June recap

Wow.  Has it really been two weeks?  June has been insane.  I'll just do a recap with pictures for now and hopefully journal again soon. 

We've had two weddings (cousin and brother, both on Aaron's side).  We danced and wore funny hats and caught up with out-of-town family and ate too much candy (well Gemma and Kolbe did anyways).  

We took a fun family trip to the zoo. 

As I mentioned in my last post, Gemma spent a week at VBS and the boys and I helped in the daycare.  

We watched baby birds hatch in the nest in our birch and in our neighbor's tree (this might have been late May??) and Kolbe followed a baby bird that couldn't fly yet around the lake (and into the neighbor's yard where he belonged, we could hear mama squawking at us).

We went on a froggy walk (that turned into a swim) in the temporary pond behind the house. 

We had professional pictures taken of the kids (see sidebar too).

We've had fun going to daily Mass (trying to go once a week) and playing at the park with friends.

We are working on our goals for the Summer Reading Program at the library.  Gemma chose the lofty goal of 100, and Kolbe 40.  G is about half way there and Kolbe is pretty close.

The older two just completed two weeks of swim lessons at the Y.  It was their first time to take and I'm calling it successful.  Neither of them "passed", but they definitely progressed and had fun (aside from a few small hiccups with Kolbe) and that was what I was looking for.  They needed to learn how to put their faces in the water from someone other than mama.  We signed up with a couple friends, so Clem and I enjoyed some chat/playtime every day while the big kids swam and that was really nice.  Kolbe even ventured down the "big blue slide" with his teacher on the last day.  Gemma did not.  The apple does not fall far from the tree, folks.  I am debating another round of lessons later in the summer. 

We celebrated Flowercup the fish's first birthday.  I think I will blog about this separately as I have some really cute pictures I haven't gotten off my camera yet.  Yes, you read that right.  We had a birthday party for our fish.  Bet you'll never guess who planned and executed that one...

The rest of the month should be a bit more quiet.  The heat has settled in here and we have made the decision to put in a well, in an effort to keep our yard alive in a less expensive (long-term) and time intensive manner. 

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Journal: Pope Francis

TODAY

Out my window: Cloudy and gray.  Some beautiful glimpses of Spring this past week.  Oh we're so close I can almost taste it.  That said, it's pretty chilly today so I think we are actually going to have our last fire of the season this afternoon.  Crazy.

Clothing myself in:  Sweats, but Church clothes earlier.  Oh dear goodness, we went to an early Mass today at a different parish as my future sister-in-law was being received into the Church and making her First Communion and it almost killed us.  Really...getting everyone up, around and out of the house before 8...it was ugly.  Very, very ugly.  And we get to do this five days a week next year? Le sigh.  

Around the house: Quiet as I type this around lunchtime, my "big kids" got to stay and play at Grandma's for a bit after brunch.  We're in full spring-cleaning/chores mode now.  We have a bunch of stuff we do once or twice a year that is on our lists to tackle in the upcoming weeks.  I washed and lemon-oiled the kitchen cabinetry on Friday, and today I cleaned and treated our leather couches.  Aaron turned the humidifier off and reversed our ceiling fans yesterday (now you know just to what degree of nerdy we really are, yes, we reverse our ceiling fans during the Winter), and has been working on cleaning up the yard for Spring.  Still wanting to wash some windows, clean out the cars and oh am I anxious to plant some annuals here in about a month. 

 

The baby:  Has four teeth now...two on top and two bottom.  Those top ones give him the cutest little buck-teeth grin.  He would make a good rabbit.  We packed away his bath chair this week now that he is sitting so well.  He thinks sitting in the tub is pretty cool stuff, and has already figured out how to splash.  We had homemade (baked) potato fries last night and it was as excited as I've ever seen him about food.  He tried cantaloupe for the first time this morning and thought that was pretty tasty too. 

