Making a Nomad hut

Part of our study on Mesopotamia was regarding the building of different kinds of houses depending on the culture and their livelihoods, especially the nomads. The assignment for this week's history lesson was to create a place for a pet or stuffed animal to live using things you could find in your back yard. I think that the hand towel was a little bit of a stretch but the rest of it was great. They lined the inside of their hut with dry grass so that Stella would have a comfy place to sleep. 9.10

Does it get any sweeter than this?

Dominic with Stella & Krypto. 9.10

Camping Fun

The kids have been begging to go camping and we thought this would be a good year to give it a try since the kids were old enough to really enjoy it. But being the practical person that I am, I thought that maybe we should have a trial run in the back yard before we attempted the real deal in a new place. So we unpacked the tent and got all the fixings for a fun camping meal. The weather looked great and we thought we would give it a try. The kids enjoyed setting up their beds in the tent and bringing all their books and flashlights out. We made hobo meals (potatoes, kielbasa, onions, carrots, peppers, all mixed together in a foil pouch then placed in a aluminum pan and set into the fire) and campfire cobbler. All of it was super yummy! Then of course we also toasted marshmellows and told stories before tucking the kids into bed and hoping that they would go to sleep. Apparently Labor day weekend is not the night to camp out in your back yard because there are lots of people staying up really late making lots of noise which makes it hard to go to sleep if you are an adult. I tried my best but sleeping on the ground, no matter how padded is not for me. I slipped out at around 3:30am to retreat to the couch for more comfort. Less than 45 minutes later the whole troop was coming up the stairs due to the thunder that they heard. Everyone was awake and hungry. We all ate a bowl of cereal and then crashed into our bed where we all finally got some good sleep! That is my kind of camping.....the kind where I end up in my own bed! 9.5.10

The morning after: Camping

After a nice peaceful sleep in our own bed we decided to continue to pretend that we were camping and we hauled out all the essentials for breakfast by the tent. The leftover hobo meals were mixed into some eggs to make an awesome omelet to go with the whole wheat pancakes Michael whipped up on the griddle. This might be the best camping situation ever. Who needs a campground? 9.5.10

Cave Painting

In studying about ancient civilizations we started to study about early writings, cuneiform, hieroglyphics and cave paintings. The kids got to have a practice session on cave painting today. Dominic decided to paint a spider with red web. They were only allowed to use relevant colors from ancient times: reds, browns, and blacks. 9.3.10

Happy Birthday Daddy

We celebrated Michael's birthday with pizza, presents and chocolate cherry ice cream cake. Dominic even made him a Superman puzzle when we were at Kaliedescope a few weeks ago. 9.2.10

My little Archeologists

We all are loving our new history program this year called Story of the World. One of the fun projects we got to do was an archeological dig that we created in our sand box. We buried things from our time period and then poured water in the sand to let them "set" after a few days we made a grid over the dig site and commenced digging for artifacts. The kids were careful not to damage any of the artifacts we found. We made a grid-map of everything we found. Even the cats participated in the fun. 9.1.10

Daddy's working late

Since we found out that Michael wouldn't be home for dinner we decided to mix it up a bit and have breakfast for dinner. The kids ordered pizza eggs and pancakes and they were very surprised to see how they came out! Yummy. 9.1.10

Birthday Fun at Cool Crest Golf

Since we were in St. Joseph for the beautiful recital Isabella gave to my Grandparents my parents asked if they could take Michael and I out for our birthdays. The kids were thrilled since they have never been miniature golfing. Dominic seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly. He especially liked when he got to hit his ball into a crocodile mouth or a castle or into some water hazard. It was a perfect day. Thanks to my parents for thinking of it and taking us! 8.28.10

Recital for Great-Grandma & Grandpa

Last year Isabella started piano lessons and this summer she has mastered a few songs. She especially likes one called "Far Away" which is about the immigrants coming overseas. She also started learning many different poems that she knows by heart. The beauty behind the poetry is that my Grandma learned the same ones when she was in grammar school and she still can recite them! I can remember her reciting them to me as a kid, I have even heard her recite them to my own kids. We surprised my grandparents one Sunday and Isabella gave them quite a treat. She played her song for them and she recited 4 of her poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: The Owl & the Pussy Cat, My Shadow, Windy Nights and Foreign Lands. Dominic recited his poem "The Rain." My Grandma looked so happy and proud as she said many of the words right along with the kids. Poetry recitation has become such a lost art, I am glad to see it make a full circle and connect one generation to another even if there are 80 years in between. 8.28.10

The year of strange mailings

Many years ago while I was in grad school my best friend, Gina and I started seeing just how far we could push the postal service in good fun. Thus strange, random mailings was born. We still laugh about how Gina mailed a skateboard or how I mailed her a banana peel. Fun times. Life got busier and the random mailings got more rare. This year in honor of our 10 year anniversary of meeting I decided to resurrect the fun and start mailing her random things. You can imagine my surprise when I went to my mail box to find a cherry chip cake mix (my birthday favorite), muffin liners, a rubber spatula, and a set of plastic mixing bowls. Essentially a birthday party right in my own mail box. A few weeks before that I got a Rod Stewart "hot legs" record in the mail...complete with Gina commentary on all of the songs titles. The kids think it is so silly and Bella is thinking up some fun things to do with her best friend that moved away. Going to get the mail just got a lot more fun. Thanks Gina for helping to keep the fun alive! 8.25.10

