Tag Archive | weather

Monday Mayhem

Back to our new weekday routine. The homeschooling around the weather station and the table is going better all the time. Ken had a talk with the boys about respecting their teacher and decreasing the whining about having to do things as well. There has been more complaints than usual lately. Partially out of frustration of the continuing upset, the resettling at Grandma and Grandpa’s and of course the big one – BEAUTIFUL WEATHER. Doing our daily weather report and watching the Weather Network has taught them how to glimpse ahead at the weather too… smart cookies! So now they are already chatting about TOMORROW’S lovely weather today… one step ahead and excited about it! 

Anyway, Ken started reading a USA themed book with them this morning, but I stuck with the tried and true. We have continued adding to our books, this time with the Sunday School special events. Even Emanuel got in on the work – he drew pictures and wrote some words on each page AND willingly worked on the math section of his workbook. I love watching him catch onto something, he was working his way quickly through simple addition using our counting blocks.

Working hard

Grandpa Mike was home for lunch which was beyond exciting and much discussion was had about Emanuel’s need for a haircut… we have a couple affordable options for tomorrow which he is VERY excited about. There was a list of chores Grandma left us and we all worked together to accomplish them. The twins collected the dog poop out of the backyard, Trinity watered the flowers in the front, we sorted out the recycling and Gavin helped me with mopping the kitchen… 

Creative watering

We skipped naptime and instead the littles had their own movie time in the twins’ bedroom – My Little Pony dvd from the library!

Movie time

Which left our afternoon open to Farmer Boy, and then THE POOL! Grandpa Mike had filled it the rest of the way with air so all we needed to add was children. 

Pool time

After drying off and tidying the backyard Zander spent some quality reading time on his level 1 Scooby Doo book. I am so glad they are each finding books to bring along their interest in reading!!

Reading away

And what is the best way to end an evening? A walk with Grandma and Gypsy… to the SLURPEE store… which meant EVERYONE ended up happy. Emanuel hopped, skipped and ran his way through our walk with a smile on his face. Gypsy is doing so well with the new way of walking suggested by a friend in the city. 

Ready to walk

Stops the pulling

My beloved middle child

The clock is ticking on the craft show… I have a few more things to accomplish before I am truly ready… headbands to assemble, the last of the purses, a float to collect together to make change. BUT the 9th is just around the corner! So if you are in the neighbourhood HERE is the link once again! Elk’s Hall, if you can’t see the link drop me a line and I will get you the info! Come support Arthritis research! 10% off all sales go to the cause! 

Our baby

Two Adventures in Two Days

Let’s make our way to the weekend! The weather has been pretty predictable in its sunny wonderful-ness this week. The kids have LOVED it, the dog has LOVED it… I have to admit I have loved it too! We worked it out in advance so that Ken got enough work done to take his morning slow and we (as a family no less!) scratched ANOTHER thing off our list. Visiting Grandma’s work while she is there! And with the lovely weather how better to enjoy the event than to go for a family walk there, once we covered our Trinity’s blisters with bandaids, packed up the baby’s necessities and convinced the boys that walking WAS much better than the van. 

Walking together

We made good time and brought Grandma a bottle of water, as we all know hydration is VERY important. We met some of her co-workers, played with some toys and made two important purchases. As this is the weekend of Jaywalkers everything was 50% off so I got Echo a booster chair for 1.50 to take to Kathy’s when we pet sit (oh and for her to play with as it is officially her new favourite seat).

A chair AND the Tupperware cupboard

Ken picked out a boardgame. The main reason? It is still in the shrink wrap with a copyright date of 1974! So here’s hoping it is an interesting game! At least it is a good conversation piece for a piddly 2.50!

New game

On the way back Trinity’s feet started hurting again so she got a ride from Daddy. She is so nervous about heights that it took a little time to calm down and get comfortable with it. 

Best view

That got us home in time for lunch and schooling. Of course we had to do our page for the books… they are getting quite full of all sorts of adventures!

Gavin working on his library book

The twins each took some time in the afternoon to help me out with my craft sale items. Each of the boys has made their own duct tape change purse to sell for 4.00 like mine. They picked their own colours and Gavin even took the time with a messed up piece to draw and cut out a duck to embellish his. 

