Of course I cannot resist sharing the very first holiday I have EVER spent girls only! I think we did a rather good job making memories and friends to remember. We were invited to a family and friends bbq by the mother of the bride from the wedding in June (her daughters are Renee – Chris’s wife and Karen – Cory’s new bride). Renee was a total sweetheart and though she had to miss it for a family reunion (Chris’ side) she helped coordinate our ride – Cory picked us up after work and drove the van so I didn’t have to show my ineptitude at moving Echo’s carseat to a new vehicle! YAY!

But first… Ken had slept the night here with his evening appointments and left in the morning… AFTER helping fill the pool with air and taking out the garbage of course! While he was doing that and collecting any last minute necessities of course we had to bring out the American flag garland and our thematically perfect red, white and blue paperchain for some very adorable July 4th pictures. Sadly you cannot see in the picture but I am also wearing a USA themed tank top I picked up at Walmart (oops…).

After the pictures it was time for the first of our special treats – ding-dongs.

We did a quick with Daddy photo before hugs and good byes and then the fun REALLY began!

All girls all day… so we… made sticker pictures with July 4th ants picnic stickers…

Watched the original My Little Pony videos (and then moved onto MOST of Mastermind the movie)…

We ALL coloured pictures… I got them through a subscription to the site Little Learning Lovies (here) as a freebie for subscribing.

Then after lunch in the sunroom of buns and apple slices we did a wee bit of our mail schoolwork… Trinity is determined to learn to tell time to receive the reward Gammie has promised her and Echo likes nothing better than doing her worksheets.

Around 3:30 Cory collected us and the van and it was time to head to the party.

We got there at the perfect time. The family we met at the groom’s dinner who have 3 girls right around our’s ages were in the pool with their mom so the girls got changed too and hopped in to play.

There was a playset to play on…

A hill to dare devil drive down (which they ALL did successfully)…

And a delicious picnic dinner that included fruit and various salads and AMAZING chicken drumsticks all topped off with chocolate cake. Trinity cleaned her plate perfectly I was so proud!

After dinner was s’mores… Echo let me have a few bites of hers. More visiting… and then…

Cory

SPARKLERS AND FIREWORKS!

Cory and Echo hanging out together

Karen

A new little girl – Chloe

This is Trinity with a sparkler and the camera set on Fireworks!

We did not make it home until almost 11 o’clock. We had an amazing day, met tons of new people and played and ran and honestly had our best 4th of July yet (ok it IS our second but it was grand!).

August 31-September 4

Labour Day Weekend was a rather sedate one for the Reinsch-Johnson Family. The lengthy time it has taken to try and import our van has meant some compromises on vehicle usage and travel time. So instead we spent our time at home enjoying each other… well for the most part… until the kids gave me the PLAGUE! Amazing how quickly a sinus cold can knock you out of commission.

Lots of time for the kids  to enjoy the pool on Saturday.

Then on Sunday home came Nana and Baba with a quick visit with the cousins, Aunty Faithe and Uncle Joe.

For Labour Day itself we went for a nice family walk to see a bit of the neighbourhood and (hopefully) wear out the kids.

Ending with a dinner of corn on the cob with Nana and Baba.

We had a rather special Tuesday… Shandai needed our assistance with her job at the Illusion Theatre. They are doing a multimedia presentation later this month about love and marriage and needed children to give their opinion… and who else has a whole crowd of?? Shandai had us and another friend’s son who was the same age as Trinity. They had a blast!

So our week started off strong but so did the countdown to when Nana and Baba are leaving for Costa Rica. With just one more full day left I let the kids go on school work and put them to work spending time with their grandparents and taking it easy. The boys ended the evening with their own boardgame time. They did a GREAT job following the rules and NOT fighting.

Ken drove them to the airport early Thursday morning and it was back to learning and all things quiet and boring for the most part. But more on that later… for now I have to say, our Labour Day Weekend was nothing especially amazing but it was a great time with our not so little family.

August 16-17

After our adventurous evening NO ONE was complaining when I suggested we end our school week at home in the backyard! Trinity has said she would love another walk, just NOT to McDonalds! But we did it and I am VERY proud of it!

Emanuel finished his subtraction book… we are covering some of the basics one at a time… next is addition then onto the beginning reading sounds. I know he KNOWS most of this but we are really starting his schooling shortly and I feel it is important to review and get him in the right frame of mind. I am lax in Kindergarten generally to learn by play but I do want more of an organized gr. 1 so it can be a bit of a shock!!

Of course we still had time to enjoy nature!

Drawing it, talking about it and sitting in the sun!

I also need to show off the amazing penguins Gavin assembled using a kit we got at Michaels that really had TOUGH instructions. He stuck with it and they are TERRIFIC!

Saturday was our final prep day before Echo’s big party. So of course we ran off to Lakeshore to do the weekly craft! I checked, they go year round… so when we have the vehicle free (trust me, importing a 10+ yr old vehicle has been a royal PAIN) and the day we head over.

I picked up some marvelous little dictionaries for each of the boys. I want to relieve some of the stress of writing so they can check and see if they can find the spelling 0n those words they are unsure of in these, and record new ones as well!

This had us near JoAnn’s so I was able to get supplies for two of my Christmas presents, and head over to the nearby mall to pick up free Victoria’s Secret panties (I do so love a good coupon!). Echo takes instant possession of any and all bags lately! Especially ones that are pretty with ribbons!

What to do after errands and crafts with sunshine? PICNIC and PARK! We thought ahead and remembered the soccer ball this time!

All in all a fun way to work our way up to Echo’s 3rd birthday party!