November 17-18

We actually MISSED recording our thankful thoughts Saturday!!! But with good reason – we had a HUGE reason to be thankful that we shared – we got to go visit family for a birthday celebration!

Visiting

I really didn’t take too many pictures but we had a ton of fun

So we had family, pie, good food, puppies and plenty of hugs all to be thankful for! And a lovely reminder as to WHY this move south was really a good reason. For the first time ever we are close enough to enjoy a more casual celebration with members of Ken’s family. It was two of his cousin’s birthdays this month – Robbie and Jessica so we were over at his Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s to celebrate. Ken’s other Uncle Greg and Debbie were there too so we had a large portion of the Johnson clan to enjoy time with as well as the relative puppies, fish, and a frog to see! It was a terrific afternoon/evening!

Bossing around Uncle Greg

In the morning Ken and the boys got their hair cut AND Ken SHAVED! So not only did we party but we partied with style! I am one happy (and proud) Momma and wife! On Sunday we DID remember to think of our thankful things!

Trinity: kitties

Emanuel: Thomas the train

Gavin: having a turkey on Thanksgiving

Zander: having a mom and dad

Sunday was a busy but quiet day. We had a slow morning with our new colouring book stack for the kids in the morning. It seems to be working as long as the kids don’t get too excited! And then it was time to rally the troops and run errands.

Of course we had to spend some time on the Nat Geo magazine Gammie got for the kids.

While I do not have the safety buttons I need to finish the penguin for my nephew yet I DO have stuffing… that means the teapot CAN be finished… which would complete everything but Trinity’s wand for her Christmas presents! That feels GREAT! Now to find a special box to put the set in as every little girl wants a nice box for her teaset.

We treated our pretty well behaved kids with ice cream cones from McDonalds on the way home (and a plain burger for Miss Echo). Thankfully we got a good deal on the necessary turkey the day before on the way home from our party so it was minor groceries and stuffing. I love that the nearby center has quite a few of the stores we like (Cub, Michaels, Bath and Body Works, Walmart) all in the same area so we could park and go to a couple and then head to the other side and walk the rest.

When we got home it was MY turn to put a feather on our Gratitude Turkey (sorry about the hair, I was in a rush to get things done).

Turkey

We also made a Thankful family poster. We all took turns drawing little pictures of things we are thankful for. The end result was rather nice, I thought AND it had us ALL talking about and thinking about things in our lives. What made my heart happy was the lack of THINGS, toys, possessions and instead so many things like the sun, friends, family… dinosaurs (guess who said THAT one?). The race is on to get toner so that we can get our centerpiece done for the Thanksgiving table in time.

Our family page

The emails have been checked and it is certain – Tuesday night (after 10) Nana and Baba return so the race is on to try and get all the little things we wanted to get done before they get home done. We have rebuilt the cabinet we brought down with us which of course was missing the rod for the coats that we need a home for (of course a dowel works so we may need to go and get a new one) but we have been working on clearing spaces here and there. The kids are VERY excited that they will be back soon!

Some evening block building (Gavin)

November 15-16

Time for Thursday’s gratitude:

Trinity: for beaches

Emanuel: Thanksgiving

Gavin: going on trips with Mommy and Daddy

Zander: books

Sadly while Trinity was THANKFUL she was NOT in a good mood. I seriously did not realize one little girl can have such HUGE bad moods. She did perk up a little when asked to do her daily feather on the Gratitude Turkey though!

My girls

We had a special early afternoon with Ken clearing a block of time to allow us to run out to JoAnn’s and Dollar Tree. I am still a wee bit sad about the real LACK of a decent dollar store around here. Thankfully I WAS able to get a couple small (one inch) binders and some glitter glue… I am going to have to comparison shop for other supplies, and clip coupons. But I splurged on a pair of winter themed knee socks for a dollar! Oh and got the much needed white and black yarn to continue my Christmas crafting (and promptly FORGOT to grab the fill I need for my teapot… thank goodness there are other projects ALWAYS on the go).

