Well with sunshine and fun locations comes excessive images… sit back and enjoy the tail end of our summer of 2016 (seriously not the same ring to it as the summer of ’69).

Boys in the basement gaming… like college all over again!

A little bit of workbook fun.

Alien in her cowboy boots.

A wizard and his staff.

Tails!

A princess!

Mermaid!

Poor Sean!

…and back in the basement.

5 year olds want CONES not CUPS!

We seriously love this museum! It was hard to weave out images. I hope you are enjoying the excess!

Working as a team… sort of.

Making Uncle Sean work!

My family. A hole is always filled when our Canadian friends who are family anyway visit.

We broke him!

At IKEA

And of course… MORE Wild Kratts.

Yup, that is my husband on the Schwartz family roof.

CROCHET

And a selfie to end…

Well I have to say it didn’t take reflection to realize that THIS January was a much easier month for the adults and disappointing for the kids. Of course, I am talking about the weather, no Arctic chill, but also not much in the way of truly useful (for play) substantial snow! At least getting to “Jesus School” on Sundays was much easier on the family. Frigid rides in the van in the early morning is never a blast.

But I get ahead of myself – We ran in the new year (well partied until the evening) with Renee’s family and friends at her folks’ hobby farm. There was kids to play with, amazing snacks to munch on and entertaining adult company. Absolutely no complaints here! Though we did not make midnight. It may be another year or two before Miss Echo can handle being out and about and HAPPY at midnight.

Jeffrey!

Our first weekend AFTER New Years was of course Home Depot… Echo starts up after August if you believe it! If you have NOT checked into this free activity (on both sides of the border no less) please do! Ages for this one are suggested 5-12. Such cute little sleds!

Sleds!

We had visitors in our new year… notably Cousin Robbie who is always willing for a quick game with the kids before settling down to playing adults only.

Enjoyed our gingerbread houses as decoration well past season…

Crafted and drew for fun and all…

And found the time to learn something about the world through Little Passports!

SPAIN

And a Wild Kratts!

Under the Frozen Pond!

I think 2015 was well begun with creativity on all sides!

by Emanuel

Cross stitch by Gavin for his God Mommy back home!

With January also came our revisit of all things China and Chinese New Year. You can see our China resource page for this year’s studies HERE. I am going to have to think this through to really find a way to make a whole new unit for next year!!!

We had origami…

And costume time…

And a book completion for our littlest learner!And FIVE perfect sets of teeth!

Swimming continues to entertain all!

Definitely a different winter from last year when we had mountains of snow followed by biting cold!!

Yup fast forward through January… onto February… but first… check out the picture over flow HERE for this month with more silly goodness.

This family, for some reason, seems to crave confusion and excitement or at least subconsciously call it to us! Yesterday I got an email from our facilitator, apparently he had NOT gotten our message about the move and the meeting which is supposed to be… today… ack! So I called his hotel AND emailed to hopefully erase the confusion. That is what I get for leaving contact up to the husband. Emails are his favourite and I swear between him and our facilitator there is more lost emails  than found! But they do enjoy talking to  each other on the phone! Of course… he WAS calling our home number… which IS on hold right now… so… joy. Thankfully we were able to connect up and plan to do a later visit when things settle down. Score another one for the flexibility of homeschooling. 

We did get some more schooling done though. The boys were workbooking and writing words, drawing pictures,  talking about money… we did tons. With SOME complaints (trust me there were some iPad minutes lost) but we did have improvement. Emanuel is fighting getting into really working on things. Right now he has a “fun” workbook and a regular workbook he is in need of finishing before the fall… after all he is registered in the fall for his first year! But he is VERY resistant to doing work. I am  going to keep pushing him though… when he DOES do his work he does a wonderful job! 

Workbook time

There was some crafting going on too yesterday! Trinity made Aunty Chris her very own bracelet! 

Purty

Oh and I have those 6 bows  to share that I completed. 

Purses

Pretty pattern

Silvery

A bit of Halloween

Made With Love

Another silver classy one

Echo had an unlucky day yesterday and not only got knocked over but also pinched her finger in a folding door. She had a rather sleepless night  as well. (and was a total crank to boot) I think it was the yellow and orange peppers she ate last night. Either way she has NOT been a joy to be around the second half of the week.

But Daddy made her giggle

The news is not good for our rental. The owner hunted down his contractor today and the 14th does not look viable. So we are supposed to move in on the 1st… this has everyone in our family completely out of sorts. We love Chris and Chris, the kids would love to visit Grandma and Grandpa Mike (if we can EVER get this darn van situation resolved) but we would really love to be back in our own place with our own stuff. We have a new plan of action, Ken has kept in contact with the owner of our (supposed) new place all along and has again emailed asking for assurances on our 1st move date but he has ALSO started the process all over again to see if we can secure a rental sooner. The hard part about all of this is that this new place would REALLY work for us. The owner is just as upset about this situation as we are, he was sure it would be ready in time for the 1st but there was an electrical issue found in renovations that HAD TO be done to bring the place up to code and be signed off on… and then again he assumed it would be ready for the 14th. Now he is out a full month on this rental. BUT on the other hand we need a home for our family… it is all a whole lot of NO FUN! 

Add this to the equation canceling the kids' run to the park with Daddy and no one was pleased!

So not the week ending that I had been hoping for. There is still a chance for saving it though… the van… and our miracle worker Sean. He went to see our first pick tonight but was way over tired after his first day back to work so we shall get the details tomorrow! Keep those fingers crossed. I will surely have some sort of news about that tomorrow.

With a lovely evening visit with Karyn who brought some of her own handmade flowers for me to peek at AND some feltie fluff since I have mine in storage and need it for TWO spontaneous projects!!! It is  time to get back to my OWN crafting and a wee bit of pouting. But not too much as it is not going to get me anywhere and I KNOW that on some level…

Baby in a headband