I don’t know why but whenever Easter falls right  the beginning of the month of April (this year the 5th) it always feels like the rest of the month is on FAST FORWARD! Of course, we made sure to follow our family traditions… pictures of the family together, girls in pretty dresses and new hats, the bunny ears (though those are getting too small for the available heads). Now that we are set in our home church we also went to Easter Sunday Service. Add in some decent spring weather and dying of eggs and I figure we did it up right.

The girls did classic egg dying… messy but fun!

Ken and the boys tried something we saw on Facebook… rice and food colouring in a cup then shake… it worked!

Although, I must admit the BETTER pictures were taken a week later in the same outfits (for the kids) in a shadier spot. The original picture was taken in front of the small Catholic church at the end of the street (they have a larger building behind they now use but it is less aesthetic). Sun was not our friend and the camera battery our mortal enemy!

Of course I also took pictures in the church…

The following weekend…

I actually spent much of my month before creating baskets for each of the kids. I could not resist this crochet pattern and was able to embellish it as I wanted. Add in some presents from Mom and Dad and Gammie and I think it was rather fun! You can find the pattern HERE.

Of course we had to take a picture with our new FAT SHEEP… well Echo named her Cookie the Sheep… she was a lovely gift from Sharon back in Canada… our predecessor had been loved flat by Miss Echo so Cookie lives OUTSIDE the bedroom. (New Easter hats as usual too!)

So a very happy belated Easter… CHRIST IS RISEN… HE IS RISEN INDEED… HALLELUJAH!

And us

Our Easter stained glass windows.

And just a couple more images… there is something special at looking back at these days and pictures that reminds me how precious this year has been!

February 22-25

What to do on a weekend when we plan to be home for it? Well… have company! Childhood friend Christopher and his wife Renee who is due any day with their 3rd (boy) and their sons Nathan and Evan. They came over for lunch and playtime. Younger than our boys the kids still managed to have a lot of fun. Of course Skylanders came out and Legos and such. It was nice to have company over where the adults could just sit around and chat (or craft).

Walking Tacos

We ended our Saturday calmly with a movie. Really not much to report beyond a great visit with old friends.

Sunday was totally a crafty day… after Sunday school. I had to get EVERYTHING out and package up my big commission from a friend up north… she requested I make her a variety of critters for her to gift etc this year… I think I covered the spectrum and had a blast honing my skills while doing it. Is it ever hard to wait until she gets it to find out her thoughts!!!

And then for a more local (but still mailing away) craft… one I have not done in ages – an infant knotted tutu. Using glitter tulle so I am on the hunt for the escaped glitter now. Really glitter is EVIL!

Monday was back to work… and back to swimming for the twins. I am really impressed how much more RELAXED they are each time.

We had some more sporty drawing to enjoy. Art for Kids (on right) put up a stick figure figure skating… something Trinity was quick to say SHE wanted to draw.

We decided to create our own Olympic medals. I love the 4 different interpretations… Zander’s all had his name on them, Gavin recreated the official ones for this year… the other two were equally creative. I got our template from Activity Village HERE. We used the 3 sizes of circles to show the different places as I really didn’t want to print out enough that we had 4 sets of large circles!

Emanuel and I are working on our Magic Treehouse dinosaur themed story still. It is so much fun reading one on one with him. His own reading skills are increasing by leaps and bounds!

We added a new animal to our Wild Kratts list – the Meadow Vole. The twins have come up with a new idea along the same lines. They want to watch Dirty Jobs episodes with Mike Rowe and pick one of the jobs of the episode to research further. We have been working on our Google searching and how we type in a specific topic or sentence and then reading through articles… with adult supervision of course.

The weather is just too yuck for the little ones so we pulled out our rainy day fun bucket and did some creative sticker and face shape crafting. Echo especially found this  to be great fun!

Tuesday was a rather special day… of course we still did our basics including some Lego time…

BUT Tuesdays 5-8 pm are free admission at the Minnesota History Center!

There was tons to see and do and not enough time for us to do it all. We had only an hour (5-6) before we needed to be back for Ken to go to his weekly gaming night but we made good use of it. We went straight to the area that was the most hands on for the kids. I want to go back and see the prohibition era limited time display in the following weeks.

There was tons about the fur trade and the Native Americans…

Reproducing bead patterns

A great display about the use of Bison…

And so much more.

The 4 big kids and Ken tried out the mine area as Echo was having nothing to do with the noise and darker ambiance.

It was so much fun to head out and just enjoy learning about the state we now live in. Together time well worth it! And how to end the evening with Daddy gone to gaming? With a late snack food supper and a movie… THOUGH I hasten to say – fun mommy was only for ONE night… the next night we planned bacon wrapped pork and vegetables…

The joy of learning not only at home but out in the open air!

November 21-22

There are days when the girls fight like cats and dogs and then there are days like Thursday where they sit down and colour together. Princess pictures out of the giant colouring books!

We had storytime together… I love just randomly grabbing a book and enjoying it with the kids! Of course we had to reflect and record what our favourite part or character was!

We also made turkey cards with Trinity and Emanuel. Relatively simple, just paint the portions of the hand different colours and slap it onto your paper. Let it dry and draw in your turkey. Trinity got creative and totally did it her way! But I think they turned out super cute!

With Christmas in our sights it was also time to start painting some special gifts. The kids wanted some of the family and friends to get their precious Home Depot crafts! So it was some serious painting going on.

Day 1

Day 2

Emanuel had Cub Scouts and is VERY proud of his new book with its instructions to get BADGES! That just leaves fees and the shirt purchase and we are well on our way with the Novaks as our guide!

The next day we had a special long lunch break… with Daddy… OUTSIDE!

Our afternoon was a bit of a workshop. We have our Canadian package to go north to Aunty Holly so she can play Santa for us. So… time to make cards! 5 cards among the 4 kids… no hands on except glue and tape assistance, from Mommy!!! Creativity at its best!

After painting and card making what to do? Well, use the newest Art for Kids (link on right) instructions and make some pictures to give away as well!

Oh and read a Thanksgiving-ish themed book…

The Apple Doll

And then end our evening with Turbo the movie and cookies from Canada thanks to Aunty Sharon!!!!

Thank you Sharon!!