Gavin with duck

The inside on Zander's is silver

There is a measly 1 week left until the craft sale! I am going to link the event HERE so please, if you are in the area on the 9th, come by, buy something however small and help out a great cause. 10% of ALL my sales for the day go to the charity and I am also donating a doorprize. My  table SHOULD have the sign It’s a Hoot and Friends on it (gotta get that done yet!). I am personally selling owls, bows, duct tape items and some headbands. I will post some teaser images later this week as well as this link again and again! So check back! 

So many owls

Anyway after Grandma got done work and we had supper there was some kid and Grandma quality time while Ken and I ran out to get groceries. Some alone time for us and some nail polish time with Grandma. Echo’s first time! She got sparkly stuff and Trinity some gold. Zander had his done as well though we removed that Saturday as we have a special Sunday planned. I am just so glad they are getting some fun time with family in. We hadn’t visited in quite some time and we need to take advantage of this and have new memories and adventures made. 

Echo and her fancy nails

With Grandpa gone to the city for a conference it was bed time and then JAYWALKERS… yup two items in two days! Jaywalkers is an event where the downtown is blocked off from vehicular traffic. Instead booths are put up, carnival games and rides… there was snacks, shopping and even a 4-H booth with some animals! 

Checking out the animals

Bunnies

Echo in her seat

We tried to win free passes for the mini golf/petting zoo/corn maze just outside of town. All 4 kids tried and failed to make the shot but she gave us a pass anyway… after all there is still the REST of the family to pay for! The kids had a blast trying though! Each with a different coloured set of balls. 

Mini golf

And then we paid 2.00 for 6 balls to try bowling for 1,000.00. Ken came rather close but we did not win. It was fun though!! Each of the boys took a turn. 

Bowling

Next came the two things Ken and I absolutely LOVE about Jaywalkers – mini donuts AND lemonade (we tried the cherry version, I still prefer the original). Yummy, though the prices had gone up! Of course it would not be an outing without an injury. On the way back to the van Gavin wasn’t listening and climbed on some cement parking blocks, slipped and biffed it big time! Both knees VERY scratched up. So we cleaned him up as best we could with what we had in the van and after a brief stop off to pick up a medium sized diaper cover (yup I love SPRINKLES). took him home to clean and bandage properly. He did a professional job of scuffing himself up royally! 

OUCH

With Ken’s help, I spent some time making Echo a miniature version of Trinity’s purse… 4 inches long and with a shorter strap. She is very pleased and I was able to just use bits from all of my remaining rolls!

Echo's purse

We had a surprise visit from Tammy and her girls while the kids watched a movie from the Library and I got in some visiting time. She brought some of her older pieces of dressier clothing that she no longer needed/could wear for me to try on later and some company on an afternoon that went from sunny to drizzly rather quickly. 

Supper was homemade hamburger courtesy of Ken and then the kids played  games with mom while I got in some chatty time with Ken. I think we are starting to really feel on the same page on more and more things. I am hoping he can get a few more minutes here and there to homeschool with us in the near future as well. Though I do think we are doing rather well. I would love to do more in-depth things and hope to find some ways to get back into the crafting, math and sciences in a way that actually brings in the boys’ interest willingly. As it is I hope to get started on the United States on Monday. I have a few books from the library to use, and a couple files printed out from my resources. Sunday night I hope to do some more searching. Any suggestions are welcome! We plan to spend the whole month on it! 

It was a great day for together time. And I snuck in another weather page as for the first time in forever the weather changed visibly through out the day. Tomorrow it is the dedication for the costumes mom made the church. I look forward to it, and the last day of Sunday School. I hope to see some local friends, pick up a few items at some stores not available here and maybe stop at a park or two. Gotta keep the adventures going and two more things on our list to cross off! That is without going over the information the Information Center gave me about some local things. There is a great aboriginal event towards the end of the month and I know the library has advertising about a Father’s Day event that includes pictures on a fire truck! 

