It's Showtime

Seussical the Musical

opened last night to a sold out crowd, and a fabulous time was has by all.

I didn't take photos from the show last night because I wanted to just enjoy the performance.

There is a show tonight and tomorrow afternoon. I will take many, many pictures during these two shows.

But, I did have to show some preparation that has taken place this afternoon at our house.

Becky is stage manager and hair/makeup, so she did Amy and Laura's hair before they left the house.

Luke didn't want to be left out of the fun, or maybe he did.

Lukie Who
Laura fixed up Kim.
Kimmie Who

Our real Who's- Laura Who and Amy Who

Kimmie, Laura, Amy and Gracie Who

We have a tree identification

Our tree has been identified.

First, I have to thank Jodie who told me it wasn't a pine tree.

It is a Norway spruce, and thanks to Theresa, I now have a site to tell pine, fir, and spruce trees apart.

And thanks to Stephanie, who linked me to a site to indentify all our trees.

What kind of pine tree do we have?

We are trying to identify this pine tree. (without going to the library for identification books-gas prices)

I have not been able to find an easy identification site on-line.

The branches hang downward off a main branch.

Here are new little pinecones next to last years pinecones.
Teeny, tiny pinecones. The discovery of these has caused the search to begin for the name of this tree.
Different stages of the pinecones in our unknown tree.

Catholic Mosaic-The Caterpillar that Came to Church

Having just celebrated Mark's First Communion, it was the perfect time to share the book The Caterpillar that Came to Church. It is one of the books featured in the Catholic Mosaic for the month of May.

This is such a special book, helping children learn about the celebration on the Eucharist. I have posted the book's description from back cover of the book.

Written in both Spanish and English, The Caterpillar That Came to Church uses a delightful, imaginative story to explain the beauty that unfolds during the celebration of the Eucharist.

Seen through the eyes of a little caterpillar named Mariana, the church adventure begins...

It was a breezy, spring day as Mariana munched on fresh tree leaves. The day seemed peaceful until this little caterpillar lost her balance, tumbled out of the tree and right into the purse of a woman passing by. Panic-stricken, Mariana squirms her way to the top of the purse, and to her amazement, finds herself in a strange new place. She had heard about this place called church, but more than anything else, she wanted to go back to her world of green grass and blue sky. As Mariana scampers to freedom, she stops and for the first time notices the altar and the priest, but most of all she notices the crucifix. With her eyes transfixed on the cross, she spies Jesus. "He is real and He is alive and He is looking at her."Little Mariana's heart fills with love as two miraculous events take place before her very eyes. At that moment, she makes it her mission to show children what Jesus did to a lowly caterpillar, so maybe they too will see Jesus in the celebration of the Mass and though the Church's life-giving sacraments.

This story is sure to change a child's life.

Following the reading of the story, we enjoyed the discussion questions that Cay provided in the Catholic Mosaic.

I then talked to the kids about what we would like to do so that we would remember all the love Jesus has for us, and how we get so much love in our own hearts when we reverently celebrate the Consecration at Mass with the angels and Jesus truly present there with us.

We decided to color butterflies and hang them by our living room crucifix, so when we see them, we will remember the great love the caterpillar had for Jesus, so much love she turned into a beautiful butterfly.

Our finished butterflies, proudly displayed in the living room.

Picture of the day

Author Fiesta-John Philip Duck

If you have been enjoying Cay's Author Fiesta, and have read the book John Philip Duck, you will enjoy seeing the actual Peabody ducks at the Peabody hotel in Memphis. They have been marching into the fountain everyday since the 1930's.

We also listened to alot a John Philip Sousa marches on Youtube this afternoon-everyone is pretty hyper around here now.LOL

Author Fiesta-Patricia Polacco

Cay is keeping us busy for the next 12 months learning about distinguished authors of children's picture books. This month's author is Patricia Polacco. If you don't know anything about this author, visit her wonderful website by clicking on her name highlighted above. This will start a marvelous study of a very interesting life.

We began getting books from the library as soon as we learned who this month's author was.

Cay provided a list of all of Patricia Polacco's books. This can be found on Cay's Author Fiesta website. The kids are checking off books as we read them (and re-read them). I have also included on this list a great video-Dream Keeper- which I also found in our library system. It is Patricia Polacco telling her life story-very very good.

Through Cay's Author Fiesta site, we also discovered a site that has actors and actresses reading many different children's picture books, including two by Polacco. Here is a link for this site.

Cay has provided us with a cover page to add to a binder, so that we can keep track of all our author information over the year. All these printables have been put together by Cay on the Author Fiesta website.

We have yet to fill in an author's research page. Cay has also provided a quote to use for copywork to added to our binders.

I think that I will start printing these pages on color cardstock-I use cardstock because regular printer paper doesn't seem to hold up with all the kids looking through our binder. Our binder is really, really white. A little color will spice it up.

