Swimming Lessons

We had been debating for a long time about which activity to try Angel with first....she wants to do it all...swimming, ballet, gymnastics etc. So we finally decided to try swimming as a class was just starting. Our local YMCA only starts lessons when you turn six. But the actual pool they use started classes as infants and up, however I had been warned they were not as good as the classes at the Y. But we decided to give it a try....Angel LOVED the water. There were only 5 kids in the class and she was so excited to go and just soaked up all the activity. However, the instructor was HORRIBLE. No introductions, no instructions....no explanations and these are 3-5 year olds!! Angel had no idea what she meant when she said "Walk on the wall!" Poor kid. So...even though she loved the water, it was NOT worth the money for such a cold class...I want her to LEARN about what she is doing and water safety etc. I can teach a better class for her for FREE than that. So we canceled the classes....but hope to get to the $1 swim nights on Wednesdays and do our own class. Or I hope that we can get to base with my mom and Alli and I can teach Emma and Angelica....and my mom thinks the base has some good classes. If anyone knows of anything else available locally, let me know.

So excited for her lesson

Holding on to the wall

Anxiously watching all the activity

Going for a lap

Jumping In

Does Not Like all the Splashing by the Boys

Going Under (was shocked she went!)

Art Time

Painting requires some serious concentration...as seen by Angel and her tongue sticking out!

Cramped Working Conditions

I just found this....I meant to post this a while ago. But this is my hubby working inside the engine of a Boeing 747-8....while he loves his work, this was a pretty cramped working condition....he really needed a good back massage after this job!

Family Photo Day

A few weeks ago we finally made it into the picture studio to get our pictures done...here are the good ones.....

Michaela's Baptism Pics

We have 8x10 of all the girls in a similar pose as the first pic

Emma's Two Year Pics

Putting Papa to Bed

The other night Jason took Michaela to lay down with her and put her to sleep...next thing I know is Michaela is awake and cooing and moving around while her Papa was fast asleep!!

Bumbo Baby

Miss Michaela is really enjoying her Bumbo time...to me, she looks way too old sitting up like that...but her sisters LOVE it and love to "play with" her.

Cutest Baby Ever

well...one of them. Thanks Marmee for the outfit! Although, papa tends to think the headband makes her look like an 80s exercise work out girl! But, don't you want to kiss those cheeks? I will lots for you!

THAT number

So last week I reached THAT number....the one I always thought I would never reach, THIRTY. I have to say that my friends and family were very nice to me (even though Jason's fun decorating idea of covering our family room floor in balloons to surprise me when I woke up....left well two toddlers having too much fun with them!) and I also have to say that forty isn't looking so bad!!! Yikes!

Life is Tiring

Late Lenten Post

Each year I love learning more and more about our rich Catholic faith and with children I enjoy finding lots of fun ways to teach it and celebrate it. We have decided to do several different activities this Lent....and there was a very neat Lent-link up site that gave tons of more ideas! Here are some of the things we are enjoying:
I put on our front door a crown of thorns wreath I made a couple years ago. I first change my blog color to purple, the liturgical color for Lent. We also cover our Marian corner with purple, have a picture of Jesus carrying the cross and this is where we keep our Bean Jar and Rice Boxes. The concept of the bean jar is for every sacrifice they make or good deed or act of kindness the girls get to put a bean in the jar. When they do this we have them say "Love you Jesus" because we are doing nice things which make Jesus happy instead of adding to His sufferings. This has been SO POPULAR. The girls are very anxious to help me in all kinds of ways....setting the table, helping with Michaela, getting things for each other...our jar is getting full! On Easter the beans that shows all the sacrifices and good deeds they did will turn into jelly beans!!

We received our Rice Bowls at Church and this has really been a good time to talk about the needs of the poor with the events in Haiti and Chile and our little girl we sponsor named Johanna who lives in Honduras. We hung up the calendar that comes with it with prayers and ideas and stories and each day read that.

Then we choose something to count, such as how many books are in the book basket, how many blocks are in the bucket, how many puppets are in the tub etc...and that is how many coins they get to pick out and put in their rice bowl! We kneel down in front of Mary and say the prayer on the box, then a Hail Mary, Our Father and Glory Be and then pray for the poor people. Angel is really enjoying this.

