Tag Archive | vacation

The Start of 9 Weeks…

February 6-7

It is always a bit of a mental adjust when the inlaws leave for one of their extended leaves. Nice and hard at the same time. Nice, because it puts us back to the 7 of us working as a family unit again but hard because man do we miss them! We have been promised that they will have internet and may Skype and I even had Ken slip in a gift for the birthday girl – it was Nana’s birthday on the 6th. Baba always gets her the best presents – a whole beach!!!

We had a bit of major birthday excitement. The day before the last of the gifts Aunty Holly and Uncle James had sent from Canada got here. So on the 6th we opened the gifts from them AND from Gammie! Talk about a list completer day! Emanuel got the Pokemon he had been dying to have, Gavin Pokemon cards. Zander even got a brand new Lego set. We snuck out earlier and Ken got each of the girls a little something so they would not feel totally left out. 5 pleased kids I am telling you!

Think he wanted it???

Think he wanted it???

Thanks Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie

Thanks Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie

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Echo and her pony

Echo and her pony

We really took a day off school for the most part BUT that did not stop progress on the car. Emanuel and Ken are a building force here. With lots of interested eyes keeping a careful watch on the progress. After all… the race is on the weekend!!!!!101_6110

The Olympics start on the 7th and while we are not doing a whole unit on it we are cherry picking things here and there. Of course covering Russia and some of the winter sports we could watch. Xfinity has a section of clips from the Olympics which the kids have taken to watching every morning and discussing for fun. It has actually been a little difficult finding information about Russia for the age range we are working with here. Once again Activity Village has been a great resource you can find their Sochi section HERE. Or go to Art for Kids and look through their drawings HERE. They have covered a few of the sports with some how to illustrations.

We totally started with a couple of sports we were able to follow drawings with. Ski Jumping and Bobsled. This is actually the first year of women being allowed to compete in ski jumping at the Olympics. Zander was quite upset about this… he said girls can do anything so they must have been missing out not letting them try sooner!!! Talk about proud momma!101_6114

Of course we looked up our two sports on the internet… and I will share our links!

Ski Jumping:

      • Activity Village HERE
      • Art for Kids HERE
      • Infoplease article HERE
      • We of course had to do the video thing… an Olympic trials

 

Bobsled

                • Activity Village HERE (video at the very bottom)
                • Art for Kids HERE
                • Library.thinkquest HERE
                • Infoplease HERE
                • Kids Britannica HERE
                • Our video from youTube with Chris Lori

          • Equally exciting is that my own cousin Brad Reinsch is listed as 4th ranked bobsledding pilot in Canada!! Very cool! 

Emanuel also drew up his paint job on his car. It is a Batman themed piece and looking AMAZING!101_6115

101_6118We are preparing for Valentines with tiny cards printed off the Activity Village site. I love printing off stuff on cardstock (best price ever at Sam’s for a ton of it!!) and letting the kids create their own little gifts. These are for them to make for their siblings. We have several purchased ones (or given to us from Gammie) to use to mail out. Another thing to get done and mailed!101_6119

The kids lucked out and Nana left her iPad behind. So we are having some kid together time of course!  With limited fighting thankfully!!!!101_6116

On our own once again… yup yup!101_6113

Welcome to 2014

December 31- January 5

How to end a rather interesting and unusual year… (but since when has the Reinsch-Johnson family experienced a USUAL year???) Well we enjoyed some print outs from Activity Village for the 2014 New Year. I love their pages… they have number searches, colouring pages… it is just the place to go for our print out needs lately. 101_5796

Education.com (link on right) has also been helpful, though without paying I am now limited to 10 pages per month.

Education.com (link on right) has also been helpful, though without paying I am now limited to 10 pages per month.

We did up our last Wild Kratts page of the year too. Who can resist Seahorses?? Seriously cool little fish that have an amazing resemblance to horses. We may just have to do a whole on lapbook on them one of these days! 101_5798

Both of our girls had their hair in plaits. 101_5801

Our last meal of the year? White Castle! Definitely not something we would have in Alberta. I do love their chicken rings. Not so much their sliders.101_5799

The kids did not stay up until midnight but we adults did. It was calm and alcohol free for yours truly. Maybe next year we will attempt company? But really, being with Ken is all I need. 

Miss Echo figured that a new year meant a pretty dress. I have to agree… she does do fancy on a regular day with flair. 101_5802

That evening we had Chinese from the family’s favourite place The Rose Garden. Fortunes on the first day of 2014!101_5805

I was further convinced to extend our vacation from schooling. BUT the boys did do some fancy math and reading while playing Sorry. Which really meant they were only mildly sorry as they trounced each other royally. No fist fights yet!101_5806

Miss Trinity actually WANTED to do schoolwork on the second day of the year. Dot-to-Dots are a great way to practice our counting and this book she got last year from friends here in Minnesota has ones up to 50! 101_5808

On the third day of 2014 Miss Echo modeled a Christmas outfit as she showed her dollies her cooking skills. 101_5810

And with that we wrapped up our week and moved into the weekend… the first of the year. Which is ALSO the first of the month… so.. HOME DEPOT. This time to make a calendar. We are seriously in love with this free program. Apparently it is also running in Canada! 101_5812

We rounded off the weekend with a look at our microscope. A bit of science to end our holiday… and ease into schooling once again! I don’t know about the kids, but I am ready! I love the organization. 101_5813

So our year has started well. I have not come up with any resolutions BUT I have decided to continue with my happy thoughts jar. I have a little pile of happiness already but no jar to put them in yet. photo (82)

This entry was posted on 22/01/2014, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Welcome Home Nana and Baba!

October 10-13

Our final day before welcoming home Nana and Baba was a bit uneventful. We had a house to clean… kids to sort out… laundry to do… and hot chocolate to drink! What a treat for our family and we have a HUGE tub of the powder mix (Swiss Miss). Mini marshmallows on  top… of course!101_4768

We ended our evening with a random chocolate chip cookie recipe that Ken did most of with some kid help. We made sure to leave enough for the returning grandparents to munch on that evening of course! They got home later that evening after the junior league was well asleep… tanned, well rested and with a boatload of pictures!101_4769

On the Friday after there were presents to see… amazing puzzle boxes for all.101_4770

And time with Nana and Baba.101_4771

With fall firmly in our sights we set the kids to work raking leaves… there are A LOT in this area. People really love their trees. It is one of the things Ken missed the most in Alberta… the green. While not as much as South Carolina where my dad now lives, Minnesota has a lovely verdant quality to it and then fall is a riot of colour and leaves!101_4772

101_4775The house is full again… and I think we are well pleased.

Time to check the garden

Time to check the garden

101_4777And then on Saturday it got a little more full with the addition of cousins!101_4778

101_4779And homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner… one of Nana’s specialties.101_4782

We ended our weekend with Sunday school… can’t miss a week can we? The kids are all loving it, though as of yet we are just sending Ken and the 4 school age and leaving Echo and myself here at home. I figure closer to Christmas we will go onto church but right now we are STILL fighting potty training… and all that fun stuff.

Before we said good bye to the cousins (who had school on Monday of course) there was time to pull out the crafting bucket (Gabbi’s new favourite activity).101_4786

Tea party

Tea party

And played outside in the playset, which looks AMAZING in the leaves!101_4787

Yup our welcome back went VERY well!101_4784