Happy Easter!

We made bread on Holy Thursday and discussed the Last Supper at dinner.

We prayed Stations together on Good Friday.  We don't have a set of Stations books so everyone just found some Stations in whatever prayer book they have and then we went around and each kid could either tell what they knew about the station or read what was in their book for that one.  It kept the kids' attention well.
Holy Saturday we went to a Seder dinner at the home of some fellow parishioners.  I think they invited us for entertainment value.  :)  Our kids were the only littles there and the family enjoys kids.
We went to the Vigil Saturday night.  It started at 8:30.  Nicholas was laying on the pew almost asleep by 9, Philip by 9:15 and Julia by 9:30.  They were all fast asleep at the end.  (Not the big boys of course, they are big enough to be good.)  Julia and Philip woke up before we left but Nicholas slept until we picked him up and went right back to sleep at home.  The Vigil sure goes faster when you have no kids to wrangle!!

Pre-Vigil picture (we need to buy more ties!)

Sunday we hunted eggs at home

 and at Grandma Raleen and Grandpa Steve's.

We had lots of fun with family too.  It's worth noting that this is the first time Nicholas has held Dylan, or really even acknowledged his existence!

We celebrated at Grandma Susan and Grandpa Mike's too but I have no pictures from there- too busy enjoying family I guess!

He is Risen!
He is Risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Nicholas Notes

Nicholas is living up to the stereotype of the youngest in the family being a clown, plus his language is still at the funny stage.

N:  Mommy?  Have you seen my bouncy ball?  It is red and beautiful.

Still loves Paw Patrol

He picks up ladybugs around the house and calls them "my ladybug friend." He'll giggle as they crawl around on him for awhile and then either flushes them or releases them "back into the wild".  :)

M:  While N's eyes are adjusting to the light right after waking up for the day Nicholas, do I get a kiss this morning?
N: tries to kiss Mommy with his eyes closed
M:  Can't you open your eyes yet?
N: uses his fingers to open his eyes, kisses Mommy and then squeezes his eyes back shut 

He'll reenact it for you if you ask because now he knows I think it was funny.

Chrism Mass

The Chrism Mass is one of my favorites of the year.  All the priests of the diocese are there because they renew their vows and the Oil of the Sick, Oil of the Catechumens and Sacred Chrism are blessed (or consecrated in Chrism's case) too.  (Not to mention it's like a Catholic friend reunion because we know so many people there!)  It's a long, High Mass at the Cathedral with all the beautiful "bells and whistles."  We don't usually go because it's a school night and way too long for littles during a week where they will already be attending lots of long (but beautiful) Masses.  However since Samuel and Thomas will be Confirmed next year we took (just them) to see the Chrism that will be used at their Confirmation consecrated.  (That's a lot of Catholic jargon...sorry if it's confusing!)

Here they are in front of the Cathedral.
My only disappointment was that sometime since I last went to the Chrism Mass they changed the song they had always sung as the Oils are brought to the altar.  "Olea Sancta Olia" (forgive my Latin misspellings) was my favorite!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

State wrestling fell on Jeremy's birthday this year so we spent the day watching matches.  Then we had a tasty (really late) lunch at Dickey's Barbecue and dinner at home.

Nicholas stayed with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Mike rather than coming to watch wrestling so he had time to make this lovely cake for Daddy.  We didn't have enough candles so he got a 3 for the thirty and seven more.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!  Thank you for all you do for us, we love you!

State Wrestling

Both Samuel and Thomas qualified for state wrestling this year.  Samuel won one and lost two, Thomas lost both his matches.  We had a fun time there and the boys enjoyed the experience.

Parade of clubs.

 Samuel's first match.

 One of Thomas's matches.

Congratulations on your hard work boys!

Happy Birthday Philip!

Philip had a nice birthday and ate lots of green food as usual.  He requested pancakes for dinner and was kind enough to be happy with something other than cake for his birthday dessert.  (Between birthday cakes and Julia's easy bake oven we'd been eating a lot of cake!)

Happy 6th birthday Philip!  We love you!

Happy Birthday Grandma Raleen

The kids had Raleen's birthday off because it was spring break so we were able to do a little extra celebrating with her.

Celebrating!

We got to celebrate Julia and Philip's birthdays on Sunday.  Philip chose a wrestling theme so my mom made him a podium cake.  He requested peeps on each step (inspired by Samuel who was assigned to depict a current event with Peeps.  He and his partner worked on their State Wrestling project at our house the other day and interestingly they had a very similar podium!).  He also decided he wanted a person on each step so we took pictures of him with his different medals and put them on the cake too.

He got lots of nice gifts and especially enjoyed putting together his new Arctic Outpost.  It was pretty much done before the party was over...

Julia chose Frozen as her theme.  She requested an ice cream cake so she and I baked a chocolate cake in loaf pans, split them down the middle, inserted a layer of Birthday Cake ice cream and topped the whole thing with Cool Whip, candies and Frozen pictures.  

She also received lots of nice presents but her favorite was a bike from Jeremy and I (and Uncle Bob and Melissa and Greta!).  She saw it hiding in the garage a while back so I moved it and made her clues to find it at the party.  I was hoping to get a good gasp when it wasn't in the garage like she thought but she didn't get nervous at all!

Happy Birthday Julia and Philip!  We love you!

Spring Break

We had a fun revolving door of friends yesterday for our first day of Spring Break.  Philip went to a friend's house all day and his friend's sister came to our house to play with Julia.  A few more friends came over while their mom and I did our normal Holy hour swap.  Samuel went to sleep over at a friend's and Thomas went to different friends' house last night to spend the night and then go to the State Basketball game this morning with them.  Then later this afternoon we are celebrating Grandma Raleen's birthday with her by going to a movie and afterwards we will pick up Augustine to spend the rest of the weekend with us!
All this fun and I have one picture....

But it's one for the senior slide show I think!  :)

Lots of Helpers

I came down to see the progress on the boys helping Jeremy put together a pedal tractor for an upcoming benefit.  Jeremy said "Now this is blog-worthy." He never says that so here it is.  Almost all the boys working together!

Somehow they ended up one washer short.  So every night when Jeremy gets home Nicholas or Philip asks, "Did you find a washer?!" He hasn't yet but they are definitely looking forward to putting that last wheel on when he does!