Parade Logic

We ventured up to Wahoo for the parade on Thursday night & met up with Darren's parents. The weather was gorgeous, food tasty, company pleasant, & candy ridiculously abundant. I've never seen such a haul as the kids made that night. It helped that one of my old students tossed his entire remaining bag of goodies onto our blanket & that Darren's dad is buddies with EVERYONE in at least a four county radius. ; )

After enjoying a box of gum drops, Andrew then held up a box of Nerds.
"I guess I better eat THESE now to get all of that chewy candy out of my teeth. Gosh, I don't want to get a cavity!"

Joyful Promise

Happy 1st Anniversary of your final vows,

Sr. Edith Marie & Sr. Mary Catherine!
It's hard to believe this crazy group all lived together . . . what a blessing to all of our vocations. I am so grateful for your continued prayers, support, & love.
God bless you both!

***

*Happy Birthday, Nikki!*

But of course!

For breakfast Rebecca just ate a scrambled egg, a piece of ham, half a bowl of fruit, & pancakes. As she was anxiously requesting for her third pancake I couldn't help but ask,

"Where do you put it all little girl?"

She replied, "In my mouth!"

Reasons to Smile

It's official!

We were so happy to attend the wedding of a great old Newman Center friend, Jeremy, this weekend & sing in the choir. He & Stephanie looked just adorable together! I'm so excited for them. It was a beautiful wedding, amusing "pre-reception party", & fun reception. It was like a reunion!

I usually bring my camera along to most events but neglect to take a single picture. I was determined not to do so this time! We're running out of opportunities to have the whole old gang back together again, so I snapped some shots to have that aren't 10 years old. =] Here's a few to enjoy. Unfortunately, I didn't get was a good one of the bride & groom! (If you'd like any copies, please let me know!) Congratulations, Weselys!

Gutenberg

We discovered a great Catholic website! It's put together by a fun family with a bunch of young kids called Holy Heroes. They provide lots of video clips & games for free. They also have neat products you can buy which would offset their costs. We did a lot of their kids' activities, coloring pages, & "lessons" for Lent. I hope to try their Advent edition this year, too. The last few weeks we've been taking the "Holy Heroes Summer Faith Adventure". Click the link to sign up for this Vacation Bible School at home! We've learned a lot about King David, the Sacraments, & the Church. There are fun craft ideas, snacks you can make together, & games with a spiritual twist to play. We've picked a few of everything to try & added some of our own ideas, too. Above they are wearing their miters from when we learned about the Pope & below we are painting our "bird Church" to hang outside. (Anyone recognize the apron???)

One video lesson was about the origins of the Bible & how it has changed over the years. They explained how the invention of the printing press really made a difference in how many people could buy & actually read a Bible. In one of the crossword puzzles we discovered the most hilarious word known to four year olds. Andrew has found the name "Gutenberg" to be one of the funniest words EVER! He throws it into every joke, nickname, or lull in conversation. I often hear him saying, "You're a Gutenberg!" & then laughing hysterically. Rebecca, his little parrot as of late, joins in to say, "Mommy a Goopenberk!" I can't help but be amused by their amusement!

New Math

Rebecca has taken to counting. She counts things in books, noses on her family members, & cars in the street. She counts when we play hide & seek, & while she's waiting her turn. Her counting must be some sort of new math, however. (Darren has a math minor so it can't be just . . . wrong!) She's very consistent.
"1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12!"
Occasionally the 12 is followed by,
"Blast off!" or "Ready, I come!"

Band Buddies

Who said we didn't have band at St. Francis? I'm so glad they made you cut your hair before the seminary, Fr. Jon.Oh, I guess that's just an actual picture of Dougie.

Check out this site for some fun.

HT: Thanks, Renee! These are hilarious!

New Prayer

Rebecca has been finally joining us aloud for prayers lately. She does the best just to repeat phrases after we say them. Most of the time it's pretty close! However, yesterday her after meal prayer started like this:

"We give me SNAKES, Almighty God..."

