~Winter Craft Fun With T's~

Every Friday all winter we got together with the T family to do a craft, watch a movie, eat lunch and have some fun..not necessarily in that order. I've been taking pictures the whole time and I'm finally getting around to posting some of them.

One day we did puzzles.

BoyT2 and R working on the wooden puzzles. 

J and Miss T working on the ABC floor puzzle. 

Working away. Dino puzzles. 

BoyT done his dino puzzle. 

E and BoyT2 working on the little dino puzzles. 

The floor Noah's Ark puzzle.. J and Miss T at work. 

The Noah's Ark puzzle... a bit of a challenge for these 3! BoyT, E and L. 

Cool floor puzzles of 'boy stuff' :) 

Two happy boys giving each other a high five! THEY DID IT!!! 

Another day we did a neat little string game. The kids had to hang on to the button on the string and follow the string to the end of the game. They couldn't let go of the button and had to crawl if the string was low and do whatever the string did. It was a lot of fun. 

The START. 

The END. Each cup had a hand full of candies.

L following the string under the baby swing.

BoyT following the string close to the floor. 

J following the sting around the chair. 

R following the string under and around the table. The really neat thing about this game is that you could make it as easy or as hard as you need for each age group.

Enjoying their treat at the table.

Well that is all for now.... :) Have a wonderful day!! 

Little Mothers. The Things Kids Learn

E and R have been practicing to be great little mothers recently. They amaze me. The boys are BOYS they don't put their babies to sleep and make sure they have a pillow, blanket, have either gotten a clean bum or gone to the bathroom and gotten a lecture about having 'a good sleep so you will get a treat.' If the boys play with babies at all they are fighters with weapons or people who need rescuing or some such thing. R loves to feed her baby and sits him up, gets a spoon and a bowl and spoon feeds him.. not just a little. That kid is FULL. Regularly we see a girl running around with a baby doll up under her shirt. That baby is either nursing or she's 'gonna have a baby and it's still in her tummy.'

I find that they do everything that I do with Baby J and stuff I do with them as well. Both of my girls have toilet trained their baby, sleep trained their baby and taught their baby to 'eat nice.' They get them dressed, change their bums, bath them, carry them around talking to them, play with them and discipline them. It's amazing to watch.

A Night of Fun.

A local group actors recently put on a play about the history of our town. The T's where part of the group with Mr.T playing several roles and Girl T playing several roles as well. Mrs T made all the costumes that needed making and fitted several of the rest. The cast and crew all put a TON of hours into the play and it showed.  They really put on a incredible play!! Who know the history of our small town could be so interesting :) I took J, L and E out to the play one of the two days they put the play on. They'd never been to a play and they TOTALLY ENJOYED it. I have too admit that they didn't know what to expect, and I didn't really try and tell them at all. I wanted them to be surprised and they were. They did seem to think NOTHING would ever happen as we 1st waited in line and then in our chairs, but when the play finally did start they were awestruck. 

The play consisted of a lot of short skits, several of them keeping a theme through out the play, starting with the natives and going through history to today. It was enlightening and entertaining. Funny, sad, it took you through all the emotions.

After the play they had a appy sort of thing with some of the local groups doing a small snack. There was at least 8 different ethic foods from different groups who've made our little town home. They were wonderful. I really liked the smoked salmon and some little pastries with veggies and meat in them. The kids like almost all of the foods but the favorite was probably the roll cuken and watermelon :) Good old Mennonite food :) 

They filmed the play several times and apparently there will be a movie of the play released. I'm looking forward to buying it and enjoying the play again. I also love that this fun play covers an amazing amount of history, socials, and native learning school outcomes. 

R and Baby J stayed home with Papa and R and Papa played with her new princess dolls, made cookies and had a great time :) The cookies had M&M's in them and they shared when we got home that night. It was a great night for us all. 

School Trip to the Police Station.