 

The kiddos:  Gemma may very well be the most curious child in the world.  OK, probably not really but wow.  So. Many. Questions.  What does this word mean?  What does that vehicle do?  Why do we...?  How do they...?  When do you...?  I love her.  I love that she loves to learn.  Some days it exhausts me though.  

Kolbe has been acting very "three" lately.  Like I told Aaron, "he's not naughty, he's just three."  Even so...  Did I mention the exhaustion?

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Zoo to watch the annual sheep shearing, I had just randomly read about it in their quarterly newsletter and thought it looked like something cool to do.  It was a lot of fun.

In the kitchen: Chicken Enchiladas (I'll use some of the homemade Cream of Mushroom in the freezer, and am hoooooping to have time to make tortillas again) with mexi toppings; Homemade Pizza (last time I made pizza I put extra meat and sauce in the freezer, so this will be EASY!) and green salad; family birthday dinner; Chile Rellenos and fresh fruit salad on Friday

Crafting: Nope.  Thanks for asking.

Learning:  Nothing out of the ordinary planned this week.  I think we'll craft some Daffodils on the first day of Spring, and I have some math flashcards I'm going to pull out to show Gemma.  I ordered this book of tracing for Kolbe, and he's also been working on cutting from this book.  So crazy, I pulled it out about a month ago and he was nowhere near ready, and now he is going to town. 

Reading:  I reworked the MY BOOKSHELF tab on the blog.  I've wanted for years to find a better way to keep track of what I read and it just this week dawned on me to do it here.  Duh.  I know there's GoodReads and other things like that, but honestly I just don't want "one more online presence" to maintain.  I'm also going to keep track of our family read-alouds in the same spot.  I finished The Lions of Little Rock this week and am going to begin browsing Rome and the Eastern Churches next, plus probably some more fiction, either The Giver or The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had.  Who knows, one of these days I may even decide to read The Hunger Games...  We are on chapter 2 of Heidi (I found a nicely illustrated, unabridged version at the library) with the kids.

Bringing me joy:  Pope Francis.  The new Papacy and the hope that it brings to our Church.  Watching the White Smoke live with both kids was really exciting (for the most part ;-D).  I'd had an inkling all morning (the Holy Spirit?) to turn on the TV, and am so glad I did around noon and got to watch it all as it happened.  I even convinced the kids to keep watching until the new Pope was introduced, and while there were a few more, um, intense moments, it was pretty cool.  It was so exciting watching it all happen live, and it's still remarkable to me the huge and good part social media plays in our lives and our Church today.  As I was listening to the Cardinal make the announcement it was like "Habemus Papam, a bunch of Italian, Francisco," and I thought, did he just say Francis would be his name?  But then Fox News (whom I thought did a really nice job covering the event, but maybe I'm just biased because I am obsessed with Megyn Kelly) was talking about Leo and Gregory and this and that and I figured I must have misheard.  So I was really excited to realize that his name was indeed Francis, and named for Francis of Assisi specifically.  The first thing that immediately came to mind (even before I was sure that was really his name) was, "Francis, rebuild my Church."  It was one of those goose-bumps, eyes well-up with tears moments for sure.  And from the little bit I've read (oh there are so many articles, I just don't where to start) it sounds as if he intends to do just that.  "Peter you are rock... ... ...and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."  God is good.  I guess there is a joke that he should have been Clement XV, to get back at Clement XIV who supressed the Jesuit order.  That would have been kind of cool, for obvious reasons.  Did you know the last pope not to have a Roman Numeral behind his name was in 914 (Pope Lando I believe? Who knew!)  Apparently John Paul I doesn't count as he deliberately took the names of his two predecessors (John XXIII and Paul VI).

Thinking about: See "bringing me joy". 

Pictures to share:  

Gemma and Kolbe with Pope Francis

 Wearing their butterfly costumes Gemma made.

Handsome.  See his toothers?

"B" week

I thought I'd share some hi-lites from our "B" week (week of 9/19). 

Bead and Button "B"!

