Weekends with friends are always so wonderful! And Saturday was a pattern card of perfection! Not only did I have time with great friends, crafts and yummy food but as an added bonus – COUSIN TIME! Veronika was able to make it in for the day as well and was the first one here. She had a final project to finish for her course and I was part of it… I won’t share the pictures but let’s just say – I looked GHASTLY! But it was for a good cause of course and THEN she gave me a pretty face in return! Gotta love family.

Taken well past midnight but you get the idea!

We made a run to the south end and checked out Michaels (packed) and the Halloween store (so much fun!) then to the mall for lunch (YUM and so nice of Cousin V)… Then back to the house to really get ready for our crafting fun. With Veronika ALSO came the second set of Bob Books (as per the twins’ request) AND a brand new used desk for Emanuel (HIS one request for the schooling year). I am not sure if that makes me super mom or Veronika the world’s best cousin… but I figure we can both hold titles together.

Desk!

Kristen and Fydo were the next to arrive, Kristen to craft and Fydo to go downstairs and work on a game design with Ken (didn’t that work well!). We had to move the extra table upstairs for supplies and then bring up the crafting things with a Halloween theme. Kristen and Fydo brought chili and cake pops! Talk about yummy! Went well with the baked beans and fresh loaf of bread I made!

Veronika with one of the cake pops

Then came Karyn, Xinny, Alan and not so little Izaac! He and Echo spent the day reconnecting. She loves him and he seems to be in love with her. One of these days I need to set them up and take some really nice pictures of the two of them together! He is around 8 months old now!

Babies together

Sadly Lauralee and Kathy both had to take a miss as they were both feeling ill but I have high hopes for November and our Christmas themed crafting time.

Some of the crafters

Two of Kristen's cards

Veronika's

Xinny's scrapbook pages

Trinity with one of hers, this was a work in progress at the time. She gave them Candy Corn food

The cards I made

We crafted until evening and then Victoria, Karyn and Veronika and I visited into Sunday when we wished Ken a happy birthday and  had him open his present from yours truly! Bought with Veronika’s assistance! Gotta love having family working at a bookstore again! You definitely get into the know! He seemed rather pleased with it!

Ken's present from me and from Zander (on left)

Today was our day for helping in Sunday School but I woke up with a head ache and Echo with a very cranky attitude so I made breakfast for the kiddos, got them dressed and then Ken woke up and took the 4 big ones on his own. I am told he did a great job on cookie and juice duty. And Trinity had a blast at her second Sunday School session! We of course took a Daddy Birthday group picture!

All 5 kids

With the birthday boy

Lunch was bacon, pancakes and banana bread. They all seemed to enjoy it! And then I took a nap. Ken worked on his programming and the boys got spoiled with tv and Minecraft. A rather good day! AND I finished Trinity’s Hello Kitty ears and bow thanks to the talented hands of Victoria. She MADE those ears herself! NO pattern! What I did was put  them on a headband I wrapped with white ribbon, used a bow from the wedding stuff and there you go! Then we took white pants, a white shirt and one of her Kitties and matched it as close as we could with her own plaid dress (something Karyn brought back from Scotland). Trinity was VERY happy!!! Very one of a kind too!! And if it is cold out mom found us a polar bear suit that has a removable head so all we have to do is find a shirt that would match a kitty and go with it!!

Hello Kitty! We are waiting on her mittens and a friend suggested eye liner for whiskers!

Ken and Gavin took some time and got started on the ring tailed lemur tail! Tomorrow should show some great progress with that!!

Bent to shape according to Gavin

I am working tonight to get sorted for tomorrow, get some projects done AND get tidy… it has been a weekend to be proud of and I plan on continuing that through the week… after all we still have a lemur to create!!!

One more of the babies !

