The Mouse!

We're off! Disney World, here we come!! First vacation we've had in years. Feels a little strange taking a vacation during Lent, but I just didn't do a thorough job of checking the calendar when we planned it last year.. :-(

We will be leaving a bit early, though, so we can stop by the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. We'll be able to hang out there for the better part of a day. No better way to start a vacation than spending some time with our Lord through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and time with our Blessed Mother. See you in two weeks!!!!!

A little fun with photoshop

I have a new camera that I've been piddling around with lately and some new software too. Neither of which I am very good with, but my good neighbor friend took pity on me after I begged asked her for some of her expert help. She has photographed our entire family (no small feat with all eight of us). You can check out her stuff here. She's awesome! Anyhoo, she spent the better part of the morning over here and I am ever so grateful. Here is one of the pics we were foolin' with. Scroll down a post or so to see the original pic.
And here is one straight out of the camera..

and after playing with it a little....

Obviously I'm going to need more practice, but my time is up for now... back to work for me.

Our First Snow of the Season

Well, kind of..... I mean it did snow, a little.. enough for the monkeys to get out and play in it. I tried to get some shots. None of them turned out particularly well, but I did like this one of Sister.


Here's a shot of One with a friend enjoying snow. I asked One what he had said to his friend to make him laugh so hard and he said something to the effect of "Beware of yellow snow!" Boys.....

Wordless Wednesday

Monkey Three.

My Green Bay Fan

He's number Two monkey. Even though the football season is gone until next Aug/Sept, this kid is ATE up! For Christmas, one set of grandparents gave him Green Bay crocs, another-- two Green Bay shirts. Now, I can understand wearing the same shoes everyday, lots of folks do that. And believe me, Two wears those shoes daily. What some might consider a little radical though is the frequency in which he dons on the shirts. He has worn one or the another since the day he got them. Every day. Every. Day. He wears one at night under his feetey pajamas; if it's cold out, he'll wear a turtle neck underneath one (like in the above pic); going to Mass, he wears one under his collared shirt.... I have to literally peeeeeel them off to get them to the wash. Two loves, loves, loves the Packers. His love is contagious too. He has turned almost our whole house into Packer fans (except for One, who can't betray his Rams)... and oh, the agony that was felt when GB lost in the playoffs. He is already wishing for Sept. and another season of football. Until then, he'll have to settle for picking them as his team on Madden football and pretend he's really watching Farve and the rest. And to think, his basis for making this his favorite team all started because his favorite colors were green and yellow...

Happy Birthday George!

Tried to post this last night, but my service was on the fritz....

Today was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm, and we decided to celebrate Presidents' Day by spending the afternoon at Ferry Farm. (George Washington's boyhood home for those of you not as steeped in US history as I am--pfffthththttt-giggle, snort)

We got to sign a birthday card for George with quill and ink....

Sign up for the Continental Army....

Play colonial games like whack the wooden circle (okay, I know that's not the real name, I'm just to tired to think of it and too lazy to go look it up. Deal with it.)

Even hubby got in on this one..

Then there was lawn bowling.. check out the form here folks, and look how impressed the nice lady is behind Henny...
Baby monkey here didn't quite get the lawn bowling concept. He thought the object was to grab the pins and whack the ball.
Also there was pitching corn cob thru the wreath..

and well, I'm not quite sure what this one was called either

But anything involving sticks for boys is an enjoyable thing, right? This was also sister's favorite game as well. She did pretty well with it. Must come from my side of the family. ;-)

Strawberries? What strawberries?

Are you sure there were strawberries in here?

Like, right here?

Nope, haven't seen 'em.

Are you counting??

This year for science, the kiddos and I have been learning about flying creatures. Birds, bugs, bats etc. This past week we just so happened to be studying about all the field marks that differentiate birds from one another. Well how handy is it then that the Great Backyard Birdcount should be starting today. It was so nice of them to co-ordinate that with me, don't you think? So git yourselves out this weekend for some fresh air and a chance to appreciate some of God's flying creatures. Yes, I said git. Does it make you want to move faster? It sure does my kids-- "Git outta the candy.", "Would you git your shoes on already?!?!", and the ever popular "Git. Over. Heeeerrreee." I digress.. what else is new?