Doing her "find the letter" worksheet.  I just made a bunch of squares in an Excel spreadsheet with various letters, and went heavy on the B's and then gave her a hi-liter and let her go at it.  She really got a kick out of this, I can see it becoming a weekly staple.

Some of the books we enjoyed were:
The Bunny Book (I just love this story.  So much.)

Bear's Loose Tooth (We really like the "Bear" books at our house, and hadn't read this one yet so it was a special treat!)
Bertie at Bedtime (or its alternate title, Gemma at Bedtime ;-D)
We've all got Bellybuttons
Bible Stories from the Old Testament (this appears to be a little different than the version we had from the library, which I really like)

Bunches of Buttons (This was a fun little story that focused on counting by 10's.  Gemma really got into it.  I used it with the Counting By Tens song on our 102 Children's Songs CD's one day and it was a lot of fun.)
Bobby Baboon's Banana Be-Bop (I really like this "Animal Antics" series and am disappointed to find that our library doesn't have them all.  And they are $8 a piece and not sold as a set from what I can tell.)

We had a fun trip to the zoo one afternoon with my mom.   

B is for BEAR!!

I learned that even if there are all kinds of things I could do on a given day that go with the letter, it is best to just focus on one thing.  Case-in-point...with religion this week I tried to talk about the Bible, Baptism and our virtue (Being a Blessing) all in the same morning and it was just too much.  Gemma would have gotten much more out of it if I'd just focused on one thing.  As it was I think she was just confused and overstimulated with too much information.  Lesson learned (I hope).

Gemma's favorite activities are singing songs and doing crafts.  And of course reading stories.  We are both learning a lot.

What's Gemma up to?

I thought I would dedicate this post to my sweet Gemma-girl, and the "top ten" things she's been up to lately, so here goes!!
1. THE OUTDOORS. We crave these gorgeous Fall days we've been having, and try to make the most of outdoor activities including going to walky-Max (with daddy), play at the park (just about everyday), playing in the empty kiddie-pool in the driveway (yup, we did that, and she was entertained for well over 30 minutes), and even a trip to the zoo the other day that ended in an all-out meltdown when we had to leave the petting farm. I think I need to ask the zoo if we can have some sort of "fast-pass" that is cheaper and only gets us into the petting-farm part since that's the part she loves and prefers to ANYTHING else.
2. READING. As always. She loves her books, whether she's reading herself or being read to. Her lastest favorite is picking books out of her basket (either the one in her room or the one in the living room), and toting a handful back to her big-girl room where she lounges on the bed and reads them. It's pretty sweet, and this momma will never complain about too much reading going on :-)
3. FRIDGE FARM. We've had this for about a year, but the first several months her favorite thing to do was slide the animal pieces under the fridge. All kinds of fun. Now she really gets into putting the animals in and making matches (and non-matches) with them. It really is a cute toy, as toys that make noise go (not a huge fan of those in general, I usually take the batteries out before the make it into her hands). I'm thinking about getting her the fridge-phonics for Christmas.
4. HELPER. This girl loves to help. With anything and everything going on. Her lastest favorite is unloading the dishwasher. And she really is quite particular about it and does a great job! Here she is putting the silverware away. Yeah, I probably should have used the "sport" feature on my camera to better picture the action shot. She's pretty, uh, enthusiastic about putting it away. I usually have to "reorganize" a bit once she's finished.
5. BABY. Still loves her baby, babies actually. We now have Baby and Copple Baby (purple baby). Her latest fave is feeding her babies. I am soooooo excited to get her a kitchen set and all the accoutrements for Christmas!
6. BATHROOM. And all activities there-in. The girl loves having her teeth brushed, and would do it ten times a day if we let her. We use our electric spin-brush on her, and she seems to think that's pretty cool business. Still loves her baths, and has been doing a great job telling me when she has to "poopy-potty" (poop). She has been doing this for over a month now, and I even bought some training-pants. Just not sure she's ready. She gets the "poopy" part so well, but I'm just not sure she understands the whole potty thing yet. But I hate to miss out on the opportuinity if she is ready. Contemplating...

