St. Valentine's Day Celebration

This year we were able to, once again, celebrate Valentine's Day with our awesome Catholic homeschool co-op!  Although our celebration was delayed by one week due to a snow storm, we still got to exchange valentines and have fun.

Usually, we tend to take Valentine's Day as a feast day at our co-op.  This year, however, I decided to host it at my home so that we could dedicate a co-op feast day for another saint.  I planned some art activities for the kids.  They were separated by ages/grades and sent to different stations around the house.  This was followed by a valentine exchange and then snacks.  

We are so overly blessed by our Catholic co-op!  The families are each amazing and we have all become great friends.  

Dia de los Muertos.

October has come and gone and so has Halloween and All Saints Day. We had wonderful celebrations for both and now we are finally relaxing and trying to catch up with all the other stuff that we have to do. Mainly school work and rotating all our clothing to match the weather!

Not only that, but today we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. We remember deceased loved ones, tell stories about them and pray for them. It's a great way to introduce the subject of death to kids in a fun way. Dia de los Muertos is certainly not a sad holiday. It is a fun day full of food, games and crafts. It is a day to make fun of death and to remember that just because our bodies cease to live, our souls do not! Death is a step from this world into the next, where we will come together with our heavenly Father!

I hope everyone out there is surviving this time of year. It certainly is busy for us and I'm trying my hardest to keep my head above water. It's always busy around here with little time for rest. But as my dad always says, "I'll rest when I die!" And he is certainly right about that!

Thinking About Easter Already?

I know Easter is still some time away as we are barely a couple of weeks into the Lenten season. I wanted to post this, however, because sometimes getting ready for Easter (much like getting ready for Advent or other liturgical seasons) can take some prep time.

For many, Easter Sunday is a day for gathering with family and friends...egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, pretty baskets filled with brightly colored eggs, toys for the kids, etc. It's almost like Christmas day! All these things are wonderful memory-makers for not just the kids, but parents too.

For me, Easter always reminds me of traditions that I grew up with. My favorite being Cascarones!! (Or Confetti Eggs). This has been a family tradition since before I was born. Many of my fondest childhood memories involve getting together for Easter with my entire family...cousins, aunts, uncles, friends...and having the funnest time cracking cascarones over each others heads. It was the funnest time because it was fair game for everyone to take part in the celebration, not just the kids.

Of course, having such a big extended family meant that we needed LOTS of cascarones. I remember my mom carefully cracking eggs for weeks before Easter to collect the eggshells. She would crack the tip of the egg, slowly peel away the tip of the eggshell, and then empty the egg into a bowl that she would use to make us scrambled eggs, pancakes, etc. She would then rinse out all the empty eggshells and place them to dry in an empty egg carton.

Some time before Easter, we would take out all the now-full egg cartons in order to color and dye all the eggshells. When that was done, we'd fill them up with confetti and glue colored tissue paper over the openings. (Of course, I had sneaky cousins who would fill some of their eggs with flour...not something I'm recommending).

Now that I have a "big" family of my own, however, I find that collecting the eggshells for Easter is not as hard as it used to be!

Want to learn more about this Mexican tradition? You can read this article from Highlights with your kids and get them excited about it! Need some detailed, step-by-step instructions? Check this article from eHow.com.

St. Patrick.

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up next week and I thought I'd post some links to some activities, lapbooks, and coloring pages in case anyone wants to spend the weekend doing something fun with the kids.

We are constantly in cleaning mode around here; having your house ready to show is lots of work, but I'm thankful that we've decluttered enough to make cleaning up easier. With all the packing, however, we are missing TONS of our usual school supplies. We are working with basics around here...paper, pencils, a box of crayons, a few markers, and some glue sticks. So although I'm hoping to make some fun stuff with the kids, I'm not sure exactly how much we'll be able to do!

On to the link!! If you have yet to make a lapbook, why not start with a St. Patrick's day lapbook?!? Below are links to some FREE lapbooks.

• Saint Patrick's Day lapbook from Homeschool Helper.

• St. Patrick's Day lapbook with pictures.

• St. Patrick's Day lapbook with pictures from Homeschool Share (this one is more for leprechauns from the looks of it.

Not wanting to try a lapook this time around? Here are some more links to other activities.

• Free from CurrClick, Shamrocks and Shillelaghs.
• St. Patrick's Day unit study at Homeschool Share.
• St. Patrick's Day notecards from Paper Dali.
• St. Patrick coloring page from Paper Dali.
• Free St. Patrick notebooking pages from NotebookingPages.com.

*Please note that I have not gone through these pages in detail.

