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 7-9

UNO was the name of the game on Thursday with Aunty Karyn. Don’t get me wrong, we ARE doing our basic schoolwork – reading (to Karyn), spelling and of course any sort of daily worksheet, but a good teacher knows when to take advantage of the distractions, and special time with their beloved Aunty is worth the memories.

I had an extra special treat in the form of Darcy having time (after an appointment with all kids in school) and I having adults to keep the kids and I was able to reintroduce Karyn to Darcy. They met at first at our wedding and then again at the twins’ baptism (Darcy and Andy are Zander’s godparents, and we are in turn Anthony’s). We went out for a lovely LONG (keyword that, long) lunch at the Green Mill with lots of chatting and girly time and ZERO kid interruptions. BLISS!

Note the Remembrance Day Poppy that Karyn brought me from Canada on my lapel!

Karyn brought with her a variety of Canadian specific chocolates and bits and bobs. I took a picture of a few of them to share.

On Friday Ken and Emanuel got to work (finally) on the final portion of our Egypt lesson. The “crafty” thing that came with Little Passports. A bit of a mini dig with his very own pyramid. They made good inroads on their first time working on it.

We had a lovely minor snow fall which the boys  took advantage of with a snow bunny and mini snowmen.

Bunny

They used every tiny bit of snow.

It was a day off school for the cousins so they joined us for the weekend.

With Aunty Karyn added to the mix it was a wonderful day of fun and hanging out and getting back in touch with each other (with a bit of sneaking out to shop of course!).

Saturday was a somewhat planned out day with a trip to the Brickmania Toyworks. A special Lego exhibit done by local people with  tons of original pieces all made out of Lego. Gift shop included.

Hmm a bit of TARDIS

There was tons to see and we did our best to see it all. So much creativity! 2 cars, 5 adults and 7 kids later and we made it there and back.

Ok, so the bullets aren’t Lego… but the water is all those tiny clear ones!!!!

What a great sign! Look for the rest of these pictures (and there are a lot!) at the end of the blog.

After that Karyn, my mother in law and I went out to Kohl’s to take advantage of sales and an added 30% off discount. Because of them I am now the proud owner of an amazing (limited addition) Little Black Dress that was on for a steal!!! Thank you Nana! Pictures to follow… eventually.

The kids rounded off their day with a tea party.

A Saturday well spent! Now enjoy the Lego themed chaos.

The originator of this group was really into war themed projects as you can tell!

A pretty amazing tree!

There was actual water flowing out of the fountain.

Hagrid and Batman!

They can play this little soccer game on the display.

Godzilla

We spotted a fairy!

The kids

October 10-13

Our final day before welcoming home Nana and Baba was a bit uneventful. We had a house to clean… kids to sort out… laundry to do… and hot chocolate to drink! What a treat for our family and we have a HUGE tub of the powder mix (Swiss Miss). Mini marshmallows on  top… of course!

We ended our evening with a random chocolate chip cookie recipe that Ken did most of with some kid help. We made sure to leave enough for the returning grandparents to munch on that evening of course! They got home later that evening after the junior league was well asleep… tanned, well rested and with a boatload of pictures!

On the Friday after there were presents to see… amazing puzzle boxes for all.

And time with Nana and Baba.

With fall firmly in our sights we set the kids to work raking leaves… there are A LOT in this area. People really love their trees. It is one of the things Ken missed the most in Alberta… the green. While not as much as South Carolina where my dad now lives, Minnesota has a lovely verdant quality to it and then fall is a riot of colour and leaves!

The house is full again… and I think we are well pleased.

Time to check the garden

And then on Saturday it got a little more full with the addition of cousins!

And homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner… one of Nana’s specialties.

We ended our weekend with Sunday school… can’t miss a week can we? The kids are all loving it, though as of yet we are just sending Ken and the 4 school age and leaving Echo and myself here at home. I figure closer to Christmas we will go onto church but right now we are STILL fighting potty training… and all that fun stuff.

Before we said good bye to the cousins (who had school on Monday of course) there was time to pull out the crafting bucket (Gabbi’s new favourite activity).

Tea party

And played outside in the playset, which looks AMAZING in the leaves!

Yup our welcome back went VERY well!