January 31- February 2

We have completed our first month of the new year and so did Gavin’s work on his Lego land. With Emanuel’s help it was quite the creation!

Quite the metropolis

Lots of activity

Spooky section

Gavin’s turtle (too large for the city)

Ken and Ted took a ride out to The Source, a gaming store to peruse the merchandise and to pick me up some oversized dice for the kids. While they did I finally got to see Frankenweenie! I saw ParaNorman back on New Years so I am catching up on my animations nicely!

Dice

I am so proud that the boys BOTH made their reading goals yet again! I am so glad I can help them find a love of reading at such a young age.

We had our next book to share Happy Chinese New Year, Kai Lan! We had the corresponding episode on the video we got from the library… Celebrate with Kai-Lan.

Gavin and our book

There is a definite benefit to subscribing to a site’s feed. Art for Kids sent out a terrific 10 monster how  to draw book to all the people subscribed to them. I am going to have to sit down and hole punch and put all these amazing instructions into a binder all organized and ready for the boys to use whenever they want!

Wacky monster pictures

Talk about excitement for our almost birthday boy! Baba took Emanuel and myself to get Emanuel’s hair cut before his birthday party! It is like he grew up years as the hair came off… in looks anyway! Can you believe he is 7 on the 3rd??

So smooth

Of course the kids opted to spend even MORE time sitting with Uncle Ted. They just can’t get enough of him!

Quality time

Trinity roped him into playing Skylanders with her as well! They work so well together!

Skylanders!

Friday was a bit of a ruffled day. The kids do not function well with Ken working at home right now. It has been bitterly cold so they cannot burn off energy outside, plus there is the knowledge Ken is there and not available. That and the need to be quiet so he can work makes them all owly. So to take a bit of the edge off we made our Chinese lanterns for our Chinese New Year. You can follow our instructions on Activity Village HERE. I added to the activity by bringing out the markers and letting them colour the paper if they wanted.

Working on lanterns

Lanterns

This was our last day with Ken home actually. Come Monday he is supposed to have his own desk at one of the three buildings. I am hoping that him being out of the house will help Echo deal with less time with Daddy.

Time with Uncle Ted while Daddy works

Emanuel finally got around to colouring in his Mammoth pictures that Gammie sent him to go along with his interest in elephants! He does love a good elephant or prehistoric animal!

One colourful Mammoth

With dinosaurs on the mind we completed our smaller puzzle. One Emanuel got for Christmas!

PUZZLE

Our book from the day was a National Geographic one – Celebrate Chinese New Year. The kids love the images in this one.

Zander and our book

I have to say having Ted here is so much fun. Like back home, the guys are cracking jokes, talking shop and generally hanging out. I have missed that here. We don’t see much of the guys here which is a huge change from how things were up in Alberta.

Relaxing

As the first Saturday of the month it was also the Home Depot free craft day. The boys made little mail boxes for Valentines. Painted and everything!

Painted and everything

When Ken, his dad and the boys returned Ted, Ken and I ran out to finish some shopping – I needed cardstock for the kids’ schooling and Ted needed to do some present shopping. Target is so much fun.

After shopping EMANUEL snagged Ted to play Skylanders (he will be pro by the time he goes home!).

Gaming in comfort

He also made Ted a special picture to take home for his fridge in Alberta.

Art for the fridge

It really was an Emanuel creative day. If it wasn’t Home Depot it was drawing or making something interesting out of blocks.

This is a storekeeper with his till and table

I am glad to see that something I created is being used too – the kids had a tea party with the set I made Trinity for Christmas.

Tea anyone?

Saturday meant trying to get everything ready for the party on Sunday. There is something so comforting about having Ken and Ted together to help out. I feel so lucky that January and February has given us a taste of the people we have been missing. Saying good bye later is never easy BUT the visit makes it all worth it!

If only the fairie could magic up a way for them to stay longer… or forever!

July 20

How do you spend the first day of a new life in the states? Well, it seems that there is time for some shopping (TARGET!!!) as well as some fun with the kids. Gotta start the day off with a good solid breakfast cooked by Baba… which means yours  truly got poached eggs on toast cooked to perfection!!!!

Cousins together for breakfast

And then the task of getting all 7 kids dressed and motivated for a day of play around the house. After all that driving we figured AT HOME was where the kids would most want to be. So, time for a tea party with REAL tea in the sun room!!!

High Tea

Echo did her own exploring, checking out what doors she COULD open… things she could get into… this is her first time EVER being here. The last time we were in Minnesota was 3 years ago when Trinity was only 1!

Stretching for the doors

The kids busy about the house it was the perfect opportunity for us to sneak out just Ken and myself for two purposes – one my first trip to Target (yay!) and the other, to see about replacing some of our now sold/given away/stored toys… GARAGE SALE! I lucked out on both sides… for the garage sale – a couple Hello Kitty clothing articles for Trinity and some barbies, a baby doll and something called squinkies. A great start and well under 20.00 spent.

A few Barbies etc for Miss T. Though I do need to get her a toy box.

And what Trinity considers the find of a lifetime right now – a purple Hello Kitty dress!

It twirls beautifully!

Target was another success with a relatively fresh soft pretzel and soda to boot (Coke though, grrr this place is VERY Coke heavy…). So why the soda and treat? Well it was quite the wait while we sorted out our CELL PHONE!! YAY!! We are connected. Though only for texting internationally… no calls so I have not been hunting people down to give it out that we normally do not text. My inlaw’s homeline is our main line for calls… so if you need that please send me a message.

Target!!!!

Wish such great successes and a bit of permanency under our belt that was it for the day… well until Cory got here for a visit. He is Gavin’s godfather and a dear friend of Ken’s. He hung out until after the kids finished their movie (How to Train Your Dragon) and caught up as well as reminded Ken of his new weekly event – gaming at Cory’s house every Wednesday evening. Life is surely moving on!!

Movie time

With Cory

The settling in process is going to take a little time but I think we are up to the challenge. We have to slowly start back into our homeschooling, thankfully I was able to bring our review workbooks and of course Farmer Boy… I anticipate complaints but it will all work out eventually!

YOGURT!!!