I'll be using some of these sites and reading some books over the weekend all about Saint Patrick. I'll post about that later!!

Sweet Valentine Get Together.`

It was a fun filled morning at our home as a "few" of our friends came over to enjoy a "small" Valentine get together (19 children altogether between 5 moms!). It was lots of fun and lots of fun chaos as the children ran around and played with their friends. Some children even got to make Saint Valentine's day cards and color some pictures!




Lunch was pizza for the kiddos and Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup with salad for the moms. Oh...and lots of candy and treats! Lots of good laughs with friends made the day extra special.







After the party, the kids and I sat down and worked on more Valentine Day crafts and cards. It was fun to spend an afternoon talking to them about their morning and hearing all the fun stories about them and their friends. Crafting is a sure way to connect with your kids!! And to show their appreciation for the fun day, the kids all split up chores and helped get the house back into tip-top shape!!

Anthony's favorite chore is cleaning windows. He washed all the windows and glass doors in the house. Although only the bottom half of the glass was cleaned, I was so happy to see how proud he was of his work!

Isabella scrubbed all the trim, chair rails, and base boards. She did a great job, although some places require a little more elbow grease than she is able to give. But she looks like a happy mother's helper!

Marco did the unthinkable (or am I setting too low standards?) for a 7 year old. This is his look after cleaning the entire kitchen...floors, counter tops, dishes, and table. Not only that, but he continued his cleaning streak with helping me pick up the living room and clean the bathroom. No complaints from him...I love my little cleaning dude!!!

And while Christian slept through our cleaning frenzy, little Jimmy enjoyed practicing his new talent...rolling over! Such a Heart Breaker!!

Preparing for a Sweet Get Together!

This year, Valentine's Day falls on the Sunday right before Ash Wednesday. Because we won't be celebrating the sweet holiday with our co-op friends, we decided to host our own little get together!

Our Sweet Cookie & Craft Valentines Get Together will give us the opportunity to make some fun crafts, enjoy some yummy treats, and trade Valentines with a few of our friends. Today I'll be posting links to help anyone plan a great little party for Valentine's day. With only a few days until our own celebration, I thought I better plan ahead as much as possible.

Paper Roses (a YouTube Video tutorial)
Victorian Party Favor Cone
A collection of wonderful Valentine's Day Crafts!!

I'm excited to get everything ready and start some crafting with the kids!

Valentines.

Today we took a day off from our regularly scheduled school work to do some fun school. Monday's are typically our co-op days, but with all the snow outside, co-op was cancelled and we were given a whole day to fill up with enrichment activities.

CurrClick has a great lapbook all about Valentines Day that we are working on for this week. And at only $4.00 for the download, it's a great value!! The lapbook is geared towards 2nd through 6th grade; but with some minor adjustments, I'm making it work for our preschooler and kindergartner as well as for 2nd grade Marco.

It's hard to think ahead sometimes and plan fun things to do, especially when you are busy packing for a possible move! But I'm trying really hard to keep things fun around here! Luckily, there are plenty of websites to visit and get holiday crafts and things to do.

For our lapbook we studied the history of Valentine's Day, as well as how it was celebrated during the Middle Ages. Anthony wasn't able to follow along with the more in-depth questions I made the older children answer, but he was still involved with some preschool valentine activities. Enchanted Learning has some great valentine activity books you can print out. We used this activity book from them and glued it to the inside of his lapbook. He also practiced writing letters and did some coloring.

Here are some additional websites that I love and can always find things for not only my preschooler, but for Marco and Isabella as well. Some of them do require a subscription, but I find that they are well worth it!

www.abcteach.com
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.teacherfilebox.com
www.dltk-kids.com
www.first-school.ws

Getting our mini-books ready for the lapbook.

Marco having fun with his work.

Isabella gluing stuff down.

Anthony working on his own preschool version.

Happy 4th of July!!

We spent a quiet evening at a neighbor's house for 4th of July. I hesitated on taking the kids to see fireworks because I really didn't feel like trekking to the park with 4 kids and no help. I also wasn't thrilled with keeping Christian up past his bedtime. Cranky babies, fireworks, large crowds, and a pregnant mom to keep it all together just don't mix!!

Granted, our fireworks display wasn't so grand; but it was enough for my kids. They got to eat cake, play with the neighbor's dogs, and drink soda. That was big enough thrill for them!

Gaudete Sunday.

The kids were so excited to see the pink candle being lit today. They didn't really understand at first why one candle was different, but when we talked about the joyous coming of our Lord they got so happy!! "It's almost Christmas!"

