The Grotto

A recent photo of our grotto with irises and roses blooming. 

Book Review: The Picture Bible

Catherine received this book as a gift for her First Holy Communion.  Nearly 800 pages, it presents much of the Bible in comic book fashion.  She loved it and read the entire book in about a week!  Now she wants to start over and read it again.  Now, it is not a Catholic version, so there are 7 books of the Bible not included, but I don't think that makes much difference in this kind of Bible.  I have read online that there are a couple of easily explained discrepancies in this Bible version, but so far we have not found them.  The cheapest places to find this Bible are at Amazon, reached by clicking on the image above (I'll receive a small commission by anyone going that route.), or at Sacred Heart Books and Gifts, one of my favorite websites for Catholic shopping. 

Choir Concert

Last Sunday, the homeschool choir held their Spring Concert.  This was our third year participating in the choir and the kids get better each time. 

The little kids' choir sang first.

This was the first time Joseph sang on stage.  I was so proud of him!  Anne is there on the left and Dominic is just behind Joseph.

Catherine was a pro by this time!

The combined choirs.

After a while Joseph forgot what to do with his arms, but he remembered all the words to the songs.

It was another successful choir performance!

Fun With Friends

Last Friday at noon, 3 moms and 13 children met for some feasting and fun.  We met in a town in between the three of us so the kids could use their Pizza Hut Book-It rewards.   It was a pizza feast!  Then we went to a nearby playground.  And oh, did they play!

Fun at the playground.

Dominic, Joseph, and their friend, Rafe, were all smiles.

Kids love to spin around.

This thing spins around fast!  Anthony liked it.

Evelyn went down the big spiral slide all by herself.

Anthony climbed up high and hollered Hi, Mommy! over and over and over again.

Dominic showed Aloysius how to hang from the monkey bars.

A lot of kids can fit on the spider web!

After the kids burned off enough energy, we all went to Braums to use their Braums' Book Buddies coupons.  Read books, get free pizza and ice cream.  Woo-hoo!

Digging into those ice cream cones.

Could not even get all of the kids in one picture.  They sure had fun!

A Day At The Botanica Gardens

Last Thursday the kids and I went to Homeschool Day at the Botanica Gardens.  It was a lovely time.  Everything was green and the flowers were blooming.  No butterflies in the Butterfly House yet, but the new Children's Garden was open.  It was amazing to see how many homeschool families were there.  The parking lot was packed!  I knew a few from our Catholic homeschool group.

Who doesn't like a curvy path through the woods?

Pausing for a short rest.

Heading to the Children's Garden.

We started off following the Rainbow Path.  Even Anthony in the stroller fit through.

The girls on the butterfly seat.

What fun sculptures of a caterpillar and ladybugs. 

Part of the Musical Maze.

The very cool tree house!

Anthony and the ants.

More winding paths, and fun little bridges, too.

Painting the cave with water.

There were some tall seats to spin around in.

Lunchtime!

Time to fill up some watering cans...

...and water the flowers.

The little cottage had all kinds of fun things to play with.

Joseph goes over a walkway through a pond.

One last stop to smell the roses!

Soldier Of Christ!

A couple of weeks ago, our niece, Faith, was confirmed.  She chose the name of Gianna and I was very honored to be her sponsor.  It has been many years since I've been to a Confirmation and it was awesome to sit up front (without the kids, ahem) and be a part of it. 

Be sealed with the Holy Spirit!

Faith and I pose with Bishop Jackels. 

Faith and her godparents, Laurie and Dan, with the bishop.

Birthday At The Zoo

Monday of last week was my 40th birthday, so the kids and I took a day off school and went to the zoo!

We finally got to see the baby orangutan.  He sure was cute!

The kids thought it was funny that the baby orangutan has toys similar to ones they have.

If you look close, you can see the baby wallaby's head poking out of the mama's pouch.

We must always have at least one picture of the kids on a zoo sculpture!

Anthony "relaxes" in style!

The kids were pretending they were blasting off to the moon.

Anne, my smiley girl.

For the first time ever, we stopped to feed the giraffes. 

The twins said the giraffes licked their arms!

Joseph gave the little giraffe some leaves.

Anthony and I just watched and took pictures, but it was really neat.

Later, we were planning to go out to eat somewhere, but I was surprised with a date instead!  My lovely sister-in-law volunteered to watch all of the kids.  So the kids got to go play with their cousins, which they loved.  Dan and I went out to eat at Beijing Bistro!  It was great birthday surprise!  Thanks, Al and Brenda!