Happy 3rd Birthday, Thomas!

Well, I'm finally getting to the September birthdays.  Poor Daddy won't get his own post.  But we had a little celebration at home a few days before our trip to celebrate Steven's birthday (the day we left for Disney) and Thomas' birthday (September 21st).  I knew we'd be in Houston for Thomas' birthday and Daddy would be on a work trip, so we had a little cake at home to celebrate early.  Mary Clare made Steven a German Chocolate cake, and Tommy had a simple white sheet cake.

Just a little over a week after our trip, we spent a weekend in Houston since I had a Monday doctor appointment.  At the last minute we were able to get almost all of our Houston family together for a Saturday lunch at Skeeter's Restaurant in town.  We were even blessed to share it with Steven's Aunt Winkie and Uncle John visiting from Virginia!

Here's the birthday boy!  He was so excited to be "swee" years old! (Now he can say thwee)

I got a yummy cake from my favorite bakery, RJ Goodies the day before, not sure if we'd just celebrate with my parents or have a little party.  But it all fell into place and I picked up a balloon, plates, napkins and a candle on the way to lunch.  Now this is an easy way to do a birthday party!

Here's most of the family who came...both sets of grandparents, three aunts, a great aunt and uncle, and four cousins (the others had sports events).

Covering his ears while we sang Happy Birthday!

Blowing out the #3 candle!

He wouldn't touch his lunch because he was so excited about the presents!

PaPa helps open a present.

Cousins and siblings help, too.

And here's a little phone pic of Tommy hitting his homemade pinata from Ellie, with a sword!

Happy Birthday Tommy!

All Hallows' Eve

I'm going to move forward on the blog, and hopefully go back to catch up when I can.  Last night was Halloween and the All Hallows' Eve festival at our church.  Our homeschool group and parish here celebrate with a Vigil Mass for All Saints' Day and a big carnival.  So we don't go trick-or-treating anymore, but we do enjoy a fun-filled evening with costumes, friends, mass, games, and candy!

Here's our cast of saints:

Thomas as St. Florian, patron of firefighters.  I had to bribe him with candy to put the costume on for this one picture, and he refused to wear it again.  He was so excited to buy it at the store (his was the only store-bought costume), but just wasn't interested in dressing up.

Ellie as St. Therese.  I made her costume out of fabric a kind friend gave me since she didn't need it.  I made a simple brown tunic, a white hood and neckpiece (I think it's called a wimple) and then the black veil sewed onto it.  The veil gave me quite a headache and I actually ended up going out to buy more fabric since I messed up the first one.  It was fun to sew again, though.  It has been too long!  I found her roses at a church rummage sale last weekend, and the crucifix we already had at home.

Steven Joseph as St. Michael the Archangel.  We already had the knight gear and wings, bought in previous years at resale stores or for gifts.  He has been St. George in the past, but was excited about St. Michael with the wings this time.

Mary Clare as St. Cecilia.  She wanted to sew her own costume.  We bought that same kind of thin, stretchy, non-fraying fabric on sale at Hancock Fabrics.  I think it was $3.50/yard.  I had visions of a long maxi dress, but she had her own plans, drew them out, and sewed it all herself with no help from me!  In fact, she showed me a few things I didn't know about the sewing machine!  She wore her First Communion veil, a lacy sweater, and lace tied as a belt.  We made a last minute harp out of a pink coat hanger wrapped in ribbon.

The kids lined up outside the church and processed in behind Father for Mass.

And here's a little vision of the carnival out behind the church.  One mom of seven pretty much puts together the whole thing each year.  The kids had a blast and played games and ran around until about 9:30pm!  It got dark so quickly after this photo that I didn't get any more good pictures.  But it was a blessed evening!

All you holy men and women, Pray for Us!!!

Slowing Down

This weekend the baby will be 22 weeks along.  I can hardly believe we are in the twenties and just a couple weeks from viability.  That always seems like a huge milestone for me, even though I've never had a late-term loss or a preemie.  I'm feeling lots of movement throughout the day and I imagine in the next few weeks the kids will start to be able to feel some kicks from the outside!

