Our new obsession...

Well mine and Tara's anyway...

Pumpkin smoothies-

No real recipe, but a combination of;

1 banana
slosh of vanilla extract
a generous scoop of pureed canned pumpkin
1% milk
a spoonful of brown sugar
lots of shakes of cinnamon
not as many shakes of nutmeg

and of course a small finger to repeatedly push the blend button!

a "Spark"

Aislinn has been attending our local "Sparks" program since September, and is really enjoying her new social network.

I believe she is quite the anomaly for them as (I have been told) she is the most outgoing (by far -lol) one of the bunch.

It is also the one activity she goes to alone without her Mom or her sister. Although, Tara has taken to reminding her of her "promise" - usually at times where she would prefer to forget. It's hard when it's written on your shirt!

(Hopefully Aislinn enjoys her time away... as of September Tara will be joining her again, and there is a good chance... Mom as well!)

Update...reno

Well, this isn't new news, but for those who maybe haven't heard, we do actually have a working bathroom again complete with shower --since November now, but still I am very appreciative every time I step into it.

The girls have taken to it as well, and often there is singing accompanying the dancing feet.
The bathroom is truly made for the girls with a low pedestal sink, and a shower faucet that keeps the temperature constant even when turned off -- great for opening the door, hair scrubbing (and someday -shaving!)

Cuisinaire rods...

We bought our cuisinaire rods to be used as a math manipulative, but since we haven't jumped into anything formal on that front, they still get used for the girls own creative purposes...

For more ideas on cuisinaire rods visit http://www.nurturedbylove.ca/resources/cuisenairebook.pdf
Created by Miranda Hughes -one of my first inspirations for homeschooling back 5 years ago already!

Oddly, these pictures were taken at the same time on the same rug with the same camera --my camera seems to have very unpredictable light recognition! Time for an upgrade maybe? :)

One thing I love about having kids...

Is coming across these kinds of things...

Aislinn's new reading positions...

We thought she was still awake with this one - from across the room she looked fully immersed, but in actuality, it was just her face holding the book up!

January...

With January and the packing away of Christmas decorations, organization and new schedules is at the forefront.

As I took a closer look at the past 3 months, I realized that I had let a lot of distractions fill our home school day. The girls handled this well for the first little while, as the newness of the house offered many new play opportunities, but they gradually became more competitive, unkind, and attention seeking -usually the wrong kind- at every opportunity. It wasn't hard to connect the two! So after the usual busyness of December, the girls and I sat down to chat about how we could resolve these issues.

We have decided to take 2 hours every morning (from 10 - 12) where I will make myself fully available to them -no phones, no household maintenance. Before 10, our goal is to get out of bed :) - have had breakfast, made our beds, and gotten dressed and freshened up ie: teeth, etc.

We are trying to also take turns a bit, where the girls have a chance to sit with me one on one, for a game or reading practice, or whatever they may choose while the other plays on their own nearby.

Now, we are by no means keeping to this strictly, and when opportunity rises, we would definitely take the time for an all day field trip, or time spent with friends, or even a recreational choice like skating or swimming which seem to fall in the morning. But, for the days we are home, we are finding it a great way to start our day!

Week one, and the girls have been responsive, happier, more helpful, and much more caring to each other. They are also so much more willing to let me get the things that do need to be taken care of done later in the day.

I myself am finding the joy of homeschooling back as well! After feeling quite down about the girls behaviour and lack of focus, it is sombering but also inspiring to realize that it was my lack of focus to blame. I can really begin to see how the ebb and flow of homeschooling can really depend on the ebb and flow of the family unit as a whole, and when we remember to make that our first priority, everything else runs smoother and more with more ease.

Rory

Came in to the kitchen to catch Rory basking in the sun on the kitchen stool. Can't blame her really as we keep our house at 62 degrees - 17 Celsius and the kitchen floor is an uninsulated crawlspace.

Must put that on the "to do list" for the coming year! :)

Time to archive our 2007 cover picture and move on... *sob*... they grow so fast!

Christmas fun...

Yet again, time has flown by and I am back to catching up here on the blog.

With the new year comes a new "plan", and part of that involves more regular journaling on my blog... again! (More to come...)

but for now, I will leave you with a picture update of our Christmas season.

Fane Christmas - the stockings were a big hit, but "cousin" Dave stole the show for the girls.

Christmas with my parents at our house (below)
Highlights included opening the special package from my sister in China.

Celebrating New Years

Seven kids showing off their new -New Years pyjamas

A new tradition...

Event: Decorating an outdoor tree for the animals.

The preparations...

(and some munching!)

Trecking to the perfect tree -laden with goodies.

The fun of climbing up high and finding the perfect branch.

The beauty of the bright colours standing out against the pine green and stark white.

The results: Happy animals! Happy kids! An amazing experience.

Misbehaving molecules

Yesterday we tried making our own misbehaving molecules with our friends.