And with that the BLOG is back to normal. What an amazing 5 days to recount and now reality. What does September hold for the Reinsch-Johnson family? Well, we need to have an educational plan written up… In fact the boys are officially registered as 2nd year homeschoolers. How exciting!! And then there is my hope to have the rest of the unknown boxes and buckets gone through and put away… an end to the settling in after what has become a very positive move. Sunday School starts next weekend for the boys which is a great excitement to them. I am trying to set up a crafting night at least a couple times this month, and Cousin Veronika has suggested a book club… What can I say, I enjoy keeping busy!

Just cuz it is such a great pic of him!

I am not sure what is up with the girls in the family but both are rather pouty this weekend. Lots of sleep for Echo and lots of understanding for Trinity. We decided regardless of attitude we would go out as a family in the mildly temperamental van. It is driving us places without much complaining but we certainly are NOT going out of the city until it has been dealt with! And with it being a long weekend this weekend – well it wasn’t worth rushing out to a service station. Ken wants to contact the Canadian Tire back in the city and complain. This would be the THIRD cooling system issue in as many months… are they not even looking at things??

Anyway we went out to the shopping area and stopped in at Michaels where I picked up WHITE duct tape. The plan is to use that for Echo’s costume – the crook and then if need be use a sharpie for the black on Gavin’s ring tailed lemur costume. Gotta love 50% off one item coupons! (Did I mention the Cricut is on super sale but NOT the size of one that I need?)

And then there is the homeschooling item we purchased there – dry erase CRAYONS! YUP no more dried out markers… another 50% off coupon and the kids should be more than content. Trinity managed to dry out ALL of the markers over the past year by not putting lids on properly. So hopefully these work as well as they say they do. 

Crayons!!!

We finished our shopping at Chapters where the brand of workbooks (Canadian) we use for the twins’ math workbooks were on for 20% off. Emanuel’s BrainQuestall inclusive for Kindergarten was not… so we promised him that AFTER Daddy got paid this week he and Daddy could go and buy his book. (after all I FORGOT one for him and for Trinity at mom’s over the wedding weekend… so busy)

Workbooks!! Now we have 3 copies.. Uncle Wayne was able to find one for us with the first pages gone. So the plan is to have it for backup and redo.

After surviving taking the kids out for shopping and the van making its new noise and minor warning of temperature change we had quiet and naptime for 6 out of the 7 people in the house. I woke up to kids watching tv, Sean at my crafting desk with his computer and Karyn holding Echo. Company for dinner!

Karyn and I ran out for frozen yoghurt and chatting time with Echo in tow. Echo tried some of the snack (strawberry) but it was very cold and she was not overly enthused. We had to play around with Karyn’s new iPhone and take some pictures of not only Karyn’s new shoes but Echo as well. And then late last night we watched Conan the Barbarian (well I went to bed before it was over… it was BAD).

Today Cousin Veronika and Adam came by for some spices we had extra from Ted and asked me to go with them to Michaels and then out for lunch at The Rock (wood fire baked PIZZA noms). I got to check out the car Adam got from a co-worker for free to save on gas to and from work. Adam recently painted it black.

A slight but VERY frustrating hiccup with my email… all of my sent mail is gone and in turn took ALL the threads connected! ACK so if I have NOT responded to you in a while – PLEASE email me back rosereinsch@gmail.com. I know that a lovely lady sent me pictures of her sheep Deichshaf and now I am not sure which of my email addies is hers… thank goodness I saved the pictures to my desktop BEFORE this happened! BUT her lovely UK sheep will be featured on Fat Sheep’s blog shortly. As it is Fat Sheep has been busy blogging about her experiences at the wedding etc. so be sure to check her out HERE.

We spent out late afternoon in the backyard, the shed is now tidy and accessible (well for the most part), Echo spent that time on her blanket in the shade of our umbrella while the kids varied their levels of helpfulness.

Chatting

Once that was done Ken came out and the kids “helped” finish up their playset. Very exciting to have the backyard completed. Though we do need a good mow, that should be tomorrow’s outside activity, and if the weather holds… the little pool filled for Echo!

