Tag Archive | spring

A Touch of Warmth

March 8-12

Another weekend, another series of visits. Saturday afternoon/evening Ken and the boys went to a sleepover at Joe and Faithe’s. Total boy time. That left Echo, Trinity and myself to dinner and a rather quiet evening of a movie and popcorn.101_6440

Oh and dress up!!101_6437

We have some fairy hackers coming along it seems.101_6438

Trinity and I even took some time to start her Hello Kitty scrapbook.101_6439

And at bedtime we called Daddy to say good night.101_6441

With our ride gone overnight there was no Sunday school for us. Just some quiet play time before we had to get ready to go out.101_6442

101_6444Ken and the boys picked us up around lunchtime so we could head over to Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s for a visit. And to return their now fixed computer. Robbie and Jessica were there also, along with all sorts of puppies, a kitty, ducks… fish… and so forth.101_6445

We had pizza for lunch and hung out until almost dinner time. It was a great visit on a beautiful day.101_6446

101_6447101_6449101_6453Monday was the last session for the  twins’ first set of swimming lessons. With all the weather delays we actually went almost a month late. So the next session that we decided to schedule all 3 boys into gives us only one week grace to get Emanuel’s swim gear ready. They are all very excited to get to it. The twins have a little more work to move out of the beginners group to advanced beginners. But they are learning and loving it. Which is all we can ask!

Trinity was so excited… she completed her first addition AND subtraction book! With minimum tears and fuss no less!101_6454

With all the visiting and excitement we had gotten behind on our Art for Kids (HERE) drawing instructions so we had an art session using a variety of the newest ones.101_6455

We had penpal letters to illustrate…101_6458

And India to learn all about… a light lesson as sadly EVERYONE was getting sick.101_6459

101_6460Oh and I have to share our follow up on Paul Bunyan! Quite the interesting legend and a perfect chance to discuss how a story can be real or really cannot. I used two library books:

  • Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg
  • The Story of Paul Bunyan by Barbara Emberley

We had three worksheets from Education.com:

  • Tell Fact From Fiction HERE
  • Coloring Page HERE
  • Write a mixed up fairy tale HERE

We are finally seeing some spring like weather… Perfect opportunity to go out in our light clothes and scrape some of the muck off the driveway. Now let’s not get too excited about this sudden warmth… it IS Minnesota and spring is not something winter allows easily here!101_6461

101_6465Ken and I got around (finally) to assembling a long forgotten shelf and organizing our school stuff even further. Organization is always a calming influence on my soul I swear! And now with some labels thanks to my Christmas present from Ken I even have some spiffy LAMINATED labels for three of our section. The kids were impressed by the fact that they could now SEE some favourite games and puzzles on the bottom row and keep better track of their workbooks.

Pre labels

Pre labels

I am loving the bigger boys helping the little kids. Their reading skills have smoothed out enough that at time they will VOLUNTEER to read the other two their workbook assignments!!101_6470

Ken and Trinity did our grocery shopping for the day on Wednesday… and Trinity made sure to come back with a special treat just for me! So sweet!101_6471

We finally got around to decorating our Valentines Day folder. It is also more full than expected! But everyone had a blast colouring hearts and messages on our folder.101_6472

Of course Echo had to bring out our 100 day markers and draw us up something nice. I think the past 100 school day have had their rough patches but were honestly very nice!101_6473

We are forging right on through the weeks with school mixed with fun! March is certainly following February’s lead!101_6468

Scenic Overflow

Minnesota is rather pretty in the spring!

We started our spring exploration at Walker Sculptural Garden. You can find the original entry HERE.101_2297

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Daddy and his daughters

Daddy and his daughters

This is a neat installation of mirrors

This is a neat installation of mirrors

This reminds me of the hare in Alice in Wonderland

This reminds me of the hare in Alice in Wonderland

Sunshine and Apples

Sunshine and Apples

We figure this bird fell out of its nest

We figure this bird fell out of its nest

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Look Waaaaaaay up and we'll call Rusty... bet only the Canadians get that reference!

Look Waaaaaaay up and we’ll call Rusty… bet only the Canadians get that reference!

Lots of rain this spring though!!

Starting to think umbrellas are a must!

Starting to think umbrellas are a must!

Now We See the Heat

May 6-7

It is now time to fully embrace the spring weather… And wow has it sort of melted into SUMMER heat. Two beautiful days, two beautiful walks culminating in park visits.

Monday’s walk was based on really just getting out and running free. The park was deserted and the kids went crazy going on all the equipment, climbing on things, sliding, playing in the gravel. The kids all took turns helping Echo to go down the bigger slides! Talk about a happy baby!!! It is great to get that fresh air first thing after breakfast and then get home in time to jump into the school work.

Slightly chilly but a good start to our week of walking

Helpful brothers

4 of 5

Working in the nature journals first

Helpful siblings!

With the lovely weather and a shelf full of comics we  took a nice chunk of the afternoon in the 3 seasons porch and had a reading session… the kids built a tent to hide in for a bit, but most of all we checked out the new comics in the sun together.

Comfortable jumble

Even Miss T

We snuck in some Mother’s Day themed fun with a dinosaur twist with Emanuel and Trinity together… the book… T. Rex and the Mother’s Day Hug by Lois G. Grambling. They each drew what they thought a dinosaur could give his or her mommy for Mother’s Day. I love that Trinity branched out and drew her OWN dinosaur.

DINOSAURS

One more outside run in the evening and our week of fresh air got off to a grand start.

Fun in the sun

Tuesday we lucked out and found the park full of kids… a daycare or two was there (in home) and more than willing to play with us and share the mud turtle they found before heading off for their lunch. Apparently they usually go on Thursdays so now we have an unofficial playdate.

Park time, of course no pics of the other kids but it was FUN!

Such a beautiful day

Examining ants

We started Trinity’s very first lapbook based on Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. I added to the lapbook I found on line with a worksheet from Obseussed HERE. All of the kids listened in on the story and Trinity and I went on to work on the light lapbook. It is so fun talking to her about Mommies.

Trinity wrote about her Mommy…

We are working our way through penguins on the edge of things this week with our REAL focus on Mother’s Day.

Gotta learn those facts

So far… a couple interesting points about the beginnings of the official day, history, etc. It was actually a bit of a hunt to find information about Mother’s Day and its history. I lucked out and tracked down a copy of the much lauded lapbook from Live and Learn Press. I am going to make up a blog entry once again to combine all my resources.

Emanuel and his bit about his godmommy Xinny

I think I mentioned our robots previously… Here are the images. Thanks again Art for Kids!

ROBOTS

Oh and we updated our list of signs of spring!

Note the little turtle included thanks to Emanuel

We had a second outing in the sun, this time to the front yard!

Bubbles!

Nana and Baba also bought a fresh pineapple so the kids got to see one cut up in a rather unique way.

Pineapple!

And then the kids rounded off the evening with Castle Panic with Daddy and Baba.

Games again

The best of inside AND outside fun with learning to boot these past two days!

Shoes in a row