First Communion Season

Margaret, our beautiful second grader, will be making her First Holy Communion in May! My mother made a First Communion dress for our oldest Lucy last year, and Margaret will be wearing it this time around.



If you have a First Communicant in your life, for First Communion gifts, I recommend Aquinas and More, of course, because they have a good selection and my husband owns it!

Room Transformations III: Girls' Bedroom

Our next Project is cleaning up the former Master Bedroom to make it into the new Girls' Room!

This is what it looks like right now because we put everything from the former "Back Room" into it to paint the other rooms. Once we empty this room, we'll paint it "Olive Grove" on the bottom and "Budding Green" on top, with a "White Light" chair rail between.

This is where the girls live now. You can see that it's a little tight for four of them, and soon Maria will be joining them, so they need a bit more space.
This room will become the new "Back Room," but it won't have a bed in it. It'll be a play room for the kids. We plan on removing the carpet and installing Pergo or some type of hard floor so they can build things with Lego or blocks, and have a place to roll their trucks besides the kitchen when I am making dinner. We hope to line the walls with book cases and cabinets so everything can be put away out of sight and still be found when needed. I'll post pictures in the years to come as we accomplish these things.

Room Transformations II: Master Bedroom

Next, we changed the boys' old room into the Master Bedroom.

This is what it looked like when Andrew & Peter occupied it.

Ian painted it in one day ("Spring Fawn").

We moved in that evening.

Room Transformations I: Boys' Room

We're in the process of painting most of the rooms in the house and moving bedrooms around to make more room for our 5 girls.

First, we emptied the room we called the "Back Room." It had a guest bed in it, plus toys that only the older kids could play with (small or fragile parts, etc.), all my sewing stuff, and whatever else didn't have a home. It could be a mess sometimes. I don't have any pictures of it with all the stuff in it, thank goodness.

Then Ian painted the top "Cloudless Sky" blue and the bottom "Olive Grove" green.


Andrew helped Daddy put up the trim after I painted it "White Light."

Everyone likes this room! It looks great, Ian & Andrew! Andrew and Peter moved in as soon as the paint was dry.

Common Cents

Andrew (6), counting the money in his piggy bank: "Mommy, I don't have much cents at all."

He's got Math down pretty well. Next subject: Grammar!

Tiny Dog

Anne (4), singing: There was a fawmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o. B-I- Inchy - O, B-I-Inchy-O, B-I-Inchy-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

Cinderella IV: Convicted

Overheard as Susan pushed her baby sister's swing:

Susan (singing): Swing, swing, night in jail. Swing, swing, night in jail...

My 8-Year-Old reads EVERYTHING

I don't know for sure, but she may have read Dante's Divine Comedy and shared her knowledge with the other kids.

Overheard as the kids build things with their Lego sets:
Andrew (6): I think we need some more skeletons for hell and purgatory.
Lucy (8): Yes, we can use the black ones for hell.
Andrew: Ok, what about heaven? Can I put some of these guys with the white suits here?

....

Lucy: She has a scared face. She must be in hell because you're not scared in purgatory.

Lunar Eclipse Tonight

It has been a long time since I blogged last, or even since I looked at others' blogs, but I wanted to mention tonight's event because the next one won't occur until December of 2010 (which may be the next time I get a chance to blog again).

Anyway, I found out a couple of days ago that tonight there will be a total lunar eclipse and that its climax will occur at a reasonable hour, so I thought we could let the kids stay up to see it. Not until today (3 days after my weekly shopping day) did it occur to me that I could make it "fun" by providing snacks whose names coincide with the theme of the night sky, like Moon Pies or Milky Way bars.

Upon further reflection, however, I decided that buying these treats wasn't a good idea after all because: 1)I don't really have the money, 2) It's Lent, and 3) I don't actually like Moon Pies or Milky Way bars.

So, since it will probably be about 20 degrees outside, and cloudy, maybe we'll watch the eclipse online and have some hot cocoa or tea.

Applesauce

Way back in October, Mom invited us over to make and put up applesauce and apple pie filling. I am finally putting up these pictures from that event!First, you wash all your apples.


Then, you core and halve them.


After boiling the apples in water, get a strong guy to move the pots for you.


We all took turns turning the handle on the grinder.

The finished applesauce was YUMMY!!!

Kitchen helper

Susan said, "Oops, I dwopped in a egg shell. I have to get it out. Never mind, it went away." I guess we'll see who gets a crunchy bite of scrambled eggs this morning.

The Weather Outside is Frightful...

...But in here, it's so delightful!

When the snow blows, the kids decide to carry "Master & Mistress" in a litter through Africa.

Or be servants to the Indian Princess (holding the sticker book modestly to veil her face)...


...while Peter colors his Thanksgiving Turkey...

...and Andrew hides from the snow!

Free Sofa & Love Seat

Free Sofa & Love Seat to anyone in the Colorado Springs area willing to come get them! I'll include 2 cream-colored mattelase slipcovers.

Me (sort of)

My Inner European is...

Your Inner European is Spanish!

Energetic and lively. You bring the party with you!

Who's Your Inner European?

Well, that's actually my outer European, too! How 'bout that! I don't know about the energetic & lively part, but I have 7 kids, so I often do bring the party with me.

Summer Part IV: Antonito

Our final day on the road took us to Antonito, and the oldest Catholic church in Colorado, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This was very curious. The bell tower was aparently infested with bees.

Can you tell what object in this picture just doesn't seem to "go" with the rest? One of these things is not like the others....
Beautiful stained glass.

We drove home after visiting this beautiful old church. We had a great vacation and hope to see more of our country next summer.

Summer Part III: Mesa Verde

The next day we went to Mesa Verde.

The dancers demonstrated traditional Indian dances.
This man explained some of the dances and traditions of his people, and told funny jokes.

Here are some of the famous ruins of the Mesa Verde area. You could not live in these dwellings if you were claustrophobic.
This photo was taken from the van across a chasm.
Amazing how these ancient people built these dwellings.

Our last night on the road we had an indoor pool at the motel:

Summer: Part II: Aztec

On the road we stopped at a scenic overlook to stretch our legs a bit.

Our next stop was Aztec National Monument.

Our last stop this day was Four Corners. We took the requisite tourist photo: