November 1-3

Where in the world did October go? We are through with Halloween and onto the next big holiday – THANKSGIVING. Which is a much bigger deal than in Canada… and a different month all together. It is quite the trick to go from an event like Halloween and then back to school on a Friday no less.

We had a timely mail delivery of two of our magazine subscriptions to read during our reading time.

And of course we took a moment to enjoy the glory that is fall in our backyard. These trees were chosen (and planted when they first built the house) specifically for the fall season!

We had time for painting with watercolours (Thomas the Tank Engine)…

And a Halloween activity for Trinity.

We had a new countdown to the 5th and Aunty Karyn’s visit… that had us making Christmas cards on Saturday for all the people who live near her so that we could send off our early Christmas presents and save the shipping costs for mailing later!

We also had our Home Depot craft session – BOATS! 

We also finished our lovely ghostly footprints to go into our Halloween book. I love the individuality!

That evening it was finally time to eat our other mailed gift from Gammie – our cupcakes in a kit – a Hello Kitty Halloween themed. They went over VERY well.

We rounded off our weekend with first Sunday School (as usual) and THEN a beautiful afternoon out in the sunshine… a good stiff wind earlier in the day brought down a bounty of brightly coloured leaves.

So what better to do than rake them into a pile and jump and play in them… and THEN clean them up into the bags to be taken out with the trash this week?

Enjoy the pictures… I did take a few…

The inclusion of Echo

November 19-20

Mondays always feel a little hectic. And this Monday we felt doubly rushed as we really had a TRUE weekend with visits and errands AND a lazy Sunday morning. It was fun!

Trinity: Hello Kitty

Emanuel: fire trucks

Gavin: flowers

Zander: being able to read

Gratitude Turkey

Monday was Ken’s day to teach for once. We worked on a list of to do stuff for them the night before and set it all up so they could work together without me. So I actually got to SLEEP IN properly on a WEEKDAY! It was so nice! And as an added bonus, they did pulleys together! Note the amazing drawings in their journals.

Fun with pulleys

We watched a Wild Kratts episode on Geckos so the boys drew pictures and we recounted what we learned on a special page. The boys are talking about making a poster of random animals of interest. I am all for that!

Geckos

I got a package in the mail that included some special Halloween craft supplies for the kids! I am doing an exchange with my Christian cross stitch group and am almost to the point where my gifts are ready to go! 

Thank you!

With ink in Nana and Baba’s printer (though colour is eluding us) Tuesday was a Thanksgiving print out frenzy! Of course first we had to decide what we were thankful for!

Zander: for Thanksgiving

Gavin: the earth

Emanuel: Echo

Trinity: dolls

Zander and our turkey

We also taped our poem… it took FOUR tries with Echo definitely not in the mood to perform and some miss starts to get it going. This poem was a lengthy holiday one I found in one of my saved resources and a lot of fun as we came up with various gestures to go with it!

Thanksgiving Poem

After worksheets and a dinosaur and some cleaning it was time for GUESTS! Bree and Quinn came to play… and to make us real honest to goodness homemade lasagna. (So amazing!) This also meant that Bree and I got a chance to run out kid free to Target to get supplies, wander a bit and talk about girly things (I am still on the fence as to what colour I should colour my hair!).

With Aunty Bree

The kids played indoors and outdoors but mostly trains!

Playing trains

Their outside creation

Teaching Quinn about Minecraft

And then Echo decided to see how big of a bump she could get with tipping a kitchen stool onto her head!

And trust me, it looked worse later… check back to see!

Thankfully she has terrific big brothers who are willing to hold the cold cloth and ice to the bump for a while while they watched Jake and the Never Land Pirates!

Poor baby

With an AMAZING lasagna for dinner already there for me to warm and serve my evening was mainly crafting and dealing with an injured infant. Time to welcome the Nana and Baba home! Those 3 weeks sped by.

Thank you so much for the supper Bree!

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)