Sunday, May 1, 2016

2016 Week 18 in Review

The Week in Pictures: 

It wasn't the best week for pictures but here is a quick hello/ update from each of the children!
It's hard to keep up with our little John - he's always on the go.  Though not yet walking he'll take steps here and there. He is an all-terrain crawler and gets around pretty well outside though we may need to invest in new pants for the next child.  He has 8 teeth and is working on more.  He loves being outside especially on our new swing set, taking baths and playing with his siblings.  He's loving that we have 2 full baths in our new home and will request a bath anytime we're near a bathroom.  He likes to "drive" the car before getting into his car seat so he sits in the driver seat (with the door closed) while I buckle Thomas in.  He's not so fond of confined spaces including church pews, mom's arms and our school room.  He's pretty good at letting us know his likes and dislikes and has picked up a few ASL signs  - "milk," "food" and "up". 
      
Thomas is always eager to be first at everything and is passionate about all he does.  You'll often find him with a sword in hand. He loves learning his ABC's and can actually write "T," "O" and "M." He loves his dry-erase white board and will draw pictures of himself fighting monsters and will often ask me for spelling words.  A reluctant potty trainee, he is pretty good with prompting right now but we still have a lot more "training" to do.

Luke will be 6 in a month!  He loves building with Legos.  Math is his favorite school subject and he has already finished his kindergarten math book and begun the first grade math book I ordered for next year.  He's also enjoying the "Life of Fred" read alouds we are doing for math enrichment.  He's not so fond of writing but is great at reading simple words and beginning readers.  He's a sweet and thoughtful big brother and has been sharing his "super doggy" with John at night so "John will wake up happy."

Here's Luke's latest Lego creation. (He inherited his sister's pink Legos.)

It's such a joy to have our Miriam and a blessing to have another communicant in the family!  It's been a rough week for her as she hasn't been feeling well and was up most of the night with an ear infection Friday.  She's become an avid reader and is reading through our collection of chapter books.  She recently really enjoyed "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald and entered a contest at the Library where she read 26 books by different Authors with last names for each letter of the alphabet A-Z. 

 Master Lego builder, amazing big brother and dad's right hand - we are really enjoying our 10 year old!  William's Lego creations are pretty impressive and he's often problem-solving and building with materials around the house.  He loves to ride his bike, listen to Brian Jacques audio books and help dad with the many new house projects.  It's a joy to have such a great helper and he loves to play with John pushing him in his little minivan and on the new swings. William continues to benefit from the Stern Center tutoring and is making steady progress in his school work and looking forward to building forts this summer.  

 Miriam and William began piano lessons 2 weeks ago.  We are blessed with a piano teacher who will come to our home to teach them.  They are both doing well!
 A fun picture courtesy of Phil - foam swords and light sabers are great for early morning sword fights:-)
I was just excited about this "sacrament wall" in the kids room.  It's right next to our "play Mass" altar up there. We have this beautiful baptism picture that William's Godfather gave him and I put the baptism pictures of each of the kids around it with a special holy water font underneath.  I might try to make a "First Communion" wall too :-)
 Here are a couple projects I'm working on - a little Sacramentary for a peg doll swap.  I'm painting 13 of these for a peg doll Mass set swap I'm doing.
 This was a Monstrance for our play Mass set that I painted for the kids.  

In the works for Simple Saints: 
St. Michael the Archangel

Highlights from the Week: 

I am so grateful for all Phil does for our family!  We really missed him this weekend as he spent Friday afternoon/evening, all day Saturday and half of Sunday at the St. Anne's Shrine with engaged couples.  Sunday Mass definitely goes a lot more smoothly with dad around!

We began "home school swim lessons" at The Edge in Essex - for the next 5 Fridays the kids get to spend an hour in the water for lessons.  

Miriam unfortunately was up much of Friday night with an ear infection which necessitated a call to our new pediatrician.  He personally met us at his office in "work clothes" to take a look at Miriam's ear and then called in the prescription to our local pharmacist whom he knew by name.  The joys of living in a small town!

Saturday was a beautiful day and we were able to get the bikes and scooters out and ride on our road which is essentially a long driveway for the five houses in our sub-division.  John really loved the infant bike seat.  

Praise the Lord for His many blessings!  The Easter Season has flown by and I can hardly believe this Thursday we'll be celebrating the Ascension!  We're lucky to be in a diocese that has preserved the Thursday celebration so we'll be celebrating by attending morning Mass and then having dinner with friends.  May Our Lord bless your week and know we'll be praying for you, please also remember us in your prayers!
    

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