All Saints Day Festivities

We had a wonderful time celebrating All Saints Day at the local parish with two other large homeschooling families. The kids all dressed up like a saint, we attended morning Mass, and then went over to a class room for some activities. We were very fortunate that Grammy and Paw-paw were even able to come with us.
All the kids did a great job sharing some information about the saint they were pretending to be. At the end of the morning we prayed the litany of the saint while taking a walk through the cemetery. We also shared some delicious snacks and candy. I think all the kids really enjoyed themselves...and they looked so cute!

All Hallow's Eve Fun/ Fall Parties

Little Bo Peep and Spider Man at the Cub Scout party.
The cowgirls with Aunt Olivia.
Our little pumpkin in a pot of boiling water while our chef stirs up some tasty treats with his own pot.
The seven trick or treaters with Paw-paw.
At T's cub scout Fall party playing spooky bingo.

Due to road construction/detours and gas prices, we haven't been able to be as involved in our home school group as we have in the past. So, this year we did not get to go trick-or-treating at the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home. Instead we attended the cub scout party with T's den, a trunk or treat at the parish where we go to daily Mass, and a 4-H trick or treating event with Nana, Aunt Olivia, Grammy, and Paw-paw. We were rather busy celebrating the season.

Fun Times in Town

A few weeks ago, we attended a fiber arts festival at the fairgrounds. I didn't take very many pictures, but we saw lots of neat things while there. The kids were able to see and pet angora goats, lamas, and alpacas. Venders were spinning wool and different fibers while some were knitting or felting. The above picture is of a man we spoke to who was weaving on a small loom. This festival was timely since the girls and I are starting to take up some more crafts. We will soon be learning how to knit from a friend of ours. M is really excited and can hardly wait to get started.

After the fiber festival, we went to a free event sponsored by a local Christian church. The kids were able to enjoy a free petting zoo, jumpy castle, large slide, cotton candy, popcorn, and a few games before the crowd and all the noise was just too overwhelming for us. Dear hubby and I took the kids to redeem their free kids meals at Chik-fil-A instead of fighting the crowd anymore. I think they enjoyed the little play area there even more.

B Looses Her First Tooth

B lost her first tooth the other day. She was soooo very excited and just had to have a picture of it to documrnt this milestone.

E Gets Messy, AGAIN!

I've had some issues with E getting into things lately. (The syrup, jelly, and fruit in the fridge, scissors, glue, stapler, tape, paperclips, thumb tacks, erasers, and such out of my desk, and too many things in the kitchen to name them all.) This behavior has been going on for quite some time now. He has taken his older sister's place in that department.

R used to get into everything, and I do mean everything! I have a list of about 30-35 things (out of the ordinary) written in her baby book that she has gotten into over the past few years. Seriously, it got to be such a long list that I stopped adding to it after awhile. Now that she is nearly four, she has finally started to listen and stay out of most things that are messy or harmful to her.

However, E has definitely been following in her earlier footsteps. These pictures are proof of his latest escapades into my desk drawer. That isn't marker on him, that is ink from a blue and red ink pad. It is hard to tell from the picture, but he has some purple spot where he evidently tried mixing the blue and red ink. His legs were covered in red and blue patches and purple splotches. Who knows, maybe he'll be a great artist someday and this is only his earliest master piece! I do hope that it doesn't take him as long to outgrow this stage as it did his older sister.

Latest Happenings

So much has been happening and I haven't been able to keep up. One reason is that our computer is still not cooperating with our camera. I am having a very difficult time transferring our pictures to our computer, which in turn, makes it very hard to update this blog. For those waiting on pins and needles to see what we've been up to lately (Joe!), I apologize.

In chronological order, here is what has happened lately...

We celebrated Dear Hubby's 38th birthday and Father's Day. His favorite color is orange, so we made him a very bright orange, chocolate layered cake with 38 hearts all over it. As a combo birthday and Father's Day gift, we bought him a fire pit so that he can burn up all those assorted limb that he keep falling down. It also make a good way to roast marshmallows with the kids. We've already spent a couple of nights out by the fire pit, as if it were a campfire. It also came in very handy when about two days later a very large limb was knocked down in thunder storm. We have since been burning it bit by bit.

Again this year the three oldest kids participated in a two week long theatre workshop. They performed the play "Aladdin". Though they all had rather small parts this time, they really enjoyed themselves. How could you not love this play? The movie was so good that you just couldn't go wrong! I especially loved listening to the kids practice the songs at home and while we drove everywhere in the car. We listened to them so much that by the time the performance rolled around, even the two little girls had the songs memorized.
Grandpa came for another visit and gave M her birthday gifts. She was so happy to receive a CD player and a copy of Tangled. She loves them both so much. It has been really cute how she tells the other kids that they are going to be having music class and so they should go to her room to listen on her boom-box. One day shortly after receiving the CD player, they all decided to spend three hours straight singing and dancing to their kid music. It was a nice break for me, as well. I finally had to call them down for supper and they were all so disappointed that I had broken up their dance party!

I took the kids blueberry picking for the first time. I remember doing this as a kid with my mom and thought it was about time I let my kids experience it for themselves. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Especially E who only sat in the stroller and ate whatever anyone would give him. He was in seventh heaven.

On Friday of that week, we had planned on going swimming at a local state park, but happened to be early and decided to check out the nature center. I am so glad we did. We walked up just as a Pond Life demonstration and activity was beginning. The Naturalist on duty invited us to join them and the kids had a blast learning about the pond life cycle, exploring life around their pond, and even making their own pond life viewer out of a coffee can. We later went swimming with their Aunt Olivia and Nana, but I think the highlight of the day was that science activity!

Catholic Family Gathering

Four Catholic families were able to get together for a cookout at our dear friend's house in early June. It was so nice to be able to visit and let the kids all play outside together. Since all four families are "larger" than average (between5-7 kids each), it made for quite the sight when we lined up all the kids against the fence in age order. There were 24 kids and they ranged from age 11 to 4 months. The adults were definitely out numbered that day.

Hats off to the dads for grilling!

This last picture is of my twin God-daughters. (Aren't they precious!) Their family hosted the cook-out and did a fantastic job! :)

New (to us) Play house

Aunt Olivia isn't using her old playhouse anymore (I guess since she is almost 10 yrs. old, she thinks she is too old for it). Nana gave it to the kids and they are loving it. We brought it to the house, cleaned it up, and then set it up again. Even E helped to spread out the lime dust. He loved playing with the "big boy" tools.

Catholic Kids Clubs and Camping

We had our final meeting of the school year for Little Flowers Catholic Kids Club and the Blue Knights Catholic Kids Clubs. The three older girls had a wonderful time learning about some of the saints and the virtues they exemplified. T enjoyed hanging with the other boys and learning more about the Holy Trinity and the Scripture Shouts. Our home school group celebrated with a pizza party where all the groups came together to share what they had done and learned throughout the school year. The kids loved doing this to celebrate their accomplishments and have some fun social time with their friends.

After Catholic Kids Clubs, we finished packing up the camper and headed to a nearby State Forest to go camping with Dear Hubby's extended family. We had an enjoyable time cooking, watching the campfire, playing with old friends, new toys, and at the water park. We even saw Smokey the Bear!