April 1-3

We keep getting chills and snow but spring is finally in sight! However, as in past years, we did NOT do any sort of April Fools in our home. Moderation is not really a great skill among our boys and I really did not want to risk escalation of silly little jokes into tears and frustration in the ranks.

The month started on a Tuesday… so we had the following Saturday and Home Depot to look forward to… in fact we have a birthday party AND a sleepover to look forward to as well! Talk about starting a month with a bang! I am doubly excited about the sleepover as the boys have been asking for AGES to have someone come over and stay and all of a sudden I have two Novak boys fall into my lap. PERFECT!

We do need to celebrate a new month. How better to do so than with an educational video and fresh buttered popcorn? So Planet Dinosaur went into the PS3 and everyone settled in for a few hours of dinosaurs.

On Wednesday the kids worked on playing a game Gavin came up with – combining a Squinky gameboard with their Skylanders. It was not explained to me but everyone seemed to agree on the rules and get along REALLY well!

Thursday was a total fun day for us. We wandered a few stores to run errands including a wonderful children’s clothing consignment store that Darcy showed me where we found a play dress for Trinity and flipflops for the girls at a steal. They have a colouring contest going on right now with pictures of the fish they got for the store where you try to name it. Each of the kids did up one to send back in. My favourite name was Emanuel’s – Swish The Fish!

Dollar store booty

Brand new play dress for a steal

We also had our weekly Sam’s Club run… with lunch there this time! 8.00 and all of us were fed… with a variety of things. Seriously EIGHT DOLLARS for SEVEN PEOPLE… the math is grand!!!

Which led to a FRUIT SALAD BAR for supper!

On the way home we saw the start of the last (we hope) mini blizzard. There were tons of warnings starting on the the Thursday evening until later Friday. Just a big sudden dump of snow! The kids were not impressed.

Started with rain

To this…

Ending like this once again

We also planted our grass for Easter egg pictures… it was a neat idea I saw on Facebook to make real grass for Easter baskets.

And that was that… time to look forward to a fun weekend that STARTS on Friday with a birthday party! And to celebrate the fact that Miss Trinity does NOT need glasses (as was figured out on Monday oops.. forgot  to relay that!).

For all our Dr. Seuss resources check out the blog entry: Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

March 1-3

Well, it has been 5 days of reading and learning with a Seuss theme… so what book did we end our focus on? Why Horton Hears a Who! Oh and I read them all Fox in Socks… next year it is KEN’s turn to do the tongue twisters. The kids got a laugh and a half out of it though so it was all worth it. We had Horton themed worksheets AND general Dr. Seuss themed ones to complete…

And then there was our quick run out to Michaels to get the beginnings of my Saint Patrick’s day necessities… the next big colour specific holiday (hmmm green paper chain anyone? An awesome way for the little ones to work with the big ones on patterns and careful stapler usage). And the folders we needed from Walmart so we could jump right in on assembly of our Dr. Seuss folders. I decided to go folders instead of binders and such just because of the bulk of our work being worksheets. A little different from a binder but the right colours for our theme. I love how each of the kids did a different colour scheme on their Cat in the Hat hat for the cover.

Absolutely Seussian

Adding to the Dr. Seuss party excitement is the fact that QUINN and Uncle STEVEN are coming too! A party is always more fun with a guest right? We brought out the Dr. Seuss felt board set that I got on clearance this past summer. The twins did up math equations for each other.

I am so in love with felt boards… I need to find an affordable large one for us!

I had to take advantage of a crochet link my cousin Veronika linked me and make a crown for Trinity! It was a super quick stitch… though I noticed AFTER that that she had an IMPROVED pattern for the princess crown… so guess what is next? Of course Echo wants one and there is baby Lily to Be who needs an Easter gift…

Pretty in pink

What do for lunch when you don’t have a strict plan? Ask the children… CEREAL!!!

Yum

We had a good and strong ending to our Dr. Seuss week! Which leads me to Saturday and our PARTY!!! Of course there are certain elements you MUST have to have a good party… decorations.. check (in themed colours), guests (Quinn and Steven)… check, and FOOD! Now we had a selection… One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish goldfish AND blue water jello with some fish as well (gummies), Cat in the Hat themed fruit (we had no skewers so I just lay them on the plate), marshmallows (because in The Lorax the movie he threw them to the animals), and Truffula trees made out of cotton candy and pretzels in chocolate cupcakes. We tried a drink but it didn’t really work quite right but we ate the fruit anyway after.

Our party set up

Most of the spread… less the eggs and ham

I wish that we had had all our colour toners… but they were readable

Trees!

But before all that was the morning errands… the twins and Ken had much needed hair cuts… then to Home Depot for the wood craft – making little cars and racing them… and then stopping at the library to drop off books and pick up my movie. Ken also had to grab some last minute supplies because for supper we had… GREEN eggs (well Ken tried) and ham.

The eggs took the colour way too easily

Our test subject with his new haircut

We had a change in plan early in the day and it went from a party to a party AND a sleepover! Talk about excitement!

Party time!

Cotton candy for the win

One Fish Two Fish RAINBOW Fish

The guys got in their boys time, but I simply could not pull off my visit. Lily to Be made sure her Mommy stayed home.

So it was just me and my little princesses

Guys at play

The kids’ version of gaming – Skylanders

They ended the day with Horton Hears a Who!

