All Saints' Day Festival 2011

Marching into the annual All Saints Day Party!

So excited!

 Little guy was dwarfed a bit by his habit; it'll fit much better next year!

He was a little St. Joseph with his hammer

 Ellie as St. Maria Goretti

 Steven as St. George, on his horse and ready to fight a dragon!

Mary Clare as St. Therese the Little Flower.

I didn't quite get the appropriate brown habit made.  Oh well.

 The saint parade begins!

 Daddy and Tommy

Games!

 Croquet?

St. Anthony's Lost and Found

Make a Bouquet for Mary

Sewing with St. Anne

All Souls Chapel

St. Patrick's Shamrocks

All Saints Bingo

Knock Down the 7 Deadly Sins Pinata

St. John Bosco Bouncy Castle

St. Sebastian Bowling

and top it off with a yummy potluck dinner!

Some real Dominican Sisters even came (see right)

And my sweet boy, sans costume, dipping a stick in the dirt and eating it.

Loving our night at the farm!!!

Another fun time celebrating the saints!

I'd love to write more...

And hopefully I'll get some Halloween and All Saints pictures up soon.  But tonight I've got to get to bed.  Because this adorable little guy keeps me going all day long.  He took one 45-minute nap today, and the rest of the day was spent eating crayons and board books, trying to plug things into outlets, throwing cabinet contents around the room, climbing on chairs like this, and just being as cute as can be!  My favorite thing is when he says "Mama" over and over again and just looks at me with the happiest grin.  Our conversation goes..."Mama!" "What?"  "Mama!"  "Yes, baby."  "Mama!" "Oh I love you!" and I smother him in kisses.  So adorable.

7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

We are really moving.  This is our rental home!  I'm very excited and tiring of this single-parenting thing.  The house is very similar to our current layout and I hope it will be an easy transition.  The thing I like most is the big sunroom behind the living room.  It will be a wonderful place for toys and other fun kid stuff!  The living and sunroom are both tiled, which should be a big help in keeping the floors clean in a rental!

--- 2 ---

My father-in-law ordered me to post some photos of our clean house last weekend!  After the garage sale on Saturday (which was a bust, by the way, hardly any traffic), the guys were outside cleaning up, fixing some siding, and our sweet neighbor was also helping with the kids.  I had about an hour and a half to clean the house for a showing.  I was AMAZED at how much I got done with NO KIDS inside!  It felt so good to be able to clean the whole house all by myself.

--- 3 ---

 We got Netflix.  Yo Gabba Gabba has been one of Steven Joseph's favorite shows to watch.  This might be the most ridiculous show I've ever seen.  Am I missing something?  What was so wrong with Mr. Rogers?   The kids shows these days are really, really strange and kinda creepy.

 

--- 4 ---

Our big boy had his one month post-surgery check-up on Monday.  Thankfully, Daddy had some meetings in Houston and was able to come.  He got the all-clear to go back to normal activities, everything except contact sports.  We're so happy he's doing so well!

Notice how Daddy was enjoying the Toy Story movie and SJ was up to no good, probably about to leap off the exam table onto the rolling doctor chair.  Then as soon as Daddy left and it was time for an x-ray, he threw a big tantrum.  I was just thinking we were over the doctor/nurse fears after being traumatized by what he went through those 4 days in the hospital.  But I guess he had to finish it off with a bang!  Thomas had a screaming fit there for awhile too, since I had to leave him with a nurse to deal with his tantruming brother in the x-ray room.

--- 5 ---

Thomas and Thomas.  Little guy warmed up to big grandpa last week.  Mama appreciated having another adult around the house.  I know the kids will have special memories of BopBop reading and writing about the Divine Mercy and St. Faustina, and teaching them good lessons.

--- 6 ---

 Thomas is really keeping me on my toes!  He can now climb chairs and likes to sit and color.  He's trying to talk and tell us all kinds of things, like in this first photo where he's starting to make the 'th' sound.  He likes to eat pencils and crayons.  But his FAVORITE thing to eat is cardboard.  Most of the moving boxes around the house have the corners eaten off, same with the board books.  He also likes regular paper and toilet paper, but I think cardboard is his favorite treat!

--- 7 ---

 SJ painted this yesterday for Daddy.  He's even learning to write his name, so cute!

