Little Flowers Tea

 Every spring we wrap up the year for Little Flowers with a Mother Daughter Tea.  It's such a fun tradition.  Amazing moms & ambitious daughters help to make it a special celebration.  Here are some of our goodies that we enjoyed.  I didn't take other pictures of us eating... because we were eating! 

 We took pictures of all the moms with their daughters.  Sarah joined in the fun with Rebecca.  She's not a Little Flower yet... more of a rosebud.

 The girls made special thank you notes for their moms.

 We had a Cupcake Walk using the music from our meetings.

 They also did palm weaving & practicing of good table manners for prizes.  Rebecca enjoyed every aspect of it & we had a lovely time.

So thankful for time with my sweet girls & such a virtuous group of women!

Pretty birdies in their nest

Fits of giggles

The gorgeous weather called for lots of outside play!  Once I got tired of pulling random lawn discoveries out of Sarah's mouth, I decided to give her a ride in the swing.  She's done it before, but never anything extensive.  Well, this time she LOVED it!  Not only did she sit & smile, but she started swinging her feet, too.  This made all of us collapse in fits of giggles & in turn made her giggle as well... then do it more.  I hope this video works because it is just priceless!  Love this little girl.

What Sarah's been up to

No good!

 Her first toilet paper unraveling,

 continually improving her cupboard destruction techniques,

and slobbering all over the back door window.  Lots of exciting things to see out there! 

(You can finally see those two bottom teeth peeking through in this photo.  Cutie pie.)

Little Flowers 2013-2014

A different view

 No more catching glimpses from the floor for this one!  She wants to be up in the action.

 Teresa enjoying (way too much) cream cheese & crackers.  She has an obsession with cream cheese like Rebecca has with black olives & Andrew has with bacon!

Happy birthday, Mom!

 To celebrate my mama's 70th birthday, we had a girls' weekend in Omaha!  It was so fun to be with her, my sisters, & a couple of my nieces.  We started off the weekend on Friday night with Stations of the Cross at this gorgeous St. Peter's Church.  It was incredible!

 Uncle Fr. Jon generously drove Sarah & I to Omaha, so he was able to join us for the evening.  My Dad also brought Mom to town so he hung out on Friday night as well.  We were sorry to be missing Doug!

 We had a delicious dinner at Upstream Brewery.

 These little ladies did amazingly well, considering how much high chair, stroller, & carseat time they had to endure.  They were hilarious together & a constant source of snuggly entertainment.  We stayed at the Magnolia hotel which was beautiful.  Spent a good deal of time relaxing in this loft room... a little too much when we probably should have been in bed!

 My mom is a tea aficionado, so after a leisurely breakfast & some Old Market shopping we had proper tea on Saturday afternoon at the beautiful Crook Manor.  It was General Crook's 1860s home at Fort Omaha full of antiques & stories.  I think that Dad would have loved it, too!  I giggle now every time that I use a tea bag thinking how much it would disgust our Tea Guide Mona.  Goodness she knew a lot about tea.  She was a riot!

 Sarah enjoyed some of the egg salad sandwiches & sugar cookies.

 Lily was just too busy to sit down & enjoy her tea.  Lots to do, lots to do!

 We went back to relax at the hotel prior to Saturday evening Mass at St. Peter's.  Afterwards we had a delectable dinner at Vivace & way too late of a night laughing in the loft.  Chris brought a personality assessment that was a little too easy to predict in our group... found out I'm gold & blue.  No surprises there!

I didn't take any more photos (waiting on some goodies from my lovely sisters) but they wouldn't do the time justice anyway.  It was wonderful.  It was much needed.  It was such a gift to be together without a million monkeys running around like usual.  So thankful! 

Happy birthday, Mom!  Hope we can do it again next year!

Movin' on up

 Sarah's bottom two teeth have officially popped through!  Ever since, she has her tongue sticking out like this more often than not.  Hilarious!  She's pulling up to EVERYTHING, emptying cupboards with flair, chatterboxing, & crawling on her knees about 50% of the time.  She's movin' on up!

Sarah & Red Grandma

She said it!

Sarah has moved on from saying, "Bubba" to an approximation of "Andrew"!  She says one or the other most times that she sees him.  He's thrilled.

Top o' the mornin'

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A little rainbow water to complement our corned beef & cabbage.  

I love my sissy

 I find them so often like this... Teresa loves to lay on her back & pull Sarah up on her belly.  She laughs & then Sarah starts laughing.  Sarah pulls her nose & Teresa tickles her ear.  Over & over & over.  They never get tired of it!  I hope they grow up to be best of buds.  :)

An inside look

 Our Little Flowers took a field trip out to visit some of my favorite sisters!  They gave us an inside look at life at their convent.  First, they practiced waking up with a smile...

 & a prayer.

 Then we did our daily duties with joy!  (I don't think they actually have dust mop races on a regular basis, but maybe they should!  It sure was fun.)

 We learned about how their seal explains important priorities in their life.

 Then we split into two groups.  The big girls went to make a snack for us all in the kitchen,

 while the little girls cleaned the chapel & the entryway.  Sister told them to dust anything that was wood.  They even dusted the bark on the plants!

 

 We took a break & enjoyed the yummy snack.

 We wrapped up the morning with sung midday prayer in the Chapel.  Beautiful!

Thank you, Sisters, for a marvelous time!

Big stuff

Andrew had a very big weekend.  The Cub Scouts & their dads (or moms) camped out in the rainforest at the big zoo!  They actually pitched tents on the raised walkways & slept amid the animals.  They had a night hike & morning hike through the zoo with their own personal tour guides, which sounds like their favorite part.  It really is different when you aren't swarmed with people!  So glad they were able to go.

Then on Sunday (very tired) we made our way to Cathedral for him to receive his Parvuli Dei award from the Bishop.  Congratulations, Andrew, on another Cub Scout religious award!