Movie time

Trinity and Quinn are officially best friends and bummed together all Saturday and then again on Sunday morning.

Racing cars

Best buddies

Sunday, after we said good bye to Steven and Quinn the Dr. Seuss fun continued with a visit to the Novak’s with our Truffula tree CAKE. Anthony helped me with the assembly.

Our cake

We had a great time just hanging out while the kids ran and played.

Snoopy!

On the iPad together

Supper was chaotic and busy and totally yummy.

Anthony, Zander and Andrew

The rest

Ken and Andy worked together to repair the family laptop.

Hanging with the babies

Which somehow morphed into Minecraft???

We played so hard that Echo passed out on the couch! Sign of a day well played.

Played out

After Dr. Seuss is all up and done I will have to post my best of Anthony pictures… he seems to have gotten the hang of my camera very quickly and took quite a few wonderful pictures! I will post one here and then… well the entry will make it up in short order!

Incidentally also the only picture of Darcy… and there is Ken working on the laptop! I love the soft colour the no flash gives.

I got my playdate in after all! I am going to leave you with a wonderful quote from Dr. Seuss thanks to Cori, a Facebook friend.

Dr. Seuss

September 19-20

Our first real friend sleep over was a success! It took the kids a while to fall asleep, of course, but in the end they all did. Trinity got to drag her princess couch into the boys’ room so that she was not left alone. I love how Quinn just fits in with all the kids…

Sleeping buddies

Steven came over late Tuesday night and slept over. It was fun sitting up and watching game shows with the guys… Family Feud and such. So when the kids woke up (and I was the first adult standing) and ate breakfast I let them know that Steven was here. The guys slept in, as did Zander of all people so it was just the 5 kids and myself up and playing. 

Breakfast with Quinn

So of course… trains! 

Trains!

And then there is time to play outside in the now cool morning air. I am amazed at how quickly it gets cool here, though by the afternoon it was gorgeous out!

Getting into trouble behind the cover of the tree?

And in the front in plain sight

After Steven and Quinn headed home (tired boy in tow) I checked the mail. There was a package in the post box for Echo from her Grandma. A special dolly handmade that is just like the one my mom had made for her by her mom. Something called a Golly-wog, but without the race connotation. It was a handmade dolly out of used items – a woman’s stocking and stuffed with socks. Also included was a letter explaining the dolly, a picture of my mom as a toddler with hers and a dress for her to grow into. Trinity is now talking about how grandma needs to make HER on. 

Hello dolly

A book I reviewed way back when called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society mentions the doll on page 24 a comment on an urban dictionary noted. If you feel the urge look up the dolly but keep in mind the version my mom had and now Echo is not with the same connotation. In fact there is no bright red mouth on either… they are a simple handmade dolly. In fact, my mom still has hers and treasures it as a part of her mom and dad – Grandma used Grandpa and her socks to create it!! I think we need to come up with a new name. Something that is indicative of the love and self that is put into these two dolls… maybe a lovey doll or something? Ideas?

With dolly

Anyway we headed out to Jo-Ann’s again to look at yarn… I am determined to learn the Granny square and so we went to find something that I could start that with and then create a blanket or something out of later. Variegated of course so that I can get more skeins later to add to if I want it to be bigger than one ball can make. Oh and FINALLY the snaps to finish my original learning project – the headband. So here’s hoping once I get those snaps put in it will look as good as it does in my mind.

We have some great colouring pages to share… first off it is time to move into Fall… so of course back to Activity Village for their terrific fall themed images. The detail and the sweet scenes are a hit with our kids. You can find a choice of them HERE. Zander specifically asked me to print off something that would take him time to colour (now that is a totally NEW thing with him and a great show that his concentration and ability to sit still is growing!). I remembered the beautiful Mandala images I have seen and figured I would find an intermediate series he could pick from. You can find those HERE. We have started a folder of the coloured items… the day before it was dot to dots that you can find HERE. I want to keep things under control. If you let the kids colour and do these illustrations and not collect them in a single place you easily get overrun. And if I have learned anything from our lengthy adventure it is that it is not necessary to spread yourself thin. Instead, why not collect them all in a single book to page through whenever we want and if need be remove pieces to gift out. I really need to find a stack of binders somewhere!! They work much better for items you need to add and remove on a regular basis. 

His Mandala

Thursday was SUPPOSED to be the day that Nana and Baba returned from their 3 weeks in the Dominican. However, due to mechanical issues (a 2 hour wait on oil??) they ended up delayed to the point where they were not making to back to Minnesota until the next day. That gave us the whole day to clean up, finish projects and generally get ready… oh and ice the cake – for a belated birthday Baba cake. 

Farmer Boy

Emanuel and his penguin

We finally were able to coordinate getting Trinity’s hair washed and freshly brushed, some spare time and my wedding dress out in the front room to do up some photos. This was an idea I had seen on the internet… you dress your daughter up in your dress as a child and then save the picture for HER wedding. She was so excited to wear it and it was so fun to pull it back out and remember the day. I plan on doing a solo entry of the dress pictures later. But here is the teaser I posted on Facebook.

Our darling girl

It was so much fun, finishing reading the Farmer Boy book (FINALLY), continuing with Trinity’s letters… just generally getting things done. Though we realize that Zander really needs more time to learn his spelling words. I am  trying to get him unstuck from them having to be in a specific order.

Working hard on our learning