7. EATING. She really does well with this, which I never would have dreamed of saying six months ago. She's come such a long way. I think teething really made eating un-fun for her, and that was most of our issues. Anyways, several of her recent favorites are tias (tortillas prepared in any variety of ways, especially quesadillas), beans (pinto, black, kidney, refried, you name it, she LOVES them), green beans, bananas, chicken, oh heck, I could go on and on. She really does well with just about anything. We are definitely sad fresh fruit season is coming to an end. Here is a pic of her eating her bunny-roni today at lunch. I'm still not sure why she asked for the fork...
8. DADDY. Anything and everything to do with daddy. The two of them have a special bond and I love it!! We treasure the time he spends at home and miss him when he's at work.
9. BASEMENT. We've been playing in the basement more lately. It's our intended playroom, long term, just hasn't been terribly practical when I'm needing to do things upstairs. It's easier having the toys where I can watch her and cook, clean, whatever, at the same time. We've brought some of her toys downstairs though, and she does great playing while I'm sewing.

10. GEMMA'S MUSIC. She has really gotten into listening to her CD's in the car and at home. She gets stuck on "favorite" songs though, and it's all she wants to listen to. In the car it is "Happy Jesus, Happy Day" (Walk with Jesus Every Day), and at home it is "Mingo" (BINGO). She's also a huge fan of the ABC's, and can recite most all of the alphabet herself.

Well, that's all folks... If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me. And I apologize, I think a few of the pics may have been repeats, but they fit. I could ramble further, but I'll refrain. Have a happy week!!

Petting farm at the zoo

We took a trip to the fabulous ZOO on Monday afternoon with my parents. It was Gemma's second time in the petting farm (walking around that is) and her first time to feed the animals. We got there right as all the school kids were packing up to leave, so it was so QUIET!!! Plus, all the animals in the petting farm were either ready for their naps, or super full from other kids feeding them all day (or both) because they were super mellow, which was great for my little Gemma-goo. Grandpa brought a quarter and bought some food, and she took her feeding job VERRRRRY seriously. It was one of the most precious things I've ever seen.
But, as always, the first thing when we come to the zoo is the flamingos. She is fascinated by their color and noise. She tries to imitate the sound, which is pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself.
And then we ran into one of these guys. He let her get really close, which she thought was awesome. I think she looks like she's dancing with him! And, as a friend of mine pointed out, her little capris match his tail-feathers perfectly.
And there are always the geese. Ohhhhhh, geese. Seriously, her fascination with them makes me laugh as we can see dozens of them literally from our backyard. OH well, it makes her happy :-D I didn't, however, take any pictures of them.

So we had just a fabulous time together, and are certainly looking forward to going back again soon. Thank goodness for our membership. And thanks to grandma and "bapa" for making the day extra special for us!

Priceless

We have gone to the zoo the past two mornings, it has been GREAT!! Yesterday we went with my sis and her little guy, and today we went with daddy, YAY!!!!!!!!!!! I just think this picture of daddy and magoo looking at the hippos is priceless. Sooooo sweet, like father like daughter. I just had to share.
Gemma is certainly getting a bit big for the front-carrier, but she just loves it. I think she just likes being at eye-level like everyone else. Who could blame her? Much more personal than carting around in the stroller.
So yesterday we got to see the elephants working with the trainer, which was pretty cool. We visited the gorillas, to which Gemma said "woof, woof, lilla" about five times. It was so sweet, she is starting to understand and repeat so much! Most everything still barks, but she will answer "peep-peep" if you ask what the chicks say, and "neeeeee" if you ask what the horse says, and "baaaaa" for the sheep...most of the time. Or she will just stare at you as if you're from another planet. And then bark. My silly girl. :-D Today we heard the lion roar, visited the "monkey-type" animals, breezed thru the North America area, saw some sleepy brown bears, and a few various other things. It was a great morning. We're definitely lovin' spring over this way!