Working on the playset

A lovely evening for the whole family outside in the sunshine. And now I have the evening to work on scrapbooking and our homeschooling plan.

Bunny baby and her cookie

Mid week comes so quickly lately, but we made this one count! Echo decided to make last night a late one and then once I got her settled and snuggled in my left arm went completely achy. So I stayed up LONGER to get that sorted… so not exactly an early morning.

Sleepy baby

So in the morning after watching our dinosaur movie AGAIN, having breakfast and all that, the kids settled down to read together (I know 4 kids, one book and TOGETHER! definitely picture worthy!).

Back to the dinosaur book (Zander light blue)

Our afternoon turned sunny and relatively warm after Ken and the kids woke up to frost on the ground, perfect weather for the big treat of the day – THE ZOO! Almost empty except for a few parents with their kids and a busload of teenagers we had the run of the place. Echo’s first zoo trip!

Mommy and Echo (with a screaming Emanuel in the back)

We didn’t see everything but we did get to see the guinea pigs (the ones that are left, there were originally more than 60 but someone poisoned the poor things).

Guinea Pig

Of course we had to stop at the favourite enclosure – the lemur. Actually the boys had a rather good idea which way to go to get there! The weather is still nice enough that they were in and out on both sides.

Playing lemurs

To top it off the tortoise was outside having a meal – the most Ken says he has EVER seen a tortoise move, they may be slow walkers but this one ate FAST!

Hungry tortoise

We wandered a bit but headed right over to see Lucy the elephant. We lucked out, she was out on her walk and taking a break to munch on the grass. This time the kids were much more excited and showed really no fear. When Ken went to take pictures from a different angle all 4 wanted to follow to see her eyes.

Lucy the Elephant

We tried to peek in at the tigers but they were not in their enclosure. We figure there were repairs being done. BUT the wolves were out and in fine form. Trinity LOVES the wolves – she calls them Harley – her word for dogs. We want to go back on the weekend for the 11:30 wolves presentation, just not THIS weekend.

Checking out the wolves (Zander left)

Our last stop was the Arctic foxes who we saw when they first had their babies. It is a large family and apparently a lot of work for the parents so they have  put up some coloured plastic in front of the glass that is immediately in front of their den. But they were running all over the place and the kids thought they were AMAZING. I figure in a couple weeks we will be back there, chilly weather or not, to visit those foxes some more!

Arctic Fox info

Arctic Fox

After our zoo experience we had some shopping to do. Our favourite produce chain has opened a brand new store here in the west end. Very fancy but still the great prices, and since today was their grand opening we got a free reusable bag as well! The kids were VERY impressed.

H&W

And at Walmart I managed to get something off my Baby Echo List – her Christmas dress! 18.00, size 0-3… the second piece is a little pair of pants so I still may need to pick up some tiny baby tights (far from my favourite but the baby legs are too big for her baby legs!). It is very sparkly and definitely what I had in mind. Great price too!

Echo's Christmas dress

After all that excitement the kids were settled down to do their pictures from their zoo trip. Zander did up the zebra (we saw them last time), Emanuel the elephant and Gavin the lemurs… ring tailed of course (his favourite).

Zander's zebra

Gavin's lemurs

Emanuel's Elephant

AND  THEN to amp them all back up – Ted, Fydo and Sean came over. Fydo was in town for work (he lives in the city we are considering moving to in the spring) so Ken picked him up and brought him over for the evening.

Fydo meeting Echo

That of course means we ended up with netbooks and xbox and other electronic games out. I do believe Trinity is now an addict! She got to play pacman with the joystick!!!

Little Gamer

An evening of gaming, and good company is certainly a great way to end our Wednesday.

Gaming

Of course that means less time for our to do list tonight but it is worth it! Tomorrow we have to get started on our official plan for the year to show our facilitator… among other things. Talk about a fun way to start our fall.

Happy girl at the zoo