Sweet Sophia

The grass is so lush right now, I could resist sitting Sophia in the middle of it all and getting a few good shots of her with her face clean and nose not running! I think they turned out great! There are a couple of Anna in there too...she loves doing things with Sophia more and more now, and it really is sweet.

Spring has been on its way...

and it is finally here! Our yard is in full bloom. Today I opened the front door and I could smell the lilacs, even though they are about 50 feet away and around the corner of the house. We have four dogwoods that are absolutely lovely and the wisteria is going to bloom soon too. It is just amazing and it makes us want to spend all day outside. The baby loves it too, and just wants to crawl around in the grass investigating. (By the way, she is laughing in this picture, not crying. Her new thing is to smile with her mouth wide open!) Unfortunately, we have dogs, so we really have to watch where she is going!

We didn't do any formal schooling today. I cleaned a lot of things up, inside and outside the house, and the kids amused themselves with various things. Things homeschoolers like to call 'Nature Study', 'Spacial Reasoning', and of course, the old stand-by, 'Art'. We all learned a lot! More pictures HERE!

Happy May Day!

This year we decided to bring flowers to peoples' doors for May Day. We made cones with ribbons to hang them and the kids decorated them. Then we cut lilacs and roses from the yard, and went to deliver. Joey brought his to his piano teacher, and loved the idea of ringing the doorbell and running away. Paulie and Annas were delivered to two neighbors. Unfortunately, Paulie refused to have his picture taken with the flowers, so we just have Joey, Anna and Sophia. Oh well...next time!

What more could we want?!?!

Days full of food, baths, dress-up, music and lots and lots of fun!

Joey's First Communion and Confirmation

Finally, the big day was here. Joey wasn't really nervous about receiving his First Holy Communion, although he did take it very seriously. As you can see from all the pictures, he didn't smile once! Since he was also being confirmed, the bishop was at Mass as well. Joey had asked my mom to be his sponsor, and I think she was really honored. He was really happy that she had said yes!
After Mass, we came back to our house, where my mother and great-aunt were furiously preparing food according to my lists they made me write out! It all turned out wonderfully and a lot of people came. Altogether I think there were about 20 adults, 20 little kids and 10 or so teenagers. I hadn't planned nearly enough food (and none of it was kid-friendly), and luckily Paul realized this just before everyone showed up and went out and got a bunch of pizza. Everyone seemed to have a great time, and luckily it was a beautiful day so we could all sit outside. Joey was so grown up and we are so proud of him!
Here are more pictures, with captions.

What we've been up to...Mid-April

Here are some pictures of what we were up to in the middle of the month. The kids were having a nice time visiting with my parents. Paul dug up a bunch of bushes in the front of the house, and then we all (my parents and us and the kids) put in a little stone wall and some plants. It looks great and really creates a nice entrance to our house. The kids thought it was a lot of fun...Joey is getting so strong...he really liked carrying the stones and helping out.
Also in this set are some of the kids playing with another one of Sophia's birthday presents. It plays music and blows the balls out the top...they all thought it was the best thing ever! Are my kids too sheltered? haha
Since my parents were here, my great-aunt made a trip up to visit us. She has an amazing amount of energy...more than me I think! We had a nice time seeing her...as you can see, Anna thought she was just wonderful!

Catching up...yet again.

I don't know why, but I really seem to save all these pictures and stories until I can no longer stand it, and then I finally post volumes and volumes that you all have to read and get through, when it would be so much better if I just posted once a week. Well, I guess I am not that kind of a person and I always have been a terrible procrastinator, so here comes my latest editions...

Sophia turned ONE on April 6...almost a month ago! We had a very low-key day. My parents were here and after we got back from church, we had a nice lunch and then let Sophia open her presents. She got a Radio-Flyer push wagon (which is nice to push, but also nicer to be pushed in!), some fairly large alphabet blocks, clothes, a sesame street couch (you can see it in some of these pictures), a little stuffed duck that is really soft, and some new shoes. As you can see, the other kids loved helping Sophia with her presents, although she was getting the hang of it by the end.
Then we had an ice cream cake, which was enjoyed by all. The rest of the day was spent playing and relaxing. You would think the boys had never seen alphabet blocks before, as they were figuring out all sorts of patterns with them.
I posted some pictures here on the blog, but here is a link with more of them, as well as some captions. Isn't our little baby sweet? We sure think so!