Snowy lives on

Shortly after we adopted our three new kittens, one of them died. Poor, sweet, little, Snowy, who started out as Dominic's favorite. It was hard on all of us, especially the kids. One day we were in Hy-Vee and Dominic saw a little Siamese stuffed kitten in the floral department. He ran over and grabbed it and said "look mom, it looks just like Snowy!" he begged for me to buy it right then but I said he needed to pay for it with his own money. So diligently he saved up enough money and we went back and he bought it. "Now Snowy will always be part of our family...I can't wait to show Krypto and Stella, they will be so happy to see a cat like Snowy again!"--gotta love that little boy. Now Snowy goes everywhere Dominic goes....it is really sweet. 8.24.10

Happy birthday to my little Nieces

Trista is turning 6 and Trinity is turning 2. We were so happy to get a chance to be with them for their birthday parties. Great to see the cousins together having lots of fun. 8.22.10

Sweet Kitty Love

Growing up I spent countless hours cuddling with my kitties. They were such a huge part of my life growing up. Now that we have our own cats here it brings back so many fond memories. I wasn't sure if the kids would be the same as I was as a kid or if the fascination would die away after the kittens turned into cats. So far the kids have been very much like their momma. Both kids wake up and change into "kitty clothes" every morning so they can see the cats right away. The let them outside and play with them until it is time for breakfast. Then they do chores and we start school. As soon as Dominic is done he is right back outside loving on the cats. Poor Krypto has started to find hiding places to escape from the endless "love" that Dominic gives out. Almost every spare moment we are home the kids are playing with the cats. They sure do love them. The best part is that Isabella has stopped having allergic reactions to them. She seems to have developed an immunity to our cats within a few months time. What a blessing. We still continue to be very rigid about hand washing and only wearing "kitty clothes" so that we keep the cat hair out of the main house but so far things have gone better than expected. I am not too fond of the cat smell in the garage but knowing how much my kids love their cats makes the stink a bit more bearable. Besides in a month or two they will be mostly outdoor cats and the garage will smell better......right?? 8.19.10

1st Day of School

This day really came fast this year. Summer seemed to really fly by. We just didn't seem to get enough time at the pool or at the park. Normally the kids are begging to start school by mid-July and we start the first week of August. But this year I didn't have kids asking about school until the end of July/beginning of August. So we took a few extra days to enjoy the summer weather. We started on August 15th. This year brings forth new excitement as Isabella starts second grade and Dominic starts pre-Kindergarten. We joined the St. Bridgets Co-op, which is "school" three Fridays a month from 8:45am-2:40pm. Dominic has 9 kids in his class and Isabella has 15 in her class. I will be teaching high school nutrition and Kindergarten phonics. The kids are super excited about be part of a new group. Many of our friends from church and other activities will be there as well so there will be plenty of familiar faces mixed in with some new.
Isabella & Dominic will continue to take Catechesis of the Good Shepard classes once a week, and Isabella will be in her second year of art class. We will be taking a break from ballet for a few months while we adjust to our new schedule and class load. Second grade is quite a bit more work than first but Isabella is very excited about learning cursive writing, multiplication and a whole new history program called Story of the World. The big goal for Dominic this year is to continue working on his writing skills and learning how to read. He is super excited to read his Super Hero books all on his own! It is going to be a fun and exciting year. 8.15.10

Welcome to Cucina Bellissima

This summer was so crazy that we didn't get a chance to celebrate my mom's birthday until August. We decided to have my parents out to a nice restaurant in honor of both of their birthdays. First we all went to the pool so that they could see the kids swim (especially Dominic since he can now swim on his own in the deep end!) After we got back the kids distracted my parents outside while we threw together the "restaurant decor" and started cooking food. My parents waited on the front porch while Isabella and Dominic switched into their waiter/waitress clothes. The hostess showed them to their table and gave them their menus. They made their selections and were treated to a home style Italian feast. The kids were really excited to get tips from Grandma & Grandpa. 8/15/10

Playing House

I told the kids a story about how I used to dress up my cats when I was little. It wasn't long before Isabella was pulling out doll clothes and strollers and dressing up our kittens. Dominic joined in the fun and they took turns pushing their "babies" around the basement. I am not really sure why but the cats fell asleep in the strollers all bundled up in baby doll clothes. Maybe it is like swaddling a real baby? Here are some pictures from the the kids playing "house" with their babies. 8.11.10

We were so young then

8 years sure does go by fast when you are in love! Happy Anniversary Michael. 8.10.10

Pancake Morning

Since it was the last week before we started school we did some fun things. One of them was having a fun breakfast with cool pancakes. Isabella ordered a kitty-cat and Dominic had a Superman symbol. Normally we only have pancakes on the weekend so this was a treat to have them during the week. 8.10.10