We were blessed to celebrate Easter with both sides of our family this year, and it's always a get-together of food, fun, faith and family!! Can't get much better than that!!!
In lieu of time and my blogging "catch-up" today and multiple posts, I am just sharing this post "in pictures". I will let you do all the matching up and figuring out who is who!! Have fun!!!
Although Good Friday is a "down day" in our house in remembrance of the sacrifice Our Lord made for us, there are two things we always do and look forward to as a family - our Good Friday tea and Good Friday service at our church (the only day with no Mass).
Each food item below tells the story of Christ's Passion. Here are pictures from our faith-filled Good Friday tea...
**The Water Bowl**
**The King's Crown**
**Out of Envy**
**Purple Cloak**
**The Crown of Thorns**
**The Seamless Garment**
**The Two Robbers**
**Vinegar To Drink**
**The Temple Curtain**
**Roman Centurion**
**Laid In The Tomb**
Thanks to Alice at Cottage Blessings for creating this tea idea and for Jessica at Shower of Roses for always inspiring me as a mother how to build our own domestic church. Jessica made the printable signs for each food item - they can be found here. My link from 2012 can be found here with more details on what each food item was.
Melody's FHC trip back in 2012, posing with a life size Lego creation of Darth Vader
Max making his first Light Saber at Disney in 2013
We are a Star Wars family, that is no doubt!!! And, in a family where Star Wars is a favorite, we can not let a day like this go by without celebrating.
First off, we started the morning with watching the first Star Wars movie (notice the cute kiddos in jammies!). Then they watched #4 in the afternoon, and will probably watch the new Yoda Chronicles sometime this evening. All enough to make for plenty of happy kids to get to watch this much tv in one day, which is definitely not a norm in our house. But special days require special exceptions, eh?
And, of course, we had to work in FOOD FUN!!! We used a lot of the same food items for lunch that we used back in February for Max's Star Wars themed birthday party...
Luke Skywalking Taco's
Hans Rolo's
Leia Buns (honey buns)
Dark Side chocolate pudding
Darth Vadorade (red gatorade)
Star Wars fruit snacks (will save these for one of the movies)
We also have a couple favorite Star Wars videos that we had to watch as well. Enjoy!!!!
"Cello Wars" by The Piano Guys
"Let the Saga Begin" by Weird Al
Star Wars Christmas special (although it is not a favorite, and is known as the WORST Star Wars video out there. Neil said George Lucas asked for it to be destroyed because it was that bad!)
What fun it is a family to have silly traditions like this to grow and bond together!!!
We had a beautiful celebration last Wednesday of Fone's Confirmation!! How blessed we are to see him growing taller (like his daddy!!), spiritually, and in maturity. We are super proud of him!!!
Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest. And in Our Hearts, Take up Thy Rest!!!
What a fun day the kids and I had today... finishing up almost 20 May Day baskets and delivering them all to our wonderful neighbors, family and friends that live close by. Having done May Day basket deliveries a kid myself, I *knew* I wanted to make this a tradition for my own family as well. We are going strong on many yearsnow, but had to miss last year, since we were on a special family vacation. Our wonderful neighbors were probably so heart-broken and worried last year, when they never got a delivery. Well, not this year... they got the surprise of a sweet little basket of flowers on their doorstep and maybe if they were lucky, catch a glimpse of some sneaky, meddling kids.
We make up two different sets of baskets - one for families (with some sort of juice drink and a couple snacks, along with some flowers) and another set of a basket with flowers for those without young kids at home. We made up almost 18 baskets total - we have lots of love we gotta share!!!
Here are some pictures of what we put in the baskets and what they looked like...
Last week our sweet Rose only got one nap in on a busy day of running around. Some come dinner time, she was exhausted. Neil took this video of her, as she fell asleep in her high chair while flexing her little bottom (she does this ALL the time - it is so silly!). It's cute to see her doze off and then catch herself.
++Thank you, God, for our sweet little Rose, who brings so much joy and laughter into our house.++
For once, this is not Katie...it is Neil and I'm guest-blogging for a very special occasion. Tomorrow (Apr 24th) is Katie's 36th birthday!! So I'm sorry if this isn't as fancy as her posts usually are.
The kids and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday by listing the 36 (we lost count actually) things we love about her. I tried to keep their original words, I think it helps her hear their voices when she reads this love letter from her family. So let's begin.
Fone's list of reasons that he loves you:
Your smile
Your hugs
Your Chili
Your kisses
Your laughs
Your snuggles
The way you teach school
Your motherly compassion
Your care
Mario's list
Your love that you show for us
How happy you always are
How good you are at teaching school
The good food you always make
When you read to us
When we play games with you
How forgiving you are
When you let us stay up
How good you are with babies and easily calming them down
Melody and Ariel worked together on their list:
Your loving hugs
Your snuggles
Your smile
You taking Ariel to St. Louis
You taking us to Disney
Your love
You homeschooling us
Your delicious home-made bread YUM!
Your yummy soups
You being our mom!
Max and Pookie's list:
Max: Your snuggles
Pookie: Your good food
Both: When you sing songs to us at bedtime
Both: Your kisses and hugs
Max: You take me to Tae Kwon Do
Max: You teach me
Pookie: You love me and I love you
Max: You clean my glasses for me
Pookie: You let us eat outside sometimes
Max: You let me play LEGOs
Both: You let us do our privileges
Pookie: You gave me Max
Max: Yeah! You gave us our whole family!
Those last two brought tears to my eyes...
I asked Rose if she had any to add, but she just yelled MAMA!! over and over again at the top of her lungs because you weren't home...I think she loves you :-)
From me, your groom:
Your self-giving love.
Your smile
Your organizational skills
Your ability to calm fussy babies (funny that Mario also thought this)
The joy with which you approach everything
Your unfailing faith
Your dedication to your family
Your hugs
Your willingness to help those around you
Your ability to look outside of yourself and our immediate family to recognize when we should reach out with love
The passion that drives you
Your ability to put up with me :-)
The beautiful family you have given me
The direction you have helped to give me in life
There are countless other reasons why we love you dear, but this is just a few items we chose to share. We love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
We are blessed to have such a strong yet gentle woman in our lives. I pray that the Lord blesses you in the coming year.
