Well, the obvious comes to mind right off – Canada Day and Independence Day. We celebrate both, of course. Canada Day (HERE) always makes me a wee bit homesick. July 4th (HERE) was fun as well. July is also Grandma’s birthday up in Canada. And full blown summer fun here in Minnesota.

We lucked out and managed to make Home Depot where the kids made little bowling alleys. Which were PERFECT for the 18 inch dolls, I am told.

I managed to finish a prayer shawl for the Catholic church down the road, along with a pocket prayer shawl.

We spent TONS of time at the YMCA.

Emanuel got over his fear of the slide

Walked back and forth for ClubY.

We hung out in the hammock.

Played outside whenever we could.

Had movie nights.

Ken made the girls a reading corner in the sunroom out of fabric and a hula hoop!

Hung out with our homeschool friends at the park as often as we could.

Made sure to document all the pretty flowers.

Visited our godson Anthony after emergency appendix surgery.

Met a brand new baby! Congrats Cory and Karen!

We even snuck in time for homeschooling.

Echo even went to Evan’s birthday party SOLO with dad!

We watched soccer.

Watered our garden.

Celebrated Alex’s birthday.

Experienced the County Fair. (see the county fair blog post)

Were ditched by the boys who went to the cabin (too many mosquitoes for our allergic girls).

Even on our day off we made the walk to the YMCA.

Mosquito bites

Basically we made this month COUNT and then some!!!!!

Our track star.

Gavin working on art.

6 years old… where has the time gone? My wee bionic baby is now 6 years old!! (for more on the journey that was her heart surgery go HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE) Since she is now a self proclaimed BIG GIRL she was in charge of planning out her wish list for things to do.

First of all, Wednesday before she joined us for shopping at Sam’s Club so she could pick out her very own birthday outfit. She settled on an adorable dress that cost me less than 6.00! Score! Then on Friday we went all the way to Target so she could pick out her own cake, candles, and icing for Daddy to write on the cake with… Pokemon, pink and white and pink.

Sign by Trinity

Her requests were pretty simple… but first she had to FaceTime with Nana and Baba and open her present from them and THEN talk to Grandma on the phone.

Next was the all important task of going to Toys’r’us to get the one thing Echo has been asking for for almost a whole year – her very own 18 inch doll. With 12 options it was a VERY serious decision!

After that was accomplished it was off to McDonald’s. Specifically one with a PLAY AREA. Ken and I had forgotten how loud those places are! She was so pleased. (we made sure to pack socks)

THEN it was off to the pool… which turned out to be closed for filtration issues… so we brainstormed with our homeschool buddies who were joining us and headed over to our favourite beach for presents, playing and general fun stuff.

Our  evening was topped off with a visit from our friend Anthony, Chinese for dinner… CAKE of course…

And a most awesome costume gift!

Batman Girl with BATTLE SWORD

Playing VIDEO GAMES

I think we did good. She snuck into our closet at bedtime with her sword and her doll under the very blanket she was given post surgery. Happy Birthday little darling!

Working my way to THE day… next entry… I promise!

December 23-24

Two days until Christmas and the excitement is high! We recorded our yearly Christmas concert which I posted on Facebook (I am on there as Lisa Reinsch-Johnson if you wish to see it. Just request that I friend you due to my blog!). We did a single song this time – an extended version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I added in the Phrase 1 between each of the following and at the end to really get us singing and dancing. You can find the words we used HERE. Thanks to Noella Designs.

We had more classic movies and drawings to do…

What a reading list we have had this year and almost all of them from our own shelves!!!

The kids ALL volunteered to clean  the bathroom for Christmas and did a wonderful job!

The kids spent some time baking with daddy to round off our pre Christmas preparation. So much happy holiday vibes in the house!

Our Christmas Eve ended up much quieter than anticipated. Ken’s uncle and his family usually come over for a traditional Ukrainian style food dinner. Sadly his uncle was released from the hospital the morning of Christmas Eve with strict instructions to stay off his feet post surgery. We are praying for his fast recovery and that this is the end of surgery for him. But it did mean a lack of company with a table full of food!

The table looked amazing.

As did the brand new Christmas pj’s.

We had a gift for the bigger 4 to open from Nana and Baba – Wikki Sticks! what a fun activity!

And Echo opened one too… a frog that moves its mouth and makes noise. Surprised her a little!!

Of course we left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and special reindeer food outside for the reindeer. The kids were so excited! And a night at home was perfect for a restful and quick settle down to bed in the evening.

Definitely necessary as Ken had a kitchen set to build (thanks to Holly and James) and we had presents to sort out and place under the tree.

Earlier in the day I made Echo a baby Jesus out of a sock. You can make this super simple baby as well using the instructions found HERE. Thanks to Catholic Icing for this super simple sweety!