Papa and Mr. T made a trip to our local police station recently. They were a bit out numbered. 6 kids to 2 adults but they had a great time. Funny thing to say about a trip to the police station. But when you are there to take a tour and learn more about the local police force for a grade 1 field trip FUN is the right word. The kids really seemed to enjoy it. The fathers never did say much about the 30 minutes they spent inside the station but the 3 mothers had a great time with the littles at T's house while the men and biggers were away. After the school kids and Papa's got back we had a fun time of visiting before a great lunch and a fun afternoon at T's. We had another family join us that day who also have 4 children and it the Griggs first contact with them. They are the D's. Whom you've already seen pictures of. The D's oldest child is something like 3 weeks older the J which makes him the oldest of the 13 children the 3 families. There are 3 seven year olds (A, J and Girl T), 1 six year old (N), 2 almost 6 year olds (L and BoyT ), 2 four year olds (E and BoyT 2), 1 three year old (R), 1 two year old (C), and 3 babies under a year old (T, Baby T and Baby J.) There are 5 girls and 8 boys. What a TON of FUN!!!!

Trip to the Ambulance Station

Mrs T has connections :) Her sister Sharon works as a ambulance attendant. So one day, over a month ago now, we all tramped to the station and had a tour of the station itself, the ambulance and got too meet another attendant and get some pretty cool coloring books that Sharon made up for us. Because Papa was working I had everyone and so I thought I'd have my hands full.. and left my camera at home. BAD mistake. We are planning on going back sometime for pictures. E had a bit of hesitation when we 1st got there but LOVED Sharon, and still talks about her, and soon warmed up and was climbing over everything with the rest of them. She's been in a ambulance and I think that's why she hesitated.  Sharon was a great tour guide and let them listen to each others or their own heartbeats (though apparently J doesn't have one as he couldn't find his :), sit in the drivers seat, sit in the puzzle like emergency wheel chair, turned the lights and sirens on, showed them the boards, took the bed out to show them how it worked, gave them stickers and answered questions. She also showed us the station itself with it's kitchen, living room, girls and guys bedrooms and bathrooms and storage area.  They work in pairs and so we got to meet her partner for the night as well. The kids enjoyed him and they enjoyed watching TV with him for a bit. After our tour we headed over to the local donut shop and got a quick treat before heading home :) Thanks Sharon and Mrs. T we had a great time!

A Little R 3 Year Old Birthday!

Making the cake. We were all at the table mixing and fetching this and putting that away and having fun and Baby J was fussing in the living room so we brought him over and sat him on the table. Instantly happy baby :) 

We normally have a birthday girl ribbon for the girls to wear but it got a bit umm. TRASHED last time we used it and I forgot until the last minute so I took a washable marker and made this shirt up. She loved it :)

The cake. That little people girl is 'her favorite girl!' 

It's a butterfly. Really it is :) Peach slices and gummy worms.. The green and orange things are flowers. 

R with her cake. She really liked it. The list of things she wanted on it was VERY long so I picked a few of the things that kept popping up. She picked the candles herself. 

Opening her card from Grandpa and Grandma Griggs. 

Blowing out the candles. She cried last year. This year she really enjoyed being the center of attention.

Grandma feeding Baby his 1st taste of cake.

A Dilemma

The kids really want to have a hot dog  roast. We were at some friends yesterday and saw another friend cutting wood on the side of his driveway for a hot dog roast that night. OH then the kids were SURE we HAD to have one too. So we were talking about it on the way home and I told them that we need to lose some more snow so before we have a hot dog roast. Then L pipes up with 'I got the spot mom' and proceeds to tell me where he thinks we should have a hot dog roast. Well after several rabbit trails about 'this trailer?? or that trailer? The one we live in or another one??' We finally figured out that L meant Grandpa's trailer in the middle of the yard by the two trees. I guess there is grass under the two trees and he was SURE that was the spot. So I explained we didn't want to burn the trees down so we couldn't have it under the trees. So then they had the inventive idea of MOVING THE TRAILER!! It's been there all winter and there is grass, dead, under it. So then I told them that the fire would make a hole in the grass if we had it there. E yells from behind me. "Then we would fall in!!" LOL. I laughed then explained that it would only be a hole in the grass and not in the dirt so you wouldn't fall in. J calls out that 'it's OK if there is one hole in the grass.' So I told him, jokingly, that Maggie might get terribly hungry if we burn up all her grass and then what would we feed her?  He said that 'Maggie doesn't need that little piece of grass.. SHE has LOTS!!' I countered with 'but what if she eats all the rest and she's still hungry??' He was not convinced though and they still think that Maggie can do without that little piece of grass. I was telling Papa all this just this morning and while I was talking I had a great idea. One that will save the grass and give the kids their hot dog roast. We have a nice big driveway!! :) It's all covered in snow and you can walk on it. The snow off the driveway and paths is still very deep and even J has started to fall through at least 1 level of snow. Which makes walking very hard and a hot dog roast impossible.

