December Happenings - Part One

Our December has been full of activity.  Here are a few snapshots into our December thus far.......

A Birthday Party for Jesus with our homeschool group 

fellowship with friends....

Complete with games.. (C-Sunshine won this one!)

A Giant Slide!.......

A birthday cake for Jesus.......

and gifts for those precious babies
 at a local Woman's Crisis Center.

Homeschool Christmas Choir Concert and Fine Arts Show

We are so very blessed to have a wonderful fine arts homeschool co-op in our county.  The girls have really enjoyed their weekly classes.  The Mom's are not required to teach anything because they are "pay" classes.  The price for the quality of classes is excellent.  I get to have a little "mom" time with other mom's while we wait to navigate our children through their fine arts school day.  They also get to have lunch with their friends and my girls always enjoy that.

C-Sunshine is taking violin, messianic dance, art and concert choir.  K-Doodle is taking a craft class, beginning music, art and PE.  On this day, the kiddos got to show off what they have learned so far.  It was a wonderful day.

Nanny and G-Dad came for the show.

C-Sunshine with the Concert Choir.  They sounded excellent. 

K-Doodle's recorder class gave a performance.  She did great.

I am still trying to learn my camera.  This is a terrible
quality photo of C-Sunshine playing her violin.

Well, that is all I have time to post today.  Hoping you are all having a wonderful Advent season.

Blessings.

 

Thankful for time with family....

This Thanksgiving, we traveled to Connecticut to visit with my husband's family.  We had such a great time.  Although the drive was LONG, I must say that we have the best traveler's in the world.  Even our dog Lucy was a champ.  It is amazing how you can pick up right where you left off with family.  It had been a few years since we visited New England.  The hustle and bustle of the busy northeast.  Of course, the family was warm and welcoming as always.  They sure do miss my hubby a great deal.  But I think he likes the warm weather too much to live up north again.

K-Doodle with her Daddy making stuffing for the turkey.

The girl's "Grangan" took us to see the broadway performance of Peter Pan with Cathy Rigbey.  All I can say is...Wow!  What a spectacular show.  And that gal is 59 years old!  She was flying across the stage, doing acrobatics and her acting was amazing.  We had great seats and the girls had so much fun!  Grangan has going to the theater down to a science.  She knows exactly what time to arrive, have a snack and exit so that you don't miss a beat or run into traffic on your way out!  Thanks Grangan!

Grangan's beautiful table for our Thanksgiving meal.

Patrick and I had a chance to sneak off for a movie alone.  We saw what we thought was a "new" movie, MoneyBall.  We loved it.  We later found out that it has been out for a while.  Oh well, it was new to us and we had some uninterrupted couple time.  That is all that matter's right?

The bird.  What a Thanksgiving post without that!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with the whole gang.  Complete with the Pappa tradition of poppers after the meal.  This is a tradition that I try to continue in our home too.  I think it is important to incorporate both parent's family traditions. 

C-Sunshine with her Popper Prize!

Playing games with cousin Ally.

The trip was great, but long, and I am ever so grateful to be home.  Home sweet home.  And you know what?  I think it might just be - beginning to feel like "home" to me.

I have more pictures to post from our trip.  Want to make sure I get the Thanksgiving post in during November.  (grin)  Have a great week!

Someone got it right!

 Yesterday, while out doing some coupon shopping with C-Sunshine (our weekly time together while K-Doodle is in Faith Formation) we found these tucked in amongst a lot of Santa's and Snowmen.  Whitman's got it right!

These are 2 oz. milk chocolate bars with the image of our Lord.  What better Christmas Gift for those people who bless our children all during the year with co-op classes, faith formation and the like!  I bought up about fifteen of these to pass out during Advent.  We purchased ours at Rite-Aid.  I plan to email Whitman's and thank them for the beautiful images.

Blessings!

An All Hallows Eve Daybook Post

Happy Hallow's Eve!

Outside My Window – It's a bit gloomy and cloudy today.  Along with a chill in the air.  Setting the stage for an evening of spooky excitement to see what arrives at our doorstep with each trick-or-treater.

In the Learning Room – Today we are doing an abbreviated school day in anticipation of a busy afternoon of activity.  We will be doing the 3R's and saving the good stuff for the rest of the week.  :)  We are getting into a nice grove.  There is still a large amount of organization that needs to happen in the learning room.  Unfortunately we don't have enough table space or desk to get the job done.  Furniture hunting we will go.

In the Kitchen – We are cooking up a big pot of chilli and corn bread and have invited the neighbors over to warm up with a bowl during the hours of little goblin haunting in the neighborhood.  Because we live in a culdesac, we are hoping to get some neighborly conversation going.  We would love to get to know the people growing families around us.

Plans for the week– Today we will head out to a Trunk-or-Treat with our homeschool group.  We will then rush home to get the full decoration's out and dinner plans complete.  We do plan to walk the neighborhood with great hopes of finding sugar bliss!  I will try REALLY hard to stay OUT of the girls candy bags.  Lord, give me strength! Tomorrow is morning Mass and a celebration of All Saints Day.