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For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Our Lady of the Toothbrushes

This is the week of the year where we talk a lot about the saints of the Church.  The kids are trying to choose a saint to dress up as for All Saints' Day and this weekend's big celebration at the farm.  We're doing a lot of preparation these days, and not just for the holidays.  We have a house to prepare for new renters, our belongings to prepare for a new home, children to prepare for a move.  There are big decisions going on each day, and it's easy to lose focus and get caught up in the excitement.

At some point I inherited this sweet statue of Our Lady.  It has a container in the back, likely for a small bouquet or flower arrangement.  I'm not sure how it ended up in our master bathroom, but somehow it did.  And at some point, someone started putting toothbrushes in it!  I've hesitated about this; it seems somewhat sacrilegious to put toothbrushes, toothpaste, and even a razor in a Mary statue!  And I have to wonder what people think when they're touring our home and see this interesting juxtaposition.

But is it really a juxtaposition?  Don't we always remind ourselves that God is with us in the little things?  Like we are reminded by St. Therese (Mary Clare's saint of choice this year), we should be doing all the little things for God.  Even brushing our teeth!  And Mary, maybe more than any other saint, was someone who had a true juxtaposition in her life.  Being Mother to Our Lord, to God himself.  How she must have known that each little detail of her life was devoted to raising her Son in a Holy Family.  How they must have loved each other in the little things.  How prayer would have been central to every action she did as a mother.  I love this image of Mary hanging laundry with the baby Jesus at her feet.  A beautiful thing to ponder...

Whenever I'm tempted to move the toothbrushes to a more appropriate container, I end up convincing myself that they are just fine right there.  That having a reminder of Mary's example of quiet prayer and unity with God in her family life is something I can strive for as a mother.  I believe she was the perfect Mother, which is why God chose her for His Divine Son.  And though I am very, very far from perfect, I can emulate her actions and ask her to pray for me to be a good mother.  Even when I'm brushing my teeth.

Down by the Bay

We went "down by the bay" last week to house hunt and be with Steven during some of his workweek.  We had a nice time, although we didn't find a house until we got home!  

On Monday we got a membership to the Aquarium!  Here are the kids before the dolphin show.  This is going to be a great afternoon outing once we move.  We went at about 2pm and the crowds were very light.  The kids will get to talk to trainers and get in lots of "real" science lessons here!

Love this spot for photos!  So beautiful!

I was so proud of myself for petting a sting ray.  I tend to associate them with the death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and I had no interest in petting them.  But I realized that the kids wouldn't try if I didn't do it, and sure enough both the girls tried right after I did.  A happy mom moment :-)

Isn't this bald eagle beautiful?

I was very proud of Ellie for answering the speaker's question about what the largest mammal is!  She knew it was a Blue Whale, and couldn't believe that someone might not know that when I praised her later that day.  Kudos to their Animal Scientist Daddy!

This was neat because there was a diver in the aquarium during the talk!

This sting ray was really big!!!

 

We look forward to many more days at the Aquarium!  They have a large splash pad and sandbox too, so the kids can't wait to try those out!

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 NeNe and PaPa came down to the bay for a night and helped with the kids while I ran around looking at houses and dance studios!

Our last outing before leaving town was the Schoenstatt shrine, right down the road from the bay house where we stayed!  Here are the kids and NeNe and PaPa with the founder (I think).

This is my life!  CRAZY!

heading into the little chapel...

As we were leaving we ran into a sweet nun who said she would pray for our intention to find a house for our family.  Sure enough, the next day I found one!  And it looks like we might have found renters for our home too.  Thanks be to God!

Time for a moving sale!

Coming up for air

What a week! We spent 3 nights "down by the bay" to look at houses (and went to the aquarium pictured below) and then came home to a busy 2 days of co-op, ballet, and garage sale prep! Tomorrow is our big sale and hopefully we'll get rid of a lot of stuff!

After checking out a bunch of homes and a couple ballet schools, we've possibly found a rental home, which of course happened the day after the kids and I left town! So things could maybe happen pretty soon and we could find ourselves living in a new house in just a couple weeks!

We have Steven's dad here helping, and we'll have SJ's one month post surgery check up on Monday. Thomas has a runny nose and isn't sleeping well. I definitely could use some time to catch my breath!

No rest for the weary, though! Gotta get a few more things out for the sale! Happy weekend, everyone!