September 19-22

Half a week in and my family showed their love by coercing me to sleep in until NOON! Ken took a partial day off and we were able to go out and have a lovely Family Day. Just us 7 out and about running errands… getting free cookies at Cub… enjoying time together.

It was coupon week at JoAnn’s so I was able to buy quite a few skeins of yarn and save almost as much as I spent!! Way to make Christmas affordable! Though I do have some colours yet to pick up. It is fun to go and just look  through yarn and feel it, see the colours… so many possibilities!

And still Miss Echo loves her hat… in fact, the girls BOTH uses their Grandma change to get special gifts for themselves at Walmart.

We are still holding in on the braids but their time has come to an end. I really need to learn how to do more than the simple stuff I am able to do.

and removed

We worked on some lovely poems using the letters of the twins’ names on Friday.

While Miss Echo went back to rocking her curls.

Trinity likes to re tell her stories using our books, her memory and a nice dose of imagination!

We had a crafty duo make paper tissue baskets (Zander).

And on Saturday the kids worked on getting dirty… enjoying the sunshine…

And attacking Daddy…

Equal opportunity…

On Sunday we had our second session of Sunday School! happy kids!

And then… thanks to a sale on apples at Cub… we made PIE!!!

How better to end the weekend (and the week for that matter!) than to have a run outside. With Daddy’s remote control car as well! Yay!

September 9-10

We decided that Monday the 9th was our day to begin our new year. But first, a run to Walmart to purchase our very first brand new lunchboxes!! They were on sale and everything (one of the joys of having the ability to wait until AFTER public school starts). Each of the 4 big kids picked their own. We had only 2 that duplicated.

After the excitement of a lunchbox well chosen we went out to the front yard with our special signs for our new grades! Poor Echo had a blister on her foot and so was not in a picture mood but I think it suited her colourful “Toddler” poster!

Self decorated, of course!

We had a parcel come in the mail from England with items from France AND England inside! We have some amazing Facebook friends out there! Thank you Anne and family! I need to find a place to display these lovely things.

I found and printed out multiple beginning of the year worksheets, games, mini books… anything I could think of to make it fun and interesting to say what our goals are, find out what we like and dislike… that sort of thing.

Lunch was a special experience for us… we have never done the lunchbox thing before! The kids were quick to see alternative uses for these items… snacks on rides, toys, collections. I am sure we will get our use out of them!

We also started a new weekly program of 4 days of one on one time with each kid… what I am doing is Monday – Thursday each child gets their day with 30 minutes Mommy only time! Our order for this week is Zander, Emanuel, Trinity, Gavin. Zander chose to sit on the iPad and chat with me!

Tuesday continued on our trend. We had a couple science projects to start…

And a garden to pick through…

Schoolwork to explore…

and games to play…

We ended day one with supper together…

I think it was a beginning well planned and executed!!!

Girls working side by side

July 29-31

The end of the weekend and the return of the cousins to their home opened up a new idea… Nana and Baba taking the twins and those cousins camping for 3 days, 2 nights! That left us with Monday as a sole day of school for the twins and the time to pack. Although the grandparents had much more work with their plans than I did readying the 2 boys.

Reading to his almost willing sister

That did not stop us from having some fun in the sun… gotta love a nice sized backyard!

Math

Nature Journals

We were especially appreciative of Art for Kids for their Minions instructions. Just a video, no printable but both Gavin AND Emanuel enjoyed following them and had GREAT results. You can draw your own Minion off of Despicable Me 2 HERE.

We saw the boys off early on the Tuesday… after we made a flying run to get new shoes for Emanuel. A growth spurt had his sneakers to small and his sandals wore out beyond light play use.

Gotta keep getting those new school supplies while they are on sale!

The little ones kept themselves nice and busy… we had computer  time…

watching cartoons together…

work books…

you name it we did it.

Back onto Art for Kids

And I finished a new pair of slippers for the ever growing (though slowly) Echo!

The first FULL twin free day saw us just zipping through our half day of schoolwork. We read two books…

drew in our journals and did workbooks…

We took full advantage of our time without big boys on the playset. It was a lot quieter too! Surprise!

I got in enough time to finish up new slippers for EMANUEL! Two for two now, not bad, not bad! Crochetspot.com is my go to place for this pattern.

We ended our evening with a dinosaur themed movie and lots of snuggle time.I have to say, going down to just 3 kids is a rather huge difference. While we missed the twins, the one on one time with the other 3 was a great experience!