Diachuk Family of Seven: One Huge Catch Up!

This post should be many but I will try and narrow it down and not make it too long and boring.
We started school again. I forgot my first day of the year pics and am kicking myself. But it's ok. I'm not perfect. We did things a little differently this year. Maria, Esther and Daniel started a one day a week class. Maria in the class for grades 3-7. Esther and Daniel in the class for K-2. It's been interesting. Maria has done lots of fun things and her work has improved on so many levels.
Here are a couple of the projects that she's done lately.
She made a mobile of different habitats

She made a worm terrarium and then made a Diary of the Worm. Super cute.

She made this super fun food chain drawing

She had to make an animal habitat. So she made this squirrel house with her dad. Which really, is way too cool :D She decided to make a squirrel habitat and Bryant jumped right on board. He helped her with the processes of drawing, cutting, assembling and finally placing the habitat.

And then did a big poster report on it. This was her first ever poster and it turned out so well!

Danny and Esther also started one day a week school but I don't have the same glowing reports to share about their experience. I ended up removing Esther from the class entirely. She misses her friends but it was just not worth keeping her in.
She stayed with me for a couple weeks and we tried to make it fun. We went to Michael's and picked up a little craft for her to make.

And Auntie Angela took her and Allison to the SPCA to play with the kittens. Esty was over the moon as she wants to be a pet watcher when she grows up! We definitely counted this toward her Health and Career file in school :)

Angela is so great with the kids!

This class was hard on Esther. Her and the teacher did not get along well at all and I found she deteriorated in every way. And I was just done. It's so nice to see her smiling again and drawing and being her own spunky self. Here is some of her latest work:

We joined a home school coop this year for the first time. It has been amazing and a bit stressful. It is hard for me to come up with lesson plans for such a wide range of kids. It makes me feel overwhelmed and inadequate. But we are all struggling with the same feelings and it has been a lesson in allowing myself to be vulnerable. Admit my struggles and shortcomings and ask for help. It has added a lot to our home school and I am thrilled we joined. We went on a field trip to a homeless shelter and made little baggies for homeless people. Filling them with everyday items we would take for granted: soap, deoderant, toothbrush, feminine products etc. It was so great to see them work together to bless others. We also went to the store and bought food items for the homeless.
We also made up a play and decorated cards and put on a Christmas nativity play for an old folks home. It was an amazing blessing for me to watch the old folks enjoy the children so much. It is delightful to see your child bring joy to an elderly and lonely persons day.
I can't add pics as we have a pretty strict "no sharing pics" policy but here is a pic of the wise man gift prop that we made:

Here are a couple pics of the kids in their Christian Intelligence Kids outfits :

The kids had so many field trips it was a little crazy! We had 4 not-back-to-school pincnics in a week! We had a couple fun field trips. We learned a bit about rivers and got to go on a couple river field trips.

Tommy dumped his monster truck in one of the big tanks and the receptionist was kind enough to get a long net and scoop it out for him. Do these things happen to anyone else?!

Maria got to spend a day on the river with her dad and teacher. That was a big hit!

I took the kids on the crazy pants field trip to Science World. I can't remember how I managed before Auntie Angela was around! Seriously! I guess she came into our lives right after Jesse was born but still....
I am quite proud of this pic of Maria holding up Science World :)

Jesse boy loved being big enough to join in on the big kid fun. He wasn't really big enough and I regret letting him out of the stroller but you'll enjoy these pics anyway :)

Tommy's favorite part was DEFINITELY the bathroom hand dryer :)
He was a handful and a half. At one point he picked up a kid his size right off the floor and tossed him aside. 3 year olds have a very strong sense of right and wrong (In this case taking turns. It was Tommy's turn. Poor buddy didn't realize.) We're trying to train him to be gentle but it's hard when you have 5 kids and can't moniter his every move. Parents have no understanding for him. It's a hard thing being "that kid's" mom. But he's delightful and wonderful and I'll love him forever. Even if there aren't many people that understand him.

Opa bought a fun new zoomer machine. The kids loved taking turns driving and riding and seeing how many they could pack on at once. Even including Uncle Brynn and Aunt Dorothy. Not related but the sweetest couple ever. Brynn had a prophecy for each of the oldest 4 of my children which I have decided to keep private. But his prophecy for Tom mentioned him turning out ok in the end. You have no idea how relieved I was to hear that. Nearly bawled on the spot!

The kids all took turns baking again. Danny made cookies.

Esther doodle made snicker doodle muffins.

And Maria made apple pie. Nearly on her own!

John took my to what I'm pretty sure was my first ever Canuck's game! It was a good game as they won by a lot! And we had amazing seats!!

We went on cold walks with friends on Friday's. See the train? Talk about good timing!

We celebrated Dean's birthday :)

Our Benny boy jumped the fence after being frightened by fireworks and ended up getting run over. Such a huge ordeal trying to figure out what happened to him. The SPCA thought they found him but it ended up being a different Shepherd cross. We finally ended up getting hold of a traffic worker and were able get him, identify him and bury him. I thought the kids were all taking it pretty well until we walked away from burying him and Tommy started shouting "WAIT! What about Benny?! We can't LEAVE him!!!" I totally fell apart after that. It was tough. He was the greatest dog.He will be missed. This was a tough year that way. We laugh a lot. But sometimes we cry.

Thanks, God. For reasons to laugh through the tears.

Our hens started laying! Of our 6 it turned out only 3 were hens. And it looks like we have 1 or 2 layers. Obviously I know nothing about chickens! Haha. But eggs are exciting! You can see the cool color that they are when you compare them to store bought white eggs in the 2nd pic.