As our Advent traditions continue, on Saturday we all went to pick out our fresh tree. The kids were practically jumping out of their seats as we pulled into the parking lot. Unlike other years when we have actually cut down our own tree, this year we visited a local place and purchased a pre-cut tree. Mostly because our regular tree farm didn't have trees ready to cut this year and because DH was on-call so we couldn't travel far. We still went back and forth between what tree to get and we finally made a family decision on the perfect tree!!

Christian was happy running among the trees.

The kids playing Hide and Seek together.

Christian was mesmerized by the lights making up this Mickey Mouse.

The family posing by Frosty.

After we got home, we put our tree up in the living room and the kids were a little bummed that we didn't get to decorate it right away. We had so many plans for Sunday, that the kids thought that we would never get to put the lights on the Christmas tree. Of course, the next day the kids were excited to go to Mass. Marco wanted to see what vestments our priest was going to be wearing (he has become increasingly interested in this lately), and Anthony and Isabella just wanted to go to their class. We also had plans to decorate cookies at a friend's house after Mass, so there was plenty to do.

We finally got home and the most exciting part was unwrapping all the ornaments from their boxes. It was fun to tell stories that went along with the ornaments. "That ornament was given to me at the hospital when your sister was born." "That ornament is from when Mommy and Daddy first got married." "You made this ornament when you were only 2 years old." It was like a little history of our family!! We actually were so wrapped up in telling stories that we forgot to take pictures of us decorating the tree! But here is the final product!!

Our tree!!!

Sometime this week we will be putting up our second tree upstairs. This is one that belongs to the kids and they get to make the decorations and put it how they like! It's great fun and the artificial tree has been with us for almost 10 years!

Preparing for Advent.

Today I spent the day preparing for Advent. But so different from previous years, where I was always rushing to have the house decorated, this year I began getting ready by preparing our favorite Advent traditions. It's exciting that every year we are able to participate more and more as a family. The kids get older and their understanding is deeper than what I anticipate...and it's a glorious thing!

Since our first year of marriage, DH and I have celebrated Advent with the Jesse Tree. I had never heard of it before and a good friend of mine introduced me to this beautiful tradition. Ever since then, it has become one of my favorite things to do this time of year. It's not only a way to bring your family together every day in Holy Scripture, but it makes waiting for our Savior's birth something to celebrate every day. In all, I really like that there is a biblical basis to this tradition and that it focuses on God's story from the beginning of time.

Every year we have made paper ornaments for our Jesse tree. Sometimes using a Jesse Tree kit, other times printing out the symbols and coloring them in. The one thing that has stayed the same is our tree. A miniature Christmas tree that I purchased 10 years ago at our local Hobby Lobby. Some day, maybe we'll graduate to making real ornaments that can be reused again and again. We might even go so far as to purchase a bigger tree. But for now, I'm happy with our miniature, table-top tree. Looking at that tree sitting on our table always reminds me about the real meaning of Advent. It's not the presents under the tree, it's not the decorations...it's the patient waiting for the birth of Jesus. It's the celebration that begins on December 25th and lasts until the Epiphany.

There are many great resources to help anyone get the tradition of the Jesse Tree started in their own home. I love being able to print out the symbols and having the kids color them and place them on the tree each evening after dinner. If you have young kids, this is perfect! If you kids are older, you can create your own ornaments or purchase kits that they can put together. Either way, here are some sites that you might find helpful in getting you started.

Jesse Tree from the Domestic Church
Jesse Tree Kit from Illuminated Ink
The Glorious Coming E-book: A Jesse Tree Advent Celebration (This is what we are using this year!)
Jesse Tree, with printable ornaments
Jesse Tree coloring pages

Another more common tradition is that of the Advent Wreath. This year, I'm planning on changing things up a bit and having the whole family work on making an Advent wreath together. This will probably take place tomorrow on the first Sunday of Advent. I'm sure the kids will be happy about it and it will be a perfect way to introduce the season.

In all, I'm glad that I've decided to concentrate more on the traditions that make our Advent special and bring us together as a family. This is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. I'll keep you updated with our family crafts!

All Souls Day.

The Feast of All Souls is celebrated on the 2nd day of November. I write this today mainly because of my failure to celebrate the day yesterday (2 sick kids with fevers means we stay home!). Growing up, Dia de los Muertos was something that I remember many families celebrating. There were phone calls with "feliz dia de los muertos," special foods, and trips to the cemetary to visit departed loved ones. In the past, I have celebrated merely by praying for all the deceased.

