All Saints Party

We were very excited to attend the All Saints Party at Tim and Wanda's farm again this year.  There was an amazing turnout with over 90 kids dressed as Saints.  David was St. George and the Dragon again this year.  He picked out some fancy armor this year to upgrade his costume but I think he soon tired of carrying around so much bulk.  The helmet, chest plate and shield were ditched pretty quickly.  Emily, not to be outdone by her brother, selected a female warrior so that she could carry around fancy armor as well.  Can you guess who she is?  St. Joan of Arc, of course.

Lia chose to be an angel again this year but this time she was more specific.  If anyone asked, she would say, "My name is Lia.  I am 3 years old and I am dressed as St. Raphael."  (The Arch Angel, of course)

As you can imagine, the tire swing was very popular!  Emily headed straight for it when we arrived.  Can you tell it was a beautiful afternoon?

We brought a picture of Nonna holding David as a baby for the All Souls chapel.  Kneelers were provided to the children so they could say a prayer for all those who have died.

Here is Lia and her friend Cecelia.  They are showing me their St. Patrick shamrocks painted on their hands.  Each family is asked to sponsor a game or activity honoring the Saints.  The children have a great time going from game to game and trying to complete them all.

And Lia in St. Peter's Boat.  It looked like such a good photo opportunity.  I couldn't resist.

David's Outing with his Godparents

Stan and Peg (and family) took David on a really fun birthday outing.  What a lucky boy!

David's Football Picture

David played football for the first time this fall.  He played on a YMCA league and his team's name was the Saints.  It was a great eperience for him and he really enjoyed it.  Coach M drilled the boys really hard at practices and we were so proud of all his hard work.  It isn't easy staying focused for a whole hour at practice but David really gave it his best.  The Saints ended up winning all their games this season and David got to take home a football signed by all his teammates as a great memory.  We will definetly play again in the spring.  He looks kind of rough and tough in this picture, doesn't he?

Lia Bear

I think I was hanging out with Lia on this day while the rest of the family was at David's football game.  I remember she was playing all by herself and having such a great time dancing that I wanted to get a little video.  Unfortunately, I was unable to sneak up on her and take it.  When she saw the camera, she wanted me to take a picture and not a video.  I took the video anyway.  :-)

At the end of October, we got a little cool weather and had fun digging through Emily's old clothes and hand-me-downs.  I was happy to find a pair of Emily's old jeans and we both loved Emma's polka dot shirt with it.  It is fun to be a girl!

Happy 6th Birthday David!

We decorated David's cake right before his party.  Our annual tradition has been to celebrate his birthday at a local park that has live music on Sundays in the fall.  This year we were joined by his Grandparents, Godparents and buddy McCoy and his family.  Now the cake itself was a beautiful red on the inside.  The icing however, was more difficult than I realized to dye red.  Apparently, you need a TON of red food coloring to get to a nice red color.  David was not too happy with the pink result of the red food coloring and the white icing... so he decided to add a little yellow and go for an orange hue.  The result wasn't exactly pink... or orange... but it was pleasing enough to David so we stopped there.  I would like to think it had a burnt orange look about it.  ;-)

Here is David with his Samurai castle from his Grandparents.  Yes, he was very happy with this gift!  The hand at the bottom of the picture was Emily's.  She was happy with this gift too and had a difficult time keeping her hands off of it!

And the Happy Birthday Video:

David's Birthday Cake

Here is a scene of very important work.  David requested a red cake with red frosting for his birthday.  I thought the easiest way to accomplish the "red cake" part would be to make a Red Velvet cake mix.  I didn't realize just how red the batter would be and this is the reason why my son is not wearing a shirt.  I knew the birthday boy would want to excercise his birthday right to lick the bowl while the cake was baking.  And I knew my boy would not be neat and tidy about this privilege!  So yes, there should be a picture of David with red cake batter all over his face, and his chest, and his arms... but really I was too busy cleaning up the mess and I was also a little grossed out that he looked like he had blood all over his face.  That batter is something else! 

Health and Science Museum (Oct 13)

We usually ditch school to celebrate a birthday... The kids think this is great but I don't think they have caught on to the fact that when we visit a museum we are still learning!  At Classical Conversations, they have been learning human anatomy each week.  They are in the process of making a life-sized model of themselves with all their organs... pictures to come!  That in mind, I thought a visit to the Health and Science Museum would be a good fit.  Lucky for me, Thursday is their free day for families.  Even better, due to the academic nature of the museum, there were only a few other families there!  As an aside... I will NEVER go to the free day at the Children's museum again.  I am flashing back to the hundreds of people waiting to get into the museum at the direction of a man with a bullhorn!  Anyway, there was hardly anyone here so we had the run of the place!

In this area, there was a short (ultra-high speed) x-ray video of a baby's skull growing and changing as its baby teeth came in and were then pushed out by its permanent teeth.  This was fascinating to David and Emily who are currently going through this process!

I think it is hilarious that this giant mouth has a chipped tooth.  See anyone inside?

 Yes, that is my youngest... by the large brain.

There was also an exhibit of dressed up skeletons.  The one Lia wanted her picture taken with was supposed to be Cinderella.

In the lobby of the museum were a bunch of brain teaser games.  My kids wanted to spend the bulk of our time here.  We were able to solve Challenge 1... but had to take a picture to work on Challenge 2 at home.

We enjoyed this museum, especially since our admission was free!  The movie, Planet You, was too scary for Emily and we had to leave before it ended.  The movie was about the germs found on your body... and the super magnified images of lice and the like gave her the creeps.  It was pretty creepy but fascinating all the same to me.  It didn't bother David a bit, but he indulged his sister in leaving.  The reason we didn't go to the museum on David's actual birthday, (the 14th), was because it wasn't free on that day and because the kids had their small groups with our home school co-op on that day.  At Pickwick, Emily made a beautiful rosary and at Catholic Boys club, David learned about St. Francis of Assisi and made a wormery.  A wormery, if you were wondering, is big jar of sand and mud filled with worms.  If you took proper care of them, you could watch them make tunnels.  I say "If" because I wasn't paying attention when my children were in the back yard.  They thought the wormery needed to be muddier so they added more water and then they capped it.  Well... the worms all drowned or died for lack of oxygen... I'm not sure.  But the next day, they were floating in about 2 inches of water.  Eewww.  The other interesting thing was watching my boy grab for those worms.  He didn't think twice about grabbing them.  I mean really, he just reached right into the tub of worms like he was picking up a rubber band and thought nothing else about it.  Boys.