Goings on

My children don't like to take their boots off when they come in for snack, and if they all can fit on the mat, they can eat in a warm house then pop out and play, right?

Jennifer taking her coloring seriously:

 Daniel with a dirty nose.

 Nathan helping packing. 

 Jennifer and Evelyn getting in the way while we are packing.

 The boys outside because Mom needed them to let off steam in the good outdoors.

 Melanie helping packing.

 Evelyn helping packing.  (She can't actually figure out how to get the tape out of the dispenser, thankfully. :)

 Melanie lost out on a trip to storage, but was consoled with using my camera for ten minutes.  If she drops this one it won't break.  (Or, not so easily.)

She liked snapping pics of her sisters.

Two days left!! 

BTW, our emails and phone # are the same.  The day of the move our phone will be out for part/some of the day., and hopefully that is all  We can't get regular high speed at our new place, but hope to look into internet options when we've caught our breath.  In a pinch I can snatch the hubbies work phone to catch up on email...but don't expect regular interaction via on line for a bit.

Life goes on with boxes and empty shelves all around

 We've been putting a bunch of things into storage, and trying to empty our house as much as we can before the big day.  But we still have to live too, so we can't be too eager either.

We left some books behind for our worm.

 And the boxes waiting behind are great fun to have houses between.

 

 Daniel and Jennifer are on their way to Papua New Guinea.

 Evelyn is wearing casts (extendable ends for the kid table.

 But Mommy has the camera so she has to come barging over to see herself.

 So many empty cubbies to fill up with toys!

The older kids are taking advantage of any snowfall we get.  And asking me to take them to the park so they can go sliding.  But I don't want to since last week we went, and when we got back Evelyn's fingers (despite wearing a double layer of mittens) were very red with cold and they took a while to warm up.  She was not impressed.  So now they have to wait 'til the move.  Instead they are biking on the sidewalk and plowing the snow.

 Matthew read a book to Evelyn.  I think he was really reading the words this time.  Evelyn was a wiggly audience, but patient too. 

 And it sounded better on his lap. ;)

Hard to believe we have school work still. 

 We ought to have a break!

 Evelyn brings pony tails for her "hair" to be styled with.  Ain't she gorgeous?
:p

Beware laying down anywhere...you are considered fair game for a hug/dog pile from affectionate Evelyn.

Sold!

We've had an exciting past month-we bought a new house!  And then, we had our old house to sell yet too!  We've been looking for a new place for more than a year, and now, success!

We tidied up our cluttered house and had it on the market in what felt like a whirlwind, by the beginning of December.  We then spent two weeks of living with a place that could be turned to immaculate* and empty of occupants at a 3 hours notice.  We (Mommy R) were very happy to sell at the end of two weeks.

 We celebrated by hanging up your Christmas cards, and then I went on a baking binge and just had a hoot making such a mess of my kitchen, having everything out all day long and not tidying 'til the end of the day.  It is sure nice to have your house back as a home again, and not be obliged to go shopping or to the library or visiting with a short notice, even it's stretched to 3 hours.

The customers that showed up late for their showing (and we were home again) could hardly get into our house for coats and boots and kids everywhere. :p

So the new place has space, inside and out.  We hope if you happen to be in Ontario, that you think of us if you are in need of accommodations!

 It will need some TLC as it's been without occupants for some time, probably just two months short of a year by the time we move in.  We'll try our best to make it feel loved again. ;)

*immaculate:  free of clutter and freshly vacuumed.  Not with shining walls and windows or sanitary kitchen and bathrooms.

Odds and sods

Evelyn is into trouble again!  She bit her soother through this week.  This time she did not get a replacement, and is doing pretty good at getting to sleep without it.  But every now and then, and especially before nap or bedtime she'll say "bwo!  doodur!"  (broke soother)  She even put in the garbage last night, but repented and tried get it right out again!

It's not often the kids have Lego upstairs (it's an awful mess when all 6 of 'em get into it!) but they had it out today, so they could copy some domino thing off instructions on the web.  We ended up with Lego everywhere!

Jennifer spent some time "drawing", by which she means writing.  She carefully fills in the spaces between the lines, sometimes more wiggly to look like letters, sometimes more like straight lines.

Now, if I move the stool to the pantry I can reach the handles and open it up.  But how do I open the bottom part at get at the snack shelf?

Melanie made a lovely candle holder for us.  Cost her nothing, only a rummage through the recycling, a hunt for hammer and nails (plus a piece of wood to hold the shape of the can while hammering) and a cut in her finger.  It's the Christmas tree she wishes she had. ;)

Matthew the artist showing off his drawing of a mug with it's shadow.

Evelyn came crying to me while I was busy with Jennifer in the bathroom, because her siblings weren't being nice.  Really, we ought to look this way on account of the number of hours we spend in the washroom in our seemingly futile attempts to get Jennifer ready for underwear.

 I must have the world record for slowest potty training children.  Sigh.  Maybe Evelyn will surprise me.  (Fat chance.)

 A puzzle finished at last!  Matthew wanted his grandparents to see.

Painting around the house.  (Thankfully with imaginary paint!  They do enough scribbling with pencils on the walls that we don't need paint on the furniture too!)  Jennifer had been painting the pictures in the book, but I missed that Kodak moment.

And the grand finale being another astounding Kapla project by my creative children: 

It should read "ate" not "eat".  Matthew thought it was funny too, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. ;) 

Drawing together

(But not quite all of us joined in.)