We have gotten the news… my beloved (and relatively new) camera now dubbed Blotchy Screen shall be going on a trip to the Olympus repair centre that may just take 3 weeks! GASP! But fear not, Old Grindy is here to fill the spaces with 8 mega pixel (GASP) pics… oh the horror! No, seriously though, they want us to ship it there and then if it is NOT deemed an issue due to dropping it it will be fixed under warranty. The person on the phone was hopeful so so are we! In the meantime, I took the opportunity to photography the first of my owls to fly the nest… AND his little ladybug chum! 

Ready to fly the nest!

We had another reading morning with everyone picking their own book. Echo is still in a bit of a cranky mood and now Emanuel is runny nosed and slightly miserable. So we added comfy blankets to the mix and curled up on the only bed upstairs big enough to hold six. I figure until we are 100% we will work on our enjoyment of books… so we sit and read as a family and then send those that need to to nap and rest and others to work. 

STORIES!!

Activity of choice – playing Starfall! They have changed their backgrounds to suit the seasons which has everyone absolutely excited about RECHECKING the site out! 

Time for Starfall

I made myself some korker ribbons of the Halloween theme…  We worked on worksheets printed from education.com and had to contact our contact email there to get an answer on a “what it” for a dot-to-dot… the answer, an unexpected one – a TAPIR! I really do enjoy education.com and would highly recommend them if you are looking for a variety of worksheets!

A Tapir!

Today was quite the day for mail! I got my Velcro from the baby store I buy my diapers at… so starting tomorrow I have to start replacing the worn with new… by hand of course! I need to find my stitch ripper it seems. 

Velcro

Trinity’s ribbon came from eBay – Hello Kitty themed of course! I figure she would love a little bow for Christmas with it. And I am sure I will have enough  for a few other little girls!

Ready for Crafting

And then there was the surprise envelope – apparently I have been doing the scanning with nielsen for 2 years now! They sent a lovely pen. We can always use another pen!

New pen!

We also sent Ken out on a special mission – someone on Freecycle had some boardbooks up to about grade 1-2 books they wanted to send along to another family! Well we are ALWAYS all for that. Storytime tomorrow will be all books we have never read before as a family! And Echo inherited a nice pile of boardbooks  to play with. We are always happy to add to our library – new or used.

 To fill our time there was some play with markers… each child made their own special picture! And for once with minimal marker mess on themselves!

Emanuel's artwork

Trinity's - note the hole in the middle where she over coloured!

Zander's campfire

Gavin's train station

We also did some beading with our new (thanks got Grandma) pony beads. Those are to be tied tomorrow morning by daddy and worn proudly I am sure!

Making necklaces and bracelets

Now to return to the world of crafting, cleaning and hunting for printables online. I have to gather my receipts and tomorrow work on my expense form for our school board, get a bit of shopping in to complete our receipt listing. Oh and then there is the dreaded camera drop off… oh well it is all for the greater good!

Playing with ABC magnets

Mother’s Day Weekend is here! My first as a mother of 5. Somehow that feels like a milestone or some sort of landmark in my life. With the van needing to be babied and the budget going towards the move on the 1st nothing extravagant is planned. Rather we had Ted and Sean over Friday night to hang out for the weekend, work on the game programming wise (Ted) and help moving furniture in the basement. It takes at least 2 to move the twins’ “transformer beds” and I need that second one removed to the play room.

Miss Echo has decided to liven up our weekend by going into poopy overdrive. That seems to be a firm sign that whatever little growth spurt she was experiencing has ended (I am thinking weight as her clothes still fit length wise but I could be wrong). She does her growth much like Emanuel and Trinity do… sit at a certain point for what feels like FOREVER and then BANG growth. It can be quite painful, especially when it is a length growth. It is getting harder and harder to wake her for her midnight meal as well which is a good sign that she is getting enough BEFORE bed and wanting to come closer to sleeping through the night (a novel idea I know!). Even with the scrubbing of diapers I am still absolutely LOVING our cloth diapers. There is not a single disposable to be had in the house in her size (I actually had to use the one I found in a corner last night when she pooped on my last cover and we had to rush a load of laundry.). Sprinkles is the brand I use, it is made locally where my mom lives. LOVE THEM!

Practicing standing using Uncle Sean's computer

Even with the overcast weather you couldn’t keep these kids indoors for the most part (well all except Emanuel). I really hope our new rental has a decent sized backyard. For all our sakes and sanity!

Clubhouse

Supper today was a special one for the kids… I had picked up pitas earlier this week and while Ken was out with Sean he picked up some salami and cheese and they had pita pizzas. Gavin had been asking to help make food all week so this was a fun and yummy way they could ALL be involved on some level.

