December 17-18

What can be better on a Monday than videos… and one of them a CRAFT video? My loyal fellow crafter Gavin and I were right on top of that! I like this project as it gave him a start at braiding with something that holds the shape. He got a little frustrated but did a GREAT job! And the supplies – pipe cleaners, SIMPLE! then I folded two he twisted together to make our bow and attach it and BANG tree ornament and proud crafter!

My crafting buddy

Our second video was a Trinity favourite and I think another that Activity Village (both of our videos are from the site) posted LAST year. It really is short but soooo cute!

Gavin continued his artistic trend with the newest Art for Kids instructions – BABY JESUS! Absolutely ADORABLE!

A beautiful Baby Jesus with artist (Gavin)

The close up

Trinity and Emanuel channeled some artistic talent as they worked on what we are calling our “gingerbread house” since we started our gingerbread man unit with the traditional story and some workbooks. We figured foam would be easier (though this kit not much!).

Working on the house

With gingerbread men comes many many printable pictures… Trinity was all over that!

Colour by numbers thanks to Activity Village – link on right for the site

We also read the boardbook we have for gingerbread men… coloured our Advent stuff, worked on finishing any unfinished previous week sheets and of course practiced our songs. I am hoping to do up the video by Friday and post it on youTube!

The Gingerbread Man

I had a special evening OUT of the house. We had all miss remembered Joe and Faith’s flight return (thinking it Tuesday when it was Monday) so Nana and Baba and cousins headed to the airport after I left leaving Ken solo. But yours truly was out for the evening with Shandai (a besty from my high school days in Canada) and her roommate Emily. Both of them are SUPER crafty ladies and an inspiration.

We went to Applebee’s for dinner (thanks again Shandai) and the 5.00 burger and sat and chatted forever. Then we went to JoAnn’s and shopped for ages, just trolling the aisles talking craft and seeing what there is to see. I picked up some super soft purple yarn for a special project and since I had coupons got a couple dollar Christmas items for the kids to craft with and TRACING paper for a project for later this week.

New yarn!!

Poor Ken finally succumbed to the cold that has been kicking ALL our bottoms on Tuesday. Sore throat, sore body, you name it… so our errands consisted of the two of us heading out late afternoon with Ken driving and me doing the rest. I think I am finally done sending what packages I can before Christmas. Oh and a run to Target to ALMOST finish the random items. I REALLY need to find that Christmas dress for Echo…

So much to do we are tired out!

I had that new package of pipe cleaners so Gavin and I created wreaths of many shiny colours. I love the braiding practice. Gavin even got EXTRA fancy with his bow piece!

More wreaths

The tracing paper has come in handy AGAIN… a method learned from their cousin Gabriella of tracing pictures is VERY popular around here. Gavin decided to go with a page out of our Christmas colouring book. With the Pringles I picked up at Target we can make our pin hole cameras this week as well… Probably by Thursday since we still have a tube to eat.

Tracing paper!

The gingerbread men pages continue as does our book reading. We had an advanced copy of the Christmas themed Scaredy Squirrel book – Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas… you can find our family review HERE. We absolutely adore this series and are so blessed to have a signed copy of one of the books thanks to Karyn. Our binder is filling up.

Hard at work

December 11-12

So the snow is still here, and the sunshine, and a laundry list of things to  get done… including multiple trips to the post office, library and stores… I look forward to not only finishing my Christmas shopping but my immigration collecting. Don’t get me started on the post and crossing customs… grrr…

NOW they want to live outside in the snow!

Though Emanuel and Trinity opted for educational games on the laptop I love PBSkids.com

Anyway… Reindeer… well a start on them! We had a great freebie from The Simple Homeschool. Ken read the kids portions of the booklet that came with and then they worked in pairs on some of the worksheets.

Working with Daddy

I got together everything we needed to make a candy cane reindeer like I did in grade school. We didn’t have the traditional colours of pom poms but I love the end result. In the meantime Trinity and Emanuel were more than willing to make a few more candy canes and help put all of them on the tree… with Echo assisting of course.

Proud decorators

Miss Echo assisting

Trinity and Emanuel worked on their colouring of reindeer… Education.com and Activity Village (both on right) have some great printables with our theme in mind.

Coloured by numbers!

Activity Village had a favourite Christmas themed video on their site for the 11th of December… who doesn’t love Christmas penguins???

Our book for the day? A boardbook from previous Christmases… A Very Shiny Christmas. 

Sparkly!!

The 12th is an interesting date… 12/12/12… we didn’t really do anything special for the day but it is interesting to note. Though a friend on Facebook had a good point in while this is the only time this date will exist in our lifetimes that ALL dates are the only dates in our lifetime… I slept well past noon as this cold and sore throat finally caught me up… BUT Ken had the kids busy finishing their foam creations. Houses and ornaments and all…

Then the boys were back out in the sun and snow working on their Igloo… it is becoming quite the structure. Which means it was time to reinforce a very important rule – we do NOT go into the igloo ALONE, you HAVE TO be in pairs at least! They are very industrious about it!

A full out snow building now!

Trinity and Emanuel made MORE beaded candy canes… which of course had to go onto the tree.

So pretty

Our candy cane reindeer were finally ready for they debut as well. I bet MOST of us have done this as children as well!! 

Candy Cane Reindeer creation

My family

The detail on the one I made. Those are mint chocolate candy canes!

With my voice rather non existent Ken did the book for the day – A rather humourous one called It’s Christmas, David! Hopefully the next day I can do the two books we got advanced copies of and get those reviews up for our seasonal books!

Story time with Daddy

It’s Christmas, David!

We have gotten some really lovely picture Christmas cards… all from family (after all we consider the Novak family family too). I love getting cards, and I want to say a big THANK YOU! I am not sure that we will be able to send one in return this year to everyone… but next year I will have my list and you will be on it!!!

