Swap Day 10 - Fabric!!

We're getting things done, just not getting them posted ... a big catch up post coming soon. In the meantime, my 12 Days of Christmas Swap gift today ... fabric! I love it, it's a great set of coordinates.

First four gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas Swap

Each year on the Hyena Cart Forums, I participate in a Twelve Days of Christmas Secret Santa Swap. It's very fun, and I look forward to it each year.

This is day four, and I've snapped a quick photo of my gifts ...

Truth in the Tinsel - Day 8 - Sun

Truth in the Tinsel - Week 1

This week in our advent craft countdown, Finn has learned about Jesus being a light sent to the world, represented by the candle, he has learned that Jesus is a prince - shown by the crown. He's learned the roles of Zechariah, Gabriel, Mary & Elizabeth, and about Mary singing a song of worship.

So far, this program is a success, we've remembered to do it each day, and the crafts are at just the right level for Finn to do with my help. It's quick enough to keep his attention the whole time, and he is so pleased to have his own Christmas corner with a garland & lights to hang his ornaments on.

If you haven't seen the E-book yet, you can find it here, and do one of the short versions this year -- there are several options if you do not have time to do all 24 activities/days.

Truth in the Tinsel - Day 7 - Song

Truth in the Tinsel - Day 6 - Mary & Elizabeth

Truth in the Tinsel - Day 5 - Mary

Truth in the Tinsel - Day 4 - Angel

Truth In The Tinsel - Day 3 - Zechariah

Four Months!

Little girl is four months old (plus a few days). She's giggly and happy, 'chatters' a lot, and loves her big brother.

Truth In The Tinsel - Day 2 - Crown

Truth In The Tinsel - Day 1 - Candle

Advent, Tinsel, Crafts

For the month of December, Finn & I are working through "Truth in the Tinsel", for him to learn the story of Christmas. In addition, he has a Playmobil Advent Calendar from Mémé, with a very festive theme of 'cops & robbers' ... he will love it I know! He's very pleased with day one -- the robber. I was up late last night getting it ready for him, I'd forgotten that it takes a long time to assemble the calendars. We also put out the Christmas in the Woods one that Finn used for the past 2 Christmases, he has offered to open the doors each day for Cate. I'm sure she won't object. If that were not enough, Finn & Cate each have a chocolate calendar as well from the Christmas Party for Pé's work last weekend. I think Dave will be enjoying Cate's.

Number Recognition booklet

Finn has been wanting to get more familiar with numbers -- he can count quite high, but doesn't know all the characters, especially for numbers which just don't occur in our address or the board games he plays.

Found this booklet today, and have printed it off for him to work on tomorrow.

I was doing so well

For three whole days last month, there was regular blogging! And then, well, life. It keeps getting in the way

We've had a great start to summer, a trip to the zoo, another camping trip, progress on basement reno project, and a cottage weekend.

Baby duck riding on mama at Mary Lake

Puffball Magnets

Made them :) Super easy, and very fun already according to Finn. It's pretty straightforward, but if you need a 'how to' ... here you go!

Colour PLAYHouse a success!

On Thursday, we had 3 families join Finn & I to play with & learn about colour. We did the colour wheel activity to learn out primary colours blend to create secondary colours and we reviewed the concept with the colour matching cards (links shared in last week's post). Here are some of our colour wheels drying in the window. After our indoor activities, we headed out to the park for some swinging, sliding & running around.

Home Improvements

Now that we've been in the new house for a whole year, we're starting to make some changes ... We painted the foyer & upper hall, they are no longer 'primer white'. Dave ran wiring through the attic to add a light fixture in the stairway, 3 new windows have been installed, and the foyer lights have been replaced (the old ones moved to the new stairway light & upper hall locations). The improvement with the greatest impact though, has to be the new front door. Gone is the bright red door that clashed with the brick & only had a teeny tiny way too high to be useful window. In it's place, that pretty blue door that actually lets light into the foyer and has a deadbolt that turns the correct way! Plus, it has fresh new trim around it, which was not finished when I got that photo (and we've taken all the labels off now too!). Today's project is the back door ...

Colour Day @ PLAYHouse

Some local & not quite local moms have gotten together to have organized play dates for our mostly preschool aged kiddos ... with a bit ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giff a learning opportunity involved.

At the first event the last week of May, we had 28 people (10 moms, 14 kiddos ages 2-7 & 4 babies).

At my house this week, I'm hoping for a *slightly* smaller crowd & doing a colour theme.

Some resources I hope to use:

From Mama-Jenn this colour wheel activity

From 1plus1plus1equals1 these color-puzzles, as well as these.

From totallytots, this story & activity

And, if I can get the download to stop crashing ... the colour cards from homeschoolcreations.com

I'm going to have to see if I can edit all of them to say coloUr, instead of color though ... we are in Canada after all!

Campground Reveiw: Turkey Point

I've been camping at Turkey Point (Ontario) since I was 9 or 10 years old I think. We went every long weekend, every summer, for years. Eventually we all go older and stopped going regularly, but have recently been back a couple times. When I was a child, our family preferred site #47, which I still like, but now we tend to book sites nearer to sites with services as we camp next to my parents, and their trailer. I'll get to individual site reviews eventually, but wanted to comment on the campground as a whole ...and some of the changes over the past 20 years! A new section called 'Fin & Feather' is a nice addition and less busy feeling than the other sections are now. There is no water at this park -- not a big deal for me, but hard on my husband who likes to swim in the lake each morning while camping. The beach is a drive into town away, and not worth the effort just to go for a quick swim. This is a great park for young kids ... bikes are allowed on the trails, and the playground in Walkingstick Woods is big with lots of room to run & climb. Some of the equipment is updated, but a few oldies from my childhood are still lingering. There used to be great evening programs, and these seem to have been replaced with 'movie night'. Not my thing, when I'm camping, I don't really want to sit at a picnic table & watch Disney movies while getting eaten by mosquitos ... I miss Elaine (the park staff that led programs when I was young) and the great campfire/history/campy-filmstrip-programs that we attended in the evenings. Maybe I'm just getting old though, as the one Disney movie we attended did have quite a few families & kids there to watch! This campground does have showers, flush toilets & real sinks at the comfort stations, and also has outhouse style toilets placed around the park if you don't want to walk to the centrally located comfort stations. They've always been clean, though they look a bit tired & 'vintage'. The park staff are quick to act on noise/alcohol violations if you have problems with any of the other campers, and while I don't like to see people evicted, it's nice to know that camping doesn't have to mean putting up with noisy & rude neighbours. As a family, my husband, kids & I will probably prefer to head further away & get to lakes for both swimming & canoeing, but for beginning & end of season trips when the lakes are cold, Turkey Point is great. The park is a reasonable distance for my parents & sister as well, so it's a good place to meet for a trip with them. It's only 80 min or so from home, so the drive isn't bad -- for us, it's all back roads with no traffic.

Again with the blog re-start ...

Let's see if I can actually maintain any level of regular posting! I have great hopes for this blog this time. Look for some reviews of campsites & gear, as I use this blog to keep track of the info for myself mostly, but if it helps you out too, great :) I'll also be trying to share what Finn is doing once his preschool experience ends, and before he starts Kindergarten 18mths from now. We've joined a local play group with some planned activities through the year, and got our Safari Niagara passes, so we're looking forward to some fun over the summer & into the fall ... I'll also be trying to keep up with regular updates on new.baby.girl once she arrives towards the end of summer. :)