As much as I've been blaming my lack of blogging on our computer issues, I've come to realize now that even though our computer is mostly functioning and I have added all the photos, I just don't have the energy to sit here and blog.  I also realized that the evening cramping and contractions I've had with the last couple pregnancies have all been during late nights sitting at the computer.  My body is just tired and my belly and baby need me to lie down and rest at night.

Hopefully I can still find some little spurts during the day to catch up with our Disney trip, the September birthdays, and other little events of the past two months.  But I think I'll go ahead and post about All Saints' Day and move forward and go back to catch up when I can.

The past couple weeks I've also felt a general lack of peace.  My body is tired, I'm worried about the baby, and I'm so very short and annoyed with the children's antics.  I can't stay on top of housework or cooking, but am trying so hard to keep them on top of their schoolwork.  I do well with cooking for a few days or a week, and then I have a day where I just can't do any more.  It's usually when we have lots of outings. 

Last night was the big saint party at church, and today it took all that was in me to get the kids dressed and ready for their Atrium classes and a soccer game.  I felt so horrible with an upset stomach that I just couldn't foresee how I would make it through the evening.  I nearly threw in the towel, but I knew I was being counted on to help in the Atrium and to get the girls to church for their "dress rehearsal" for the 4-H Food Challenge.  We made it there, about 20 minutes late, and after sitting on a rocker on the porch at church for awhile, I wearily walked into the Atrium wondering how I would be able to help wrangle a room full of preschoolers!

But amazingly within a few minutes I was feeling myself again!  Maybe it was the Christ-filled environment, or just walking around a bit and making myself useful, but I was so grateful that we were able to be there.  Steven Joseph made a beautiful drawing of a cross and hearts and worked so hard to write his name just perfectly.  Thomas was thrilled to get to choose the bells to put on their prayer altar, and then to spend time setting up their actual miniature altar and pray with a candle (he loves using the snuffer!).  He also worked hard to glue little cut-out parts of the altar onto construction paper, and Steven Joseph was brave to ask the teacher if he could be the one to ring the bells to signal clean-up time.  It really is a gift to spend those precious minutes in the Atrium with my boys.  They are so rambunctious and needy that I need that reminder of the sweetness in their hearts.

Tonight I was reading one of my favorite blogs "My Child, I Love You."  I think of all the blogs I read, some by moms of grown children, this mom of a similar age to me speaks the wisest words and has such a pure heart and innocent love of her children.  What I would give to just spend some hours at Lindsay's house watching her interactions with them.  I know I would be inspired.  Tonight she spoke about her children dressing in Narnia characters for Halloween, and these words of hers will stay with me...

"I made the decision in my head at the beginning of the day that nothing was going to bother me about anything.  I prayed to embrace their excitement, special desires for all the small things that were important to them, and mostly I was going to enjoy their smallness today and be fully present.  They commented at the end of the evening over and over that this was our best Halloween."

Walt Disney World 2013, Day 1--Magic Kingdom

I've finally got all the photos loaded, almost 2 months after our trip.  Hopefully this week I can catch up with the events of the past couple months.  I have just posted some photos from our Travel Day, and have also made a long blog post about Disney Planning.  Now I'll start with our first day at Magic Kingdom on Saturday, September 7th, 2013.  

We were up early and ready to catch the bus and to get to our 8:20am breakfast reservation.  The park didn't open until 9:00am that day, so we were some of the first to arrive!

I think we missed the first bus that day due to running back to grab something from our room.  The kids still look a bit tired and my camera was fuzzy from the morning fog.

Just in the gate and not so happy about a photo op right then!

Posing by the fall decorations.  I tried to ask other families if I could take their picture.  I think it's a nice act of kindness, since most families would like a photo of all the members, and also they'll tend to repay the favor, which is always nice!

Thomas is doing this in almost all our family photos.  He was not into picture-taking, except in a few instances.

Then we walked closer to the castle for some more pictures.  The same family from the pumpkin pics took these photos, too.  We probably should've gone off to the side so that the Walt Disney statue wouldn't be in the middle, but oh well!  At least Thomas is looking this time, even though SJ is pouting!

