Someone's Seven!

Our contractor is not only doing an amazing job, he has the sweetest family!!  His wife, Jamie, surprised us (knowing that I've been on crutches & Sean's out of town fighting fires) with pink cupcakes for Twinkle Toes's 7th Birthday today!! 

Since this summer has been so crazy, we had decided to wait until next year to have her "big" birthday party with all of her friends, but it was so nice to have some extra company since Hubby had to miss her birthday. . . again!  The girls (the contractor and his wife have 3 girls, all close in age to our 3 girls) all dressed up and our little Twinkle Toes was able to have an impromptu "princess birthday party" after all! 

After we sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed the cupcakes, Twinkle Toes opened her gifts.  The first gift she opened was some new Calico Critters to add to her collection, the Hopscotch Rabbit Family!  Aren't Calico Critters the cutest!?!  My girls love them! 

 

Speaking of Calico Critters, Rascal surprised his sister this morning with a little birthday celebration scene he had set up in the castle last night, after the girls fell asleep.  It was so cute!

Twinkle Toes also received a new skirt/outfit, a few fun cookbooks to help break in our new kitchen, a ladybug tree swing, a few fairy books, and an American Girl Doll (which she loved, even though it wasn't the full-size version she had been hoping for. . .  maybe someday!).

The kids and I all went out to dinner and then picked up a small cake at Baskin Robbin's before coming home.  We'll bake the princess cake, which we had originally planned to make, to celebrate just one more time when her Daddy is home again.   We sure miss him!! 

Happy Birthday Twinkle Toes!! 

After 59 Days...

...of living without an oven...

 

We moved in the new fridge just before Hubby left, and my dad & brother (Thank you both SO much!) installed and wired the oven today, even though the rest of the kitchen won't be finished for at least a couple weeks.  Oh, it is getting even more exciting!  

... What should we bake first?!?

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Little Flowers Girls' Club ~ Easy Craft Ideas for Wreath I

Last year I posted some Easy Craft Ideas for Wreath II for Our Little Flowers Girls' Club.  At the time I also put together a list of ideas for Wreath I to share with a couple friends, though I never did get around to posting it here on my blog.   I thought I would share them with you all now, in case any of you are looking for ideas.

I haven't had any time to plan for this coming year yet, and I considered just going back and doing Wreath I over again, but I think I will try and spend some time this next week planning our year with Wreath III, with the intentions of going back to Wreath I next year.

To keep things simple, all of these crafts come from Oriental Trading.  If you end up placing an order, be sure to search for an Oriental Trading Coupon Code.   You can usually always find a coupon that will work and save a little extra money.

1. Flower: Sunflower ~ Virtue: Faith ~ Saint: St. Catherine of Siena ~ Color: Brightest Yellow

The flower for this meeting is the Sunflower:

"Our Faith may be compared to this flower, since its gaze is ever fixed above, and turned toward the glorious sun of divine truth."


Oriental Trading has a darling Sunflower Wind Sock (found here)which would be a fun craft for this meeting.

Another idea would be to make a candle or candle holder craft since:

"God is light. In Him, there is no darkness." 

You could easily put together the supplies for this craft or purchase kits here: Tissue Paper and Glass Votive Holder Kit

2. Flower: The Ivy ~ Virtue: Hope ~ Saint: St. Monica ~ Color: Green

The Ivy Heart we made for our Notebook Pages during our meeting was adapted from one of the crafts suggested in the Craft Companion.   Another suggestion was to decorate flower pots and I thought the girls would enjoy this little kit: Artist Flowerpots.

3. Flower: The Peony ~ Virtue: Love of God ~ Saint: St. Agnes ~ Color: Pink

The God is Love Cross Magnet would be perfect for this virtue, don't you think?!  You can find it here at Oriental Trading.  It looks like they have another version available now as well.

4. Flower: Rose ~ Virtue: Love of Neighbor ~ Saint: St. Jane Frances de Chantal ~ Color: Light Red

This Heart Stacking Candle Craft Kit would be a nice craft to make to give as a gift to a friend/neighbor!

5. Flower: The Carnation ~ Virtue: Obedience ~ Saint: St. Joan of Arc ~ Color: White

Since "Joan of Arc started out at a Shepherdess, until God Called her to defend his flock," here is a "Talk to the Shepherd" Lamb Craft Kit.

Another idea would be to make Coffee Filter Carnations!

6. Flower: The Forget-Me-Not  ~ Virtue: Piety ~ Saint: St. Cecelia ~ Color: Bright Blue

Since I tied in the "Colors of Piety" to this meeting for my own group, a rainbow craft would work well! Here is a kit for a pretty Rainbow Sun Catcher.