The twins finally got the chance to cash in their Pizza Hut pizza coupons for the reading they did in the month of October! I have never seen them so proud of themselves! AND Trinity and Emanuel are up to their 25 days of work work work so this weekend they get another ice cream outing with Daddy! They make me so proud. Did I mention Emanuel and I are working on simple words. He is not memorizing them but learning to put his letter sounds together and practicing his printing skills… words like mom, dad, up, me, cat, dog… I love seeing his eyes light up when he gets one right!

Pizza!

Gavin got some time to sit down with a new set of instructions from Art for Kids — a silly cow! I love that he did a WHOLE picture and mean the WHOLE page! Very colourful and creative!

Well done!

Friday was a bit off kilter with Ken having a very important interview and all the grown ups’ nerves that go with that. BUT we still had time to be thankful!

Trinity: kitties

Emanuel: computers

Gavin: having food to eat

Zander: having boardgames

There’s our turkey!

And I am thankful that my boys are catching on with their spelling… Gavin got 100% on his spelling test today!!

So proud

We had less success with Zander who has opted to take the weekend to practice his words. BUT Emanuel did do up a wonderful Dinosaur Train related picture for his Friday fun with dinosaurs. Ken found some episodes and he and Trinity and Echo watched them on the laptop. Apparently, did you know that dinosaurs with plates used those to help keep warm???

Quite the fancy train

We started our next book for review BUT it is more of a chapter deal so the twins and I are reading it over the weekend. We will be sure to share our thoughts and opinions! Of course before we get to that though… Echo wore an outfit that her Grandma gave her way back when so I HAD TO take pictures! 

Miss E

And of course we have MORE art to share!

Miss Trinity’s art

And our Judy Moody front page, the boys did an AMAZING careful cutting job!

I just love this page 🙂

November 13-14

Another round of thankful children… or at least I HOPE this is helping them stop and realize how much they DO have to be thankful for! I know that through all the ups and downs of the past 3+ years I am much more appreciative of what I DO have!

Trinity: my family

Emanuel: for the beach

Gavin: for Jesus dying for us

Zander: Having clothes to wear so I don’t have to be naked outside.

That turkey’s tail is growing

We are having minor issues with the kids being up before us and being loud! I tried having them finish their word searches (the twins) that were left over from the day before and that seems to be helping. I think we need a special box of early morning activities to let the early risers in the family keep busy and those who need a little more sleep (like the 3rd man out in the bedroom from time to time) get it. The little ones did enjoy colouring at the blue table after breakfast though! Emanuel got his Thanksgiving feel on with these colouring pages HERE.

Colouring time

We are without colour toner so unable to do the last part of the website we have been working from HERE. But, we did talk about what we know for sure and what is important to share with people about the event. I may go back and print out the last assignment as a group once we DO have toner.

The weather is still gorgeous and fall like here for the most part so of course there was time for the boys to run outside while the girls coloured with their Colour Wonder paper. Echo loves sitting with her big sister!

Spending time together

Each day brings new thought on what there is to be thankful for! and Wednesday was no exception…

Zander: the zebras and lions

Gavin: the earth

Emanuel: Mommy

Trinity: seashells because they are my favourite

The turkey is a family favourite

Emanuel got to open his newest Little Passports on Wednesday. Now the race is on to supplement it with some more information on Brazil. I have some links I have found to share when we cover this mini unit.

We did ANOTHER advanced copy kids’ review. This one a great story in a series about teddy bears. You can read the kids’ thoughts HERE. I went back to Netgalley and requested another stack of children’s books. A couple were instant download so keep an eye peeled, as long as I have them we will post one a day! Anything we can do to foster reading, or listening to stories is a total bonus for us! In fact, Gavin is my top reader this month and determined to earn his November pizza coupon!

Working hard

Don’t forget our poem… a daily practice has us all memorizing and nearly ready to record!

So cute

Ken had borrowed a video about NASA and the early space program from Cory so we had the kids watch a portion of it together. The plan is for them to do a creative and related project with Ken the following week!

Movie time

So all in all a good 2 days. With the normal ups and downs of course!!

Echo escorting Pocoyo and Hello Kitty on their date (we think permission was gotten from the Groovy Girls to use their car!)