Praying for - Those mommie's growing babies in their tums,  Patty over at ReasonsForChocolate  and Sarah over at AmongstLovelyThings.  
 
Thinking of – my husband and four daughters.  Of their needs and wants.  Praying that I can become the wife and mother that God intended me to be. (and like it.  Big grin:)

A Picture thought  I am sharing……..

Doesn't K-Doodle make the cutest paper doll?

Ring, Ring the New Year's Here

We spent New Years eve just the way I like it.  As a family.  We went bowling for two hours.  I did terrible.  Call me the gutter queen.  We had fun though.  Turns out my Mr. Pappa is an excellent bowler.  I am not.  Those 8 pounders are just too heavy!

After bowling we returned home and our girls went into party mode.  While Mr. Pappa and I were outside around the fire pit, the girls decorated the house with handmade banners and decorations, made some hor'derves  (I can't spell this and my spell check doesn't even recognize my bad spelling, so you are gonna have to deal with this one.  Sorry)  and got the Wii Just Dance set up.  We all had to participate.  It was quite hilarious.  I think the girls were shocked that we could move like that!  Heck, we didn't know we could still move like that.  Ha!  It's quite a workout.  We then played Uno for what seemed like hours.  But it was really fun.

This was an "intentional" day.  Living intentionally for 2011.

Although we tried, we did not make it to midnight.  I think it was more like ten"night".  How did you ring in the New Year?  Blessings to you for the new year.

Weekend at the Lake

There is something wonderful about going to the lake. There is such peace there. The lapping of the water against the dock in the morning is such a wonderful sound. You can sit and enjoy all the tranquility....and then.....the kids wake up! Splashing, jumping, playing, tubing, boating, skidoing, and the list goes on. We had a great fourth of July. Hope you did to.

C-Sunshine, Cousin A, K-Doodle and Cousin B
Having fun on the way to watch the fireworks from the boat.
Even Lucy got in on the fun.
With the passing of the fourth of July means that the beginning of another learning year for us is about to begin. Our summer break will be over in just a few weeks. I have most of my plans in my head and will be putting them down on paper shortly. I will post our learning plans soon. Have a great week!

A Father's Day Remembered

This is the man I married just 17 years ago this month, Patrick. He is the father of our four beautiful girls and the hubby to one thankful gal, me. Happy Father's Day Patrick!

We spent Father's Day at the Lake at my parents house. Everyone had a great time tubing on the lake and boating. I have such fond memories of my summer's at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. It is so nice to be close to my parent's now and give my girls the opportunity to make some lasting memories of their own. Summer fun with cousins, grandparents....FAMILY. That's what it is all about.

K-Doodle and C-Sunshine hamming it up on Big Mabel.

C-Sunshine and her big sis Amber waiting patiently while we gas up the boat.
Amber having just too much fun after deciding to get it with her clothes on!Here's my Dad. Doing what he loves the most....spending time with his grandkids!

Happy Cinco De Mayo

We are celebrating, are you? If you need some ideas, check out "Let's Celebrate Cinco De Mayo", a free e-book. You can also listen to free Mexican music here. K-Doodle has been busy coloring Cinco De Mayo coloring sheets we found doing a google search on images. We search Cinco de Mayo coloring sheets and it came back with lots of good sheets. Adios!

Fun over Easter

We got to spend Easter with my parents at the Lake. It was a relaxing, peaceful (except for our dog) weekend. Thank you Mom and Dad. The girls rode on a Jet ski for the first time with a friend of the family. That was exciting for them and VERY nerve wreaking for me.

On Good Friday, we made a crown of thorns out of pretzel sticks and chocolate.

It was a very messy project, but looked great when we were done.

Even Nanny got in on the messy fun.On Easter Day, it became a nest with eggs and made a nice treat.
C-Sunshine and K-Doodle on Easter Day. Happy Easter!

Focus

Inspired by Elizabeth, I pondered the days ahead. What word could possibly enthrall all the hopes and inspiration of the New Year to come? What do I envision the year ahead to be for our family? Then it came to me......just to Focus. Focus on what is important. Important to our family, our Lord, our community. To let go of the small things that make me lose track of those important things. Focus....redirect our days, weeks, months and year to our creator and family. To focus on what God whats me to be doing. To let go of those time consuming things that take me away from family obligations. Focus on the mundane tasks at home that make the household run smoother for my family. Focus on our homeschool. Focus on raising caring, Christian daughters who have a relationship with Christ. Focus inward and outward. So in 2010, we will just.....FOCUS.

Wishing you all a very happy, blessed New Year.

Highlights from Easter

We hope you guys had a great Easter week. Here are a few pictures to show you what we have been up to.
Some silly girls before the big Easter Egg hunt in our town. Over 5000 eggs and about 60 children. Wow! This was the best hunt we have ever been too. The children were all so kind to each other and took their time. Must be that good ole Southern Charm!

K-Doodle doing some hunting!

C-Sunshine found a lot of eggs!

Some Sisterly Huntin goin' on

C-Sunshine making some Easter Treats.

Dipping some yummy strawberries.