What do we do on a rainly day?

We read.We sleep.

We read some more.

We practice walking.OOPS!
We sleep.

Another Family Fun Day

Everyone was very busy having fun today. (It will be a shock to everyone when some serious school-work begins again next week.) I took the children out for a walk to look for signs of spring. These will be included in Friday's Early Spring Field Day.

You can find out more about this at the following site:

http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2007/03/early_spring_fi.html

In the morning both big boys and little boys enjoyed playing their videogames. We do limit their playing time greatly. They usually can only play on weekends or on vacations, so today was a nice treat, especially for Mark.

After our nature walk this morning we enjoyed some bubble blowing. The temperatures are still in the 30's but the kids are getting very hardy.

After a hard day of playing there is nothing better than to relax with your big brother. This is truly 'brotherly love'.

Kite Flying

Today was a day that the kids have been waiting for- kite flying day. Dad was home from work and the Easter bunny had brought kites. It didn't matter that we woke up to snow flurries and temperatures in the 30's, dad had promised and that was it. It did warm up to 37 degrees this afternoon, so after assembling the kites at the dining room table, the kids and their dad were off to 'go fly a kite'. They had a great time in spite of winter coats, hats and mittens. Kite assembly at the table.

They flew their kites at the fireman' field. There are too many trees around our house.

Dad did a good job with his kite. Grace got her kite off the ground-a little.

Catch My Breath Monday

Today was a nice, quiet day to catch our breath after the preparation and celebration of Holy

Week and Easter. We did manage to get a lot of picking up done around here, plus laundry. (I think about 6 or 7 loads). The dog had his first vet appointment and everything was just fine with him. The 3 Holy Cross students had play practice all day and Patrick had the day off of work, so he spent the day with friends shooting clay pigeons.

We did want to share our rosary making mission with everyone. We make rosaries for the missions through Our Lady's Rosary Makers and send them around the world to missions we find at the Lewis Rosary Parts (http://www.rosaryparts.com/ ) web site. We have sent them to Tanzania, Kenya, India and Mexico.

Grace and I also made a book about eggs today. It came out very nice. She practiced and proudly read it all to her daddy this evening.

New Homeschool Resource

Before Easter I recieved a copy of the book Catholic Mosiac by Cay Gibson. It is a wonderful resource I discovered through the 4RealLearningForum. It's subtitle is: "Living the Liturgical Year with Literature. An Illustrated Book Study for Catholic Children."

It contains book studies of wonderful children's picture books. I downloaded two free Easter book studies before I bought the book and the kids and I have really enjoyed them. The website for the publisher of this great resource is- www.hillsideeducation.com/mosaic.php

Easter Has Come

We had a wonderful Easter today. Mass was beautiful, full of flowers, music and joy. The Easter bunny arrived and all the baskets were found. The weather was the only stumbling block. We had snow and it was cold.
It was an unusual day outdoors. Mark and Grace enjoyed themselves.
We celebrated in the afternoon at Grandma's house with a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins.

A Busy Holy Saturday 3

After a last minute shopping trip, I came home and finished both Laura and Kimberly's dresses. They came out very nice.

After sewing we colored our Easter eggs. It was Luke's first year for this family tradition.

A Busy Holy Saturday: 2

> While I went out to do some last minute shopping, Becky made "He is Risen" rolls with Mark and Grace. You use cresent roll dough, marshmallows,butter, sugar and cinnamon. Unroll the cresent roll and inside of it put three marshmallows that have been put in melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar. Roll the crecent roll around the marshmallows and pinch the edges closed. After they cook, open them up, and they are empty, just like Jesus' tomb was empty after three days.

A Busy Holy Saturday 1

A very busy day began today by decorating our crown of thorns with white roses and adding a white candle to the center. At the beginning of lent, we made a crown of thorns out of salt dough and placed tooth picks into it. As lent went on, when a child performed a sacrificial act, they could remove a toothpick to show that they have eased Jesus' sufferings. Our hopes were to remove all the "thorns" by Holy Saturday. We are happy to tell everyone that we did remove all the thorns, and today in there place we glued white roses, which represent the resurrected Lord.

Good Friday

If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think for yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus. Romans6:8-11

Christ became obedient for us even unto death , death on a cross.

Things are Happening

This past week, we have been blessed with beautiful spring-time weather. The sun has been shining , the kids have been playing outdoors, and the temperatures have been in the fifties. That was last week. Today we woke up to heavy snow squalls, and the temperature never reached 30 degrees. I guess we have to expect this in Upstate New York. I do think that my crocuses did look a bit chilly though.

Amy celebrated her 13th birthday today. Just her and her dad went out to breakfast this morning. That was very special. In the afternoon we took the six youngest kids to Chuckie Cheese to play video games. It was alot of fun... Our only problem was that it was Luke's first time there and he was afraid of everything. It just totally overwelmed him.. He and I spent most of the time sipping milk out of a straw. (that is quite fun for a almost 2 year old)

During this time, Matt and Dan went to church to rehearse the altar boy duties for Holy Thursday Mass. After we got home, I practiced the music for mass because I play the organ for the choir. Amy and Laura took part in the procession at mass tonight as members of the Sodality. They looked just beautiful..

Tonight when we got home we had Amy's birthday cake. Becky made an angelfood cake with strawberry filling and whipped cream. It was just delicious. I am now going to sew a little bit on Kimberly's Easter dress. I am worried about how all their dresses will look with their winter coats on, but according to the weather forcast, they definitely will be wearing coats on Sunday.

Update on Seamus

We have gotten some requests for an update on Seamus.("Hi"-Aunt Theresa) He is getting bigger and just loves all the kids and attention he gets around here. Becky is the official owner (she pays the bills). He spends some of his time in his crate, but he prefers to be loose and chasing children. He also has made the spot under the kitchen table his own and sometimes falls asleep with his head on a rung of a chair.(very cute) We still haven't had much success at housebreaking, but we have read that until the puppy is at least 16 to 20 weeks old it is a pretty hard thing to do. So hopefully, time will take care of this problem.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

13 years ago our beautiful daughter Amy was born. She is becoming a wonderful, caring, and sensitive young woman. Her father and I want her to know how much we love her and that we thank God everyday that she is ours.

Have a blessed and happy birthday, Amy!!!!!!!!!!

Amy's New Dress

I finished a new dress for Amy tonight. It isn't fancy for Easter but it will be very nice for a modest school dress. I got the pattern from www.commonsensepatterns.com They have many modest dress patterns for woman and girls, which seem to be getting harder to buy in the local fabric store.

Getting ready for Easter

Today we read alot of Easter books and then made decoupage Easter eggs. I think that they turned out rather nice. Becky blew the yolk out of the egg and then we used watered down glue to glue tissue paper pieces onto the egg. Fun but messy. One of the books we read was Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco. After reading that, we colored Ukrainian style eggs.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!

Kimberly was happy to discover a whole container of snacks this afternoon, and what one baby can't finish, another one can.

Easter Mobile

This week we will ease up on school work and concentrate on getting ready for Easter. Today we made Easter mobiles. I got the patterns from a wonderful site I use often for all sorts of printable crafts and ideas. Here is the link www.dltk-holidays.com/easter/index.html

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