Gail's Designs {Sponsored Giveaway}

As we work on settling back in and catching up after being away from home for most of the month, I have a couple giveaways for all of my visitors here at Shower of Roses!  Yesterday I posted a giveaway for a couple prize packages from Aurelius Cabrini and today's giveaway is sponsored by Gail's Designs. 

In addition to Gail's Etsy shop and Facebook page, Gail has recently created a brand new website for her business. You can visit it here!

Gail is offering to give away the lovely lavender Rosary Bracelet, made with 8mm Swarovski crystals, pictured below! The giveaway will be open through August 3rd, and the winner will be chosen, contacted by email, and announced here in this post on August 4th.

Lavender 8mm Swarovski crystal rosary bracelet with miraculous medal. 

Hand wired for many hours of wear. {Retail Value - $50.00}

Be sure to visit Gail's Designs website and Etsy shop.

Every item is handmade and ready to ship. Custom orders are welcome.

Enjoy FREE SHIPPING on all items during the entire month of August in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Gail's Designs!

Please enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter Box below:

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Aurelius Cabrini {Sponsored Giveaway}

Prize #1 - Vintage Handkerchief Bonnet, four Holy Sisters Vocation Dolls, and a Calla Lily Boutonniere

As we work on settling back in and catching up after being away from home for most of the month, I have a couple giveaways for all of my visitors here at Shower of Roses! 

The first giveaway is sponsored by Aurelius Cabrini, an Etsy shop created by my sweet friend Jennifer over at Veils and Vocations, which specializes in baby boutonnieres, handkerchief bonnets, and "Holy Sisters" peg dolls!

Holy Sisters Vocation Dolls 
Nurture vocations and delight your little ones with Holy Sisters dolls. Each one is handcrafted with love and includes the name of the order on her "leg." The pictures above are suggestions, any order is available. Please tell me which order you would like or just say, "Surprise me!" Either way, all dolls are custom made and built for gentle play. Buy four dolls, get one free! 

Vintage Handkerchief Bonnets

Beautiful bonnets made from clean (primarily unused) vintage handkerchief. Each one is a treasured keepsake. Perfect for baby to wear for any occasion or as a headcovering for Mass. Makes a perfect baby gift! Each one is hand stitched to preserve details and ensure quality. Most bonnets fit babies from 3 to about 9 months.

Baby Boutonnières
These tiny treasures will make any special occasion even more special. Designed for babies to wear under adult supervision, these will quickly become family heirlooms. All corsages/boutonierres have wrapped stems and feature durable pin backs with safety latch. White stems are hand wrapped in white satin ribbon. Green stems are hand wrapped in green floral tape. Custom orders welcome.

These are perfect for baptisms and First Communions. 

Prize #2 - Four Holy Sisters Vocation Dolls, a Vintage Handkerchief Bonnet, and White Rose Baby Corsage

10% of every purchase is donated to Show HOPE a charity serving the world's orphans.

Save $5 off a $30 purchase with coupon code VEILSANDVOCATIONS

Enter the giveaway for a chance to win one of the two prize packages using the Rafflecopter box below: 

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On the Feast of St. Christopher

"There's another river!"

Our family is home again after 25 days on the road, traveling over 3,500 miles (Sean drove the RV and I drove the mini-van) through five states! We explored a couple National Parks, spent time with dear friends and extended family, made many new friends, attended Catholic summer camps (the four oldest), celebrated our oldest son's 15th birthday, and ended our trip with a First Confession and First Holy Communion yesterday, followed by a Second Holy Communion at 6:30 Mass this morning before beginning the long drive home. I have so many pictures I'm hoping to share after we unpack and get some sleep... Happy feast of St. Christopher, patron of travelers! 

"Grant me O Lord a steady hand and watchful eye.

That no one shall be hurt as I pass by.

Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away 

or mar that gift of Thine.

Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear me company,

From the evils of fire and all calamity.

Teach me to use my car for others' need;

Nor miss through love of undue speed

the beauty of the world; that thus I may

with joy and courtesy go on my way.

St. Christopher, holy patron of travellers, 

protect me and lead me safely to my destiny."

- St. Christopher’s Prayer for Motorists

First Communion Day

Prayers after his First Confession

"Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, be my Salvation."
with Bread of Life Cake Topper

Great Uncle Tom, lots of new friends, and "Uncle Father!" 

After First Communion: Thanksgiving 

from Jesus, Make Me Worthy

The Body of our Lord, Jesus Christ, preserve my soul unto life everlasting! I possess Him Who gives eternal life. With firm and confident Faith, I believe, O Jesus, that Thou hast words of eternal life. Thy Flesh is meat indeed. I have received Thy sacred Body. Thou art truly present in my soul, my Lord and my God; Thou art most intimately united with me. Oh, how can I sufficiently adore Thee! Thou art my Lord and my God - I, Thy unworthy creature; Thou, my Father and Savior, hast taken pity on me: Thou lovest me, it is Thy delight to be with me. How can I, my Jesus, thank Thee for this grace! Magnify the Lord, my soul, for He hath done wonderful things to thee! Sweet, merciful Jesus, vouchsafe to look kindly upon my poor and pitiful gratitude.