I loved this Lenten Calendar we found online. They colored it with the correct colors and we taped these up as well. We talked about how many days there were in Lent, about the symbols such as the fish meaning we do not eat meat, and what I have them do is every day we talk about what day it is....and then they get to put a footprint sticker on that day showing that we are walking along our Lenten journey with Jesus eagerly awaiting Easter Sunday.

I have seen the idea of the Lenten Cross a lot of places. We made a plain cross and hung it on the wall. Then each day after dinner if the girls can name something good that they did to make Jesus happy that day, they get to choose three flowers (to symbolize the Trinity) to put on their cross. We are hoping that by Easter it will be covered in them. I found flower stickers, foam stickers and have a flower punch that I made a bunch of flowers out of paper. When they put the flowers on, they say "Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross to save us and opening the gates of Heaven." Emma has a bit of hard time putting her flowers on and saying this so Angel is MORE than happy to help.

We made our Crown of Thorns (twisted grapevine, wooden sticks and gold spray paint) and it sits on our table. After dinner when we talk about the good deeds done that day or sacrifices made....the girls get to choose a thorn to take out of Jesus' crown to relieve His suffering. The goal is by Easter that we will have removed all His thorns and maybe we will decorate it to look like a true Crown for a King!

I bought stations of the cross from Leaflet Missal, the 8x10 size. They are gorgeous prints and we had them laminated so they keep! We hung them up in our long hallway. It is too hard to get and keep the kids at our Church's stations and honestly they don't really learn about them there. So this has been perfect for teaching them about each one, what it means and how to pray. We have several books we can use and lots of online ideas too.

One of the places we get some reflections for this is from the Lenten Holy Heroes Adventure.
Angel loves Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because we get a new lesson. On those days we get to watch an online video clip done by kids that teach us something about Lent. Today we learned about Lenten pretzels and we are making them as we speak. They also have activities for kids to do. Some of it is too old for us, but they do love the color sheets. Angel is getting so good at coloring and really enjoying it. So I bought them each a purple folder and we put all their coloring sheets and Lenten papers in there. Holy Heroes also has an Advent Adventure which I look forward to doing.

Last year, I bought the Jesus Tree Kit from Scripture Trees. Still do NOT have this assembled so it might be next year when we start this! Leaflet Missal actually sells this kit now too!! Something to look forward to. I am also hoping that I can complete my own 40 Bag Challenge....should be easy, we have lots of things to get rid of from when I deep-cleaned during my pregnancy!

Hope everyone is having a faith-filled and holy Lent! And if you haven't read the Pope's Lenten 2010 Message, you should!

Special

I have grown up always admiring my mom's spice rack that she still uses to this day. I mentioned it to my Pepe one day and this is what I received in the mail the other day...an exact duplicate of it made from scratch by my Pepe. I can't wait to hang this up in my kitchen one day and always cherish it and remember my special Pepe and his amazing talents and love...thank you so much!!

Hanna Hand Me Downs

It is amazing to see Miss Emma now wearing all of Angelica's Hanna Andersson outfits from Aunt Megs....where did my little girl go??

Her signature silly face

Angel stealing the lime light

but copied her sisters move!

Always Ash Wednesday...

...when you use your imagination with your bath crayons!! They thought of this all on their own!!

First Ash Wednesday

Reading Instead

Angel was supposed to be sleeping but she likes to read books and take them to bed with her. She was reading "Five Little Monkeys" over and over again, it was so cute!! She uses great intonation in her voice and I am sure she was doing the hand movements too!

School Days - A & C

For A & C week, we thought it would be nice to tie it in with Ashes (since Ash Wednesday was the day before) and Lent. So for A we did an Apple Craft...they cut open an apple and counted and found the seeds and then used those to make a paper apple. The apple was good for snack too! Then my friend explained to them about the Ashes and we took papers and drew sad faces on them for when we sin or make Jesus sad. Then to demonstrate how Jesus takes those and makes them go away we burned the sad faces in a bucket and made ashes. Angel was determined to end on a happy note though and wanted to draw a smiley face to make Jesus happy. Then for C we made a crown of thorns....twisted some grapevine together, and stuck wooden pins in it (40) and spray painted gold. The point is for Lent, each day if they do good deeds, acts of kindness or something that would make Jesus happy....they get to take a thorn out of the crown and hopefully by Easter they will all be gone!! It was a fun school day.