Merry Christmas (and lots of Lego!)

A rare homeschooling picture where everyone is working and no one is fussing or bugging or complaining.  If only that happened every day...

Darren's special present from Oma & Opa was a lego McQueen and Mac.  Here is the finished product!

Liam's lego Mater - he loves that thing!

Evan's lego city creation.

ALL of Darren's special creations!

Isaac's lego creation?  (looks like a piece of lego to me....)

And Liam had to make a special creation to have  a picture taken.

Evan read the whole Grinch story to his younger brothers!  Great reading!

Enjoying a lego Thomas set...

Merry Christmas!

Renkema Christmas 2012

It was nice to see everyone on this somewhat  bittersweet getogether.  We first rememberd Great Oma DeJong in a wonderful service in Woodstock.  Then we headed over to Clinton to celebrate Christmas as a family.  Because of this, we were able to spend a bit of extra time together, which was nice.

Evan was thrilled with his 3-in -1 Lego kit.  He and Opa spent 3 hours working on it (and didn't drop it once!)

Darren got a McQueen & Mac Lego set.  There was only time to put together McQueen, so far, but Darren was still thrilled!

Isaac was so excited to open a present, that he was shaking!

 He got a camera, and has become quite the photographer.

Evan & Owen spent a lot of time together this weekend. Evan was so great with him!  Owen loved "Airquanes!" (Airplanes) so Evan drew lots for him.

Liam also got a lego set - Mater from Cars.  He and Opa worked very hard on his too.

A rare shot of all 6 grandsons sitting with Oma & Opa.  I didn't dare tell them I was taking a picture, or everyone would have left!

Darren reminded Oma how to play Rock/Paper/Scissors.  For about 20 rounds, they either tied for every single one or Darren won!  Poor Oma.

 Ayden, Isaac & Darren had lots of fun with PlayDough.

The boys got a great new lego table to play with all their new Lego!  Love  it! (and it slides right under our couch!)  Thanks, Opa!

Superheroes and SuperVillains

Evan though our boys have never watched any superhero shows or movies, one of their favourite passtimes lately is "Superheroes and Super Villains."  Everyone wears a cape and they run around shouting out their names.  "Superman!"  "Spiderman!"  "Ironman!"  Isaac's version of  "Batman" sounds more like "BapBan!"

 Isaac was very casually waiting for supper - legs crossed, feet up on the table, chewing on a spoon.  He asks us "Is it Tractor Time yet?"  When he was younger, his "Snack Time" sounded a lot like "tractor time" so that has become our family's term for snack time, or any meal time.  "TRACTOR TIME!"

On a sad note, we will be saying goodbye to Great Oma DeJonge.  She was 91 years old, and had a wonderful life.  She will be missed.  Here is a picture of her meeting Liam for the first time.

November...

Darren has been attending Knox preschool for one day a week.  Most days he's apprehensive about going, but has a great time while he's there.  On this day, he was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch for a half an hour after school...

The boys took out all our puzzles and tried to put them all together...until a certain mischievious little brother came along and wrecked them all...

Evan, Darren & Liam are hard at work...

Isaac has been talking more lately, though still rather incoherent.  He wants very specific responses (yes, or uh-huh doesn't cut it anymore) but we're not always sure what he's asking/telling.  He reminds us a lot of Evan at that age!  He will sing songs at the top of his lungs over and over, songs like "Clang, Clang," from Mortimer, or "Life is a Highway."  When he prays before meals, he always thanks God for "Food, milk, APPLE PICKING and MOMMY's BIRTHDAY!!"  (getting louder and louder by the end!) 

Liam still enjoys puzzles, playing quietly on his own, and hearing stories.  He often starts his sentences with, "Imagine if..."  Last week it was, "Mommy, imagine if there was a string on my back and when you pull it I would fly into the sky!" Every now and then, he says to me "Don't look in my room (or the living room)"  He calls me in 5 minutes later and he has carefully  "cleaned up" every single toy - some in the right  spots, some just piled high ontop of a table.

Darren has really been reading a lot lately.  Many small words, and often entire pages in books.  He has been appreciating the beautiful sunsets these past few weeks, and calls me over to admire them with him.    He is still very sensitive to others, and really enjoys helping people.  He stutters a bit, still, these days, but that will hopefully get better soon.

Evan is so grown-up looking.  He is extremely helpful and loves to surprise Daddy by raking and filling up a few leaf bags while Daddy is gone.  He'll help set the table, do dishes, and get Isaac from his nap.  What a responsible boy!  He got to say a few words at the front of the church on thanksgiving, and did a great job.  He reads very well, and is starting to do a little better with writing.

Halloween 2012

Spiderman!  A Pirate!!  Buzz Lightyear!!  A Baby Elephant!

Our friends, Job, David & Thomas joined us too! We were a busy group!

Reading...

Evan has become really good at reading lately - quite fluent, with lots of expression.  A few nights ago, he offered to read Bob the Builder to Liam before bed.  They both snuggled on the couch under Liam's special blankets.

 

 

Not to be outdone, Darren sat next to me and read 32 pages of "One Fish, Two Fish."  He needed some help with some words, but knew a LOT of them, and kept right on going - page after page!  Such perseverence!

Jungle Cat World

We live so close to Jungle Cat World, but we haven't gone very often, so we kind of forgot what animals are actually living minutes away from our house.  Lions, tigers, pumas, cervals, wolves, foxes, hyenas, emus, peacocks, kangaroos, monkeys, and donkeys.  If an animal escaped, it could end up in our backyard!!

 

Our library had free passes that we could "check out" for 3 days! So we went today, and had fun.  The kids could get really close to the animals, and we were fascinated that the donkeys roamed free to scare away coyotes to protect the big cats!

 

 It is still a somewhat dingy place, not made any better by all the Canada geese that wander and leave their messes everywhere, but they are planning, over the next number of years to expand and improve the enclosures.

The monkeys were great fun - we howled along with the howler monkey, and watched the other monkeys fight and wrestle just like four other monkeys we know...

Oh Isaac...

Isaac has learned how to climb out of his crib long before the age that any of his brothers did.  So it isn't strange to find him sleeping in various places on the floor...  And yes, I think he's still on the phone.

"Take Our Picture!!"

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

On Saturday we went to the Toronto Zoo with Grandma.  This was the last weekend that the sharks and sting rays were going to be there so we had to see and pet them.  Yes.  We pet the sharks and sting rays. Sting rays are squishier than we thought.

These animal statues are just outside of the Kids Zoo area and, as you can see, very inviting for children to climb all over them.

On Thanksgiving Monday, we went for a walk/hike down by the lake in Newcastle.

Throwing rocks into the little stream that runs into Lake Ontario.

Darren showing us a rock that we just had to see!

A family picture.  We've been accused of not having enough of these so there are two in this post. :)