On the Mend

We are all on the mend here, thank the Lord. We were at the ER 3 times, and spent 4 days in the hospital, and went to two doctor's appointments in the past week. Phew! mommy is tired.

The boys are feeling much better every day, and are starting to sleep more at night again (and so is mommy). The other 3 kiddies are also feeling better, and we might even venture outside next week if we can get rid of the remnants of this yucky cough! I miss the smell of fresh air and the feeling of sunshine on my skin. Spring can't come soon enough! I guess this is Lent for you, isn't it?

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. I know they help.

Now, back to enjoying my five little blessings.

Am I cute or what?

Here's Peter hanging out in his crib at the hospital a few days ago. Even sick, he was charming everyone with his sweetness.
Today, Peter is slowly getting better, and JP is slowly getting worse.
This is to be expected since JP started to get sick 3 or 4 days after Peter. Hopefully he'll stay out of the hospital and we can have a quiet weekend at home. Thank God it's friday, is all I can say. There's nothing better than friday afternoon when daddy walks in the door for the weekend.

Bumble Bee Lapbook

bee lapbook

We did this one a few weeks ago, but with the craziness of tummy flu, and being in the hospital with the twins RSV complications, I haven't had a spare moment to post it. click on the picture to see more photos.

We are having so much fun with learning about insects, and there is an unending supply of fantastic resources out there about them, and other invertebrates, that we're having a hard time moving on from this topic. We've spent lots of time on www.unitedstreaming.com with my free trial watching magic school bus videos, and been to the Baldwin Project reading all the delightful nature stories by Clara Dillingham Pierson.

We are still enjoying our Stick bugs as well. They are growing pretty fast and we can't wait for them to lay some eggs!! Currently they live in a big flower vase, and like to eat romaine lettuce. You can't see them very good in these pictures, but that's the best i can do for now. I'll take a picture later so you can see the bugs up close.

Home for now...

Just home from the hospital with peter. He's doing much better today so they discharged us. Hopefully we won't end up back there with JP. He's starting to get sick, but hopefully won't get as bad has his brother did. Please pray for the babies and their very sleep-deprived mommy.

Thank you all!!

Update on my Sons and an Ode to Grandparents

P and JP are in the Hospital with Mommy, as Peter (along with the rest of the Clan) have come down with a nasty cold, that apparently has a name: RSV.

P is currently on O2, but doing better every day. He is benefitting from all your prayers and well wishes for him. JP, unfortunately, is starting to come down with the same thing, and we are just praying that it doesn't get complicated as it did with P.

Many thanks to both sets of Grandparents, who have graciously helped out in all ways possible. These are the only people who are willing to take care of 3 very sick kids at home while Mom is with the other 2 and I'm dealing with a workplace gone crazy (Not that others haven't offered, but the thought of a lovely virus as a take home gift for your own children after helping out is not exactly something we would wish on anyone).

Part of this package deal is dealing with the copious amounts of snot , whining and crankyness produced by 3 sick kids under 7...and they keep coming back for MORE!!

Boy, they must love these kids or something!

Thanks Grandmas L & J and Grandpas J & E - You are the bestest.

Posted by Columba while Mommy takes care of my little men.

Just because

How much trouble can one toddler get INTO in a day?

.... Lots. Luckily it's washable, I hope.

mmmm.. Naps

Like all sleep deprived mothers, I look forward with such anticipation to the daily afternoon nap that my toddler takes. It is a much deserved break from the constant vigil I need to keep over her, for her own sake and the sake of the twins lives.

This afternoon, after reading her a story, she sweetly laid her head on her pillow, put her thumb in her mouth and I quietly walked out of her room, shutting the door. Phew! That was easy, I thought.

Little did I know what plans were brewing in that little head of hers (not even 2 years old yet, so forgive me for being ignorant of her capabilities). When I went up later to put one of the twins to bed, I walk by her room and notice her door is wide open. hmmm... where is H?? Not in her bed like I left her... hmmmm... where could she be?

Oh of course! She's in the bunk bed. On the TOP! Why didn't I think of that? This child never ceases to amaze me. Especially since there is no ladder to this bunk bed (we took it down months ago when she almost climbed to the top then).

