And the Halloween costume saga has come to its amazing completion. We have FIVE (count them FIVE!) complete costumes, 4 of which are in some way, shape or form handmade by myself or someone we deeply love and appreciate. Whew! Echo’s costume was most certainly a group effort. First is the lovely skirt/apron combo that came all the way from NOVA SCOTIA!! Then Ken was our hero and made our crook. He used much the same stuff as Gavin’s tail. And then under the skirt was a tutu of Trinity’s. Add to that the lovely Fat Sheepas her second half and I am pleased as punch. 

Little Bo Peep has found her sheep!

And apparently knocked said sheep over

Look! A sheep!

Happy Halloween!

Sunday means Sunday School and last night we had full intentions of ALL going… that is until Emanuel spent most of the evening sniffling and waking up periodically in his room while I did my usual diningroom table work. So instead we saw Ken off with the twins and Trinity and retired to the basement to watch The Cat in the Hat Knows All About That. Echo was SUPPOSED to go to nap but has a runny nose herself and is loathe to sleep right now so all 3 of us snuggled on the couch. 

Sunday morning snuggles

It has been an odd day, with the rush of costume making done, the cleaning of the basic household upstairs clutter also completed I am sort of… well… without pressing “to do’s”. So I snuck in a 15 min nap that turned into an hour… downloaded a game trial or two from Bigfish Games… 

We had some crafty kids today – Emanuel and Zander both sat down to do some Halloween themed painting. We have a lovely selection of colours so it is rather easy to convince the kids to do up something bright and fun. 

Painting with Halloween colours

Completed art

I found a Christian Halloween themed mini book for the kids to colour when they felt like it, of course once I put out the markers the younger two were quick to jump in and do theirs. You can find this mini book right here. I figured we should have something to do that is Sunday related but still falls in with their main interest of the weekend – HALLOWEEN! 

Pumpkin prayer

Trinity and I found a set of paper dolls for her to colour. I did these on regular printer paper as she is really not old enough to get the colouring neat and tidy or even more than like 3 colours, We chose the first dolls and then the clothes sheet with dresses. You can find the dolls we used here.

Just need to cut them out

The day may have started out chilly but by the afternoon it was absolutely GORGEOUS! So the kids went out and ran and ran in the backyard. The weather report is actually quite favourable for tomorrow as well! 

Swinging

I took advantage of the fall leaves and nice weather to finally take some pictures of my felties. Though a baguette went missing so I had to make up a new one for my wolf.

Whole group - a little too much sun on the white ones though

Ram

Wolf and his basket

OH Trinity wore my penguin headband today. I am actually rather pleased with how it looks. I have two waiting for their alligator clips still, but I am still debating the angle of the birds on the clips. A dragon pattern is on the docket next… I am looking forward to that one!!

Penguin on a headband... This headband is a Goody brand one so it fits Trinity AND me... What does everyone think?

Gavin has made some nice progress on his new cross stitch. Another self design! Can you tell I am proud as can be? 

So far

That leaves the baking for tonight… the prep work for taking FIVE kids out to trick or treat at two malls and a couple neighbourhoods. I have already made up the two dozen cupcakes a certain amazing cousin requested. bread is in the breadmaker (first of TWO loaves as sandwiches and the like are the theme of the day tomorrow for simplicity sake) and dough for my bannock bread awaiting Ken’s touch with the grease cooking… now to convince Ken to get started on a chocolate to die for brownie, cake thing!! 

This is how lovely it was today - no socks, no sweater and warm and happy... well except when leaves touched her feet.

Mother’s Day Weekend is here! My first as a mother of 5. Somehow that feels like a milestone or some sort of landmark in my life. With the van needing to be babied and the budget going towards the move on the 1st nothing extravagant is planned. Rather we had Ted and Sean over Friday night to hang out for the weekend, work on the game programming wise (Ted) and help moving furniture in the basement. It takes at least 2 to move the twins’ “transformer beds” and I need that second one removed to the play room.

