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

After adventuring with duct tape life just seemed more… bland this morning… but I have great plans for further duct tape creativity. I am hoping to find some time next week to have the boys make their own simple thing. So if there are ANY websites you are aware of that have instructions for duct tape creations please pass them my way! 

There was one rather fun purchase yesterday at Dollarama – something called a Magic Tree. It is certainly VERY exciting to the kids who have decided they have NEVER seen pompoms grow before. I had to explain that the liquid (scared to think what it REALLY is) needs to soak up into the paper and then it would start “growing.” We are learning patience with this one as it was a 12 hour thing! Always a good lesson for our family… we ALL need to have patience. 

Starting the process

oops!! Trinity got excited with her book but it was great fun for the kids to watch it grow!

I decided to alternate math today as Gavin is in the Grade 2 book and it can be much more intense and he finds others chatting there a BIG distraction. Zander and Echo decided to head over to the netbook and do some Starfall stuff. We were given a couple of their workbooks so I have given one to each boy (they are different) and Zander’s has him listen/read a story on the site and then do pages to practice his reading and sounding out of words. Echo is always where the technology is lately. 

Zander and Echo and Starfall

Gavin hard at work

Stuart finished his great boat race today. It was all very exciting and fraught with danger! 

4 different pages

Cousin Veronika came into the city to shop today after work. We managed quite a few stores… Michaels, Bath and Body Works, Walmart… etc. And the best part – most everything was on sale! We started at Michaels, I had a couple coupons and a short list. I managed to get a Christmas present for Gavin on super sale, some adhesive (I ran out last night) AND this year’s foam Halloween kit all for LESS than the original price on Gavin’s gift. The kids do one kit a year at Halloween with their dad.

Halloween kit

At Bath and Body Works I picked up some of the little hand sanitizers (they were on for 5 for 5.00), a case for the one in my purse AND a new bottle of soap for the kids’ special soap pump cover (what they call the ladybug soap). It is not quite empty yet but I figured if it was on sale best to buy it now (I got grapefruit).

Walmart was another great stop – it was their anniversary sale and while they did NOT have everything I needed they DID have paper on for a great price – under 3.50 for 500 sheets (printer paper). Sadly no looks fibrefill for my sock owls.

So we managed some fun shopping and visiting and came home to only a slight bit of chaos. Now to work on duct tape creations, cleaning and scrapbooking. I DID finish a page yesterday night…

Finished Birthday Party Page

I have to say I am glad it is the weekend… we have Sunday School to look forward to on the weekend and hopefully some errands completed but for now… time to post!

Princess

With the book to prove it!

Want to read about how Fat Sheep saw and enjoyed our outing yesterday? Well now is your chance. Click HERE. 

Trinity has fallen into a solo morning pattern, after the chaos of breakfast and the boys heading out she goes right over to the netbook and gets clicking. She is becoming quite the pro at Starfall… Though we are thinking her biggest problem is the use of the touch mouse. May have to look into a cheap and small mouse to have for the kids. 

With Kitty Purse in tow

It was time for fun in the bedroom after the computer lost her attention. Of course we had to have a tea party… although more time was spent looking for things in the food and dishes box then actually serving anyone. I love Trinity’s room, in the morning it gets the best warm sun. It got chilly enough to close her window last night but brilliant in the morning with the window back open. Echo loves playing in her room… so many fun toys to drag out and throw around. 

Tea time

Staying up late into the evening hunched over bows, hot glue and scissors was not the BEST choice, but I was at 43 bows completed and in their box by the end of it. (she) Chris wants 60 in total so I have a few more to go tonight. My plan is to finish those all tonight so I can move my focus back to getting the place ready for the birthday party next weekend. The main focus is to return my upstairs to how I like it and then the tv room… I have been slowly bringing things back out of our bedroom since Sunday night but it is not the easiest task. Especially not with the futon mattress on the floor in the middle of the room! Not that the kids are complaining as it is perfect placement for tv watching.

Day 3 of VBS apparently was even MORE fun… cookies, watermelon and juice were had… lanterns made… and Zander was even better today than the day before (he has been learning over the past year to let others talk. VBS has been a great reinforcement for that!).

With lanterns

With the twins up and done their daily page (below). That left me free to do some emptying of our bedroom… searching through some boxes and general tidying up.

Day 3

I would love to have my room totally done by the time Ken’s folks are here but I am doubtful. As it is I am creeping things back into the tv room at a rather good rate without simply cluttering up the place. I really do need some more bookshelves or a shelving unit or SOMETHING. Makes me tempted to talk Ken into the cabinet being rebuilt and placed by my craft corner. But sadly that would take out ANY space for the futon and the table we haven’t yet put away from the LAN party.

The treat of the day AT HOME today was making ice cream cone shaped sugar cookies. Just a single batch but that was more than enough. I had helpers for the first tray and then slogged at it on my own for the rest… well with Echo supervising from the highchair. When it was all done I had to give her something else as she was SURE these were HER cookies.

Rolling out dough

Cut those cookies

So cute

We spent some time out in the sun in the backyard… It has been rather nice during parts of the day all week, I have just been behind on my cleaning and other things enough that I had to skimp on MY time out there. Sadly the boys once again did NOT tell me that the neighbour kid had come into the yard until after I sent Trinity out with what I thought was the last 4 freezies and had accidentally (ok he walked up and took one from her) handed him one… so it was time to bundle the 4 back in with admonitions that they must TELL ME when someone comes into the yard. I scrambled through the freezer and found one more freezie luckily so that crisis was averted. But my frustration continues. I am fine with them playing with him but I do not want them to just allow people into the yard… I need to know that I WILL be told and or asked regardless. 

Out in the sun

Sunhat and all

Our evening has been quiet… Karyn is back from Saskatchewan and was over for a visit and to make the cookie dough for the Friday bridal shower. We are meeting up at her work and then Ken is taking the boys to the nearby splash park (weather permitting) and then home. There is murmurs of a certain cousin coming over to cut little boys’ hair too!!! How spoiled are they? 

The bows are screaming to be finished… the kitchen to be cleaned and other wonderful things that only I am available for… joy. 

Cooooookie!!!