We started with a short discussion about how molecules behave as a solid, liquid, and gas with the girls acting out and drawing their behaviour.

From there we moved to the kitchen and made our mixtures. The girls played with it for close to an hour, enjoying the feel and commanding their molecules to liquefy and "hardify" (solidify didn't seem to role off the tongue as easily).

As the other mom put it -it's the way science is meant to be taught - coupled with squeals of joy from the girls.

Inspiration from:

http://www.unplugyourkids.com/2008/11/10/non-newtonian-fluid-oobleck/

Great Wolf Lodge

One or two pics from our mini vacation. My camera doesn't love low light so most were pretty blurry.
It was a fun couple days though. We left the home renovations behind and spent some time as a family. It's quite the place full of busyness and noise, but the girls loved the atmosphere and the time spent with friends.
Next adventure though, we aim for a bit more culture. :)

Glass blowing

On our mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge, we stopped in at this cool souvenir shop mostly for the tepee and moose statues out front, but after exploring the shop we came across a glass blowing studio attached to the side.

The men there do glass blowing demonstrations through a live Internet feed as they work, and after we watched for a few minutes, he invited Aislinn to give it a try.

Although I have to admit I didn't care for the overall look of his pieces, we greatly enjoyed the experience and the glimpse into the art world.

New Roof!!

Well, the new roof was started today, despite the rain.
We had previously finished the roof of the garage and the back room, but chose to hire out the top roof due to time, height, and weather.

There is something deeply satisfying about hearing work being done, and knowing it's not me or Jeff doing it. Although I will admit that it is hard to not be right up there making sure things are done the way we like them too.

In a couple weeks, we are expecting the installation of some new windows. I will post some more pics soon.
(bathroom is still under progress as well, but closer and closer everyday :)

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

Today, I walked into my room to this;
My two girls happily engrossed in doing each others hair in an elaborate set-up for an upcoming Rapunzel story.

Happy Halloween!

Well, you can't let Halloween go past without posting some pics. Something about kids in costume...














It feels like the girls have had their costumes for forever, so it was nice for them for the day to finally arrive. We enjoyed Trick or Treating in our new community, and the girls stayed out for a couple of hours. We found it very amusing that the first kids to our door, were the family that used to live at our house, and from then on, the number of comments we got from kids about who's house it used to be. It seems to be very well known.
I also got a kick out of how into Halloween our small town is, with kids and teens still out (and welcomed) till well after 9, and then the number of costumed adults wandering the streets even later.

How is it possible?

For the time to fly so quickly??

We were happily enjoying a home day today, and we still didn't get everything we wanted to do done and the girls just went off to bed!

We started our morning reading a couple chapters of our current read aloud in bed, and lasted until the tummy rumbling from Tara was audible to all. After a very unexciting breakfast (low on the groceries --again!) we planned our day to involve library, groceries and Halloween house decorating. Before we even made it downstairs from tooth brushing and bed making, the girls had jumped into an invisible ink project.

Finally we headed out to pick up our remaining decorating needs, and returned home for lunch. After convincing the girls that we should have lunch first, we headed to the front porch to start decorating. Before I knew it, the girls were outside making chalk drawings all over the side walk. I managed to engage them again in time to fill ghost and pumpkin bags with leaves for hanging in our front tree. Aislinn then tramped off with my scissors to do some "trimming" around the yard. I finally managed to get the lights and remaining decor up, in time to find them happily digging in the back garden covered in dirt.

Watching the time I reminded them will still needed to get to the library and groceries before Aislinn had sparks (5 p.m.)

We managed to head out to the library at 3:00, where the girls got immersed in a Thomas computer game that was up on the kids library computer. By 4, after both girls had a lengthy go, we organized our books and made our leave. Doing a quick tour of the grocery store, as we were already getting short on time, we arrived home to receive a message that sparks had been cancelled. I got dinner made while the girls read their library books, and gave Jeff a hand prepping the roof for the fore casted rain. Back inside, the girls spent a few minutes watching ballet performances on YouTube that a friend had emailed to us (Thanks!!) and we proceeded to our sink bath routine (which was seriously required --after the garden digging.) By the time both girls were bathed and in pj's, it was 9, and we hadn't even gotten back to our invisible ink pictures to reveal them!

So really... where does the time go?

Updates... favorite pics from the summer (long!)

Dancing at the Multicultural festival (Tara's turn)











Releasing our painted lady butterflies

Aislinn's Bee picture for the beekeeper.








Close-up of the bees at a field trip to a university run bee farm





Tara at Canada's Wonderland








Face painting at a local restaurant. (Free on Thursday nights!)





















Pics of the kids at the zoo. (I have some great pics of the animals that I will have to put up some time too.

Shots from the beach. (Camping late July.)

Crocs left by the wayside.

Roller coaster at Ribfest,



Fun nose shot at a summer family get together.

Tara feeding the goats at the zoo where we celebrated her 4th birthday with family and friends.