There have been a few goings on that I have NOT posted about… let’s see… I had Ken pick up something off Freecycle – some sheets… flannel and not that while they won’t work for the original plan (pink for Trinity to make into curtains), the flannel ones will work for Emanuel’s mattress bed (at least until we buy him a single). So that is something! The others… well I am debating some ideas of making them into something!

I do have pictures of two of my leopard print duct tape creations! I am loving the look of it and plan on making a purse using these two colours and black… though I am debating the pattern and look I want.. Do I want to use MORE leopard and black accent… so maybe all the long strips be the cookie dough, the horizontals be the leopard and the accent black? PLEASE weigh in people!!

Spotty

I finished up the boys’ Trumpet of the Swans books they made. I used a cropodile and these neat plastic rings that I found at the local kids’ supply store! I think they worked out nice! This is the same thing we plan on doing with Stuart Little when we finish the book.

And then there is the laminating! Well I got done the Buggy Board Math Mats… all I need are some dry erase markers, the crayons are nice but I want markers as well. 

Laminated and ready to go

And then there is the days of the week and weather/season pieces I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I have subscribed to her newsletter and it is absolutely AWESOME for ideas. I seriously wish I could turn my blog into something like that, but I also enjoy it being a lot more than homeschooling… this is us in a nutshell to share with the friends and family who are NOT able to enjoy and experience first hand on a regular basis. 

We started our day early today… BLECK! We are so not a morning family. But we needed to go to the bank and thought we could go at opening. Turns out we had to wait until 11am for an appointment time but Ken had to run out to the post office to sign a form and send it right back for a contract anyway. So it was lucky he did that and stopped in at the bank to make the appointment without us. It really is a pain to get the kids into the vehicle and then it turn out to be for nothing! Since Trinity was up until midnight playing (so not happy about that) she actually slept in and had to be woken up. Echo woke up before 5 am and Ken was not cognizant enough to realize he should NOT take her out of the crib until it was too late. So they finished the morning on the couch snuggling. The boys found the one bit of Legos I had not put IN the bucket and stowed back away and used that as an argument starter while I was waking up and bathing… seriously Legos are a blessing and a curse in this house! 

Pre Bank Post Lego

I have to say I am in love with BMO, they were able to give us an appointment that we got into when we walked in the door… the lady was nice, speedy and able to deal with the kids easily! Joint account is now done… Just need to set up auto withdrawals and deposits and all that… though personally, I prefer cash! I actually have an aunt who works for BMO (different town) so bad on me to NOT be dealing with them already!

We decided to fill our morning up before the appointment by watching Electric Company. The kids (Echo included) really do enjoy the segments and the music and the storyline. I am not sure how much is sticking yet but today we were reviewing some of our favourite episodes… Netflix only has the first 12 of the new series… and pbskids.org does NOT allow Canadian viewing of full episodes (figures), the same issue as Cyberchase… Ken is still working on finding us episodes we CAN watch… I am almost down to having to purchase the dvds… not cheap!

We finally assembled our months of the year lapbooks. I used a couple resources for this… but the main one is a lapbook set up from homeschoolshare.com. As well as months of the year printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I also looked up months of the year on EnchantedLearning. We added in our pictures from yesterday based on the books we read and it turned out quite nice! Hopefully the boys can come back to these books and work on their months… we are getting there but it is not as easy to experience months as it is the days of the week! 

Finished!

All open

I heard back this morning that my dad’s second procedure was a success… both arteries are unclogged and he gets to go home tomorrow! Certainly a weight off my shoulders. I hope to get a chance to chat with him very soon! It is hard to be so far away but at the same time, thank goodness for technology to keep in touch! 

We ended our day early with a lovely early dinner for the kids and then Emanuel and I made up a crazy patterned flower! I was surprised at how the two patterns looked so… cute together. He was so proud! Zander and I have had a nice long talk and discussed his obsession with things we really can’t do right now the way he wants to (going to the beach, digging for treasure chests… playing hours of Minecraft). We are going to find things he DOES like to do and we CAN do together. The plan is to make a duct tape creation tomorrow just the two of us.

Emanuel and his flower

That is something we so quickly forget about – the one on one time… with all the kids and Echo’s needs the time gets lost in the muddle. It is something to work for. It looks like I may go on a trip to visit Karyn’s parents’ farm on Sunday… and Saturday is kick it to the curb – where you can put stuff out on the curb and people can come and take what they can use. Should be an interesting weekend!

Binky Baby

So it has happened… we FINISHED The Trumpet of the Swan! Took us long enough to get to that last chapter I know but we did it… 21 chapters, with an illustration and words (except for the 1st chapter that was just an illustration) for each as well as a cover page. All on 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch white cardstock. We are going to put a hole in the top corner of each and get some nice large metal rings, they are just too thick for the traditional book. Our next story is already lined up – Stuart Little by E.B. White! Emanuel has expressed interest in doing the chapters as well. Though I think just pictures and dictating words to me for his share. 

