Lately at the Lafleurs...

Ella continues to knit a lot of hats.

Taking the crew out for a walk.

We visited Great Grandpa the other day. The cuckoo clock is always a hit. And we always seem to be there at 11 am or noon, so we see the cuckoo clock in it's prime.

We thought we would take a picture of Peter next to this picture on the wall of Spencer. Hard to see here, but they look so similar.

We see some very unique ducks when we go to our local park. Last week we some some tufted ducks.

My mom sent this delicious edible arrangement to us. It went quickly with these eager eaters!

We love identifying new birds and drawing them in our nature journals. When we were at Great Grandpa's, he showed us some of his old bird books and told us all about the birds that frequent his backyard.

Besties.

I love homeschool geography.

We are studying rocks this term. Ella was excited to find some marble in our backyard.

Into everything!

Karis: Mom, can I wear my fairy wings outside? It's pretty windy. I think I'll be able to fly today.

Last Friday our nature group visited Crescent Beach. We found some slate along the beach and the girls enjoyed breaking it apart by using a stronger rock as a hammer. Juliette was fascinated by this activity. 

Ella also commented: "it does break very easily, no wonder Anne was able to break her slate over Gilbert's head."

We found this cool fort on the beach.

And ate peanut butter sandwiches on this log while enjoying the ocean and the sunshine.

Making sundaes :)

My red hat from Ella. She was so sweet and bought some deep red yarn to make me a hat because it is my favorite color.

Silas loves looking out our backdoor at the kids playing in the yard. Peter often comes up and gives him a kiss through the glass.

Juliette sometimes sets the table with an extra spot for Peter Rabbit.

Tea parties with princess and Anne of Green Gables. My happy place.

While I was nursing Silas on the couch the other day, Peter decided that he should nurse his car.

"Ella can you brush my teeth please?"

Silas LOVES to play ball.

And now she is into making headbands.

Winter Weather...

This year in the lower mainland we have had some beautiful winter weather. This week has been the first week that we have seen our grass since it got blanketed with snow on December 5th.

Here are some pictures of the things we have been up to.

Karis finished her reading lesson book this week, so as per tradition, we went out for ice cream to celebrate.

I love how the reading practice is just naturally built in when you have younger siblings.

 It has been fun to see the kids nature journal entries about snow.

Peter loves to help out in the kitchen. He also is obsessed with ambulances. When he wakes up he usually mentions an ambulance right away. He wants to drive an ambulance when he is big. He goes around the house with his ambulance and asks me where my owie is. He then comes and touches his ambulance against my toe (or wherever my "owie" is) and assumes that it will be healed.

The other night when I was tucking him in, he said "if you have an owie when I'm big, I will come to you in my ambulance." I think this was the highest way he could have possibly expressed his love to me :)

This little man is 10 months old now.

Juliette and I had fun building a snow man last week.

Juliette and Ella have been busy knitting these days.

And the 3 girls are taking swimming lessons. While they are in their lessons, I swim with the boys. We have so much fun at the pool. And whoever thought of the idea of having a pack-n-play in the change room is a genius.

In case anybody is bored during quiet time, Ella has made a list of things to do. They all look like great ideas, except "look at a sand timer", I am not sure how exciting that would be.

The next generation of the double bob :)

We went on a few winter walks down to Robson Park. It was fun to see the frozen pond and the snow covered beaver lodge. We are so thankful to have this park in our neighborhood. 

Spencer and the kids made a fun slide in the yard last week.

I love my helpers. I have now outsourced the laundry, and the loading and emptying of the dishwasher. I once heard a mom talk about how as the kids get older the "scales start to tip" as they are able to help out more and more. I am feeling that the scales are starting to tip over here and it is so wonderful.

A little mathematician.

Ella's 10 month card to Silas on her typewriter.

Peter has started to tell Silas, "baby we brothers, we boys. I am big and you are little. We boys." It is so precious.

Ella made this hat for Peter. He loves it. He basically loves anything that Ella does, so receiving a hat from her was pretty special for him.

We went to the Surrey Nature Centre the other week. We did not know that they had such an amazing hill, or we would have brought our sled. The lack of a sled did not stop the kids from going down the hill though.