Days 1 & 2 with the Grandparents

My kids are in heaven.

John's parents are visiting us for a week.

They arrived yesterday and when the kids saw the car pull into the driveway, they bolted out the door.  Gregory was in Grandpa's lap before Grandpa had a chance to unbuckle.

After dinner the kiddos were treated to pumpkin bread and milkshakes and stayed up late chatting and reading all of the books Grandma brought them.

Today Clare had school and Gregory got to go to the Colonial National Country Club in Ft. Worth with grandpa and watch part of the PGA tour.  Gregory loved it, they saw Phil Mickelson, John Daly, and some other golfers I can't remember.

Then we threw in the excitement of the Thomas' birthday.

At bedtime the kids practically fell into bed exhausted. I'm sure the rest of the week will be just as much fun.

Birthday Boy

Look at that smile!

Thomas' siblings helped him blow out his candle.

Gregory really enjoyed his bundt cake.

Thomas took a few nibbles and pokes but he wasn't very messy.  The mess was from his strawberry and blueberry dinner.  He really wasn't sure about the cake.

Before he would eat it, he needed me to break it ino about 20 small pieces.  He ate 4-5 bites and then got frustrated and started throwing his sippy cup and cake.  I can't really complain if he likes fruit more than cake.

The Pool is Cool

Wordless Wednesday

I'm almost 1!

Only 2 more days and only 1 more day until Grandma and Grandpa visit!  I'm so excited!

Big Boy at the Table

Thomas was so proud of himself to sit in a big kid chair even if it was only for a few minutes

He and his daddy had a nice little father-son moment.

Pirate Gregory

Little Ballerina

We are so proud of Clare.  She was a beautiful little dancer!

This is her good friend Sophie, who is also in her class at school.

Unfortunately 5 seconds into Clare's dance my camera started flashing and then died altogether without warning, so I don't have a video of her dancing this year.

Little Chefs

Ingredients:
1 can tuna fish
1 can pineapple bits
1 bottle bbq sauce

Plan on hitting it all with a rolling pin, or at least try to until Mom comes and kills your creative genius.

Messy Baby

On the same day that Thomas was a yogurt pretzel vampire, he was quite messy in a couple of other ways too.

There was the great berry massacre.

And the glitter glue fairy look.

The picture below does not clearly show the amount of glitter that he rubbed all over himself while waiting to get his sister from school.

I'm still trying to get glitter off of him, that stuff sticks.

Wordless Wednesday

Yogurt Pretzel Vampire Baby

Tidbits

It's funny watching Thomas with a fork.  He wants one because we all use one, but has no idea how to manipulate it. 

He picks up a piece of food, places it on his fork, looks at it and smiles, and then grabs the food with his hand and puts it in his mouth.

*****

Clare on reading:  "It's much faster to read when you make up the words."

*****

Gregory's meandering around the house with a half dozen stuffed dogs in an empty beer bottle carton.  I guess that makes it a 6 pack.

*****

What a loved mommy I am.  The kids found these on a walk.

Family Trip to the Arboretum

Clare has been begging to go to the Arboretum, since we usually go while she's at school.   On Saturday the kids convinced John to go on a family outing.  He had never been either.  And it gave us a perfect chance to take pictures of all the changes.

Quick Takes - Reading Edition

 1)  A long time ago I read most of Flannery O'Connor's works and didn't really get them.  Someone in a Faith and Family comment recommended this book - which is basically a compilation of her letters from when she starting writing to the end of her life.

I'm 1/3 of the way through, and I feel like I have a much better idea of Flannery's ideas and Catholicity.  It is pretty cool and I'm looking forward to rereading her works.

2)A quote of Flannery's I really like and have been thinking about this week: "Vocation implies limitation."

3)Thomas picked up a book tonight and brought it to me.  He's very interested in books, just not in reading them yet, he loves playing with the pages and flipping them.  I don't think it will be long though before he's listening too.

4)Gregory has asked to learn how to read.  We're going to give Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons a try.  If he gets it now, great, if not we'll wait another 6 months or so.

5)Clare is reading up a storm.  We've basically been sticking with easy readers like Dr. Seuss and short books, but she's decided she wants to read chapter books and the Disney Fairy books in particular.

