August 3-6

We have started our August with a very busy weekend. From a historical site to a rather amazing park. With friends along to share in the fun – Renee, Christopher and their 3 sons. they had been to this park before… it is a great combination of play set with a small splash pad area. We had a bit of a drive to get there and it was a rather popular place but we even managed to snag a table… in the shade!

We got there and the kids just scattered.

We brought some treats to munch on and there was a water fountain to sip from. It was an amazing time!

After that we headed back to town and the Schwartz’s for dinner. Although the kids had to enjoy the slip and slide first.

Since it is creeping up on Echo’s FOURTH birthday we brought a cake and Chris and Renee had a special present just for our almost birthday girl.

Echo is absolutely in love with Jeffrey as well. (but then again, who isn’t???)

Monday and Tuesday was back to school (half days). We have been working on our pen pal work, tracing picture using tracing paper… all sorts of fun stuff! So appreciative of Gammie sending us the Mixels.

But on Tuesday we emptied out Ken and myself’s bedroom (with lots of kids’ help). We had seen Nana and Baba off on their Florida Adventure to take more of Joe and Faithe’s things down and help them settle in (the left a few days later than the family but took longer driving stretches). I figured it was as good a time as any to sort out our bedroom. We do keep getting more stuff (not a huge surprise after getting rid of 3/4 of what we owned before we moved south). Final tally – most everything collected is used and useful! Just like I intended!

With the sun holding and Daddy needing to do some garage sorting the kids spent a lot of the afternoon in the sun… or in the girls’ case in the shade of an umbrella.

We found a critter.

And plucked from the garden.

And then continued the trend on Wednesday (looking back now and writing this in September when the weather just blinked and went fall I am SERIOUSLY missing these warm sunny days!!!).

Sometimes you need to run before you learn!

And then go right back out again!!!!

Enjoy the picture overflow!

July 30-31

Now coming from Alberta and the world of Dollarama and Canadian Dollar store and and and we of course assumed finding dollar stores down here would be simple (they are an amazing resource for homeschooling, general crafts and the occasional toy gifting)… well apparently they are much more rare down here than up there. We went to a place called Family Dollar ASSUMING that it was a true dollar store… oops! The kids were less than impressed. Well we all were. Our trip to the Thrift store was another fail too. Just not our Monday for shopping. Of course there is still the coming weekend’s garage sales to hunt down and a dollar store near Darcy that I am determined to make my way to. A TRUE dollar store, where everything is a dollar… oh the adjustments!!!

We did manage to find some gems though, an itty bitty tea set that all fits into the tea pot for Trinity, a Cars brand specialty eraser, pencil crayons at a somewhat ok cost… and envelopes. We have worked on pictures and short letters for some friends back home and now are collecting any and all addresses of people interested in corresponding. I don’t know how many letters we will send out at a time but I am sure there will be some wonderful mail coming and going from Minnesota! If anyone is interested in corresponding please message me and I am sure we can exchange addresses. 

Tiny Tea Set

In fact, I am in process on the planning right now. I have found a monthly mailing that I am interested in purchasing for Emanuel and we have started our work on a Minnesota binder… illustrations, write ups and more about this state, the places we see and where we are living. Learning about our surroundings is always fun and highly educational. 

Around the table

Even the littlest

I am making some decent progress on my cross stitch already. It is so soothing to be back stitching, and as it is a kit I don’t feel the frustrations of missing supplies. 

To date!

Our Tuesday was much more exciting… after we had our morning of homeschooling of course… We continued our rehashing of what we have seen and learned about our new home. 

Working hard

And then it was time to head out to the Novak’s for a visit. They had a slip and slide on the lawn, a kitty to hang out with and of course… the 4 boys! Trinity found this visit much more fun and Echo decided her best place to be was with Anthony. She ended the afternoon with a bit of a fever so cuddling was high on her priority list. 

Her Anthony

Again

Darcy and I snuck out and did some kid free shopping ourselves. She lives rather near a Target, dollar store (a REAL one) and a kids’ clothing thrift store. Successful trip and then some. Trinity now has her much asked for sunglasses… I have MANY boxes of crayons (50 cents a box of Crayola 24’s) and then a pretty dress (5.50 thank you). I found tutus and hair clips I would like to take a second look at later as well! So definitely a success. 

Slip and slide

I am loving this saying good bye to people and knowing that we have YEARS to visit. Not that we are letting the grass grow under our feet… the next day is a free movie in the am with the Novaks and a baseball game (Andrew plays) on Friday… add to that trying to plan something with Bree (whose schedule is much more up in the air) and the hope for some visiting with family and we are definitely living in a way that gets us out and with friends.

We wore Andrew out