This year is no different, although I would have liked to make Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead) and sugar skulls with the kids. I'm posting a link to recipes that you can make in commemoration of the deceased. If the day passed you by, much like it did in our family; perhaps next year will be a perfect time to try it out! In the mean time, I'll be taking the kids to the Museum of Anthropology later this week in order to check out their "Dia de los Muertos (Days of the Dead)" exhibit.

Check out these informational links. All have links to recipes.
*Catholic Culture
*Catholic Cuisine
*Fish Eaters (includes recipes)

All Saints Day!

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. It is a an especially good day to remind our children that we are all called to be saints. We have been preparing for today by doing daily readings about the lives of the saints and then adding coloring pages to the kids' bedroom doors. We have also taken out all our Holy Cards and looked at them, read the prayers, and looked up the saints depicted on the card on the Internet.

We have also been celebrating by praying the Litany of the Saints every morning. It has been a challenge to get all the kids to be still while praying, but I find that Marco and Isabella do an exceptional job setting an example for Anthony. I plan to continue doing this through the Octave of All Saint's Day (November 1 until November 8).

Our Litany wall.

Other good ways to celebrate can be to visit a cemetery and pray for the dead. This will actually gain a plenary indulgence for the souls in purgatory. And of course, you can have your children dress up as saints and play saint games.

Celebrations, School, etc.

Today has been an extremely busy day. We started with lessons around 7:30am and kept going until about 10:30. Since I had a few errands to run, I wanted to get as much done as possible. Once we were back from the store, we got to decorating around the house. Just setting up some spider webs and other fun stuff for Friday. What was really fun to see while I decorated, was Isabella making her own creation. "Mami, I'm working on a sculpture for Halloween." Although I would like to say that Marco and Anthony helped, it was really her creative genius who did all the work!

Isabella working on her sculpture.

Marco and Anthony get in on the picture.

Lessons continue to go well with Marco and Isabella. We are still in the review part of Saxon 2, so everything is fast and easy. Isabella is also doing extremely well with Saxon 1. Phonics and reading is a bit more of a struggle with Marco, but we are making advancements. He just doesn't like it as much as Isabella does. The word wall has definitely added a fun element to our day and Marco is responding well to it (that means he doesn't whine when I tell him it's word wall time).

As for Anthony, today we revisited Yellow Ball. It is such a simple book, that he practically has it memorized. I was afraid that with the lack of words, he wasn't going to enjoy it; but he actually really does like it and likes to make comments on the pictures as we go along. Our activities for today were painting a yellow ball and an ocean scene. I used white construction paper and drew ocean animals with white crayon. When he started painting with his watercolors, the images appeared. It was lots of fun for him (and the other kids!).

Anthony painting an ocean scene.

The kids really love painting!

And since we'll be celebrating All Saints Day on Wednesday both at co-op and faith formation, we've been reading a little about each one of the saints that the children will be dressing up as. Today we concentrated on St. Therese of the Little Flower. We read some stories from Catholic Treasure Box and we made good deed beads. It was a simple enough craft that both Isabella and Marco did it with little assistance. I do think, however, that Marco liked that craft the best and has spent all day carrying around his beads trying make his presents for God.

Marco working on his sacrifice beads.

The finished product!

Sacrifice or good deed beads.

To further help us celebrate All Saints Day we also colored pictures of some saints and posted them on the kids' bedroom door. We'll be saying the Litany of the Saints every morning instead of our regular devotionals. I thought it was a good idea and a good way to celebrate All Saints Day.

So today really was a full and busy day. Tomorrow doesn't look to be any easier since I'll be squeezing in swimming lessons at 1pm and 6:30pm. I'll be doing history during Isabella and Anthony's 1pm class. For Marco's evening swim, I just need to drop him off with dad. We'll see how this new schedule goes!

Halloween Carnival.

Today we enjoyed an afternoon at our church's Halloween Carnival. I figured the kids would get good use out of their costumes as opposed to just wearing them for one night. It was lots of fun and the kids had a really good time playing all the games. I'm starting to really look forward to Halloween night!

Anthony bobbing for apples.

Practicing for Halloween!

I'm not sure what the weather is going to be like for Halloween night, but I think the kids will be sufficiently warm in their costumes. We have been having quintessential fall weather and I'm expecting a chilly night, a light breeze, and bit of scary mist in the air!

Halloween Buzz.

Every year for the past five years, we have hosted a Halloween Open House Party. It's loads of fun and people come and go. Our neighborhood gets pretty packed with trick-or-treaters and we love taking the kids around the block. The first year we hosted, the kids were so little! Marco was only 2 and Isabella was not even a year old. But we made some great friends and had a blast. I cooked my favorite chili recipe and made loads of treats.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays for the simple reason that it is just a fun holiday. It gives everyone (even me!) a reason to dress up and eat candy!! I've always been a fan of spooky things, so it also gives me a perfect excuse to blast some scary music and make corny comments and jokes ("you look booo-tiful!").