6)On the theme of reading, I'm sure John's been perusing legal documents.  He hasn't been home from work until after 9 most nights this week and the other nights have been after 12.  It's been rough readjusting to that schedule after a month of him being home before 8.

7)I'm so proud of myself.  For at least 5 years, my filing system has been to throw things in photo boxes and then look through the boxes if I needed something.  It did work, but I felt like we were carrying around tons of paper we didn't need.

I promised myself when we moved into this house that I was going to sort through all of that, throw out the trash, sort and file the important stuff and shred the old documents.   Other than the shredding part, I have done exactly what I promised to do and cut back on all that paper.  That is a great feeling.

For more quick takes head over to Jen's at Conversion Diary.  Have a great weekend, and I hope you have some good reading at your house too.

This week at the arboretum

Gregory had his face painted and it was almost empty.

I should take pictures of some of the main beds, just to give y'all a sense of the changes in the flowers.

Wordless Wednesday

Season's End

Clare's soccer season came to an end on Saturday.  It was a fun learning experience for her and we're looking forward to soccer in the fall.

Her coach was kind enough to order trophies for the whole team which delighted Clare.  It also delighted her brother who wanted one very badly.

You can see his hands on her trophy

Gregory spent most of the last game huddled in this blanket.  It was a chilly windy day here in Dallas and about 60 degrees.  We had all planned on it being at least 80, and Gregory was less than happy with the weather.  It was funny, however, to watch him waddle around in that blanket.

Hopefully in the fall they will both be able to play for different teams.

Even Paul didn't do everything

I was looking at the readings for Mass today and this passage from Acts of the Apostles (16:1-10) stood out

They [Paul and Timothy] traveled through the Phrygian and Galatian territory

because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit

from preaching the message in the province of Asia.

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia,

but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,

so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas.

During the night Paul had a vision.

A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words,

“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

When he had seen the vision,
we sought passage to Macedonia at once,
concluding that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.
 
I know it's kind of wordy and it doesn't say much, except for where Paul and Timothy were traveling.  The part that stood out to me was how there were different areas they didn't travel to since the Spirit of  Jesus/Holy Spirit would not allow them to go there.
 
In my mind I've always just imagined Paul wandering around to any place where there was a settlement of people and preaching.  It never occurred to me that there might be places that he skipped, but he did based on the urging of the Holy Spirit.
 
I'm not really sure what the urging of the Spirit of Jesus means here, whether it's a burning bush, or just a bad feeling, but it was enough to convince Paul that Jesus didn't want him specifically to go everywhere.  God had certain plans for Paul.
 
In my life I often feel like I need to be doing more.  I should be doing more in the parish, at the school, for my friends, for the community.  This Scripture passage reminds me to pray and see what the Lord wants me to do, and if I don't get a strong feeling I should continue doing what I'm doing and stop thinking about what all I could be doing. 
 
God will make it clear what I am to do, even though I hope no Macedonians appear in my dreams.

Muffins with Mom

Earlier this week, Clare's school had Muffins with Mom to celebrate Mother's Day a little early.

It was sweet, you go and have muffins with your children and then go to Mass together.  The kindergardeners get so excited, and they give you one of the presents they made for you for Mother's Day.

Clare is very excited about Mother's Day, she keeps asking us for money so she can buy me presents.  It's very precious and kind of overwhelming.  Now all we have to do is get her and Daddy together, so she can imbue him with some of her zeal.  ;)

Morning Bliss

We had a delightful breakfast this morning.

Cinnamon toast with strawberries and whipped cream.  It was absolutely delicious.

Gregory ate 3 slices!

I've also discovered that Gregory has just moved into the fake smile phase that all 3 year olds seem to go through.  I keep wanting him to look normally at the camera, but for some reason he has decided that this is his best smile.

Thomas here has his natural smile, I love it, and he loves his strawberries and muffin.

This Week at the Arboretum

This week we had the added blessing of our friend, Fr. Matt, visiting us.

I love spending time with these friends and their boys!

The water is so much fun.

Superheros

In a flash they appear and disappear!

Men of mystery and odd costumes!

"Quick Super Gregory - to the kitchen, my hungry tummy senses are tingling!"