Thursday, August 24, 2017

st. patty's 2017

St. Patty's Day had always been a favorite in our family and we do our best to celebrate in full force.
Our school is run by Irish nuns and the school mascot is the Irish so they always have a big carnival during the school day.  This year it was a day early because Friday is a half day and they need a full day to get in all the fun.
I brought Nora and Francie along to be good little helpers at the cake walk and play a few games.
After the carnival there was a whole school assembly with Irish Dancing and Singing.
On real St. Patty's the kids always look forward to their once a year breakfast of Lucky Charms (a very authentic Irish breakfast right?).  Nora wore her green dress and the boys school shirts are already the perfect attire.
And, of course, we dressed up Francie, too.  She makes a cute little leprechaun.
Nora decided to also dress all her dolls in green which then led to a tea party with all of them in her room which then led to her asking to have a real tea party in the living room.  I realized that my Irish grandmother and mother would have loved nothing more and that it was in fact the perfect way to celebrate that day.
She had so much fun setting and decorating the coffee table and helping make the tea.
All the dolls in green dresses came for the fun...
It was so spur of the moment and it made not only her day, but mine.
That night she had t-ball game, but we still managed to make some Irish stew for dinner.
I tend to miss my mom a little extra on St. Patrick's day because it was her favorite.  My siblings and I have a running thing about how we will often be doing something that reminds us of our mom and then we notice it is 11:11.  Of course, the opposite is also now true because when I see that it is 11:11 I think of my mom.   I happened to see it on my phone that day so I snapped a picture.  I know she was enjoying our celebrations with us.  
St. Patrick, Pray for Us!

Thursday, August 17, 2017

snow trip 2017

We were so happy we actually made it up to Flagstaff for snow this year since it never happened last year.  My Uncle Dick kindly let us stay at his cabin again which we are always super grateful for.
Some good friends met us up there to join in our search for snow.  But before that we headed to Downtown Flagstaff.  It is fun to just walk around and we always love going up to the train station and watching the trains go by...
I always love when I actually have an excuse to get my kids into this outfit...
We were a little worried that we might not find any snow since there was no snow in town and all the designated sledding areas were closed, but we managed to find a good spot on the road up to the Snow Bowl.  I actually prefer these sort of private spots to the places where tons of people are sledding.  I will gladly take smaller hills if no one else is on them.
The kids all had tons of fun...

The littler kids were all good sports, too.
Although the snow was not the best for snow men when was frustrating to some...
But you can still have snow ball fights!
...and that is their dog, not a wolf that we were trying to capture.
I love trips with this cute family!

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

february 2017

February seems like it should be one of those slow months, but it got pretty busy for us.
Gus had his Kindergarten Jets v. Bombers t-ball game...
He had lots of fans to cheer him on...
He played catcher and he also had some good hits.  He was pretty happy that the Jets won!
We had our Groundhog Party, but we only took pictures of the cute babies...
Gus was Star of the Week in his class and we made St. Augustine crafts...
Bess came to visit with Ingrid and Asher...
Nora and Ingrid became good little buddies...
And I was glad to get some good time with my old buddy...
Of course, there was Valentine's Day...
This little doll face was everyone's favorite Valentine...
Mom and Dad went to a grown-up Valentine's party at the Pauls...
Nano and Nana came for a visit...
And so did Uncle Danny!  He got to meet Francie and needless to say he was smitten...
The kids taught him to play Enchanted Forest...
We hiked Hole-in-the-Rock..
And we kept enjoying our own backyard...
Here are some banana pancakes and crazy monkeys...
And possibly the most important event of the month was Gus losing his first tooth!