It is hard to believe it is Sunday already… but here you have it! AND I got to go out for a while (without kids!) with Kristen and do some much needed Christmas outfit shopping. Karyn started me on the path of loving Winners and today’s trip cemented it! I did try to find a shirt for under 10.00 (would have been a real coup) but had to “settle” for a 19.99 sweater style dress. And then I splurged and got 9.99 tights, lovely thick ones in black. So red is the theme this year and I am thinking my Holly brooch made into hairclip will be my accessory. 

I am down to needing only 3 more pairs of pj’s for Christmas… I picked up Trinity’s set at Old Navy on sale for 12.00. The boys are always the hardest, they tend to go up in price so quickly, the larger sizes… and I am going slowly to ensure my budget stretches! BUT Kristen helped me come up with an idea for one of the kids I have left that I can do here at home AND she helped me make sure I picked up my gold pipecleaners for today’s craft! Again back to Activity Village’s Advent Calendar, Day 4! The little houses are starting to add up and our 4 separate collections are marvellous! 

We painted today… and decorated our toilet rolls… the rest of today’s craft will be done tomorrow, when we are SURE everything is dry!

Painting

It was craft day at Sunday School and all 4 kids came home with a beaded snowflake. Just like real snowflakes no two were alike… AT ALL! Very pretty and they were all very proud! Next Sunday is the pageant and we all should be going to practice, service, lunch and then concert! It will be a rather short concert but the boys are working hard on their verse! 

Snowflakes

I can share a craft I just finished personally! Trinity’s birthday buddy is a HUGE fan of Ponyo so between Ken and myself (and the helpful advice of some anime savvy friends) we created a feltie pattern. I am told she is wonderful! I have yet to watch the movie but Ken did watch some bits and we both searched through pictures. She is a very interesting character with a lot of changing features. 

Ponyo!

I had a minor laminating machine issue that had to be resolved by opening the darn thing and removing a rather tight and stiff roll of plastic (oops). Thankfully it seems to be ok as I need to use the thing daily for the month of December! The only casualty was Trinity’s day 4 house and she is always up for more colouring so we were not overly upset. 

My list is getting shorter but so are the days until Christmas! ACK But we are enjoying the creating and crafting together. I think tonight instead of a picture I want to leave you all with this video. Please listen to the children who seem like they need a shoulder… 

With the cold weekend the weather has turned positively warm today! Which meant a slurpee WALK for me once the kids were all set and settled and Ken aware I was out. YUM. 

Today was a bit of a crafty day for all involved. There was glitter for the SECOND day in a row (yesterday it was Emanuel and Zander and their tiny snowflakes). We did much better yesterday on keeping it contained. For some reason keep the glitter at the table and after mommy’s bath she will come see meant walk with it through the kitchen, down the hallway to the washroom to show mommy a container of OPEN glitter… 3 or 4 attempts at sweeping it all up later and I am sure I missed enough that days from now we will be reminded of the event. BUT we have some lovely glittered paper snowflakes. 

Emanuel and Zander glittering

Since every year the kids make their own gifts to give the people in their lives we needed to come up with something new for them to do this year. I have some white Model Magic clay stuff left so I took some of that and our Christmas themed cookie cutters and had the twins sit down and create. They made enough for all 4 of the kids to paint once they dry out. 

With supervisor Echo

Who then supervised Daddy as well

With some work on math, snowflake worksheets and crafts sorted… while not a hugely busy day we did manage forward movement. I am debating which would be better – trying to borrow a copy of Polar Express from the library or purchasing my own. I have the files to make a lapbook with the twins. We have the movie as well, so we will do the lapbook and then finish up with the movie. It may be a bit tough to get our hands on a copy in December. 

I finished a few owls over the past two days… Christmas themed of course. Though the first two I did up are already gifted, I will have two to post for sale (the best/cutest of the two will go up on Etsy as my 5th ad). I do love working with Christmas themed materials. 

Christmas cute

I actually completed two people on my Christmas list over the past two days. It feels good to actually cross people off but the list is still distressingly long and my crafting time limited. We watched the Santa Claus Parade on CTV.ca today. The boy were most excited about the Lego float! 

