7 Quick Takes - where have I been?

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and here are the reasons why I have not been blogging too much lately....

--- 1 ---

Fall Fest fun - although this deserves a post on its own.  Hopefully coming soon!

--- 2 ---

We have had two weeks of soccer practice and games start tomorrow.  We haven't done soccer since Fone and Mario were in Kindergarten and first grade.  Neil coached them way back then.  And, now guess whose turn it is?  Melody, Ariel, and Max!!  And, Neil is sharing his love for soccer and his kids by giving of his time and coaching them as well - well at least two of the three of their teams.

--- 3 ---

We have our first Little Flowers meeting tonight and I have been coordinating the group for our area for the last four years.  What a big job it is and it takes hours upon hours and emails upon emails, but every ounce of it is worth it for the joy it brings my girls and all the Little Flowers.  

++St. Therese the Little Flower, pray for us, that we have a beautiful year of learning 

and growing in the virtues and drawing closer to Our Lord!!++

--- 4 ---

Screenprinting!!!   My wonderful hubby has taken up the hobby of screenprinting to make the shirts himself for a couple groups our kids take part in and save the groups money, rather than having them professionally printed.  He has had many late nights as he experimented with and made the shirts when kiddos were in bed.  They turned out very well and I am so proud of him for his hard work and generosity of time!!  Thank you, sweetie, for making these shirts with love!!

--- 5 ---

School, of course!!  This week completes our 5th week!  Things are going very smooth with the changes we made to make it a more simple year and doable with a new baby coming.

--- 6 ---

Kicking little Rose out of her crib and into a her own room and toddler bed, so that it's all ready for baby next month.  She is doing so well!!  Such a sweet little girl!  

--- 7 ---

On Monday, the boys' ConQuest group started up and Neil got to take all 4 boys!!  What a quiet house it was, dare I say?!!  Since Neil doesn't have enough to do with his time, so he also is the leader of the ConQuest group as well, and like Little Flowers, it requires a great deal of time to get the year going and set up.  But, he does it with love and joy and it pays off in the fun and learning the boys have with their friends.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Little Flowers Mother/Daughter Tea ~ 2014

***  Little Flowers ~ the girls  ***

***  Little Flowers ~ the momma's  ***

Today was our year-end celebration of a wonderful year of learning about the saints and virtues in our Little Flowers Girls Club.  Ariel was in wreath 2 and Melody was in the Hospitality group this past year. 

We began our gathering with a prayer (snitched the one Jessica and her crew used last year).

The mom and daughter pairs sat by each other and had to find their table according to a flower chart - each table had a certain flower on it - what a cute connection since our group is called "Little Flowers".  It was a so nice sitting with my girls too, because in years past I know the girls sat with girls, and the moms sat with other moms.  I was so happy to sit by my two beautiful daughters!!

 

For food, we had tea party treats and lots of mini sandwiches and desserts - potluck-style!  Of course, we also had a "tea table" so the girls and moms could pick their own flavor and make their own tea.  And, when each girl left, they were able to take home their very own teacup as a favor - what a special treat!!

The theme of our celebration was Our Lady Guadalupe and the girls colored pictures of Our Lady Guadalupe, made an Our Lady Guadalupe grotto, made a cute flower decoration, worked on a Virtue and Flower crossword puzzle and word find, and we even had 2 pinatas to break!  Wreaths 1 and 2 girls and their moms broke the first pinata, and wreath 3 and the Hospitality girls and their moms broke the second one.  Before the actual breaking of the pinata, the girls each wrote a sin/temptation and glued it onto the pinata, so as they slugged and beat the pinata, they are telling Satan and sin to "Be gone!".  It was neat to have the symbolization with this game!  All the hooting and hollering and cheering was quite funny as many of the moms and girls were in fancy dresses, yet at the same time swinging a stick and beating at the pinata!  This was one of the highlights of the celebration for sure!!

(Melody's crafts)

(Ariel's crafts)

We ended our gathering with three moms reading the "Patience" prayer from one of my favorite mother's prayer books by Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle. 

 

++Thank you, God, for our Little Flowers Catholic Girls Club, and most especially my two darling, beautiful, faith-filled Little Flowers girls.++