Making pizzas

I am rather excited about next Friday, for those keeping track Friday is the 13th and ALSO marks Echo being 9 months old! So in honour of my now most lucky of days I am making a special little tutu for her to wear in some pictures. The time has passed so quickly!

Ready to cut

So with an afternoon of crafting and play doh we have kept ourselves busy.

Crafting

Play doh

Between Ken, Sean and Ted we managed a lovely meal for the adults of home made hamburgers. While our meal cooked the kids watched some Veggie Tale movies and hung out in the livingroom before bed. Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day for the boys – they are supposed to take the BUS to church to make Sunday School. There are only 2 sessions and a party before the year end and we missed last week. Thankfully Ted and Sean are very familiar with the bus system so can help Ken plan out a route.

Yum

Now for an evening of sorting through items from the basement, stitching and visiting with the guys. Next weekend it should be MY turn with some girlfriends coming over. BUT these are local friends so we are getting in as much time with them as we can before our move (neither Ted nor Sean have a vehicle that runs right now either!). And tomorrow – Mother’s Day!

Trying out games on my computer

Ok so I actually had a REASON for not blogging last night – I swear we did a whirlwind tour of a quarter of the province in one day! (she) Chris, Echo and I were all over the place and ended up at home in the evening exhausted! (and Echo VERY relieved to be out of the carseat) Our day started at 9:30 heading the hour + to see first the wedding location – the local Legion. It is so much easier to imagine how the set up will go now that I have SEEN the location. The wedding, reception and the gift opening the next day are all at the same location.

Our next stop was my absolute favourite little noodle house that thankfully was open for lunch on a Thursday. Vermicelli noodles… chicken breast… total YUM! We fed Echo there, hung out for a while and had a nice rest.

Playing at the table

From there to the hairdresser’s. She wanted to see the length of Chris’ hair and talk about a few ideas and took the opportunity to do the same for me. All I can say is for what we are going to be paying I am looking forward to looking divine. Her ideas are great so it should be well worth it.

THEN back downtown to the florist to talk wildflowers, arrangement and amount. The quote will be in our hands in a week or two. It is hard to believe that 10 years ago I used the same florist for our wedding!!

Now this put us in the same city as my mom so…. off to Grandma’s for a snuggle for Echo, some grandma bragging and about SIX PEOPLE saying SHE IS SO TINY!!! (which meant Mommy walked away to scream silently in her head) BUT Echo was adorable, gave Grandma quality snuggles and wowed the masses. So it is all good… but seriously people – we KNOW she is tiny, it is how she is from birth! After all she was just over 6 lbs and only 18 inches long… our little pixie.

I lucked out with a few minutes at the local baby store. I picked up 3 more cloth liners AND an all natural odour eater for the diaper bag. I just can’t get over how much I love the Sprinkles diapers.

Nice and natural

After our wedding planning, baby item buying time we headed out to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border and away from home to pick up (he) Chris who was off work at 4… for the record though we were unable to pick up the needed side mirror (She Chris could not remember the store name) we WERE only 7 minutes late! And came bearing Tim Hortons iced caps. This is the point where we started our journey home – first dropping off (he) Chris and then home for us girls. We got home around 7:30 worn out but happy. Echo did all the stretches she could and cuted it up for Aunty Karyn on the webcam so all is good with the world again!

This left the kids at home with Ken ALONE… I am told they had fun, coloured… learned and of course drove Daddy a little mad. BUT before I left (camera in hand), we took a picture of Wednesday’s creation – a tower… they all had a hand in it, moving it slowly up the side of the staircase so a child could go up and put another block on! Impressive right?

What a tower!

We have decorated bunnies to add to our spring poster – our flowers have taken up A LOT of room. I do love a craft run to the Dollarama. Next weekend we have to do our egg decorating and potentially egg hunt as Gavin is going the following weekend to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Bunnies

The boys are back to work on their numbers… I found a very rudimentary game for addition and subtraction with an Easter theme from a Christian site I use from time to time. You can find both the addition and the subtraction versions for printing off in colour OR black and white here.

Working on their books

Echo helped Gavin with his numbers for a while as well. If I could only get her to TRY and sit on her own… right now she just flops right over.

With a supervisor

The bulk of the excitement is based solely on the upcoming party. Trinity is all set to be the birthday girl, and the boys to having guests. We got creative with the decorations, using the Hello Kitty die cuts and balloons as with a unanimous vote we have vetoed streamers.

Pink AND kitties

With Karyn and Ted here tonight is going to be fun. It is always great to have company on a Friday night. We have tidying to do, decorating, baking, wrapping… we will stay busy for sure!

Serious face