Working on their last chapter

The front covers

Emanuel dove right in today and was hard at work on his letters. He gets very excited when there is a sticker to be placed at the top of a finished page. 

Such a big boy working on his letters!

Oh I have to share our grape packaging… VERY cute… a 2lb cube of grapes. What you do is rinse them in the box, shake and then open them up and eat. Crazy enough, they were only a dollar for 2lbs so we bought two cubes at the H&W. Makes me miss the store even more!!! BUT we have them now which is great.

Grapes in a cube

I made a bit of a luxury purchase today. I mentioned last night that my stroller (beloved as it is) had a wonky wheel… well I wasn’t able to find a local spare part so I went onto Kijiji and contacted someone selling their old stroller, which is newer than MY old stroller. 40.00 later (the rest of Echo’s birthday cash from Nana and Baba and an ad or two of my own’s cash) and I am the proud owner of a lovely Quattro Graco stroller. What excites me the most is the seat itself, much more close… so no more Echo slipping around. She can be snuggled in a bit like she likes!!

STROLLER!

I also managed to clear another stack of random stuff in our room today – with the help of the kids, sort of. I even found a few more items to post up for sale on Kijiji and a building set Zander had been asking about. Still no box of photos though… which is minorly discouraging but with Ken swamped with work he has not even started looking. BUT our room is looking roomish in a bedroom fashion so I am content. 

Tonight is to be spent sorting some of the floss I had to lump together into smaller labelled bags and then of course… tidy tidy tidy. Today the boys went all out helping with the cleaning. We hope to leave the house neat as a pin so that when we come back it is just put what we took with us away and then RELAX. Or something like that… maybe? 

Silly baby

Ken has finally succumbed to the family cold. Today was not his finest day health wise and it certainly did NOT help that he was up late the night before. We had a minor mix up on Karyn’s flight times (and location) and could not agree if it was an am or pm flight. So Ken stayed up in case it WAS an am flight (and kept me up with him, so you can imagine how tired I was as well today) and kept the phone by. Of course it turned out we were basically totally WRONG on our info and she came in this afternoon with Ken there waiting but still… totally the Reinsch-Johnson way of doing things – err on the side of caution but make sure you do it in a crazy way. Not that I was complaining much… I am coming to the end of the current anime series obsession – Mushi-shi. Which I officially want to collect in manga form as well. To make Ken’s life easier I am compiling a list of the mangas I want and which I don’t have. Should be an interesting list. I actually have been collecting a few over the years but VERY slowly and am very much behind.

I have started a project to make something for Petite Sheepette to wear at the August wedding. I am trying to make two little behind the ear clips of matching ribbon to Echo’s headband. Either that or a decorated choker… I am still in the planning stages. It can be super frustrating to try and make two identical (ok nearly) bows!

Working on bows

Today we focused on yesterday’s ignored math. Gavin is in the final two page testing series in his. I am finding out through these short tests (which we just do as worksheets) what things we need to go back to once we are done. So far the big one is the months and time… we seem to have the concept of a calendar figured out and are well on our way with the days of the week… it is just the bigger concepts we need to do work on.

We also did a chapter in our story. I think we are getting into the final stretch here.

Two more illustrations

Tonight we welcomed back Karyn from her Alaska trip. I will share pictures of the gifts tomorrow due to laziness tonight. BUT we went out for dinner – Karyn, Lauralee, Echo and myself… to the Wok box. Echo spent most of her time in the highchair… though it was a little too big for her. The food was great and even with Echo’s later moving around we were able to sit around and visit.

Quick snapped picture

Ok so the highchair is still a little bit big

The evening ended in rain again! Always! Seriously I am starting to wonder if the sun is scared to come out at this point. So very very wet. I would absolutely love a week of sunshine. Fingers are definitely crossed that Saturday turns out to be a sunny day. Friday we can BBQ and eat indoors but with the weather all nasty on Saturday we may end up a bit cramped in my brother’s place.

Our big excitement (beyond Karyn coming back and Lauralee visiting)… the neighbours cat felt the need to rest on our fence! They actually have 3 as far as I can tell, the other two long haired orange tabbies.

Kitty

So today was not heavy on the work but a good day. We accomplished things, we spent some time together and the kids watched quite a few episodes of Curious George on the Netflix. It is the best way to deal with a house full of people getting over being sick and rainy weather. I just hope that the rest of our week can be nice and relaxing. Or at the very least, that we have fun while we do things around the house. Check out Hooked on You… Seriously!

Echo in one of her lovely headbands. I think she looks marvellous!

Modelling with Petite Sheepette