Sicut Cervus Desiderat

Friday, March 29, 2013

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

William is 7!

On March 19th, William turned seven. It's hard for me to believe that my firstborn is already seven! The years have just flown by!

It seems like yesterday he was taking his first steps.

For William's birthday, we celebrated by going to a nursing home in town where they had some special festivities planned for the residents and children who came to visit them.

Everyone had a wonderful time and the kids each received a teddy bear and balloon and the opportunity to brighten "the grandma and grandpa's" day as well as lots of smiles.

That evening we had cake and sang Happy Birthday to William with his good friend Micah. (It's a good thing William's birthday is always on the solemnity of St. Joseph since it will always fall during Lent.)
All in all a blessed 7th Birthday for William.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Ann Arbor or Bust!

Last weekend Thomas, Miriam and I went on an adventure to Ann Arbor, MI. We took two young ladies from our parish to a retreat with the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. I forgot to get a picture of the lovely ladies who traveled down to Ann Arbor with us, but here is a slideshow of the retreat courtesy of the Sisters: While Mary and Alice attended the 24 hour retreat with the sisters, the kids and I spent the night with my friends from College - Beth and Collin. It was great to see them and Miriam had so much fun with Aunt Beth and Uncle Collin that she didn't want to leave!

We then had brunch and attended Mass with the Peter's family. Miriam bonded instantly with Theresa and Margaret. It was a great visit but much too short - we're hoping to see them again in August when Sr. Rose Anthony makes her Final Vows.

Before we knew it, it was time to pick up Mary and Alice at the Sisters' retreat and Miriam was so excited to spend even a few moments with the sisters even though our beloved Sister Rose Anthony is in California right now. We got these great pictures:

Miriam future Sister

It was a great trip though the 3 1/2 hour drive with a 5 month old wasn't the easiest, Mary and Alice got to have a taste of the vocation of Marriage and of Religious life and we're doing our best to foster vocations :-)

Friday, February 1, 2013

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.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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 :-)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

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

Friday, January 11, 2013

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.