The other day...

We got a package.....

it was big! (sorry for the neck cramp here)lift from bottom only.... (great..)could it be.. a big ol' cooler of dry ice?!??!
whoah Nellie! (whoever that is) It's genuine Papa Sausage!!

SIXTY POUNDS OF IT!! Can I get a whoop!?!!?

And you betcha, we had it that night! (Okay, well, not actually that night.. we got it on a Friday, and since it's Lent and all, we had it the next night, and because it was so stinkin' good, the night after too--really.)

Now about that dry ice...

Happy St. Valentines Day!

Here's hoping all of you and your loved ones have a great St. Valentines Day. Did you notice I said "St."?? At one point in time everyone referred to it that way... Folks went skipping around (okay, maybe not skipping) saying "Happy St. Valentines Day!" to their sweeties, teachers, grandparents etc. Even my little grade school Snoopy perforated edge valentine said "Happy St. Valentine's" back in the day. Now, I guess our time is too compressed and busy these days too eek out the 'St.' part. Next thing you know we'll be having Patrick's Day parades (sans the St.) and so forth. Although maybe not, since the Irish heavily guard and honor their beloved Saint.. some by drinking themselves silly with green beer on his feast day. (nuthin' wrong with that-- green beer, I mean. Drinking themselves silly-- another story) So my friends, to right the world a bit today, I'll be slowing down a little to wish everyone a proper "Happy St. Valentines Day". Consider yourselves the first!

Our Lent

I've been wanting to post a bit on what we're doing around here for Lent, but time keeps getting away from me. So quickly, before the monkeys awake and get into full swing (hee, hee..), here are the details....

On our dinning room table, which is rarely used for dinning since the room is a bit smallish and it's kind of hard to fit us all, we have this..

These are our 'sacrifice eggs'. Each member of the family is assigned one, except that Baby Monkey, dh and I share the same one. Throughout Lent as someone makes a sacrifice for another( ie. giving up the last of the yummy cereal to someone else instead of finishing it themselves, giving up a favorite spot on the couch during movie time, picking up dirty underwear off the floor for your sibling, not punching the daylights out of your brother as he continues to annoy you by the minute...) you write your name, date and sacrifice on a slip of paper, fold it and tuck it into the egg. Sometimes I'll use the slips of paper to let someone know how I appreciate them or prayed for them that day. Then on Easter morning, everyone gets to pull out their slips of paper in their egg and read all the cool stuff that's been done for them over the past 40 days. The kids all really enjoy this Lenten tradition-- seriously, they are almost more excited to read the little papers than they are to sink their teeth into some Easter sweetness found in baskets...almost ...

Ash Wednesday

Lent is here already. Hard to believe. I used to dread this time of year; you know all that 'giving up stuff'. I found the 40 days .....well, depressing. Now I've turned a corner of sorts and can see the beauty of Lent. Lent is a time where we can focus to try and become more like Christ. It's a chance to simplify and meditate on the sacrifice He made for us. I know that we should strive to keep that in mind on a daily basis, but let's face it...we let things get in the way... and now is the time to push some of those distractions out. So around here some of us take our normal t.v. time and video game time and offer it up for some more productive time like prayer, reading Scripture, or enjoying a book or game with a sibling. We'll cut out a favorite like sweets, or in my case, diet soda (perish the thought!) and every time we reach for those conveniences, we'll think of our Lord, what He sacrificed and how tiny our sacrifice is compared to that. We'll slow our lives down and take time to listen to what God wills for us. We'll work on better serving one another with a joyful heart. And hopefully by doing some of these things, we can better unite ourselves with Christ these next 40 days....



Blessed Lent to all.