Memorial Day

Captain Awesome actually had Memorial Day off which never ever happens. Captain Awesome asked "What do people do for Memorial Day?" Honest question since he never has it off;) I told him in my family we didn't do the bbq's and shopping sprees. We always decorated graves because we had veterans in our family. So we decided to skip going to Old Navy. (Although their $1 flip-flop sale does sound appealing) We figured this is much more our style anyway. We headed to Milligan, home of the fighting Roosters. Captain Awesome wanted pictures of the flags at the grave yards. They are rather nice, aren't they?



When I was a child I loved to look inside the old church windows. (Of the church in the above picture) The windows were filthy and you couldn't see anything inside. But, it didn't deter me;) It drove my mother nuts:D It was restored about ten years ago. It is very nice inside and you can see through the windows now:) It's the oldest Catholic Church in the county.

While in Milligan we had a picnic at the park and let the kids play for a while. They have an awesome park considering the town is only 300 people.

The tall slide was Big Dog and Roosters favorite piece of equipment.

GH happily explored the park:)

Before we went home we stopped by Aunt Bug's house. The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins and eating popsicles. Yummy!

GH's Bath Time Silliness

These pictures aren't the best. But, the kids were taking a bath. So it's not like I could leave and get the good camera. Anyway, who would want to leave when your kid is doing cute stuff?

GH kept pulling back the curtains and telling me "hi". It was pretty cute!

That was fun but its time to get out.

Pool Time

More dazzling artwork from my kids collection

We did these last night before bed. I suppose for the next week I should be doing Ascension activities with the kids. Not that I totally get it or anything. Good thing for Captain Awesome. He broke it down for me;)

Happy Baptismal Anniversary Big Dog!

I gave Big Dog the choice between a cake or a big cookie for his celebration treat. He chose a cookie. I was actually really glad he chose the cookie. We had so much left over cake from GH's baptismal anniversary celebration that half of it was thrown away. So I wasn't really big on making another cake this week.

Ladies and gentlemen....our little drama queen.

Magic Marker Monday

Crayons are delicious!

Happy Baptismal Anniversary GH

Rooster helped me make a baptismal anniversary cake for GH.


We lit GH's baptismal candle and said a prayer of thanks. Then we ate cake. Yummy!

What is married?

Today we went to Aurora for Nicole's graduation. Before we stopped by the party we drove around town. We decided to show the kids the church Captain Awesome and I got married in. As we drove by I told them "This is the church dad and I got married in. In a few months we will come here. We will get our picture taken here as a family for mom and dads anniversary." Rooster asked, "What is married?" I told her "It's when two people promise God that they will be together forever and that they will have kids together." Rooster said, "That's awesome!"

Great commercial

What do you want to do when you grow up Růženka?

She replied, "I want to grow flowers". I asked her if she wanted me to get her some books about flowers and she shouted "Yes!"

My grandma Irene would have loved Rooster. My grandmother loved flowers. When she still lived in her home she had a double lot. It was full of different kinds of flowers and plants. I loved walking around her yard when I was a little kid. Mostly, because I wanted to stay away from her. She was a total grouch. But, she took really good care of her garden:) We almost named Rooster, Rose of Sharon.Rose of Sharon (pictured above) was a favorite of my grandma. But, we ended up picking Růženka for her name.

Anyway, even after she moved in with us she still loved her flower catalogues. She always wanted to talk about flowers. I was more interested in knowing what they were saying on the Big Joe Polka Show that was playing in the background. My grandma would tell me and quickly change the subject. If I pestered her enough she would teach me a little Czech. But she knew what I was up to. I wanted to learn Czech because I wanted to know what my grandma and mom where talking about. Funny thing about those two. They would be speaking about Christmas in English. Then all of a sudden they would be speaking in Czech. Could they be talking about my gifts? Yeah---that's what they were doing. Pretty messed up if you want my opinion;)

Anyway, what do your kids want to be when they grow up?

Too cool for you......

This picture sums it all up.......;)

GH loves his ocean water bottle.

There are sea shells, rocks and even a shiny purple lobster. I have to keep it realistic;) In hindsight I should have used baby oil instead of vegetable oil. Then it would look more like waves. Oh well....

A Sweet Mothers Day Gift

I received a wonderful Mothers Day gift today. It didn't come in an envelope or with a fancy bow. It came in the form of a story told by my husband. He told me the following story as we drove home from my sister-in-law Shelia's Mothers Day party (which was awesome). A little background before the story......My sister-in-law uses her large outdoor nativity shed as a small playhouse for her kids. (Such an awesome idea) The kids love playing on it and climbing on it. Anyway, on to the story.....

Cousin Presto and Cousin Imes were on the top of the house and wanted Rooster and Big Dog to come up too. The boys tried to pull Rooster up. When they weren't able to pull her up. Big Dog grabbed her left leg then her right and helped push her up to the top of the house. When they couldn't get Big Dog up, Rooster left her older cousins and went down to play with Big Dog. She left the fun even though they wanted her to stay with them.

I cried when my husband told me this story. I thought about how much they love each other. Big Dog helping his big sister get to where she wanted to go. Rooster giving up fun so her brother wouldn't be left out. I seriously, don't know how they got to be so sweet. But, I wouldn't want them any other way:)

New Catholic Vote video

Some stuff I've been working on

I've been working on making altars for the kids rooms. This one is in the boys room.

This one is in Roosters room. I know they aren't really nice. But, I'm making an attempt:)I got the kids fonts too. Now, if I can get in the habit of actually using these everyday.