Bacon.

Papa sliced up some of the bacon tonight and fried some up!! WOW!!! It's awesome! This is only his second time curing and smoking bacon and it's amazing!! He did a whole pan full and it only lasted a few minutes. J is already planning a breakfast.. waffles, eggs and BACON!!! LOL. He wanted it for tomorrow but Papa is the waffle king and he's working tomorrow so we kinda decided to make it Sunday Morning.  What a wonderful thing to wake up too :)

A Long Few Days. Pig Butchering :)

We recently put one of our 1.5 year old sows in the freezer. She was a nice sized pig and we put 260lbs in the freezer, or cured to be smoked. I really wanted a picture of Papa standing beside her but the camera had been left in the truck overnight and was too cold to work. SO I got one of all of the pig on the table in the entrance, where we cut and wrapped her. You can't tell but the table is quite a ways away from the straw wall :) I wanted a picture of us making sausage too.. but totally forgot!!! It was a busy few days. We rendered the lard as well and burnt it a bit as we were just doing too many things all at once!

The kids were VERY keen to help so we set up a little table for them and they scrapped the chops off. Papa cut them on the meat saw and then put them on the table and J, L and E scrapped them off with canning lids. R put them in a clean tote to be wrapped. After the tote was full of meat to be wrapped I wrapped it. That's what you call a 'family affair.'

It looks like that is bacon and ribs on the table behind the kids. Ribs ready to wrap on the left. 

 R put them in a clean tote to be wrapped. After the tote was full of meat to be wrapped I wrapped it. That's what you call a 'family affair.' 

Here is a cute picture Papa took after a couple of long days of putting this pig in the freezer. Yes that was Stub.. the wild and hormonal mama pig who kept escaping. 

Baby J asleep on me. I was just about asleep too.. He played hard with the kids while Papa and I were busy deboning, wrapping, cutting, grinding, mixing and making sausage, but really needed some Mommy time by the end of the 2 days.. Papa smoked the sausage in our smoke house and we packaged up 18 bags of 12 hot dogs!!  Weiner roast anyone?? :) We had almost as much Mennonite sausage and Mc. Griggers sausage. We mixed the pork with ground beef from our cow as her hamburger was a bit greasy. We thought she would be tough so we added all the fat we could find.. won't do that again!  It's wonderful stuff. Papa also cured the bacon and a few hams/hocks himself and after curing it for a certain amount of time ( close to a month? I think?) he smoked it just yesterday. Boy are we ever looking forward to having our own bacon again. 

Grade 2 Math and Other School News.

J started Grade 2 Math this last week. So far it's mostly review and he seems to be enjoying it. One thing  I've noticed is different is that the paces are longer. Instead of 27 pages they are 35. Which makes me wonder if the paces get longer with every grade? Not having done ACE I have no idea. I've also noticed that the writing is smaller and there are more questions per page. That makes good sense to me as the grade 1 paces did have large early reader writing and larger numbers so the kids could see them better. So instead of finishing a pace a week I expect it will take 2 weeks. Which is fine as we are in no hurry and I'm just trying to keep him busy :) He is like his Papa. Got to keep that mind busy or else!

