Cowboy Days, continued

I'm too exhausted to actually be blogging right now, but I wanted to share these pictures from the Cowboy Days festival we took the children to this past weekend. It was so much fun, and, though a bit cooler than usual, the weather was otherwise lovely. I am so glad my work schedule actually worked to my advantage! (I never did get called in that night!) I'd like to give a nice little commentary on each photo, but it would require too much effort and besides, they're all pretty much self explanatory. And yes, there is a ridiculous number of Kristen riding the little wooden pony but I just couldn't help myself! Enjoy!

Cowboy Days

Many more pictures to share, but for now I'm off to bed with the hopes that I really will get to stay home all night! Staffing looks good so far and it was my turn to stay home on-call. Praying there is no middle-of-the-night phone call from work...

Good night!

Busy Days

I've got some pretzel dough rising on the oven and as soon as Darren is home from the post office we'll be praying the Stations together with the children before I go back to bed for the rest of the afternoon. I work tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday night (which rarely happens anymore) but fortunately, tonight is the only full twelve hour shift. (The other two nights will be split with my friend, six hours each. Much nicer that way!)


We just waited two hours for the home health nurse to arrive for our 9:30 appointment. That irritates me! Being a nurse, I know firsthand how quickly schedules can get off track, but sheesh. A phone call would at least have been nice! This may have been Kristen's final Synagis injection, but we'll just have to see how long this RSV season lasts. I'll be so glad when it's over! Praise God we've never had a child become seriously ill from that terrible virus. So, I guess if an inconvenient two hour wait is the price I have to pay for some extra protection and peace of mind, then it is a worthwhile investment. How can I really complain?


Kristen's first birthday is just four short days away! My Darren, sweet man that he is, agreeably went shopping with us after work last night because we still had to buy the majority of our party supplies. Although I use the word "party" very loosely here, because it's really just going to be us, and perhaps my dad and brother, celebrating together on her birthday. I contemplated having a huge party for her as I've done for all of my other children's first birthdays, but finally decided that I really just wanted something small and intimate for her. I've been reflecting a lot lately on how tense and scary the week of her birth was for me (just a quick peek at my March archives makes me anxious all over again!) and how far we've come this past year. It's silly, but on the day that she was born all I could think about as we left for the hospital was the fact that our poor children were going to miss out on our big St. Patrick's Day dinner and activities we had planned! I really was not expecting her to be born that day! Silly me. This year I just want to enjoy her and my other children and spend the day celebrating. Darren is taking that day off from work and we'll have all day to be together!

My best friend was in town yesterday and came over to visit after lunch. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to take the children to a nearby park. Even though we don't get to see her nearly often enough, the children do dearly love their "Auntie" Laura. I love this photo of them racing down the hill with her!

Kristen absolutely loved the baby swings! She laughed happily the whole time and Caitlyn so enjoyed pushing her higher and higher!

We played for a long time before deciding that it would be fun to go explore in our "enchanted forest" at the edge of the playground. There's not much life to it right now, but the children had a blast playing in the crisp leaves blanketing the ground. They were so filled with joy that one couldn't help but laugh along with them!

Nobody wanted to leave when I said it was time to head home, but they were enticed by the promise of milkshakes. :) Meghan and Kristen were happy in their double stroller, but Caitlyn and Dylan were so worn out that they convinced Auntie Laura to give them piggy back rides all the way home! She's such a sucker softie. See her there with Dylan in the bottom left corner? I'd say that combined with all the racing and chasing, she definitely got her workout for the day! :)

Happy Friday, friends. Have a wonderful weekend!

Another Lapbook.

This time, the beatitudes! Such a fun one. (I remember memorizing the beatitudes for my mom the year she kept me home from formal catechism lessons, teaching me on her own, instead.)

Our technique for this one was much the same as for the Apostles. Probably because it worked so well, and I'm not creative enough yet to try something new. :)

I found the cutest little printable cards, which I copied into Microsoft Word and resized to 2.5" x 2.5". After cutting them out, we glued the pairs onto folded sheets of paper to make our own little "Lift-the-Flap" memory exercises. (The coloring page in the center can be found here.)

I liked the straightforward list of beatitudes found here, but I also really liked the sweet, simple explanations that accompanied this story, so we included both on the inner pages of our lapbook!

School is finally feeling "fun" again. With the introduction of lapbooks into our lessons and Daddy volunteering to take over history and science, I may actually be able to keep doing this. :)