At it again...

This girl knows where to find markers!

Lego Store!

Ronny couldn't wait to take the kids to the Lego Store in St.Jacobs. Evie and Elijah both LOVE lego. The store has all sorts of life- size figures made out of Lego... very cool! The kids were most excited about the stations where you can build your own race cars and then race them down the ramp. Ronny spent forever making his Ferrari. The kids waited for him patiently and finally got to race. The Ferrari came in last nearly every time, lol!

Sketch Tuesday

We thought we'd take up the challenges on this great blog to get us drawing more every week. Every week, Barb puts together a slideshow of all the artwork people sent in for the assignment. This week's assignment was to draw a castle or something you'd find in one. Here's Evie's castle!

Living books...

I'm reading, "With Nothing but our Courage" to Evie this year as part of our history program. It's a "Dear Canada" book, written by Karleen Bradford. In the story, the mother is depressed because of her many hardships. Evie and I were discussing this depression and Evie said, "That mom should read Joshua 1:9- 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God will be with you'." I was absolutely amazed to hear that come out of Evie's mouth! She couldn't have chosen a more appropriate verse! She just memorized Joshua 1:9 for Awana- this is exactly why I send her there. Thank you Awana! Uncle Wes would be so proud... he's always encouraging us to memorize the Bible:)

Evie's come a long way with her reading this year. She reads over my shoulder while I type. On road trips, she's always calling out what the signs say. For readers this year, I wanted to use something "living"- as Charlotte Mason would call it. I've probably written the Simply Charlotte Mason's quote on Living Books before, but here it is again:

"Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive.' "

The Little House on the Prairie books were the perfect answer. They are exciting to read and challenging enough to keep introducing new words for her to learn. She only reads about 3-4 pages in a sitting but sometimes the story gets so exciting that she just can't stop at four pages.



I sometimes catch Evie reading the Dr. Seuss books to Elijah. I absolutely love that. I'm just dying for the day I catch her reading a novel for her own enjoyment. When I was around Evie's age or a bit older, I got hooked on the Ramona books. My mom bought me one after another. I can't wait to see what series she likes and I'll be sure to buy her one after the next too! I've got all the Ramona books just in case she likes them the same way I did. Um, not sure if they're considering, "Living" though:)

Dis and Dat...

Dis and Dat is Elijah's way of saying this and that! We're trying to get him to realize the "th" sound:)
When we started Math U See at the beginning of the school year, I started Evie in grade one all over again. She hadn't memorized her addition facts with the other math program we were using last year. She just finished grade one a little over a month ago and we're into second grade now. She's almost finished with memorizing all the addition facts now but she still has to pick up speed. I love it that she add it all in her head without using her fingers!
Yesterday she used the math u see blocks to show all the combinations that you can use to make 9. It's just so cool to me that she's able to figure addition facts out on her own. It gives her ownership and makes the facts actually mean something to her. Have I mentioned that I LOVE math u see?? I didn't even tell her to write down the combinations, she did that on her own. I was hoping that this year she'd outgrow her letter and number reversals. Another goal for next year, I guess:)

Letter to Savanannanh Savannah

Our little night owl, Evie, was up late again the other night. I heard the shuffling of papers and just knew I'd find a stack of artwork in the morning. As I sifted through her pictures, I found this letter that she wrote to her cousin, Savanannanh Savannah.


I like how Evie darkened the tooth that she just got a silver cap on and left a space for one of Savannah's missing teeth:)



Evie sure lov la luve lvie loves her cousin!

Wipe Out!!!

Our family bike ride today did not go so well. I wiped out with Eden on my bike!! We skidded across the pavement... ouch! Poor Eden was terrified and bleeding from her nose. Her lip was instantly swollen and her finger had a big chunk of skin hanging off of it. Thankfully Ronny was with us and biked home and grabbed the van. After a nap and some tylenol, she cheered up and is back to her cute little self. Not sure if she's going to let me take her on a bike ride any time soon!

Cracking the Fast Language Code:)

Last week we had a great visit to the town of Elora. We hiked a few trails and had a picnic. When we were heading to the little river, Eden repeatedly kept saying, "Bah-doe, Bah-doe". I finally realized that's her word for "water". We're constantly trying to crack the language code with her. "Book" is "Book" but it also means, "Milk"! She puts an "L" in front of a few words... "Head" is "Lead" and "Uppy" is "Luppy".
Elijah and Evie have a few funny words too.. Evie says "Thinger" instead of "finger" and Elijah says, "Dis" instead of "This".



This picture was taken in Elora. I saw a guy with a fancy camera walking around so I asked him to take our picture:) We're definitely going to head back to Elora in the near future and do some more exploring, I love it there!!

Easter

In preparation for Easter, I bought the Resurrection Eggs and a sweet book called, "Benjamin's Box" to go along with them.



The kids had so much fun opening the eggs! I'd borrowed my friend Teri's set a few years ago. It was so funny, Evie was about four years old and when we got to the last egg (which is empty to represent the empty tomb), Evie started looking around to see if something had fallen out. I explained to her that it was SUPPOSED to be empty, just like the empty tomb. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that and then exclaimed, "Don't worry mom! I'll find something to put in this egg!"

The kids are going to hear the Easter Story thousands of times by the time they are grown. In the constant repetition of it I hope that they never lose sight of how amazing it really is.

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather hit record highs... around 24 degrees! We were able to celebrate with Ronny's side on Saturday and my side on Sunday.



The bigger cousins collected a pail full of frogs at our family gathering on Sunday. They convinced Eden to kiss about four or five of them- right on the lips!


Ronny's Opa died on Easter Monday (yesterday). How beautiful that he died on a weekend full of promise. Because Jesus rose again, we will be reunited with Opa in heaven! Opa loved Jesus and now he is face to face with Him:)

Happy Easter!

Thoughtful little boy...

Elijah was enjoying some smarties and decided to share with his mommy. He gave me three and said, "I'm only giving you three because I don't want you to get too chubby". So thoughtful:)

Timmy... the escape artist

This week, Timmy found a way out of his cage in the basement. Of course, there were lots of tears from Evie. Everytime she cries, she could fill a bathtub with her tears- it's crazy! Actually, in the midst of her crying episode, she reminded me of our recent science lesson on how our bodies are made up of 2/3rds water. I told her that she must have a little more than the average person causing the overflow in tears! Anyhow, I was certain that Timmy was gone for good and told her that I'd buy her a new hamster. She was devastated... no hamster could replace her Timmy! She said that she understood how I felt when I lost my hamster as a child. She also mentioned that my loss was much worse since I watched a cat run off with my hamster! Thankfully, the same day Timmy disappeared, Ronny found him again. He switched the basement light on at around 11 pm and found Timmy in the middle of the basement floor. Evie was so happy in the morning to find her beloved hamster fast asleep in his cage.