Spring Break

For a week that was supposed to be time off it was certainly busy!  Monday started nice and slow but Tuesday involved a playdate, guitar, movie night.  Forget about Wednesday, it was non-stop and Thursday was O's birthday of course!  Unfortunately we didn't get the week off from co-op so M came along since she was home from school.  I think she enjoyed it :/ 

Here are some pictures of F and S in my class at co-op. 



  The two older kids went to a homeschool dance on Friday night.  I think the kids had fun.  We are winding down on the teen homeschool events, since in the fall Owen will be in public school as well.  I think it will be good for them, the group is getting more strange by the minute.  :/

The kids let me snap a quick picture before they left for the dance. 

On Saturday night M went to a friends Quinceanera .  She had a really great time and I am excited at the way her horizons have expanded socially and culturally since going to school.

Here is M ready to leave to attend T's Quinceanera

Saturday was full of soccer and ended with a birthday "sleepover" which involved alotofxboxplaying rather than sleeping.  The birthday celebration extended to Sunday when O took a friend, J and friends dad to play paintball.  I think he had a good 14th birthday.  I spent the time while they were gone preparing a garden bed but will wait until after the forecasted storms come through before planting.  We also cleared out the bushes out front in preparation for our water softener which is getting installed this week.  I can't wait.  The water here is so bad I can't wait to shower and not itch afterwards! 

We got to spend Sunday night at dinner with friends, a fun parent's night out and a nice end to a busy week off ;)

Today M had to wake up before the sun to get to school again.  She loves school but doesn't like the early wake up.  She is not a morning person, neither am I.  It's genetic.  

We have some big storms predicted over the next couple of days, I am looking forward to some canceled activities.  I need to rest after our week off :)  



Happy 14th Birthday Owen

Our oldest son Owen turned 14 today.  I can't believe how fast time is flying by, I remember his toddlerhood like it was yesterday.  He has always been a laid back happy kid and that hasn't changed.  He is VERY laid back!! Also very quick to make a joke out of anything, I think this frustrates his sister sometimes ;) 

Birthdays in our house are all about the birthday person.  He started the day by busting out of his streamer wrapped door :)



Then he opened his presents.  We found a great card that was perfect for him, it was a 'musical' one that played a farting sound.  He really appreciated it!  We gifted him with a laptop, we decided it was time with him moving on to high school in the fall.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast because Owen strongly believes that bacon makes everything better.

Then we went to a late lunch and he ordered a lobster (he had been looking forward to that for weeks!).

Happy to get a big piece of claw meat

Orange mouth!

Birthday ice cream

Top shelf margarita

Sunset passion colada

Soleil was playing up the mood swings!

Owen was gracious enough to let us stop at the mall before going home, to pick up a dress for his sister, for a party she is going to this weekend.  Spring break has been incredibly busy and we hadn't had time to go yet.  With co-op, teen dance and soccer we were officially stuck only being able to go today.   They guys spent some time in the lego store and gamestop while I shopped with Mads.   Which by the way she found a really adorable Tommy Hilfiger dress at Macy's that is perfect.  I think she is quite happy about it :)

On the way home we stopped for some whipping cream and berries for the birthday pavlova and I finished that up as soon as we got in.

he was quite pleased with himself for blowing out all of the candles at once!

Happy 14th Birthday Owen!  We love you!



FIAR

We had our second gathering for A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno.  This time Allyson hosted and the kids got to do some Origami.  The first project was a cup, it's a little tricky for their little hands so they got a little assistance, but overall they did great with it. 

This adorable kid was more interested in participating than Soleil was!

Soleil didn't really want to participate this time, she's opinionated like that :)

POCKY STICKS!!!!  I'd never heard of these, the kids ate strawberry and chocolate ones.  They were a huge hit!

Next the kids were tasked with eating rice.  Sounds pretty simple right?  Well it would have been except they were going to use chopsticks teehee!  Eating rice with chopsticks is uh challenging!  They gave it a valiant effort and then switched to spoons.  I can't say I blame them!

Julian wasn't going to give up!

Beautiful Spring weather!

It has been an unseasonably warm Winter and Spring seems to have arrived pretty early this year.  The kids are loving the time outdoors and taking advantage of nice days when we have them.   F and S went outside to play and started asking me to take pictures of them.  So what is a mama to do? 

Our fun little FIAR group

So I have decided to revive this blog.  I stumbled across it the other day and was reading it.  It was really fun to read about the things we had done as a family that I had completely forgotten about.  So if nothing else I want to work on keeping up with this to helping my aging brain and failing memory! 

I figured I would start from now and not try to go back.  Just too much work. 

So myself and a couple of friends have started a FIAR book group.  We wanted something really low key.  Our kids are friends and are all kind of high energy so it works out that we can all handle the intensity of our sweet cherubs :)

We each spend a week/meeting on the same book, so essentially we have three meetings based on the same book.  The host provides an activity that is (sometimes loosely) related to the story :).

The current book we are working on is A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno.  I hosted the first week with this book and as usual as a procrastinator I was planning before I went to bed the night before our 10:30am meeting.  I had the hubs help and he got on google and helped me come up with activities.   He came across rice krispie sushi rolls, they looked fun so we went with it.  After reading the story to the kids we headed to the craft table first to paint our own flags.  I showed the kids a Japanese flag and suggested they could either paint that or a different flag, their choice.  They all chose to make their own designs on their flags.  I gave them each a rectangular piece of water colour paper and water colours to paint their flags.   We also talked about and I showed them a map of Japan and then a map of the world with Japan highlighted to put it into perspective.  I enjoyed seeing their different designs, I forgot to take pictures of this activity :(

After they designed their flags we went to the dining table to sample real sushi.  Izzy was not impressed with the sushi and didn't want to try it.  I let her know the good stuff was coming and she was more excited after that.  Finn and Rachel downed the sushi (California rolls to keep it simple) and William really enjoyed it as well.  After they had finished I pulled out the rice krispie treat sushi, which was made up of rice krispie treats, gummy worms and fruit roll ups.  Mmmmmmm. 

I think the meeting went well and the kids enjoyed it.  Finn looks forward to FIAR so I hope it continues for a while yet!