We had a slightly more complicated set of Christmas themed instructions to work on from Art for Kids as well – reindeer! I am rather impressed by Gavin’s rendition, inspired by the instructions and one of our Christmas books we had lying around.

A full out picture

 With the pipe cleaners already out Gavin and I worked together to make a wreath with a pretty bow. 

Very festive

With worksheets to be completed and Christmas to get ready for our house is a busy and increasingly festive one. This will be the kids’ first Christmas Day with Nana and Baba and our first here in Minnesota since we were first together! It is all so very special! I warn you all though – the post Christmas entries are going to be PICTURE HEAVY!!!!

Busy babies

Fall is here to stay! Though Wednesday topped off at 16 Celsius or so today was a traditional rainy, overcast and chilly fall day. Of course, that did NOT stop my boys from heading back out to their sandbox. Ken let me sleep in in the morning as the night before I seemed to have a rather frustrating and minor stomach bug. While I was sleeping they… well they must have done SOMETHING as everyone seemed in relatively good spirits but for once – no massive mess for Mommy! AND Ken cleaned out the dishwasher!!! Don’t get too excited though everyone – he didn’t start the refilling process but emptying – breakthrough! 

Thursday marked the end of our chapter by chapter read of Stuart Little. Each of the boys did a last chapter sentences and illustration and a favourite thing out of the story page. Now all that is left is the title page for their mini book! Very exciting, this will  be Emanuel’s first mini book. 

Final chapter

Their favourite thing in the story

To celebrate they took a nice big bowl of popcorn downstairs and watched the movie “adaptation”… well the twins did, the younger two got bored and came up here to hang out with me, play Play Doh and work on workbooks while I slowly replaced the Velcro on diaper #2. Have I mentioned recently how much I HATE hand sewing on Velcro? Cuz I do! 

Popcorn and a movie

Another diaper done

We played a new game in the afternoon that I found on Education.com. A little TOO easy for the twins but they enjoyed it anyway. And of course, I enjoyed the dice assembly. I think it will be mainly a Trinity and Emanuel thing but the boys are always up to try something new. I clicked on the link on their site to follow them on Facebook and got to download free activities (Halloween) in book form. Always a bonus! Seriously if you have NOT checked them out do! I am finding them a great resource along with EnchantedLearning(you need a membership for them though) and our UK site! 

Dice game

Trinity and I got in some mommy/daughter crafting time and we made her an 8X10 scrapbook page. I just need to get my hands on a frame to put it up on the wall! I picked the pictures, she picked the paper and the ribbon and I found a metallic paper die cut I had lying around. She helped pick out lay out, drew a picture and was so excited the whole way through! Each of the 4 kids has pictures to do the same way. 2 each, though we couldn’t get the lay out to work with both of Trinity’s! I think it turned out rather cute really. 

Trinity and her page

Ken got his first birthday present Wednesday night! It was rather spectacular really – a LARGE rice maker! Oh is he ever in heaven… and guess what we had for dinner tonight? No leftovers BUT we all ate at once, instead of the kids and then steaming more rice. He is so happy!

Almost birthday boy

I ended Thursday with a visit at Karyn’s to do some crafting. I didn’t finish the project, but I will try to on Saturday when I have friends over to do a nice big craft session. I am really looking forward to it. We made it to Dollarama where I got most of what was on my list… and another pair of socks! Addicted I know. I am now on the look out for GREEN socks… on request of my nephew. 

Oh, since I have not hunted down my 2 foot tree, and I am rather sure I have NOT shared the last of my Halloween decorations… here is our Halloween WREATH… basically all of it is done in Perler beads except the little bear that we picked up at the Dollarama one day. The kids loved the idea and I can take it apart and use it for other holidays. I am already thinking of having the kids make ornaments specifically FOR the wreath for Christmas. Though I already have to find room for the two trees we have for this year… I am thinking of having our usual big one upstairs and the small white one my mom got for the kids in the basement. 

Wreath

Today was a bit of a rough day though we tried to keep everyone as active as possible. Fall weather made the kids shudder but the twins made a great attempt to stay out as long as possible. It was a Halloween themed work day otherwise. The big visible completion was Trinity colouring her own Happy Halloween banner to hang for display. 

With banner

I filled their folders with Halloween worksheets, colouring pages, etc mainly from Education.com but you can find the colour by numbers on the UK site here. The goal was to have them work at their own speed doing their own time as long as they completed basically everything before bed. We did pretty well with only one or two fits and some great leaps in comprehension. Above all we were creative and tried to have as much fun as possible! 

Of course there was the added bonus of a COMPLETED COSTUME! Today it was Emanuel’s turn to show off his outfit… I have promised Zander he can go on Sunday… and then by middle of next week it will be group photo time… so what do you think? Did I do a good job???

PENGUIN

With tail

Trinity decided to wear her new shirt from Aunty Karyn. This was an amazing Winners find that absolutely makes her look grown up! She is so close to being a full big girl with very few accidents and all! 

Purty shirt

Our gifted Play Doh has renewed the interest in playing with it for the whole family. Even Echo is interested in it right now! 

Playing with brother

Tomorrow is going to be busy and fun with a bunch of friends coming over to craft. Company is always a blessing and this time we are themed for Halloween. 

That just leaves cleaning, crafting (well finishing of some projects) and laundry for yours truly, oh and trying to bring some Kijiji ads to sale. There are at least 3 or 4 people who have contacted me this week but have not confirmed a pick up or said they don’t want and with company coming it makes for an interesting set up… here’s hoping I can get everything figured out BEFORE we are tucked into the mess that is my kitchen on a crafting day! 

Popcorn baby in her new togs