So now how am I going to get her down without waking her up? Maybe I should just climb up there with her and have a nap myself :-)

Happy Valentines

Today we are having fun making paper toys from The Toymaker. We have been busy making toy sail boats that float across the floor. Also, be sure to check out their valentine page. There are some beautiful crafts on there too.

Hopefully daddy will come home with some chocolate for us :-)

Hope your family is warm and toasty this valentines.

blessings and love to you all!

Valentine party

As a child, there was just about nothing more fun than getting a big pile of valentines from my friends, and eating all the candy that went with them. I loved the hearts, the pretty crafts, the reds and the pinks, and of course, the chocolate.

As a homeschooling family, we don't get to have all the fuss at school, so since I had nothing much to do these days (did I just say that?) I decided to throw a valentines party for the kids and their friends.

We rented a room in our community centre, and enlisted the help of auntie melissa to help decorate and supervise. True to our do-it-yourself genes that run so strongly in this family, E and Z made their own valentines to give out, spending the whole day before the party carefully crafting them and waited very impatiently all week for the upcoming celebration.

When all the children arrived, they stuffed their valentines into the bags that we made for each child, then ran around the room that was decorated with pink streamers, heart, doilies and balloons. The average age of the children at this party was probably 4 years. The oldest was 8 and the youngest was 2 months old. Including the babies, there were 23 kids there.

We began the afternoon with a craft that looked like this (except we used paper, not wood), and then the kids burned off some energy in some games. First we played the special heart game, where the kids all gathered around a bedsheet with lots of cut-out paper hearts in the middle.

Like a parachute game, they each grabbed onto the sheet and shook it up and down and made the hearts dance on the sheet, until I said "HIGH!!" and then they shook them up really high so they scattered around the room. Whoever found the special heart (one wrapped in foil) got to pick a prize out of my bag.

They thought this was lots of fun and we played it three times. The third time, I told them whoever found a pink or purple heart could also pick a prize, and they were SO excited to all find one. They just about knocked me over while trying to claim their winnings. After this, they played duck duck goose, Mrs. Valentine says (like simon says), hide and seek (as demanded by the masses), and freeze dance.

We settled everyone down at the tables to drink punch out of plastic wine glasses, and eat some yummy chocolate cupcakes, and as they left, they took their bags of valentines home with them, along with some of the decorations off the walls and tables so I didn't have too. It was a little noisy at times, but a nice diversion from our normal craziness.

Catching up

Busy busy busy.. that's the theme of my life now.
I don't even really have time to blog anymore, because my days are filled with children, laundry, diapers and food.
Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's definately more work than I thought I was signing up for when I said "I do".
I wouldn't trade any of it for the world though (ok, maybe the housework but we can't afford a maid).

Two weeks ago I went on a silent retreat outside the city. This is the same retreat that I try to go on at least once a year, and always enjoy it. The silence, the food, the time for prayer... they bring me so much peace.
I've just never tried to do it with two babies in tow before.. turns out it was easier than I thought. 30 other ladies on the retreat all wanted to take turns holding the babies so I was treated to a relaxing, quiet weekend. The boys even slept really well for me.

Now this past week hasn't been as restfull. Unfortunately the stomach flu reared it's ugly head, and mommy spent the past week cleaning floors and toilets, washing even MORE laundry than normal, and getting up over and over in the middle of the night. Thank God for daddies!!


This week is shaping up to be a little better. The babies are blooming into these wonderful personalities and even starting to move around a bit. Last night I put them down in bed like this:

snuggled all up in their blankets, peaceful as can be. In the morning, I awoke to find them like this:

turned right around, unsnuggled out of their blankets, with big open eyes and smiles for mommy. What are they doing at night??


Last but not least, daddy spent lots of time on the weekend outside with the older kids playing in the snow and building snowmen. ARen't they so sweet?

On the homeschooling front, we finally did our BEE lapbook (pictures to follow), learned more of our addition math facts (+8s and the doubles 6+6, 7+7 etc...), and did list H1 in SWR. Oh! And E is learning to read really well now. I bought some Clifford phonics readers and she can read them really fast. THere is hope for us yet!!