Spring

Let me set the stage. The kids had bible study yesterday and afterwards we stayed to have a picnic lunch and play on the structure.
However, I 'caught' the kids learning!! One of the boys had just borrowed a new book from the library about the most dangerous creatures in the world. His sister was taking a moment to explain something. Check out how she's holding the book like a 'teacher' and how they are gathered in front of her like 'students'. The boys told me later that more people die from bee stings every year than from shark bites....who knew??

A likes to make sure he sets aside a little time to spend with his favourite almost one year old.

After putting a puzzle together we tried gluing it permanently. I'll let you know how this turns out.

School didn't start until after lunch today. Lunch at the park. Doesn't get much better than this.

And today's poetry.

Webkinz-From A

Webkinz are cute

Webkinz are adorable

You can log them on Webkinz World

I could play with them all day

Sad-From E

We feel sad

We feel sad

for our grandad.

He feels sad

He feels sad

because his dad died.

Many Moods of Mario

Yoshi-(A)
Yoshi has a long tongue
He can eat Goombas
Yoshi is our super hero

Mario and Yoshi-(E)
Up goes Mario
Down onto Yoshi
Up Yoshi jumps
Down goes Yoshi
Down down down he goes
Down the tube
Watch out there's a Goomba about
Slurp-Hooray
Yoshi is our super star

Mario-(J/A/E)
Mario can jump and run
He and Luigi have lots of fun
In this game there are guys good and bad
If you don't save the princess it is way sad
Yoshi will help him but Bowser will kill
When Mario's with Toad no spaghetti will spill
Yikes! Watch out!
There's a goomba about
But Yoshi's a hero he will save the day
He'll swallow the goomba. Hip-hip-hip-hooray!!

It Was a Hot One

E and A started their soccer clinic today. They loved it. Did I mention it was 31' here today?

Here are 'the boys'. They love to be together and get along wonderfully. Even though A is 2+ years younger than them all.....no problem. These are great kids.

And the road construction continues.

These guys have been fantastic. No rough language. And someone came over yesterday and today and answered some questions we had.

No night is complete without a game before bed. It's normal to sit in the middle of a train track right?

HomeSchool Rocks

We started our Poetry unit today. The kids made pocket folders to hold their work.

E wrote his first piece today. Totally his own idea and work (my spelling).

Little light in the night

Sparkling small and bright

There goes a plane that's passing by

Little star keep your spark

One of the things that's great about homeschooling is knowing that the kids are eating well every day. They had homemade pancakes for breakfast. This was their lunch and a nutritious dinner of roasted chicken/sweetpotato fries/veggies.

On our walk today we saw that the street in front of our house was being resurfaced. HOW COOL! The workers invited us back tomorrow to see them put a new top on.

Then we had a little stop at the park before coming back to the house to finish dinner.

Saturday

There was a race and look who won!!



This was my attempt at a sweet guy pic.



Oh ya! That's ice cream.



I love these trees. They rain flower petals on us.





A little wrestling in the park.

M....always near the water.

Their father's sons.



Coins

The boys have been working on a couple of coin collections. One is of the state quarters and the other is a group of Canadian coins they started with GrndmDrdre. I knew that M had a jar upstairs he had been collecting coins in for a lo-o-ong time so we dumped it out and mined it for needed coins.

It was a big job. First they had to separate the different from the regular. Then compare the different with what they needed for their collections.

But it paid off. They found 5 more state quarters and several that they needed for their Canadian collection.

I was just about to tell them they had to clean up their toys when I found them playing chess together. They're lucky.

And this week starts our next unit for school. Poetry. I just finished reading a great idea book for teaching poetry so even though it's Saturday morning we got a jump start. The boys and I co-wrote this poem. E mentioned that we needed the 'and' at the beginning of the last sentence because 'it sounded better'.

582miles/937kilometres

Baby Step through the blowing snow.

Baby steps over the bridge and across the border.

Baby step to lunch (this was an easy one).

Baby step through NY.

Baby step through MD.

Home.

Hello Again

The boys have been fascinated with K's instrument. She let them have a try. This guy blew so hard his toes curled up!

We went for the house inspection yesterday. Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea of what it looks like.

We couldn't go to O-town without going to Denny's.

And we stayed up late to go see K in her end of night ceremony at Cadets.

Rescue Me

This is the last of my 'ME' posts. The boys arrived back late last night. I've already started snapping pics so their smiling faces will soon return. O.k....back to me.


I have the best family. We had made a plan for how these last two weeks were supposed to go. Lots of flights, lots of fun.


However, eight days in...I put an offer on a house. (With M's consultation and agreement of course). And true to form, my family stepped up. Setting aside their own schedules. Writing cheques for deposits until my bank...I mean husband...arrived with a cheque. Escorting my boys back on the plane so I could take time to do paperwork. Taking time off work to drive up from VA. (Guess who that was?) Never suggesting/mentioning that this might be a crazy thing to do.


And this isn't a one-off kind of an event. This has happened before. Many times. Anyway, thanks family. You're the best.


And now.....back to the good stuff.




The boy's flight was supposed to arrive at 10:00p.m. but they didn't get in until 11:45p.m. Long day.

And Day Two

After attending Mass this a.m. we hurried home for breakfast. Lucky for us Grandpa's truck arrived today. It's not ready for pick-up yet but we snuck a peek. Looking good Grandpa. Last night kitty cuddled up with E's animals so tonight he put them in her bed for her.

And Now the First Day Here

Even though we had to wake up at 4:50a.m. to get to our flight the kids were in good humour. Now this wasn't our first stop.....but it was close to our first stop. This is the best known symbol of Winnipeg. The Golden Boy. It can be found on top of the Legislative Building. More pics of the Legislative Building. GrndmDrdre took the kids in to see this place. I was sleeping in the truck......zzzzzzzzz. E took this pic. Then we visited The Forks. It's the time of year when the thaw begins in this area. The combination of melting snow/ice, Spring rains, and water from the two rivers merging at this point creates a situation ripe for flooding. You can see a triangle shape in the water in the background? That is handrail to the walking path that is normally accessible. But the waters have started to rise. You can see here how the ice from the river can create bit of a jam before it thaws. This exacerbates the flooding problem. Here's a shot of the boys with one of the kitties here. And I'm hoping that's it for today because I am TIRED!!!