Miss Echo has decided to liven up our weekend by going into poopy overdrive. That seems to be a firm sign that whatever little growth spurt she was experiencing has ended (I am thinking weight as her clothes still fit length wise but I could be wrong). She does her growth much like Emanuel and Trinity do… sit at a certain point for what feels like FOREVER and then BANG growth. It can be quite painful, especially when it is a length growth. It is getting harder and harder to wake her for her midnight meal as well which is a good sign that she is getting enough BEFORE bed and wanting to come closer to sleeping through the night (a novel idea I know!). Even with the scrubbing of diapers I am still absolutely LOVING our cloth diapers. There is not a single disposable to be had in the house in her size (I actually had to use the one I found in a corner last night when she pooped on my last cover and we had to rush a load of laundry.). Sprinkles is the brand I use, it is made locally where my mom lives. LOVE THEM!

Practicing standing using Uncle Sean's computer

Even with the overcast weather you couldn’t keep these kids indoors for the most part (well all except Emanuel). I really hope our new rental has a decent sized backyard. For all our sakes and sanity!

Clubhouse

Supper today was a special one for the kids… I had picked up pitas earlier this week and while Ken was out with Sean he picked up some salami and cheese and they had pita pizzas. Gavin had been asking to help make food all week so this was a fun and yummy way they could ALL be involved on some level.

Making pizzas

I am rather excited about next Friday, for those keeping track Friday is the 13th and ALSO marks Echo being 9 months old! So in honour of my now most lucky of days I am making a special little tutu for her to wear in some pictures. The time has passed so quickly!

Ready to cut

So with an afternoon of crafting and play doh we have kept ourselves busy.

Crafting

Play doh

Between Ken, Sean and Ted we managed a lovely meal for the adults of home made hamburgers. While our meal cooked the kids watched some Veggie Tale movies and hung out in the livingroom before bed. Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day for the boys – they are supposed to take the BUS to church to make Sunday School. There are only 2 sessions and a party before the year end and we missed last week. Thankfully Ted and Sean are very familiar with the bus system so can help Ken plan out a route.

Yum

Now for an evening of sorting through items from the basement, stitching and visiting with the guys. Next weekend it should be MY turn with some girlfriends coming over. BUT these are local friends so we are getting in as much time with them as we can before our move (neither Ted nor Sean have a vehicle that runs right now either!). And tomorrow – Mother’s Day!

Trying out games on my computer

The weather has changed and this time it is definitely for the BETTER. With the temperature topping off at over 0 Celsius the kids were overjoyed to spend most of their late afternoon in the backyard which is full of packed down snow.

Sunshine, snow and warm weather!

Perfect for a mini sledding hill!!

Mini sledding hill

This gave Ken and myself the opportunity to attempt (notice I said ATTEMPT) some pictures of Echo in the snow in the FRONT yard… she really was having nothing to do with it so our best image is one from the BACK.

The best shot!

Today was the first day of our Math Week, and I think a success. We started off with some dice games – Balloons and Mountain. They have in turn taught Daddy how to play Mountain. Tomorrow Gavin is going to teach Emanuel to play Balloons.

Teaching Daddy

We then moved to colour by numbers where you have to do addition equations to find out what colours to use. This had them reading their own colour words for the most part (YAY). And best of all – dinosaurs! Those finished we worked on our Math workbooks. Mid week the plan is to play with our cash register and see if we can work on recognizing money.

Our Math Week supplies... well some of them

The wish to sew more bears has continued over the weekend, so I started Zander on another bear and have hunted down a bunny pattern for Gavin. After all, if they want to sew I am more than willing to work with them on that!

And now for the pictures… way later than I had originally planned, but here are the new 7yr photos of the twins to pick the best of the best out of! So please email, comment here, etc etc which you think is the best to put on the wall as an 8X10!!

A

B

C

D

E

F

Fat Sheep has continued to blog, add photos and of course expand the bucket list! You can follow her HERE or add her on Twitter (phatsheepette).

Modelling one of MY tutus!

Last night I took a little crafting time for myself and finished my last few printed out photos!

Trinity's

Echo's - note BOTH have Hello Kitty die cut pieces

So life is busy busy here, we are hoping to meet baby Izaac tomorrow, the immunization replacement appointment is maintaining an illusive status, and I have a  thousand unfinished things rushing through my mind. The short list is still intensely long – there is the lucky stars I have yet to fold for girls unnamed, my stepsister’s wedding present, helping Chris and Chris with their August wedding, packing, embellishing an old dress for Trinity… and that is not even the whole short list! ACK!

She has been in a pretty good mood the past few days!