1st Craft of the Week

Sarah, over at Plainsong

has organized a 4RealLearning forum "craft of the week", and this was the first week. Mary M hosted the first craft over at her blog Our Domestic Church.

Mark, Grace, Becky and I completed our fish this morning and they were simple to do and we got a wonderful result. Thank you Mary!
We are going to finish this up by reading Rainbow Fish
this afternoon.

I look forward to the crafts in the weeks to come.

Shrine of the North American Martyrs

Today we spent a glorious day at Shrine of the North American Martyrs and the Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

The shrine is located in Fonda NY, about an hour and a half drive from our house.

Everyone was with us except Pat Jr. and Matt. They both had to work.

This shrine is located on the grounds of the Mohawk Indian village, Ossernenon, where Kateri was born in 1656. She was also baptized here in the year 1676.

Above is a prayer for the canonization of Blessed Kateri. She was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Also on the grounds is a replica of the first Rosary in this part of the country. It is made of rocks. A thirteen year old Indian girl made this to teach others to say the rosary. Her story is below.

The Coliseum is one of the first circular churches in the United States. Built in 1930, it holds about 6000 people.

This statue of Blessed Kateri is made of wood.

These grounds are also the site of the martyrdoms of St. Isaac Jogues, St. Rene Goupil, and St John LaLande.
You can take a virtual tour of the shire at the link HERE.

A New Blessing

Our family has been blessed with a new little bundle from heaven. My niece and her husband, Jessie and Matt welcomed their first baby into the world recently.

We want to welcome Elsie Rae.

She is a sure sign of God's goodness and blessings,
and she is absolutely beautiful.

Today's Excitement!

This is Danny.

This is where Danny is sitting for the next several days.

This is Danny's foot.

This is the glass they took out of Danny's foot.

This is the hole in Danny's foot that still has a three inch piece of glass in it.

These are the windows that Danny stepped through.

This is the residue that Danny left on the grass under my window.

This is the air-conditioner that Danny was installing to keep his mother cool in the 90 degree heat when he stepped through the window.

Please say a pray for Danny over the next couple of days.

The Feast Day of St Anne and St. Joachim

Today, to honor St Anne and St Joachim on their feast day, we added a beautiful novena

to our Blessed Mother Lapbook.

Lake Placid

Pat and I enjoyed the spectacular sight of the High Falls Gorge. It is a 700 feet drop in the Ausable River. The walk along the cliffside was breathtaking.

Next, we headed into downtown Lake Placid. It was a strange feeling to head into a village in the mountains, about three hours from our home, and encounter so many different cultures and languages.

I enjoyed seeing the Herb Brookes hockey arena. I remember being a kid and watching the "miracle on ice" on tv in 1980.

There was a Canadian/American hockey camp going on while we were there.

I am a bit disappointed in not seeing a real live moose. We were told that in Saranac Lake, where we stayed, that they are sometimes seen, but all we saw were antlers and this unlucky fellow.

The High Peaks

Pardon me for my lack of posts, but my husband and I have been in the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. The view above in from the peak of Whiteface Mountain. What a view!

One of the peaks below is Mt. Macy, the tallest peak in New York.

This and That

This post is just about "this and that."

Above are our copies of artwork by various Impressionist artists that we have been studying this summer. In fact, Mark impressed many people at the library when he was looking at the paintings on the library walls and said "That looks just like a Mary Cassatt painting." And it was. I was very proud.

Our monarch caterpillars are getting much bigger.(O.K.-not quite this big) To celebrate our butterfly unit, we made a very nice butterfly mobile.

Grandpa H has been having some visitors around his house lately. Two baby skunks visited over about a weeks time. They came out in the afternoon. I think that their mother was sleeping like all good nocturnal animals do during the day. (unless they are babies)

Grandpa also caught this red squirrel in his "Have a Heart" trap. He kept it long enough for this photo opportunity and then let it go free. He is pretty cute.

Blueberry Picking

The blueberries are finally ripe in Upstate New York, so we headed off to the berry bushes.

Gracie patiently waited for her turn to ride on the wagon with her empty bucket, and she wasn't disappointed when we reached the berry bushes.

We found the berries blue and ready for picking.

Our surprise this year was finding out how much Luke likes blueberries. I don't think that he stopped eating until we were out of the field. I believe it amazed him that so much yumminess
was so accessible for a two year old.

We were surprised when we heard Grandma calling to us from across the bushes. We didn't know she was coming and she didn't know we were there. It was a very nice surprise, and it distracted the little children from the fact that they had grown hot and tired of picking berries. Thank you Grandma!

Everyone was still smiling after our hour of picking,

and we were all rewarded for our efforts.

Celebrations!

Yesterday was Pat and my 21st anniversary, and we need to thank Mark for planning a wonderful party for us at the Vienna Hotel on Wednesday night.

Here he is as we arrived with about 30 people, and not a seat was to be had. Mark picked the Vienna Hotel because of the $.10 chicken wing night. We didn't anticipate the big crowds.

A half hour later we were still waiting to sit down, but things began to look promising. I believe we were scaring people with the great number of children we brought with us, and some folks did start to clear out.

We finally sat down, spread out over 7 tables and booths.

Becky was in charge of Luke.

Kim was happy with her first trip to a bar(I mean chicken wing palace).

Becky made us this wonderful, lemon filled cake. Delicious!!!! Even our waitress enjoyed some of it. ( We took pity on her because we had 30 people, including about 20 children, spread out across the whole dining room.)
Thank-you Mark for a wonderful evening.

Last night, Pat and I enjoyed an evening out alone. We went to the Outback Steakhouse and enjoyed some great prime rib.

On Sunday night Pat and I are heading to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.

This will be the first time Pat and I have gone anywhere without children. It will also be the first time in about five years that I will be healthy for our anniversary.
I need to thank my wonderful husband for all he has done for me as he has stuck by me for the past years. He is a living example of the wedding vows "in sickness and in health". Hopefully the sickness part of this is behind us now and there will be nothing but HEALTH for many, many years to come.

21 Years!!

"I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad,

for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

I will love and honor you, all the days of my life."

Camouflage at its Finest

Mount Hope Reservoir--July 2007