Circle Lake Retreat - Saturday's Events

Saturday was a full day for us. Childcare was provided for the kids in the morning so the parents could listen to a wonderful speaker, Mary Ann Kuharski, talk about catholic parenting... and she should know. She raised 13 children... 6 of her own and 7 adopted children. She was very "real", very funny and gave some wonderful advice for raising a family. We enjoyed her talks very much and may check into her books at a later date.

We had some free time in the afternoon. Chris had to run out and get coffee for me because we forgot to bring our espresso maker with us... big mistake. And coffee was not provided for the speaker because food and uncovered beverages were not allowed in the hall. Next time, let's not forget the espresso maker! Anyway, we weren't in the middle of no-where so coffee was found without too much trouble. Emily and I explored the grounds and were able to take a paddle boat out. I didn't have the camera but I took this picture from the Circle Lake website... you get the idea. Emily LOVED rowing the boat and we had fun singing and exploring the "circular" lake. We had mass at 4:00 in the little chapel with Father Tom. It was nice to have mass for our group of families and felt very much like a family event.

Dinner went very smoothly. The retreat organziers had everyone bring cooked spaghetti, cooked ground beef and jarred sauce to be combined for an easy pasta dinner. Add salad and dessert and we had another great meal... for quite a crowd! After dinner, our kids played on the playground. We missed the "Amazing Race" and we'll have to find out what that was all about. It was competitive and involved families doing a lot of running around... Maybe next year. I think Emily and Lia are doing their little "I am a robot.." dance here.

Lia still loves the swing... She can sit in the big girl one now.

And here is Emily with our parish priest, Father Tom. He calls her his little buddy now. I love that she is getting comfortable enough to say hello to him now. Maybe that will make confession easier for her next year...?

And what family retreat would be complete without a bonfire and roasting marshmellos for smores? Yes, our David and Emily were very excited about this.

A little Daddy time... Emily and I were busy eating smores and singing by the bonfire. :-)

On Sunday morning, Mary Ann Kuharski gave her talk outside by the playground so the kids could play. It was hotter in the afternoon so we packed up and headed home after that. We will definetly do this again!

Circle Lake Retreat - Friday Check In

We were very lucky to be able to attend the St. Anthony family retreat at Circle Lake this year. 18 families with 65 children were in attendance... what a turn out! While our kids are still young, we didn't participate in everything offered, but we did get to meet new families and get to know others a little better. The retreat center is in Pinehurst and only 30 min. away. The grounds were beautiful and it really felt like we "got away" for a few days.

The kids were very excited. Emily and I checked everything out online and were very excited to find out we would be in St. Monica's cabin. The cabin's were really nice with 3 bedrooms, sleeping 9. From the picture below, you can guess how excited David and Emily were to discover their room had bunk beds!



And a porch swing...


And to top it all off, the 12 cabins made a semi cirle around a tremendous amount of green space and this playground!
Not bad...


We arrived around 5:30 and got checked in. The retreat organizers had a fried chicken dinner for all the families in the dining hall where we brought the sides and the desserts. It was great to see so many families dining together and
I'll have to admit... I had not had fried chicken in a long time and I had forgotten how good it is!

Art in the Park - Fri Sept 18

I was frantically preparing for our weekend retreat but was able to squeeze in an outing with the little ones. Our local homeschooling group has fine arts in the park once a month. They study a famous artist and composer. September had us listening to Vivaldi and viewing Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpieces. I took this pretty seriously and we did our homework... we checked out CDs from the library and got lots of books so we'd be familiar with the material. I couldn't believe the turn out and was so impressed with the kids and their moms.

You can see the preschool group above. They listened to this great story by James Mayhew - Katie and the Mona Lisa. David was absolutely captivated by the story about a little girl who goes to the museum and admires the Mona Lisa and other famous works of art... the book is fun because the characters all come out of their frames to help the little girl learn more about them.

The older kids do their own picture study. After looking at the artists paintings, they try to copy his style in their own sketches.

Some of the older kids put on a presentation and had show and tell about art projects they did at home. It was a fun morning and we were disappointed to miss Nature Club - they do that after lunch. We had to head home to prepare for our family retreat. I'll post more on that later.

More Sweet Lia

I haven't posted in a while so here are a couple shots of my baby. She looks sweet in her Longhorn gear just like the rest of the family.
And, she really likes to put on this hat. She is finally talking... and saying a lot of words. Hat is one she can say pretty well.

And here is a little game we call... Daddy Tackle!

My Little Helpers

A very personal project of mine is to have a well-run household where everybody helps out. We are pretty lucky that our kids are generally enthusiastic about chores they can do themselves. I really hope we can continue to encourage them and keep up the theme that we are a family and we all have to work together.

Here are my sweet little ones going to fetch the paper. This started out to be David's chore and he is very good at it. Little Lia always wants to be part of the action so now big brother takes her to get the paper. It's a good thing we get two! The Wall Street Journal is usually lighter than the Chronicle so he gives that one to her. Aren't they sweet?

I love seeing them come up the driveway. And no, I haven't gotten to the point where I trust they won't run in the street. So I still watch.

To brag on David, he can sort my clean laundry like a champ. He makes 5 piles, one for each family member, and sorts the clothes to each pile. He even encourages Lia to deliver to her pile... usually on the couch. Do we have upper management in the making? He can also push around the Swiffer vacume sweeper and do a pretty decent job with the Swiffer wet jet.

Emily can do all these chores too but her jobs have been putting away the kiddie cups and plates from the dishwasher. We keep them all on the shelves in the island so the kids can get what they need. She is a lot like her Daddy because if I put them away while she's gone... I will hear about how it isn't organized the way she likes it and that now she'll have to fix it! So since it is her domain, she also takes pride (most of the time) in her ability to set the table properly.

We are off to a family retreat this weekend. I will take pictures and document our adventures. It has been a lot of work for me to prepare for it but I am hoping it will be good family time. I'll write soon.

Mike and Pat's Wedding

Congratulations to Mike and Pat! Married on August 21, 2009. Manny many blessings to them!

David's 1st Football Game

Chris took David to his first UT football game today. Our lucky boy got a new burnt orange t-shirt, a hook-em horns cheering hand, a hot dog and a rainbow snow cone. Chris sent these pictures from his cell phone. I think he had a good time!

Texas Longhorns vs. Lousiana Monroe. I heard it was a win.