November 29-December 1

Well, here in the US Thanksgiving is on a Thursday… so confusing. Why not a Friday or a Monday? While it is not a government holiday the Friday after IS a holiday for many places. And of course it is BLACK FRIDAY… a huge shopping day when a lot of deals are there for the grabbing. Ken and I did minimal shopping with a quick trip out to our local and honestly not so busy (comparison wise) Target. Yesterday’s post of the lovely Christmas matching dresses (HERE) was one of our finds as was a couple gifts on the kids’ Christmas list that were must have and long requested and on sale!

We did our minimum of basic schooling  before the cousins arrived for a weekend visit. Of course we put the willing and somewhat willing hands to work making more little hats to go on the Christmas tree. Nana sure can motivate!

On Friday

And again on Saturday

Echo snuck her time on the computer playing Minecraft… though I am not sure how far she made it, she did enjoy it!

On Saturday the girls enjoyed a cozy tea party.

Echo dressed up for the part in one of her favourite “blue dress” dresses.

Bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel

The weather held out long enough for the kids to spend some time in the backyard. Coats are now a definite necessity!

We started December with the whole family heading to church. There was no Sunday School as it was Thanksgiving weekend. It was not a full service but we enjoyed it. Sitting in the back with crayons and paper and attempting to be patient is always a bit of a struggle but I think we didn’t do too badly.

They had a fair for Advent the day before and there were special treat bags for the kids left over so they gave them out at the end of the service. We had 5 very excited kids when that happened!

With it being the beginning of Advent we started our calendars counting down. We have THREE! Trinity’s is a Santa face where you fill in the beard with cotton balls.

The girls got their Christmas vibe on with some pretty picture making. I love stickers and buy up the 1.00 books whenever I come across them!

Super fuzzy sorry!

And that was that. We are done with Thanksgiving (resource and book work to follow) and onto Advent and the days to Christmas are ticking by!!! Where has the time and the year gone?????

November 28

HAPPY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING!

I am still getting the hang of having Thanksgiving so late in the year… this Thursday in November is still odd to me! First off, almost the middle of the week (not a Monday or Friday????) and then so much closer to Christmas! YIKES.

We had a full on turkey dinner with the fixings… homemade stuffing, gravy… mashed potatoes…

Smaller of 2 turkeys

Homemade peppermint fudge

As Joe and Faithe alternate their Thanksgiving with each of their families this year was their year with Faithe’s family. So we had our family, Nana and Baba and Aunty Judy with Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica). 13 in total made for a nice full table.

Of course there was time to play before and after dinner with pumpkin pie for desert.

Pumpkin pie

A full day ended with full kids. We decided not to go out to any of the Black Friday sales. Instead Ken and I planned on making a run out to Target the next day. I have a specific over 6 month long request from Miss  Trinity and can not risk missing the potential sale OR them selling out of those items. Well, and one on one time in a rather low key store (our area seems to not have a massive Target Black Friday rush as compared to Walmart or Kohl’s) with Ken is always a bonus.

Wore Jessica out!

It was definitely a day to be thankful!\

September 11-12

It was a bit of a trick to really get through to the kids that it was a new year. Though using the kitchen table (with Nana and Baba gone it is freed up) to change things up a bit for now has helped.

On Wednesday we had a special visitor – Aunty Darcy! She had an errand to run in the neighbourhood so came by after it to hang out and to take yours truly out so we could enjoy a kid free lunch (one of the perks to having a hubby who can work from home!!). She was a gem and found us a caterpillar to check out. We would have kept it… until it escaped the cup and tried to make for freedom! So we examined it for a while and the twins returned it to the front yard intact.

We are working our way back to daily story time courtesy of our fantastic readers Zander and Gavin…

Checking in on science projects…

and enjoying our days as much as we can. After all learning is best when it is FUN!

Our first week of the “new” school year is an abbreviated one. We only set up to school Monday to Thursday as Friday was a special (super special) surprise for the kids. But Thursday was still school as normal. Working with the kids to see how they answer questions like – what you like, don’t like, favourite class… it is so fun finding out what runs through their heads!

The boys really went all out working on some of the new (and not so new) instructions off of Art for Kids (link on right). They are our go to place for drawing and art related ideas!!!

Miss Echo also had an absolute BLAST making her own series of messes…

The kids wowed me with a Lego Tree…

And Ken and I FINALLY made the two lunch boxes for two little girls back up in Canada… out of duct tape and some Velcro. I hope they work!

Thank goodness for Disney and our lion themed film – The Lion King! We even made rings to go with!

I can’t forget to share our Target stash… 50% off school supplies in the dollar section is AMAZING!