One of the most touching books we have read so far is Pink and Say. It affected the kids, and they have been talking about it alot, so I decided to do a page just about this book. We enjoyed doing this, so I expect we will be doing other little "scrapbook" type pages for other books.

Thank you Cay for all your hard work, and for all the enjoyment you are giving us.

Toddler "School"

I have organized a little more learning for Luke and Kim this week. I made the BINGO cards above at the DLTK website. At this site you can customize any cards with different subjects. I have printed these on cardstock and then laminated them.(My laminator is one of my favorite "school" tools.)

Both kids are doing very well matching up the shapes and colors. They don't have the names of all the shapes and colors down, but that will come. I have also taken of a few cards at a time for them to sort. Luke, being a year older than Kim, is catching on to this concept quickly and he tells her when she makes a mistake.

Today we were happily surprised by the UPS man, he brought us this Lauri Number Express. I have always been very happy with all the Lauri toys that I have bought over the years, they are Made in America, and offer replacement parts. (This is a wonderful perk for us!)This will provide a great introduction to numbers and counting.

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY ...May 19, 2008

Outside My Window...My oldest son is pulling into the driveway after work. It is amazing the joyful feeling I get seeing him for the first time today.

I am thinking...about what the rest of my wandering family is up to.

I am thankful for...a warm house--the temperature hasn't gotten over 40 degrees today here in central New York.

From the kitchen...There is little hope of finding anything yummy in there today--I really need to go to the store.

I am wearing...black pants, purple "Adirondack" t-shirt,"Adirondack" sweatshirt, warm purple socks--it is 40 degrees outside

I am creating...a family who loves each other and loves God

I am going...to a 8 year olds baseball game at 6:00-wearing my winter coat and mittens

I am reading...every Patricia Polacco book ever written and enjoying them tremendously

I am hoping...for a successful musical this weekend in which three of my children are performing

I am hearing...Luke singing, Grace and Mark arguing, wind blowing (40 degree wind)

Around the house...are piles and piles of books--I need to figure something out to remedy this.

One of my favorite things...snuggling with my baby who is sleeping on me as I type this

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...trying not to leave the house--very unlikely-but I will try

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

We love our Daddy!

Stop by Peggy's for more Daybooks.

Mark's First Communion

It has been a busy sacramental week around here. Danny received the Sacrament of Confirmation this past week.

Today was Mark's very special day, when he received Jesus in the Holy Eucharist for the very first time.

What a handsome and holy young man Mark has become.
Everyone was able to attend Mass this morning, and then pose for this family photo after.
Mark and Grandma and Grandpa H.
Mark and his best buddy Aaron.
Father Morelle and Mark posing for the same picture I have taken of all my children following Mass.
And, of course, for old time sake, the picture my parents took of me with Father Morelle on the day I received my First Communion.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight!

Photo credit: Amy

Two very important men in my life....

are celebrating their birthday's today! 44 and the big 21!!
Yes, my firstborn was born on his Daddy's birthday!
I see that this year wasn't the first year we celebrated with birthday pies.


I think that this means it is Pat Jr's 16th birthday.

I was married to such a young fellow back then.

A Sacramental Evening

Daniel George Paul received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation tonight. We are so proud of him! Dan chose one the best sponsers anyone could have-his brother Patrick.
Daniel and our wonderful parish priest, Father Morelle.

I couldn't resist adding this photo of Danny's First Communion. Just take a look at the smile on Danny's face in this picture and the one before it. This is one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen!! Sacrament's seem to do a good thing to Dan!

We are blessed to had Father Morelle as our parish priest for many, many years.

The prove this fact, I will add this photo.....

myself after my Confirmation, along with Father Morelle and the Bishop.

Toddler "School"

Kim and Luke skipped nap today, and began a total melt-down at around dinner time.

I have been trying to find activities that they could begin doing which would fall under the category of "active" learning.

This very simple scooping and pouring activity changed their dispositions immediately,

I plan on trying to see if they can sort the colors into different containers, but today they were very happy to scoop and dump, scoop and dump. In fact, they wouldn't stop to eat dinner, so Amy and I fed them as they continued to scoop and dump.LOL

It actually suprised me how much they enjoyed doing this. I will certainly save this for times when they need to be "contained" in one spot.

Back to the Fifties Today

Amy celebrated the olden days today, the 50's.

We have another little monkey...

... who can climb the best climbing tree in the yard, but only barefoot.

Daddy's Photo

We spotted this wood duck on the way home from Grandma's house yesterday. This is the first wood duck that we have seen in the wild. Yippee!!! (We are weird about stuff like this-ask Kim)

Upside down rainbow?

This is what Mark called me out to see this afternoon--and he yelled,"Bring your camera!"

An upside down rainbow.

This is scientifically called a circumzenithal arc.

You can see Mark in the bottom left corner of the picture.