Family Trip-- Here We Come

The post after this shows cousin Sean's First Communion picture. We want to send him our love and blessings on this special day.

This post shows some of what it took to get to the celebration. Everyone pitched in and we made the hour and a half trip smoothly- arriving one hour early-congratulations Mom and Dad.
Danny busy and ironing. You have to be careful when you iron around here because whoever is standing at the iron seems to be handed everyone elses ironing. Sometimes you can stand there for quite a while.

We volunteered to bring macaroni salad. I asked our live in employed chef to do this duty. Thank-you son Patrick.

These three girls always seem to take a little longer than everyone else, but they have made a good start.

Three small kids ready and keeping clean-we hope.

One small child not ready, but he is cleaning the windows. I do not know why.

O.K. Daddy, let's go.

We are all on the way. We also put Grandma and Grandpa H. in here.

We arrrived an hour early and only had to change one baby who wet through her beautiful outfit onto her mom. Thank you Becky for changing her while I tried to sun dry my clothes.

Let's head into church. I hope this church is " large family friendly".

After the Mass we headed to Sean's house to enjoy an afternoon of fun.

More fun at the picnic.

We headed home on an uneventful trip. Most of the trip kids slept. I tried to sleep but was a little cramped in the van. We got home and wonderful Daddy let me lie down for a few minutes. I woke up plenty rested at 6:00 this morning. THANK YOU DADYY.

First Communion

We want to congratulate cousin Sean on the wonderful day of his First Communion. We want God to always bless you like He has today.

Sean and his grandparents.

Barnes and Noble

This week Barnes and Noble is having a 25% discount on anything for homeschoolers. Some people do know the Barnes and Noble is my "happiest place on earth", and if your husband takes you there and tells you to get whatever you want, and then takes you to Red Lobster--well I guess then, that you are in HEAVEN!!

Multi-tasking

Health Report

Well, most people know that I haven't had the best health for a long time. Well, after three days of doctor appointments and tests, I have been scheduled for surgery on May 10. (that would be my sixth surgery if anyone is counting-plus three c-sections)

I need to have a hyterectomy. It will have to be done with an abdominal inscision. Because of that I should be in the hospital about three days if everything goes as planned.

Please keep us all in your prayers. Everyone's (especially the children's) stress level is pretty high.

A New Camera

Becky got a new camera yesterday. It has so many features it will be a long time until we really know everything that it can do. I love this picture of Kim. Below, Becky just enlarged(on the camera itself) her face. Great job Becky!!

I also finished sewing a new shirt for Gracie. If you look carefully you can see the capri pants I finished for her this past Sunday. Summer---here we come.

Seamus-4 Months Old!

Seamus is 4 months old now. You can see how much bigger he has gotten.The pictures below are from yesterday and the picture to the right was taken when we got him. Yesterday he had to go to the vet for some shots- he is not a good traveler. I drove and Becky had to hold him in the back seat. Luckily the vet is 200 yards from the driveway. We can't walk though because he is a herding dog, and he definitely wants to herd the cars.

He has been a great addition to the household. He loves everyone and everyone loves him. We also think that he is going to be a world class frisbee player.

Welcome John Henry!!

We would like to welcome John Henry to our extended family. His proud parents are Joanne and Andy. He joins his brothers Andrew and Tommy and his sister Martha Rose. His is my children's 38th first cousin. That is a lot of cousins.

CONGRATULATIONS JOANNE AND ANDY!!

John is just beautiful!

This is the afgan that I made for John Henry. I hope he stays wrapped in the love it was made with for years to come.

Curious about George 2

We finished our first lapbook today. We enjoyed doing it. Grace and Mark made vocabulary cards, scales, lift the flap booklets, and pop-up cards. They had a lot a fun and learned a lot at the same time. It is a great way to store all the different project elements also, just fold it up and file it. Everything is there for the next time we want to look at all our work.
I got the packet from Hand of a Child project packs.

Dinner in the Little House

There was talk over on the 4Real Learning forum about the size of houses. I 'confessed' that we have 12 people in a 990 sq.ft. house. I said I would put some pictures up showing us having dinner. I think this is our most crowded time of the day. Also, if you look in the background, it seems as though school is also taking over most of the walls.
We do have to admit though, that love does grow best in little spaces. Everyone is happy (and well fed).

I tried to give a panoramic view going around the table.

Schoolwork?

If one child reads a book with a spider in it,and another plays itsy bitsy spider,
and a third wears this,

does that mean we are done with school for the day?