 8:20am Breakfast at Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends was a big success!  It was the typical breakfast buffet fare and nothing we would rave about, but I think it was a great choice for our first morning at Disney.  There were several characters that came to our table to give autographs and take photos.  Pooh was first!

Gotta love the breakfast choices here.  Ellie has bacon, strawberries, a cinnamon roll, and Fruit Loops!

Tommy showing off his strawberry!

Next was Tigger.  He has some issue with Mr. Steven Joseph right here!

Peek-a-boo with Tommy!

Tigger signing the girls' autograph book.  I'm frustrated that iPhoto won't let me edit and crop any of these photos, but at least I can load them now!

The kids and me with Tigger and a cast member at the side...

A happy Steven Joseph with his missing front tooth!

Piglet arrives next, and Tommy is still not interested in visiting.

So just the big kids take a picture with Piglet.

After breakfast, we rushed over to Space Mountain.  It had a short line, and Tommy and I played in the nearby arcade while the others got to experience their first big Disney rollercoaster!

Thomas could have stayed in here all day.  He loves arcades, and I don't even have to put money in!

We headed over to Fantasyland next, including a ride on the carousel and It's a Small World, one of my favorites (although I think I liked the Disneyland one better).

Then it was time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain for the big kids in Frontierland.  They loved those coasters.  I think Big Thunder Mountain may have been most of the kids' favorite ride.  Tommy and I watched from the side and spent some time in a gift store.

We watched the Country Bear Jamboree (wouldn't recommend), and the kids went with Steven into a little shooting range.  There was a little street dancing party going on, and Ellie got asked to dance with a cast member.  Here are some fun shots...

Then the girls wanted to ride one of the coasters again, so I took both the boys to Pirates of the Caribbean.  They were scared and the ride stopped for a few minutes!  Not a good ride to get stuck on!  Tommy still talks about not liking the pirate ride.  Soon the roller coaster-riders were done, and we headed nearby for some Dole Whip ice cream snacks.

Next we went back to Fantasyland, and while Tommy was napping, the big kids and I watched Mickey's Philharmagic (this was one of my favorite shows, it's 3-D), and then they went on the Dumbo ride.  It was getting really hot, and there was an indoor playground near the Dumbo ride, so we went in there for a bit and woke Thomas up to play.

We got a snack for some of the kids at Cosmic Rays in Fantasyland where Steven Joseph fell asleep at the table, and then headed to the train to ride around the park and then back to the front to leave.  The train wasn't worth the heat and the time, so I wouldn't recommend it (again, the Disneyland one was better).  We loaded the bus to head back to our hotel around 2:00pm.  We figured we had another day at Magic Kingdom and didn't want to overdo it.  Plus it was just starting to rain and the park would be closing early that night with no firework show.

Here are the girls by our hotel room.  Thankfully it was just a couple minute walk from the bus stop, because it was a LONG walk to the hotel lobby (10 minutes)!  We loved having the MagicBands bracelets to get into our room without a key.

We had a nice rest and cool down, and then loaded back up again to head out for the ferry ride to Downtown Disney for dinner!

Here's a picture of our building.  The resort included over 60 of these, plus several other larger buildings with more rooms.  The Port Orleans Riverside is one of the largest resorts with over 2000 rooms!

These next two photos show the main area with the dining hall/food court, a nicer restaurant, the gift shop, and the lobby.  We never even checked out the arcade, there was so much to do! You can see they offered carriage rides, too.

The ferry would be reopening shortly after the rain, so the kids had fun playing a bean bag game while we waited.

Those bikes would be fun to rent, too!

Mary Clare waiting for the boat.

The ferry ride to Downtown Disney was a bit slow, but it was a fun change from the usual shuttle bus.

I didn't get any photos at Downtown Disney, but we ate at Wolfgang Puck Express, which was delicious and one of my favorite meals of the trip (rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes)!  We went to the Christmas store, the Lego store, and the huge Disney store, and then caught a bus back to the hotel.  We got a good night's sleep that night, for sure!  Sunday would be our trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Universe for Mass and then Hollywood Studios.