I thank Thee, O Jesus!

End-of-School Interviews for 2014-2015

A number of years ago I was inspired by Sarah (who we finally got to meet in person this past week!)  to start creating these End-of-School Interviews for each of my children and we've been making them every year since. Here are this year's interviews:

Captain's Favorite Books: Scorpion Mountain, Band of Brothers and Door to the North

(all three from his Christmas stack of books!)

(Note: This post includes Amazon affiliate links. If you choose to click any of the links, then add an item (any item!) to your cart and complete the purchase, I will receive a commission. Thanks!)

Ranger's Favorite Books: Fr. Finn's "Famous Three" (Tom Playfair, Harry Dee, Percy Winn - also available directly from TAN), St. Thomas More of London, and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Favorite Books: All-of-a-kind Family, Anne of Green Gables 8 Book Set, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, and Latsch Valley Farm Stories

(We also just finished listening to this audio book again. So good!) 

Favorite Books: A Nest for Celeste, Little House series, and The Prairie Theif

Favorite Books: The Hobbit (Illustrated Edition), Tales of the RAF (Includes: Scramble! - Fighter Escort - Spitfire! - Dawson's Down! - Night Mission - The New Kid), and The Knights' Tales Series (Includes: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great, The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short, The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True, and The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated)

{I can't seem to find the interviews I created for my two preschoolers... I'm still in the process of transferring everything over to the new computer. Hopefully I'll run across them, otherwise I'll have to recreate them sometime and then update this post.}

Past End-of School Interviews:

2011-2012  •  2012-2013  •  2013-2014

Our 2014-2015 Field Trips:

Coquille River Lighthouse (family)

Face Rock Creamery (family)

Seattle (girls)

American Girl Store (girls)

The Historic St. Joseph's Rectory (family)

Fiddler on the Roof Production (older children)

Sledding (family)

Charlotte's Web Production (younger children)

National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week (family)

Lava River Cave (family)

Family Fun Center (family)

Bandon-by-the-Sea (family - pictures coming soon..)

You can find our 2014-2015 Curriculum Plans and Checklists here. 

Our summer is flying by so quickly... and I still need to finalize our plans for the upcoming school year. How are your plans coming along? 

{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: Amongst Lovely Things

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life with Like Mother, Like Daughter. ~

{pretty}

Finishing up The Penderwicks in Spring (borrowed from her little sister who received it for her birthday) on the grass at the park while waiting to meet friends for the first time in person! 

{happy}

It made us so happy to finally spend some time with Sarah and her lovely family!

{funny}

While sat on the beach and chatted, the little ones had a blast filling a box with rocks...

... while the older children swam and designed dresses out of beach towels! 

{real}

Rose and Posy also became good friends real fast.

They were so cute to watch as they played in the water and shared their snacks.

You can find Sarah's blog, her excellent podcast, and her newly revised book here!

You can also find this year's End-of-School Interviews (originally inspired by Sarah!) here. 

Teacher Appreciation Gifts {with Free Printables!}

At the end of our school year, with a little inspiration from gift ideas on Pinterest, the children helped create cards for their tutors using PicMonkey, public domain clip art, and gift cards from Target, Barnes & Noble, Dairy Queen, and Dutch Bros! 

Thanks for keeping me on TARGET this school year!

 ~ Captain

For my wise and NOBLE teacher. 

"It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others." Mark Twain

Thank you for being such an inspiration!

~ Ranger

Here's the scoop. You are one cool teacher! 

~ Twinkle Toes

Thanks a latte for being such a fun teacher!

~ Chiquita

You can download my printable document with our four different Teacher Appreciation Gift Cards here.

End-of-School Party at the Family Fun Center

Well, hello! I didn't mean to disappear again... Our summer has been full! I feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride and hanging on for dear life! ;) We've been having a great summer and I'll try and share some of what we have been up to in the next week or two, but in the meantime (now that I actually have wi-fi for a few minutes... long story!) I thought I'd go back to our last week of school and finish up a few posts that have been sitting in my drafts folder since the beginning of June... 

Our local charter hosted an End-of-School party at the Family Fun Center to celebrate. They rented the whole park from 9:00-12:00 for a private party with unlimited activities and it was such a special treat for our large family! 

.: Miniture Golf :. 

First golf lesson. From his Daddy. ❤

.: Kids Kart Corral :. 

.: Go Karts :. 

.: Bumper Boats :. 

.: Cactus Jack's Playhouse :. 

After the party we headed home, finished packing the RV, and then left for the coast to camp for the weekend and also attend a beautiful Corpus Christi rehearsal, Mass & Procession.  It was such a great way to end our school year!