Toddler fun

Today we're potty-training - it's a long process but I have found a no-cry solution to encourage my resiliant almost four year-old to at least sit on the potty. Chocolate Advent calendars were on sale for 29 cents and he'll gladly sit on the potty to open one of those little doors. So the first time's a freebie, he sit's on the potty and gets to open a door. After that, well there has to be something in the potty and well we have yet to get that second door open. My almost two year old on the other hand has mastered going in the potty, as long as I remind her to sit on it.

With the development of speech comes good times. William, though a late bloomer in speech mastered commands quickly: "milk." progressed to "You get me milk, Mom" to his latest development "You better get me some milk." Though we require him to change his command to a request: "Mom, could you please get me some milk," he still always begins with that command. He is definately an oldest child - I guess that is what happens when both your parents are oldest children. Miriam, on the other hand, mastered the art of saying please at a very young age. She realised quickly that her"please will open more doors and is a lot more likely to change mom's mind than her second favorite manner of coersion - crying as if her heart was broken.

Advent Gratitude

Only 4 days until we celebrate our Savior's birth! As I was reading some of my friends blogs I was just stuck by how much I have to be grateful for and what a beautiful gift it is to have a season where we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Incarnate Lord with such joy. I just want to list some of the things I'm thankful for right now :-)

A son who is happily playing with a bucket of snow, and a couple cars in our mud room.

A sweet daughter who is joyfully spinning a chair around in the library and letting me type this blog post.

The baby who is now 17 weeks in utero and that the queasiness is beginning to abate.

A wonderful husband who has so generously helped on a regular basis with dishes, laundry & cleaning & shopping the past few months and is just a great father and spouse.

The many small blessings of everyday - the little joys in smiles and hugs, unexpected happy moments and the gift of being able to spend each day at home with my children.

A beautiful, rich Catholic faith and community that is so much a part of my every day.

And well so much more but my time is up :-) I hope and pray everyone has a truly Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Family update

Well it's official - we're expecting baby #3 due sometime towards the end of May or beginning of June. Praise God for His many blessings!

Latest addition

Here's the Latest addition to our menagerie - Polish Roosters - they are already making friends with our Guineas and the kids love to chase them :-) Cleo is waiting for her chance to get them- see her in the background.

Rainy days

Gotta love those rainy days when you have an umbrella handy!

Dancing - the joys of little ones

Yesterday William pressed the button on our "Fridge Farm" and grabbed Miriam and said "Let's Dance." It was just such a cute photo opportunity I thought I'd share it :-)

How to make a Saint Paul Pinata

From start to finish this project took about 2 weeks because I let the children add a few layers during their Vacation Bible School week - it could be completed in 1 week if time was short.

Items needed - Time, imagination, recyclable items (listed below), newspaper, flour, water, paint

Step 1: I found a picture online to use as my reference of what St. Paul looked like and then assembled random recyclable items to make the basic shape...I used a cereal box(it will hold the candy), some water bottles/ a pine sol bottle & a milk jug & a hanger I stuck them together with masking tape. It's important that you put a hanger in at the beginning and make sure it will hold the finished pinata.


Step 2: Get the Paper Mache ready - you need flour, water, & newspaper. Tear the paper into strips (it's easier to tear with the grain) & mix 2 parts water to 1 part flour (I always estimate).

Step 3: Prepare the workspace with newspaper & place the strips in the flour/water mixture & then smooth onto the pinata. Make sure to use long strips to secure loose parts - when it dries it will be very strong.

Step 4: Cover the entire front of the pinata and let dry (on a hot summers day, it was ready to move in a couple of hours but it can take a lot more time in cool weather.) As soon as the pinata is dry to the touch, you can turn it over & cover the back. On the same day, I was able to hang my pinata to dry.

Step 5: When the 1st coat on the Pinata is dry, cut a hole and add candy. After it was full, I covered the hole with masking tape & we put two more layers(the 1st 2 days of VBS). I also added a book by "paper mache" ing over a folded newspapar. The more layers you put on the stronger the pinata will be.

Step 6: Paint the Pinata - I just used craft paint from Michael's.

Step 7: I added a sword with Masking tape & then the kids had fun hitting him with a foam covered bat. (see 1st picture)

July Project

The big project for me in July was our Parish Vacation Bible School. For the past 4 years we've been writing our own curriculum - I generally do the teaching points & then one of our very musically talented parishoners does the music, other volunteers teach & Phil handles all of the nitty gritty tasks & the actual directing and coordinating during that week. The overall theme was "In the Footsteps of St. Paul" in honor of the recently concluded Year of St. Paul. Each day followed the life of Saint Paul from his conversion and the focussing on the adventures he had while on the Missionary Journeys. Each day always has a Saint or Saints & Prayer that the kids learn. Everything went really well this year! I wasn't able to stop with just writing the teaching points this year though but ended up organizing the crafts and a skit - thus the kids & I were exhausted by the end of the week but I think everyone had fun. Here's some pictures of our crafts. I'd upload the Curriculum but I'm not sure how to post a pdf file.

Fourth of July Weekend

4th of July weekend in review...

Grandma Lawson visited

We set off Fireworks

We saw the Stevens Point Parade

Mom had a birthday

May God bless our Country and grant that our nation may foster Life from conception to natural death.

June at the Lawsons

June has been a fun and busy month for our family! In Wisconsin - spring comes around the beginning of June, the days get much longer & everyone seems to come alive! Lucky for us, this is the time of year when Phil's job isn't quite as busy & he is able to take some vacation time so the first two weeks of June we had dad at home :-) We began by planting our gardens - we have a vegetable garden, a Jesus, Mary & Joseph Flower garden & a strawberry & pumpkin patch.



Another exciting day for us was our trip to Mt. Olympus Water Park in the WI Dells (we got free tickets from our credit union) so the trip only cost us $5 for parking & gas!

Grandma Lawson came to visit us for a weekend after our trip to the Dells. We realised that Miriam definately takes after Phil's side of the family - she looks just like grandma!


The next big event was the arrival of our new guinea fowl - we picked out 4 from the Nordbergs (unfortunately 1 didn't make it throught the first night). I think Cleo is the most excited person in our family - she's been intently watching the keets grow.


That same weekend was our Parish picnic at St. Peter's, while we didn't win the big raffle prize of $2000, William did win a nice mini raffle prize which included a bubble grill, 2 chairs, 2 butterfly nets & bug catching kits - He and Miriam have been really enjoying this prize!






Friday June 19th, The tritz boys came over to play for the morning and here's a picture of the kids enjoying the new bubble grill.



Saturday June 20th, we had a delightful day at the Milwaukee Zoo with Grandma Lawson (we were lucky to get free tickets from Phil's Aunt Kay). William & Miriam really enjoyed the train ride at the end!

For Father's Day, William & Miriam made a special pencil holer with their pictures on it for Dad's desk and gave dad a new hammock. As the month of June comes to an end, we're just enjoying our summer weather and the fun times together with family & friends! From our family to yours - hope you're having a great summer!