blast working on them.

Supper was the kids’ Pizza Hut reading coupons! I am so proud of the effort they all make to work on their reading! 

We had a VERY quiet Saturday… mainly due to my getting sick. Mommy is ALWAYS the last to get sick… and by then the germs have mutated.

That did not stop the kids from going to Sunday School on Sunday and then heading out into the backyard and all the snow we have out there to enjoy. Yours truly went to nap. I have not been so ill in a very long time. I think I lost days to sleep if you count up all the hours I napped and or slept in.

I went for a bath in the early afternoon to try and clear out my sinuses and came out to my whole family cleaning up the boot room! What sweeties! They all worked so well together!

The evening ended with a Skype visit with Nana and Baba all the way in Roatan!

On Monday it was back to beading – Gavin has an especially large pattern to work on thanks to some of our Christmas money (we purchased the largest peg board we could!)

And then back into the snow. You will see this as a February pattern – any day that is not too cold is spent outdoors. I figure we need to burn off that winter snoozy feel!

Tuesday we were back to family storytime. I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to see the twins reading to their siblings. They are doing so well… so smoothly and so amazingly coherent. I am hoping they will love reading as much as I always have and Ken has grown to.

Trinity, Echo and I read a favourite book – Guess How Much I Love You.

The boys drafted Ken out to help them with a rather impressive structure in the backyard. They started off with a rather half hazard structure and went from there with Ken’s help. Out came the snow brick maker and a piece of wood for the roof. Imagination and manpower… priceless.

I think these moments with Ken out in the snow are going to be amazingly lasting memories for the boys!