Luke's ABC's

Now it's Luke's turn to have his moment in the limelight. At 2 1/2 he's already learned the ABC song and he loves learning his letters.

 He is very eager to participate in our homeschool lessons and loves to count as well. Like most younger siblings, he wants to do everything his brother and sister are doing.

Outside of learning his letters his favorite things are Thomas the train and Frosty the snowman. We've made several "snowman" crafts and he listened to Frosty the snowman over the Christmas Holidays so many times that the whole family has most of the song memorized.

He also loves to help and loves his little brother Thomas as well.

Our 100th day of school

Today is our 100th day of homeschooling this year!  

We planned some fun activities to help us celebrate this milestone.

We started off the day with pancakes shaped as a 100.

We were ready to attend classes at our homeschool Co-Op but due to weather (Icy roads and freezing rain) classes were cancelled.  It's a good thing we homeschool so our 100th day of school could still take place :-)

I saw this cute idea to make 100th day glasses on Pinterest and what's a celebration without balloons?

 For Math we did this fun activity where the kids see how many rolls of the dice it takes to get to 100 (also found on Pinterest :-)

Luke decided to play with his car and chalk instead of rolling the die :-)

We also read a story and sang a song that we found in a book at the Library.
Miriam and Luke loved the song from the book "50 Thematic songs sung to your favorite tunes" (sung to 99 bottles of beer on the wall):

"100 days of school in all, 

100 days of school.

We managed to count a large amount, 

100 days of school in all."

The book,100th Day Worries, showed the various ways to count to 100 and it was a fun story to read.

Finally, we had the opportunity to attend Mass in the extraordinary form offered by our Associate Pastor Father Peter Wigton. (The Church is really close to our house and the roads were pretty well salted by Mass time.)

All in all it was a pretty fun day- now on to the next 100 days :-)

Let it Snow!

Thomas is all bundled up and ready for the snow

This post is primarily for my family and friends in Southern California. In our new home of Gaylord, MI they average 150 inches of snow a year. This is three times the amount of snow we had in Stevens Point, WI and well I know most of my family and friends have a hard time picturing what life with that much snow would be like. The week we have a winter storm brewing and it'll be snowing pretty much every day so I took some pictures of our drive to Mass to share with you! 

Here they are:

Our view out the front windshield of the car

See how well the roads are plowed!

Snow everywhere as far as the eye can see

William's Creations

It's been a while since I've featured William in a post so here is one on his favorite thing to do - build things out of blocks, Legos, etc.  Here's a video of him describing his house boat followed by pictures of some of his creations.  He's getting so big!  Enjoy.

 

 

An Ode to a Memorable Week

Twas the week before Christmas

and all through our house

No one was healthy (not even the mouse).

Amidst Christmas preparations, for a few days

the children did cough, sneeze and Cain raise

 

 When out of the sky

the snowflakes did fly

18 inches in 24 hour

 

the wet and heavy snow left us in the cold

for 2 days lacking heat and power

So four days before Christmas

like Nomads we were wandering

seeking lodging and heat, while pondering

the Holy Family's quest

as they sought some rest

to prepare for our Saviour's arrival

While looking for room at an "inn" we were grateful to find

welcome with friends who were quite kind

yet prayers we did request

and gratefully,

at their bequest

we were greeted with the return of electricity

With joy sincere,

thanks to the power company

we returned to our home triumphantly

to celebrate a birth like no other

One that gave us a heavenly brother

through Him we became adopted Sons

and gained a Holy Mother and Heavenly Father.

Merry 4th day of Christmas!

An Original Christmas Song by Miriam

Merry Christmas Octave!

On Christmas Eve this year we followed our family tradition of dressing the children in their Christmas attire before putting them to bed so they'd be ready to go for Midnight Mass.

 

Before they settled in for the night, Miriam sang this Christmas Eve song that she made up (with some accompaniment from Luke and Thomas) and I just wanted to share it with you - enjoy!

A Blesssed Week

This past week we celebrated two great Feast Days!  On Wednesday, we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a pilgrimage to a local Marian Shrine - Our Lady of the Woods in Mio, MI.  This is a beautiful shrine to Our Lady built by a priest, Fr. Hubert Rakowski, O.F.M, with the help of the people of the Parish out of gratitude for Mary's help in increasing the size of his Parish.  It reminded us of the Rudolph Grotto in WI.   We look forward to visiting again in the Spring or Summer to see it in all it's glory.

William's Masterpiece

On our way to the Shrine

       That afternoon the children were able to visit the nursing home and help the residents with some simple crafts.  They also recited their Candy Cane poem for them.

Helping the "Grandma's" at the Nursing home

Luke was proud of his paper chain

 On Thursday, we celebrated St. Lucy's feast day for the first time.  Miriam was so excited!  We made a special St. Lucy day bread and adopted the beautiful Scandinavian tradition where the oldest daughter dresses as St. Lucy and goes to wake the other members of the family.  We cut the bread and Miriam then took it to Mass and we shared it with everyone at Mass.  It was a memorable day for her and is likely to become a family tradition!

2012 Advent and Christmas Letter

Advent/ Christmas Letter 2012

A Theatrical Debut

Last night the Home School group we are part of here in Gaylord, MI put on a Christmas Regale with some great skits and a showcase of talent from our group. It was a great night and the kids did a great job! Thomas made his debut as baby Jesus. I don't think any of my other babies would have been content at that time of night in someone else's (or even my own) arms. Thomas was perfect.

The kids memorized this poem about "The Candy Cane" and did a great job!  I was so proud of them. 







Later that night as we were driving home William said, "I loved that stage - it was so cool."  He just loved being on the big stage - a far cry from when he wouldn't leave my side at Vacation Bible School a year and a half ago.  :-)

It's Advent!

 Happy Liturgical New Year!

We are getting ready for our Lord's coming!

Our Advent Wreath is ready.

 









The Jesse Tree is up.

And our stockings are hung for St. Nicholas day tomorrow!