So my attempt to stay positive and do the day as the day standing alone worked rather well… the evening not so much but you know what? That sometimes gives way to talks that do help… I still have plans to make paper… just need a blender no one cares about, a screen and some paper to shred. Everything is doable if you keep your heart and mind set upon the path. 

A big sister being a big help

Welcoming Home the Grandparents

Hmm, Wednesday… what is there to say about Wednesday? Well, the excitement level here hit a new high! After all, Grandma and Grandpa Mike were HOME! With all their new bits and bobs and of course time to say hello and catch up. Gypsy was right there with the excitement of course!  So what to do with all that excess energy? Well, it was time to walk it out!! And what a walk!!

We started off with some tree climbing… 

Up a tree

And then down a few back ways that are rather pretty to find this gem on one of the outside walls of the art building…

I love this one

And then onto the city’s information centre where I got tons of new ideas of things to see, some to read about and of course more photographs! (of course the woman knew mom too!)…

Thanks to a random gentleman for taking a group shot for us!

Where to next? Well, there are TWO pet stores in town, one just food and supplies so we decided to go the distance and REALLY walk. Past the apartment complex we lived in before leaving town (when Emanuel was tiny) and to the row of townhouses mom and I both rented in. What a trip back in time (though those stand condemned now after a lot of shifting of ground)…

We took the long route home past the floating dock…

Dock

Seeing a duck with HER multiple babies…

Ducks

And the perfect park for Trinity… with a slide her size and all… At this point Trinity started complaining of sore feet so I had to piggy back her for a while. She wore her pony sneakers instead of the sandals I suggested (that we purchased last year) and paid the price. We found out AFTERWARDS that she had blisters on BOTH feet. Definitely TOO SMALL.

Anyway then it was time to cross another place off our list… The Lefse House. It is a Norwegian bakery and coffee house. It smelled DIVINE! I picked up some fancy cookies – Cardamon cookies. That everyone BUT Ken loved. Totally light and tasty!

Lefse House

Then to Liquidation World to collect a variety of snacks… and then home with some VERY tired out kids and dog! What a walk! I think we were all ready for quiet time, though some less willing than others… That ate up over half our day and wore everyone out. So of course we had to do our daily weather report and play in the backyard and watch some quiet tv.It was a GOOD day! Emanuel and Trinity got an extra treat – a walk with Grandma and Gypsy where they ran into MORE friends and side tracked to a park!!

Thursday was waffles in the morning and then It was time to deal with Trinity’s feet. She needed new shoes dreadfully and Mommy and Grandma were the right ones to help hunt for them… while we ALSO hunted for flowers and tomatoes to go into the slightly late garden containers. And who is the best person for THAT job? Trinity of course! She loves flowers.  We hunted down the perfect shoes at Walmart for under 8.00! Perfect fit, girly butterflies, in pink no less! And the price made Mommy smile! 

Ready to shop!

The shoes

So of course once we got home, unpacked and to the backyard it was time to GARDEN! Even Echo got in on the fun running here and there and enjoying the sunshine!

Gardening

Off and running

Tomatoes

Though there was arguing and bossing around we were OUTSIDE enjoying the sun, working on our skills for following directions. Then Grandpa Mike decided it was time to get out the pool. That amped the excitement up even more… time with Grandpa AND the pool! Filling it with air was a bit of a challenge and in the end only the bottom layer was filled which was more than enough to put water in (and the pump on the charger)… the boys wore their shorts but Miss T wore one of her swimsuits. 

Filling the pool

Splish Splash

With 4 wet kids and dinner ready we decided to put them outside. They used the box for the new lawn mower (the blade dropped right off the old one while Ken was mowing earlier in the day). Perfect for a picnic and later playing imagination games. 

Definitely a wonderful way to end the month, and now we have a plan to deal with the next. We will be at my mom’s for June with the hope of finding a place no later than July. Bonus if we find one by the 15th. We have expanded our search area and are just going to go for it. Lots of prayer, networking and communication to be done. I just want my own home again… somewhere safe and healthy for the kids. Though we are more than thankful to have somewhere to be right now. 

Just a little hint of Sailor Moon

Now who remembers THIS?? A boat by Gavin