February 4, 2014

Yesterday we finished making our Valentine mailboxes to hang outside our rooms to get / give each other little notes and cards.

Toviel loves to check his every day and put little notes in everyone's mailboxes.

Elijah is hoping to collect a ton of cards and is saving them all to open on Valentine's Day.

We went to the Royal Alberta Museum today. We caught a presentation on coyotes, and we were the only ones present for it. The boys were hesitant to commit to any sort of presentation and their questions about it were "How long is it?" and, "Can we leave if we want to?" It was only 20 minutes. An easy commitment. And in the end Tove said, "I actually quite liked that. It wasn't too bad at all." It was a gentle lecture. :)

After we came home, I read several chapters in an abridged version of Gulliver's Travels to the boys. I started reading it last night and will probably end up finishing it before Friday. 

For supper tonight we decided to eat popcorn and watch some Shakespeare Animated Tales.

We watched Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Twelfth Night, and Taming of the Shrew.  After each one we discussed them and compared them to other stories we knew. Toviel was disturbed by Macbeth, and I should have known better. Before we went to bed, he requested I find a book with all Shakespeare's plays in it, and maybe an app that tells us more about Shakespeare and his works.

I am discovering that while Elijah likes to play all day, every day, and can create anything exciting in his mind, Toviel is often feeling bored with all the play and has a desire for different things. He needs more exposure to things and has this thirst to learn more, while it seems Elijah wants to create original ideas and play and read. He can play and play and play and play. He can outplay anyone I know!

February 2, 2014 - Ice on Whyte

This afternoon we went to the Ice on Whyte Festival. We went last year and had so much fun. But this year, with Elijah just getting over the stomach flu and with the biting wind, we could have done without.

But, we went anyways. It was either that or stay home and play video games and watch movies. Cris and I opted for the fresh air option.

The ice and snow sculptures were very well done as usual.

In celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year and this year being the Year of the Horse, this snow sculpture was created:

They had 7 ice slides in all. The big one had a long, winding line up that was moving painfully slow, so we didn't even go on that one. We went on the small ones:

We were only at the festival for a little over an hour. At the end, Elijah was in tears - so cold, so tired and weak, and we were all cold. We stopped off at Bliss Cupcakes on our way home and treated ourselves to 2-for-1 cupcakes. This was my first cupcake from a specialty cupcake cafe. It was really delicious.

Elijah and Toviel played with K'nex, Toviel built more things with his Snap Circuits, and they both played on the computers in the evening while we had a friend over for supper and dessert.

Feb. 1, 2014

Last night Elijah threw up about 10 times. We had some big messes to clean up after midnight. Poor guy. Oh man....I really hate carpet.

Today we had opportunity to go to the Ice on Whyte Festival or the Chinese New Year events going on in Chinatown, but instead we are hanging out at home. It's really cold outside anyways. The wind is biting, so being inside at home is nice.

Cris and Toviel are working on some Snap Circuits. Elijah is resting. The vomiting has stopped and he is keeping his popsicle down. He is listening to music right now, and we are going to watch some BBC Planet Earth videos.

Linking Verbs

Toviel has been working with linking verbs of late.

The linking verbs are am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been. The first 5 are the most common, so that is what we are concentrating on.

The white strips of paper have the verbs on them and the yellow strips of paper have nouns and adjectives on them that can be "linked together" with the linking verbs.

Here is a different activity for building short sentences with the use of linking verbs. Some of his sentences were hilarious and kept us laughing for a while.

Bethlehem Walk 2013

One of our holiday traditions is to go to the Bethlehem Walk put on by West Edmonton Christian Assembly.

It is always enjoyable, but there is usually a 1-2 hour wait to get in. This year we went with the school groups during the day and avoided all the waiting. It was nice to go with friends, but we missed not going with Cris and also the production was considerably dumbed down during the day time, presumably because people have jobs and school during the day.

We missed the usual Wise Men act at the beginning, there were a fraction of angels singing, no Herod outside the temple, and some of the market place stalls were unmanned for a short time. We also missed out on the choir at the end and the live orchestra at the beginning during the wait time, and there was no hot chocolate or hot apple cider. It was less congested though, which was nice. The boys each got their token piece of leather from the leather shop, which is tradition for them.

Here are all the kids we went with:

Here is Elijah trying to lift the uber long sword that is near impossible to lift unless you know the wrist-flick movement you have to make since it is so blade heavy. The same crazy guy is there every year.

Overlooking the marketplace:

After you wind through the shops and go past the inn, you arrive at the stables. It is quiet, the kids are thrilled with the horses, goats, cows, donkeys, and sheep. You could almost miss Mary and Joseph sitting there quietly with The King, just as most everyone missed that 2000+ years ago in the hustle and bustle of the census activity. One thing that amazes me is that every year (3 now) the babe is still, quietly sleeping in Mary's arms. How do people do that with their newborns? I'm pretty sure I remember having to MOVE all the time with my babes in my arms in order to keep them happy. Yet here they are, still as can be, with a little baby actually sleeping quietly, all 3 times.

I'm pretty sure Elijah wanted to take this bull home with him. He wasn't terribly interested in the horses, the sheep, the donkeys, or the goats, but give him a cow with horns and he is happy. I had to tear him away from this guy because the group was moving on.

Thank you to all the people who work so hard to bring this amazing and free event to Edmontonians in the few weeks before Christmas! See you next year!

Crafting and Reading

We spent an afternoon earlier this month making snowflakes by folding paper and cutting out shapes.

The results were sweet and we decorated our dining room window with them. We've done a couple other Christmas crafts without whining or complaining.

A lot of this has been happening lately:

Just finding a quiet spot and reading. Elijah is reading a novel, "Heart of a Samaurai."

Toviel has a chapter book on the go, too, but he often picks up whatever suits his fancy at the moment.

Advent 2013

The beginning of December starts off our advent traditions.

The boys each get a ribbon with stockings clipped to it, one for each day leading up to Christmas. Each morning the sock for the day has a little surprise waiting for them, usually a candy or small toy. As the month progresses, the socks disappear, bringing us closer to Christmas. It is a fun countdown.

We have also started another tradition for advent. 24 children's books are wrapped up and placed under the tree. Each night before bed, the boys pick a wrapped book and unwrap it. We read that book all snuggled in bed.

I must admit for this one, it was tricky to find Christmas books that were not $20 each. I relied on thrift stores so the selection is so-so, especially since I needed 24 of them!