Today has been my Halloween prep day. I rearranged all the outdoor decorations and started planning my Halloween party menu. Every year I make chili with cornbread and this year is no exception! Following is my Halloween menu. I can't wait to get started in the kitchen!!

Halloween Menu
Appetizers
Mummy Dogs (pigs in a blanket)
Chocolate Fondue Fountain with fruits to dip
Veggie Tray with dip
Chips & Salsa

Main Course
Chili with Cornbread
Vegetarian Baked Ziti

Treats
Popcorn Balls
Chocolate & Caramel Covered Pretzels
Candy Apples
Spooky Cupcakes

Drinks
Halloween Punch
Assorted drinks

I'm never sure how many people will show up, but leftovers have never been a problem! I'm also hoping to get the house in order this weekend. I don't want to worry about cleaning the house during the week, so I'm doing as much as I can now and then getting the house cleaner to come a day or two before Friday. This will free up my time for cooking and baking.

I also have some game ideas for the kids that I have to decide on. If anything, our get togethers are always kid friendly. Besides trick-or-treating, I like the kids to be able to do something fun. Usually, I set out a table with Halloween craft projects that the kids can do mostly on their own. This year I'm thinking of adding musical chairs, a pinata, bobbing for apples, or some other fun games. We'll see how it goes!

Choosing Saints.

Next week, we'll be celebrating All Saints Day both at our current Catholic co-op and at our church. The kids are especially excited this year and I've been working at helping them learn a little more about the saints they have chosen.

Marco will be dressing up as St. Joseph. He says that he is a good pick because St. Joseph takes care of all families. I though it was an excellent reason!

Isabella chose St. Therese of the Little Flower. She seems to be popular around here because of the Good Deed Beads I purchased at convention for the kids over the summer. In fact, we are planning on making our own sacrifice beads this week. St. Therese is also a featured saint in our Catholic Treasure Box books and we have been reading all about her this past month.

Anthony doesn't seem to have a good grasp about All Saints Day so far, although he does talk about being one of God's heroes. I imagine because that's how I describe saints to him...as heroes that defend our faith. With all that said, I decided to dress him as St. Francis.

Christian, my little guy, obviously doesn't care either way about anything but Mommy nowadays. He'll be joining the crew as well, however, in his own Pope John Paul II costume. I'm sure he'll find a way to fidget his way out of it, but as long as I get a quick picture of him in it...I don't mind.

I will most definitely post pictures of the kids. Mind you that I don't have great sewing abilities at all and the costumes are merely made up of sheets and fabric remnants. In all, it's always fun to get the kids involved in their costume making. Just a few more finishing touches and we'll all be ready for next week!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy Independence Day!! Today was great. We were able to go to a 4th of July parade, the first ever attended by my kids and the the first since I was a kid. It was a little disappointing, but the kids had a great time getting all the candy. It seemed like it was a parade of cars (with only a little flag waving) as opposed the the heavily decorated and more animated 4th of July parades of my childhood.

Once we got home, I was lucky enough to have our babysitter over for a couple of hours. This gave me plenty of time to set up our work stations and get some supplies together. It also gave me a little time to myself! After Anthony was down for a nap, the babysitter left and we started on some craft projects. The kids made stars, banners, and puzzles.

I also re-re ad some books to the kids and included these new titles: America Is..., The Story of America's Birthday, and Me on the Map. The last book was a great way to let the
kids have a deeper understanding of what America is and where they stand on it. We located ourselves on a U.S. map and then located the U.S. on a world map.
It was fun to decorate our school room and decide where to hang things up. The kids were excited to see their artwork adorn the walls. They are definitely more aware of the meaning of the holiday now and I feel like I have accomplished something positive. I think for next year, I'll expand the celebration for a whole week in order to accomplish some more projects. I'm thinking along the lines of creating a lapbook.

At the end of the day, we made a cake and celebrated with some fireworks out in the driveway.So now our school room is now officially decked out in American attire. We really got into the 4th of July spirit and it will be fun to have it all up for the rest of the month!

Check out the pictures of the kids and their triptych below. These were made yesterday. We decided to fold them into a triangle and hang them from the ceiling. I was amazed at how wonderfully they colored the images! Dh didn't believe they did it all by themselves. To accomplish the results, however, I did have to sit next to them the whole time and tell them what colors to choose. It was time well spent!!