2016 Week 13 In Review

Christ is Risen Alleluia!!  

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

The week in pictures: 

 This week's job was to unpack the boxes!  We are loving our new home - praise God for His many blessings - we are so grateful for our little bit of "heaven on earth."

 Hot Cross buns for Good Friday!

 Community Easter egg hunt on Holy Saturday. 

 Getting ready for Easter by decorating eggs - I got 3 different type on clearance last year so the kids got to try them out (yes, I packed them and brought them with us...)  The chalk eggs were kind of fun but I'm not sure that black eggs are my favorite.

 The egg sprayer looked more fun than it was.   It didn't work all that well and made a big mess so I don't recommend it;-)

 We really liked the "majestic egg dye" easy and no mess.  :-)

 Getting ready for the Easter Vigil!

 We did not bring our old couch with us on the moving truck so we bought our first couch ever as a family.  Nothing fancy (a Big Lot's Special buy) but it was super exciting for the kids and we are really happy with it.

 Luke lost his first tooth on Holy Saturday and on Easter Sunday he found a "golden quarter" :-)

Our Easter table!

Praise God for His many blessings!!  He is Truly Risen and we are so grateful for the Paschal Mystery and our Catholic faith!  May your Easter Celebration be truly blessed - enjoy the Easter octave!  Our prayers are with you, please pray for us!

2016 Week 12 In Review

The Week in Pictures: 

 Last Sunday, we enjoyed some Irish Ceili dancing in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  The McFadden Academy of Irish dance led the children in some dancing.  

 We got to explore the woods on our new property on a beautiful day - these pictures don't do it justice but we are so excited to enjoy our new 5.8 acres of land!

 On St. Patrick's Day, the children were able to prepare for Holy Week by enjoying a Seder meal (for the older children) and a Last Supper re-enactment for the younger children in our Atrium.  They loved it!  The pictures are taken "through the door windows" so they aren't the best.

 Miriam is kind of hidden and looking away unfortunately.

 Luke and Thomas 

 William at his Seder meal.

For the Last Supper re-enactment each of the children had the name of one of the characters in the Last Supper - Miriam was Mary, Thomas was Thomas and Luke was Joseph of Arimethea.

 John enjoying some time outdoors.

 Who knew a mattress makes a great tent/hideout? 

 Moving day arrived!!  We are so grateful for the many helpers we had to load and unload the truck - everything went well and now we're just trying to dig ourselves out of boxes. :-)  We felt especially blessed to have a pastor on either side of the move present.  Msgr. John McDermott helped us load up at Christ the King rectory which will be his future home and Father Henry Furman from our new parish - St. Luke's stopped by to bless the food and our house and helpers.

 William and Miriam participated in a Dramatization of the Passion and living stations of the Cross for the "Jubilee of the youth that took place today for the Year of Mercy.

 William turned 10 on St. Joseph's Day and got a new house and watch for his birthday :-)

We had our first wild-life siting.  A playful fox out in broad daylight just chasing whatever was out in our field on moving day!

Highlights from the week:

What an amazing week!  We feel truly blessed to be in our new home!!!  As we unpack the boxes and put things in order I'll take more pictures to post but there is plenty of room for everyone to come visit now.  We even have our own campground in the backyard ;-)   Next week we will welcome our first guest - Aunt Jenny who's visiting on Easter Monday and we can't wait to see her.

And now that we have entered into the most amazing week of the year we pray that each of you enter more fully into the Paschal Mystery through the Liturgy of Holy Week!  Please pray for us as well!

2016 Week 11 In Review

The Week in Pictures:

Yep, we're moving again and everything must go back into boxes :-)  This Friday, March 18th is "Closing day" when the house officially becomes our new home.  Then Saturday will be a memorable Moving Day/10th birthday party for William!

 

 On Wednesday we joined fellow homeschool families for our monthly homeschool Mass and Co-op day.  The children sang in the choir for Mass.

 The children joined the crowd for a Shadow Stations skit and reflection that the youth of the diocese will be doing for the jubilee for school age children on Saturday, March 20th.  These pictures are from their "dress rehearsal" this week. 

 This week the kids built Monster Trucks at Lowes - they are getting pretty good at hammering nails.

 We learned how to make St. Brigid's Crosses at an Irish heritage activity at the Library. 

 And now a hello and update from each of the children:

 Hi everyone!  I just turned 11 months on Thursday March 10th.  I still only have 5 teeth but I'm working on at least 1 more.  I love to sing and dance to any type of music (including CSH memory work) and I'm really good at pulling myself up on furniture.  I can even push a chair around while I'm standing.  I'm a bit more cautious than most of my other siblings and I'm not in too big of a hurry to walk yet, that said, I can get where I want to go with my own style of crawling.  I can also make a mess with the  best of them and love dumping things.  I'm really enjoying trying out new foods. 

 Hello everyone!  I love reading and my new big interest is typing.  My Mom bought a typing program for William, but I  am spending more time on it and have also began to type my own stories, check lists and letters.  I even entered the PBS kids Vermont Story Contest this week.  In a little over a month I will be 8 and I can't wait because on that day I will make my First Communion!

It's a bird, it's a plane - no it Super Thomas!  Hi everyone!  I love super heroes, comics, fighting bad guys and playing with my brothers and sisters who I call "friends."  Lately whenever I go into Church I notice that Jesus is on the Cross and that the bad guys have killed Him so I told mom that I'm going to fly and kill the bad guys and save Jesus.

 Hi, I'm Luke.  I am an explorer and I like to explore places that have never been found and to find new things.  I love listening to stories on tape and this helps me to explore new things.  I also wrote a story for the Vermont PBS Kids writing contest called The Mystery of the Silly Box. 

Hey everyone, I am the Knight of the Moving Party.  I'm getting ready for our big move next Saturday on my birthday.  Next week I'll be 10 and it's my job to help Mom and Dad with the move to our new house.  I can't wait because there are woods there and I've already scoped out a place for a tree house fort.  I'm also looking forward to caring for chickens again and maybe even getting a few new pets. 

This week I painted 4 saints for an order for Simple Saints, St. Therese, St. Gianna Molla, St. Bernadette and St. Andre Bessette. 

Highlights from the Week:

William's 1st Session at the Stern center went well - it was mostly evaluations with his language instructor so she has a baseline for his progress.  I'm looking forward to sitting in on the sessions and getting some insights on ways to teach language skills more effectively and efficiently. 

Miriam will have her first "True Vine Meeting" Monday evening which is the first of 5 weekly meetings that will directly prepare her for her First Communion by reflecting upon and going deeper into parables that will help her better understand the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion.  She will then have a three day retreat, culminating with the Sacrament of Reconciliation just before her First Communion on the 19th.  I am loving the beautiful preparation of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and how it really allows the children to enter more deeply into the scripture and beauty treasury of  our Catholic faith. 

Blessings from our family to yours!   I'll be praying especially for you this week by offering my joyful Lenten penance of moving one last time and try to smile through the challenges.  Our prayers are with you as we draw near to the Week of Weeks  - Holy Week in which the Liturgy makes present Jesus' work of Salvation!  Please pray for us!