Watching the parade

Tonight’s big goal is to go through all the presents I have saved up over the months. Some go in bags but the ones to wrap are making an extra trip to Kristen and Fydo’s on Thursday to be wrapped. We have a sitter for 4 of our 5 and are going to go and enjoy some adult (and Echo) time while we pretty up some packages ahead of schedule. 

Karyn, Trinity, Emanuel and I were the only ones at the library for pj storytime… it seems everyone else was at the parade and tree lighting. Our kiddos were set on the library and I was right there with them on that one! With the twins seeing their parade online and the baby really NOT needing to sit in the cold the library was the best choice. We had stories about winter clothes, sang songs and did a craft. We lost a mitten on the way home (paper) but I replaced it! 

Dressed for winter in paper form

Tomorrow we will assemble our snowflake lapbooks… there is cookie dough ready to bake which will require the help of CLEAN little hands. Maybe I will let the boys make their own at the blue table… depends on our level of focus! We do love to bake and gift out some of our yummy results! Now if only I could get SOME sort of order on my busy kitchen table… maybe?

I had to try and get some Christmas shots.. thanks to Cousin Veronika and her sheet!

She would NOT sit still!

But cute all the same!

It was Remembrance Day today. This year has special significance to our family as my new brother-in-law Adam is overseas for 6 months. So please keep a special thought/prayer in your heart for him and his safety. He will be gone over Christmas leaving my sister Kat alone in the south. This comes quite soon after their wedding day and we cannot get down to her to visit. Please remember all in the military! Regardless of how you feel about current world events these individuals are amazing people who have sacrificed a lot to ensure that the world is a safer place. 

So yesterday apparently being told that since you did NOT follow simple instructions and do your schoolwork without grumbling you would NOT be getting your allowance today was grounds for a major full out screaming old fashioned temper tantrum. Well only if your name is Gavin. That was actually a huge surprise as he is usually my level headed boy who understands that behaviours have consequences. We simply had to have him yell himself out a bit in his bedroom (with the door closed as of course this occurs during naptime for Emanuel and Trinity), and then go downstairs and talk to Daddy. With Ken swamped with work lately we are all feeling the lack of Kenny time. 

The 4 kids DID manage some somewhat peaceful quality time working on Emanuel’s Thomas Mega Blocks trainset on his bed. I love it when they can all work together on something, there was chatter about the adventures the trains were on, the town they drove through…

Train set

We read our snowflake library books. Two of which were based on Wilson A. Bentley and his snowflake photographs. We drew our own snowflakes on black paper to look like his negatives and included a quote: No two snowflakes are alike. Gavin did a whole mini book of his own snowflakes to include in his snowflake lapbook. 

So pretty!

Today was a special day for the twins, they got to go to the Agri-trade show with their Uncle Wayne! So that meant we ALL had to be up and them ready by 9 am, early for our family. Since only the twins could go (handful they are and his truck can only hold so many) the little ones and I had our morning to ourselves. We started with popcorn and the jumperoo…

Popcorn

And moved swiftly into painting. There were some fridge magnet kits though the paint included in those was dried rock solid. Thank goodness we have a large  variety of colours, though I noticed my yellow is getting low. Trinity went one step further and did a painting as well… so of course baths followed! 

Painting together

Painting on paper

Last night I opened up my Etsy store! I haven’t posted much but it is a start! I need to get Ken to make me a logo and post up a few more items but I am starting small. Etsy charges 20 cents per post so I don’t want to go hugely into the hole and then find out I can sell nothing! So please click the link above and take a look… suggestions welcome, sales even more so! I have put the shipping low so far and will see how items go. I want to try and charge as close to what it costs me to ship as possible. 

Today was full of fun with friends… Trinity, Echo and I went out with Kathy and Karyn shopping for post potty training Kitty booty. She picked out socks (knee!) and a necklace/bracelet set (pictures to follow). Then there was the food court and Edo Japan (ok Arby’s curly fries for the picky Trinity) and then Michaels for a bit more shopping (oops). 

At the mall

Wore her out!

The twins had an amazing time with their uncle. They came back with a whole bunch of booty, memories and stories to tell… oh and yoyos. Again pictures to follow as after a fun day out I am too lazy to take pictures of all the goodies!!!

Oh and the most awesome of friends kept me company even into tonight! We had Little Caesar’s for cheap food… and chatting was done… and now I have to post this silly entry before I forget!!! Remember to go back to this entryand enter the draw! 

YAY company!