7. Flower: The Violet  ~ Virtue: Humility ~ Saint: St. Catherine Laboure ~ Color: Purple

The Wreath 1 Craft Companion suggests a craft based on the Footprints poem: "Footprints" is a powerful reminder of how much we depend on God.  This Footprints Cross Craft Kit would work perfectly!

8. Flower: The Daffodil  ~ Virtue: Industry ~ Saint: St. Frances Xavier Cabrini ~ Color: Pale Yellow

Here is a craft idea for something which can be used "industriously" in the kitchen: Wood Butterfly Recipe Card Holder

9. Flower: The Narcissus  ~ Virtue: Truthfulness ~ Saint: St. Bridget of Sweden ~ Color: Light Orange

"St. Bridget was a lady-in-waiting for royalty, but with her zeal for truth, she was true nobility." ~ LF Craft Companion

Here is a fun kit for some Fabulous Foam Princess Crowns!

I also choose a second craft for our last meeting, a little something for the girls to make to give to their moms at our tea party. This past year we the girls made little pins.

I hope this post is helpful for some of you. . .   Now I better get busy thinking about Wreath III!!!  Actually, I shouldn't have to do much to plan out our first meeting!  Thank you Shelly!!

P.S.  For those of you who have asked, I will try and post pictures and links/notebook pages for those remaining two meetings from Wreath II soon.   I just need to find them!   ;)

Highlights from "X/Y" Week

With everything that has been going on this summer, it feels like it has been forever since we finished "X/Y" and "Z" weeks!   Since Hubby is gone (he left early this morning for a wildfire assignment) and since I have been ordered to stay off my foot (which is next to impossible!) I thought I would try and get at least one "old" post finished.    I just can't get this close to blogging about our complete journey along the Alphabet Path and then end with "W" Week!

Learning Along the Alphabet Path

~ Letter Formation ~

The girls made the letters X and Y with Modeling Wax.

~  Yellow Deadnettle Fairy Coloring Pages ~

The girls colored the Yellow Deadnettle Fairy from the The Flower Fairies Alphabet Coloring Book while listening to A Flower Fairy Alphabet on CD.

~ Picture Book Science ::  X is for eXperiments   ~

We did a couple eXperiments from The Usborne Book of Science Experiments (Usborne Kidkits).

We also read Jessica's X-ray,  which I should have just purchased since I now owe a huge late fee on it to the library!


~ Y is for Young Oregon Hunters ~ 

We started "X/Y" Week with a field trip to our local Young Hunters Day.

~ X/Y is for St. Francis Xavier and St. Joseph Yuen ~

Here are our hand-painted Saints for with An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  Ooohhh!  It was so exciting to finally be finishing the Painted Alphabet of Saints I started back in 2008!

They also colored St. Francis Xavier and St. Joseph Yuen Coloring Pages from Catholic Artworks and completed some copywork, which I created at Writing Wizard using the quote from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.

One of my favorite books about St. Francis Xavier is Set All Afire: A Novel About Saint Francis Xavier, but I didn't think my girls were quite ready for it.  Instead we watched Francis Xavier and the Samurai's Lost Treasure and read the companion book.

We also made Xavier Soup and Chicken Curry Soup topped with Yogurt.

~ Picture Study :: X is for eX ~

by Twinkle Toes (6) and Chiquita (5)

by Rascal (8)

I had purchased some Heaven Scent Windmill Cookies for "W" Week, but after noticing the picture study in Museum ABC for "X" decided to save them to serve with some Yogurt during "X/Y" Week!

~ Y is for YOU ~

We had SO MUCH FUN with Crayola’s Lights, Camera, Color!  It is a free application that allows you to create, print and color your very own coloring pages from digital photos. My children were so excited when I asked them to "Help me pick out a picture of YOU that you'd like to color?"

All you need to create the coloring pages is a specially-marked box of Crayola crayons, that has a code printed on the inside which is good for three months (48-count box) or six months (64, 96, 120 and 150-count Crayon Tower) of unlimited prints. Then you choose a digital photo on your computer and upload it with Lights, Camera, Color application at Crayola.com. The app will make the colors from the image disappear, changing it into a piece of black and white line art.

My children all decided to save the pictures to give to their Dad for Father's Day.

And since Snuggles wasn't that interested in coloring, I joined the fun! 

~ Y is for Year for Priests ~

Since the Year for Priests was coming to an end, the boys worked on finishing up their Year for Priests Lap Books and shared some of what they learned with their sisters.