The Big 1-0

Happy 10th Birthday, Samuel!You are such a thoughtful, creative, turtle-catching nephew. =]

We love you!

Ode to a donut

This morning at Mass the kids were unusually well-behaved. Hallelujah! Amen! Praise the Lord! So to celebrate...& because I was craving tasty pastry...we decided to go out for donuts. Rebecca was so anxious to have one, she needed something to keep her busy while we drove there. I suggested she sing a song about a donut. It went like this:
"Happy Birthday to you, donut, . . . cha, cha, cha!"

Shopping List

Here's Andrew's shopping list from yesterday. Can you guess what he thinks we need to get? It's actually pretty good for doing it all on his own. I'll post the answers in the comments. Happy deciphering!

~As he continues to learn phonetics . . . I can't help but wish we spoke Spanish. English has & breaks so many more rules! : P Oh, but we love a challenge.

My Family

Here's finally a big group shot from Ordinations. I'm surprised there aren't more goofy faces with that many of us together. ; ) Love you all!

Hooray!

Happy 1st Birthday, Jonathan!

What a fun little nephew you are. We love you.

Future's so bright...

Pimushe Lake

Ah the joys of vacation! We had such a nice time away. We enjoyed a week in two pretty cabins up by Pimushe Lake, Minnesota with my entire immediate family minus my newly ordained brother who was put in charge of his parish for the week. That's 32 people! It was a blast. Here's a few pictures to tell the story. We spent the 3rd of July at my sister Chris' home outside of St. Paul. There was quite the gaggle of kiddos & fireworks. Andrew & Rebecca were most excited to see all of their cousins & try out their "big kid" bikes.The next afternoon we arrived at Pimushe Lake. After a quick trip down the road to the country Church for Mass, we settled in to our luxurious cabins, pontoon boat, & perfectly zero entry beach.
Andrew LOVED fishing. He actually made the first catch of the trip! They spent a lot of time fishing on the boat & just off the dock. I've never seen him exhibit such patience!

With an adjustable basketball hoop next to the playground, the kids were actually able to successfully make a few baskets. Rebecca spent a good deal of her time on the swing.

Benedict & Veronica looking cute

These modified paddle boats were a big hit with the kids. Even Rebecca could do a pretty good job maneuvering herself.

She loved playing at the beach. Sand, water, toys...good times.

Here she is with Matthias relaxing by the bonfire before the Talent Show.

I don't have a big group shot on my camera, but here's one of my Mom & Dad with all the grandkids (well all except this one in-utero who must be doing some sort of acrobatics in there as I type.)

We left a two days earlier than the rest of the gang to have a little time to recover when we got home. On the way we stayed over night in Sioux Falls. We enjoyed yummy pizza that night & the up close & personal sound of airplanes landing pretty much directly over our hotel. : P The next morning we checked out what we could of the beautiful St. Joseph's Cathedral. The Marian grotto was beautiful...& a fun place to run.

The main body of the Church is under renovation, but we were able to visit Jesus in the Sacred Heart Chapel in back. The painting behind the altar was gorgeous!Afterwards we drove through downtown out to the Falls. Gorgeous. I was here about 15 years ago but they have done a LOT of work since then. There was an observation tower, restaurant, older buildings to walk through, & beautiful landscaping.

We finished our trek home Friday afternoon. What a great adventure!

A different perspective

Rebecca: "Is it swimming?"

Referring to the wipe she had just thrown into the toilet. ...I guess so!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

After such rave reviews at Bible Study last night & Darren's exclamation of

"Woah. That's freakin' awesome!"

this morning, I thought others might enjoy if I post the *recipe* for Cinnamon Crumb Cake. ; ) Give it a try, you'll love it.

Neece

Happy Birthday, big sis!

Love you & can't wait to see you!