On that note we've also started a Responsibly for Boys a Biblical based book and Raz-Kids  . He LOVES the Raz-Kids and has already gone up 2 levels. He really enjoys reading the books, doing the test and then letting the website read the book to him and his siblings. They all really enjoy it and L and E are both waiting impatiently for next year when they can do it too! We've only done a little of the 'Boys' book but I like it because it's within his reading level and he seems to enjoy reading about the boy in the book who's name is Ben.

 I also got him a couple of creationist Dinosaur activity books and both him and L enjoy them.

 Mrs. T gave us a mini book on Canada last fall and now that we are doing Canada in Social Studies we brought it out and colored it and made a book out of it. J thought it was REALLY COOL that anyone could make a book! He then read it to his siblings who were also in awe of the little book. Note to self : Next year make a few little books with the kids. They love them! We also got a "All about Canada, Exploring Canada Series" book locally and we've done some reading and fill in the blanks in it. J learned the Canadian Anthem at Awana but we read the words over a couple of times and refined it a bit!! Part of the Canada unit is learning the capital of Canada.  He can now recognize all most all the provinces ( at least the ones closest to us.)  and territories and some of their capitals and where they are. As far as I know he doesn't need to know this all yet so we're just doing it for fun! Though if I remember correctly  I think it might be in the last 2 SS Paces.
J is still trying to read 15 minutes a day and it evens out. Some days he reads for 30 minutes or an hour and the next day no time at all. Yesterday he read "A Bugs Life" and it took him an hour. He's going to do his book report on it this week.
We are still doing Mind Benders and actually are almost finished the book. I got another book "Think A Minutes' of this type by a different company with pictures as well as words and we're going to start that one after MB. This new book is actually for grades 2 and 3 but it was the only one they had in stock when I ordered and if it turns out to be too much for him we'll just keep it for next winter.

We also have about 6 'extra' projects that his teacher assigned and we are slowly working through them. One is the book report, another is a science project which Papa is going to do with J. We have some fun stuff to do too. We get to make some clay critters and some marshmallow and toothpick creations (What fun Art and Math can be!!). We both enjoy doing these extra's and they break up the Pace work nicely.

One of the things I really love about homeschooling is that it takes only a couple of hours a day! So there is always time for fun! Now that the weather is warming up and it's actually melting outside the kids have been spending a lot more time outside. The water is starting to run on the yard and the other day I found J making rivers and helping the puddles drain off. He did a great job and the puddle completely drained. I can't wait till the whole yard is running with little rivers. We love to play in the rivers and train them to go this way and that. Blocking some and draining others! We've recently gotten some Gears Gears Gears after borrowing T's and loving them. The kids love to make robots and cars and pizza (R) with them. They are great fun! We also recently got some more play food so we dug around in the kids room and found all the Kitchen stuff and the kids have been having a great time playing chef and customer, Ice Age 3, and numerous other things with it. With the kitchen and the dinosaurs bag it's amazing what they come up with!

L and E will be starting Grade 1 this year and so I've been giving them little assignments as a start to schooling. Kinda like a mini kindergarten program that I'm making up as I go along. E learned to write and spell her name (verbal) and do dot to dots and learning to draw critters and things as well as counting the teens.  She also started playing Jumpstart Preschool which she LOVES and can't get enough off. L is more prepared as he's already been playing school games for quite a while and has a real short name and learned to write it awhile ago. So he is practicing the ACE songs and sounds and coloring pictures and following directions. They are both learning to recognize letters and numbers though L has a lot of them down already. I only decided to put them both in Grade 1 together in the last couple of months and E has a bit to learn before I do. I think she'll be fine though. She's determined and is a very fast learner.. another one just like Papa. She took to the Jumpstart  (we also have the grade 1 game) game like a duck to water and has an amazing memory. She already knows all the songs for the program and now it will just be matching the sounds and songs with the letters. R has NO interest in school except to sing a few of the songs, she doesn't even really like to color! She knows her full name and can count to 10 and all her colors and that's good enough for 3 years old. The other day I heard her singing the last part of the Old Testament song... so she's learning without even trying and that's how it should be at her age!

Oh and Thanks Sarah from Scott School for showing me how to link on a word!! :)