While I was at the local Catholic book store. I was looking through a box of prints. I found this beautiful print of the Holy Family for $2.00. I put it in a picture frame I got at a thrift store for $1.50. I think it's absolutely beautiful.

Rooster

Rooster was doing her name puzzle the other day. She knows her first name by sight. But, she doesn't know her middle and last name when she sees them. So I was telling her "Ann is your middle name. You got your middle name from grandma. Her middle name is Ann too." Rooster looks at her puzzle and runs her fingers under the letters saying "Ruzenka grandma........"

I guess I didn't explain it very well;)

Today we finally got around to making Father Gyhra a card. I told the kids that he is very sick and will go see Jesus soon. We started making the card. As we added stickers she started singing "He's going to see Jesus, he's going to see Jesus." Now, I know that some people would think this was terribly inappropriate. But, she meant nothing bad by it. She seemed very happy for him.

Rooster is such a kind little soul. She's been through so much but still remains cheerful. Every morning she wakes up and says "It's a beautiful day". I'm sure there is a lesson in there for me;)

Piggy puzzle

Rooster and I put together this piggy puzzle. There might only be a few pieces but it's harder than it looks.

Sensory Box-- Soldiers

We used a small green plastic sled for this sensory box. I had picked up some cute camouflaged craft paper at a garage sale for a quarter and some little plastic soldiers at Captain Awesome's store for $1. Rooster loved digging for the soldiers and was happy when she found them. She would pull them out of the paper and said "I rescued you." I'm sure they were grateful:)


Big Dog always ends up inside sensory boxes;)

GH loved the camouflaged paper strips.

The boys

The fence mom put up can't stop me!!!! I've got plants to uproot!


All the boys got hair cuts this week. Aren't they handsome?

GH has started walking a bit more. But, he still prefers crawling. He loves to climb on things. He's great at babbling and pointing. We think he's trying to say some words. We are super proud of him:)

Big Dog and Rooster love pushing GH on the horsey swing. Mommy gets nervous when this happens;)

The boys try to make daring escapes:)

You scream, I scream

we all scream for ice cream.

GH is a cowboy

GH gets his name puzzle. But Big Dog takes over....

GH doesn't like baby things too much. I think it's because he has older siblings. He seemed to want a name puzzle. I do know he is much too small to understand how to do the puzzle. But, sometimes you do things for your kids just to make them happy. And we all know my kids have me wrapped around their fingers. Anyway, I obviously can't make his name puzzle out of milk caps. But, I did find enough frozen juice caps. Big Dog left his boring old name puzzle to check out GH's new name puzzle. Big Dog did GH's puzzle telling him the letters. What a good boy:)

And believe me, I needed to see him be happy and helpful. Rooster and Big Dog have been a handful since Sunday.

What happened on Sunday? What didn't happen! I finally had to break down and just take the kids to church in a stroller. Rooster has almost been hit by cars several times. She is just not concerned with traffic, looking both ways or listening to mommy. She refuses to hold my hand which led to problems at church. While leaving the church she refused to hold my hand so I told her to stay close. Well that wasn't going to happen. I found her wandering the parking lot. We're lucky she didn't get hit. So I guess we won't be able to leave the church from now on until the crowds have left.

Shortly after church Big Dog got mad at me because I wouldn't let him run near the road. So he went inside and locked the door. And guess what? I had the wrong set of keys and no cell phone. Now you might say, "Big Dog couldn't figure out the lock." That's where you would be wrong. He can easily unlock this type of lock. Thats the reason we have to use our dead bolt on the back door.

Luckily, our neighbor Crystal helped us out. Big Dog had been messing with the kitchen window earlier in the day so I was able to get in that way. Crystal jokingly said something like "Little man you might not know what grounding is but, I think you are about to find out." then she left. Big Dog looked at me and tried to close the window on me:o

Big Dog is also trying to figure out which key opens the dead bolt on the back door. This is the only obstacle between incarceration with an evil mommy dictator and complete freedom;D

Happy Cinco de Mayo

We made paper Mexican flags. Big Dog loves any activity that includes glue sticks:)

He wasn't impressed with the "authentic Mexican" lunch I made.

I had a bunch of activities planned for today. But, Rooster came home today and threw up. She didn't go to school yesterday because she was tired. Well she was tired until five minutes after the school bus left;) When she came home this afternoon she threw up. I figured it was a sensory thing and didn't think much of it. But, when we went outside to play she sat on my lap and I could hear her chest rattle. I think she must have bronchitis or something. Poor thing:(

GH

GH loves playing with the light switches.

"Boy" lost an ear yesterday. At least he isn't a real dog.

After the ear incident we are trying to do better by Boy. We want to be good pet owners. So we are making sure Boy gets plenty of exercise.

The new dress up closet

We finally got a dog

We found this little mutt at a garage sale today. Look at him...he's already on the furniture! That didn't take long;)

roof roof GH

Big Dog gave the dog a kiss and said "My dog". I think Big Dog named him "Boy". But, I'm not sure.

What??? It's not a hat??

For Krimsin

An afternoon at Stephanies

We're out in the country. So it's time to do man stuff like play with the tractor, bang on the tool case and eat rocks. That's what Big Dog and GH do.....because they are men!

Teresa and Rooster enjoyed "cruising" and playing in the trees.
Anthony saved a spot on the slide for Rooster. How sweet!They have chickens and ducks! It's a bird lovers paradise.

Teresa and Anthony can wrangle a chicken pretty easily. So Rooster was able to pet a chicken that Teresa caught:)