Luke Feels Better

We took Luke to the doctor yesterday and he has double ear infections. No wonder he was so sick, the poor baby. He is feeling better today and on antibiotics. Hopefully they won't bother him too much. I will keep feeding him a lot a yogurt until he is finished with it. As you can see, he is eating his peanut butter and jelly now and drinking plenty.

Prize Winning Author

Every school year we purchase Weekly Readers for the kids, and this year was no exception. Laura has participated in a writing contest every week. This week, she was the winner. Her prize is an autographed copy of a new book and the glory of having her section of an ongoing story published on the Weekly Reader web site. She is very excited. You can read her writing at the following link, she is section 9. Read

Congratulations Laura!!!

A Quiet Sunday

We had a quiet Sunday today, which was good, especially for a sick baby. We went to church in two shifts so that we wouldn't have to take the babies out. Luke does seem to feel better. He has eaten a little and is drinking. He goes to the doctor tomorrow morning. I think he is looking real good, especially his socks.I made Grace a pair of capri pants this afternoon. They turned out real nice. Hopefully she will have a new summer top to match them in the next couple of days.

Ramblings

Today was a beautiful, sunshiny Saturday. We had a lot of wonderful plans; nature walks, playgrounds, bubble blowing, dinner with Grandma C., but, no one told the sick 2 year old. Poor Luke has had a cold, but this morning he woke up at 7 am crying and he has hardly stopped since. He is running a fever, which Motrin does take away, he has no appetite, and has a cough. His daddy came home from work early to help with him(mostly he needs cuddling) and to give mommy a break. Thank goodness for daddies.

The other kids played outside. They then came in all muddy and proceeded to change their clothes. Then they went back out. (I was not keeping close track of them all) Then they came in all muddy and changed their clothes-again. I suggested everyone stay inside and play something electronic. This did manage to keep them clean. (I have washed and folded about 7 loads of laundry today)

Becky got home from work and took over dinner, which was a wonderful blessing. I took Mark and Grace outside for a walk.

We looked at these lovely flowers in our yard and found pussy willows on a walk out in the fields. We continued walking and wandered off the main path (I know a short cut). We came to the edge of the woods, but there was a ditch between us and home. I lifted up Grace, so she wouldn't fall into the mud, I swung her over the ditch and proceeded fall in myself. I went home, and changed my clothes.

After dinner I fell asleep in my chair for three hours, therefore , it is now 11:58 and I am blogging.

Thank goodness tomorrow is a new day.

Happiness is....

...a baby and her daddy!

Spring!?

Spring has returned!! We hope. Our snow of 3 days ago has all melted thanks to the last two days of temperatures in the 60's. It has been just beautiful. The kids got outside and I opened the windows and aired out the house.Some of the kids headed out on a nature walk. They are still looking for spring for the "spring field day".

Dan spent some time outside reading.

One thing that happens when you melt 18 inches of snow in two days is that you get a real lot of mud. It didn't bother the kids at all but I did have to carry some of them directly to the tub before they could be loose in the house.

I also wanted to include a picture of Kim and Luke's new pj's because they are just so darn cute.

We would like to annouce the arrival of our newest nephew: JOHN HENRY!!!!!

Congratulations to Joanne and Andy. This little blessing joins brothers Andrew and Tommy and sister Martha Rose. John Henry is my children's 38th first cousin. That is alot of cousins.

What a Difference Three Days Make

Curious about George

Today we worked some more on our Curious George lapbook. We are having a lot fun working on this. I am very happy with the results we are getting with this kit, which we purchased through Hands of a Child.

I also wanted to show everyone our new chalkboard. We have always had trouble with chalkboards because they would stickout to far into the hallway and cause people to run into the chalk tray. This is chalkboard paint, painted directly on the wall. We were very nervous when our wall just had a big black square on it. (We figured it would never be able to be painted over if we were not happy with the results.) After it sat for 48 hours , Pat framed it with molding. It looks very nice and works as well as any chalkboard we have ever had. We also used magnet paint as one of the layers, so it is also a magnet board.

Back to Work

Yesterday was the day that we were supposed to get back to the business of "schoolwork", but because of the snowstorm, today seems to be the back to work day.

Laura is back into her lessons. She is studying geology in science and reviewing America's past in history(to get ready for testing). She has started a book study of Little House in the Highlands.
In religon we are studying the Apostles Creed.

Mark, Grace and I have started our first lapbook about Curious George. We got supplies from Hands of a Child-project packs. We will keep you updated as we progress. So far we have started the vocabulary word cards and have made these very cute monkeys.

We also have a big caterpillar crawling along our wall. Each circle body part has the name of a book we have read on it. When we get to fifty books the kids will get a present. (a new book)