Love is...

Brought Tears to My Eyes

UPDATE:  I apparently put a bad link in before, but it should be fixed now.  Thanks, Noreen for letting me know!

Did you see this during the Bronco/Patriot game?


Love. It.

On My Mind

Love Them Through Christmas

The stress has been high here for the last few weeks, who am I kidding, the last 6 months!!! I need to stop and refocus on the kiddos. I can't do it all, and even if I could, it wouldn't be worth it, if my family wasn't happy and healthy.

Peace and blessings to you in this last week of preparation!

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

What was in your shoe?

How Do You...?

How do you teach your kids the concept of a morning offering?

First of all, let me say that I struggle with this practice myself. And since this was not something done in my house growing up, I'm kind of winging it. I only have one child who reads so far, so the idea of morning Bible time is not realistic for us, yet. And forget anything requiring self-discipline with our 2 year old. We are still working on making the bed, and that's something tangible, something she can see and touch to understand. So how do you teach and enforce a proper way for your children to start their day by giving it to the Lord?

In our house, I'm really trying to develop habits in my kids, so I knew some kind of prayer routine would be needed. Since my kids all need some degree of help to get ready in the morning, I am all over the place. Until breakfast. So I decided to incorporate our offering of our day into our breakfast prayer. But, again, not having anything from my past to fall back on, I found myself writing a prayer for this purpose. Crazy, I know! I knew it had to be simple, both to be able to learn, and to understand, and I also know how the girls like rhyming. This is what I came up with:

Thank you, God, for this food

And for all who made it taste so good.

And thank you, Lord, for this special day,

That we may please* you in all we do and say.

Be with us from up above

So we can share your awesome love.

Amen!

The girls love it! They want to say it at lunch and dinner, too. Kind of defeats the idea of a "morning" offering, huh?

So, again, I ask, how do YOU, or do you, teach your children the concept of giving each day to the Lord? Please leave your comment, or even a link to a post you may want to write about this idea.

I can't wait to learn from you!

*(I'm thinking about changing the "please" to "serve." What do you think?)

5 Years of Birthday Cakes

At our parish playgroup this morning, we had a discussion about birthday cakes. The talents in the group varied from master bakers to super artistic decorators to those of us who are really good at handing over our credit card. This made me think of all of the cakes we have had for our girls and how I have traveled the spectrum myself with the cakes I have "provided." So, for your viewing pleasure, here is a look at the birthday cake history of my 3 daughters.

We'll start with the cakes I actually baked and decorated myself. (Note: by baked, I mean from a box.)

This is my first child's first birthday cake, hence it is my masterpiece. I went all out, bought a cute pan, changed the suggested icing colors to match the theme of the party, and had major cramping in my hands from piping the icing all by myself. I even made a foil covered cake board to put it on. (I also made some extra pink frosted cupcakes with the little flowers on them, since the cake wasn't enough to feed all of the party goers.)

Isabel's 1st Birthday ~ A (Cute) Bug Theme

After that first cake, everything became much simpler. I can't remember where I got the idea, maybe from a blog, but this is flower cake. I just baked a 2 layer round cake and iced it yellow, and baked cupcakes, iced them pink and placed them around the round cake for the petals. Very easy, especially if you don't mind baking your own cake but are more intimidated by fancing frosting work.
Alexis' 1st Birthday ~ An April Showers Theme (April birthday)

This next cake I'm a little prouder of because the idea was mine. Again, I just baked a 2 layer round cake, dyed some icing the color of the ocean, and made sea shells with a candy mold and placed them around the base of the cake. I also baked additional cupcakes with a candy on top of each. I did buy the Ariel topper. Again, this is another cake that is good for bakers who are intimidated by fancy icing work.

Isabel's 4th Birthday ~ A Little Mermaid theme

Are you starting to notice a theme about intimidation and art on the cake? Here's another way I got around having to "draw" anything on a cake. Based on the number of people coming to this party (there's always more for First Birthdays aren't there?), I knew purchasing a "1" shaped pan would not be enough, so I made a "1" out of cupcakes. I frosted them with pink icing to match the decorations and also put sprinkles on them to add a little more fun. I just placed them directly on the table in the desired shape, after a few practice drawings. Very easy, and no messy slicing of cake required. (This also intimidates me, trying to get equal sized pieces. I usually leave this job to my husband, master of knives!)

Maire's 1st Birthday ~ A 1st Birthday theme

I didn't bake or decorate this next cake, but I didn't buy it either. My sweet friend, who was going through culinary school to be a pastry chef at the time, graciously volunteered to make it. It turned out so great!!! She also made matching cupcakes that had the other characters on them. We got the idea and instructions from the Nickelodeon website.

Isabel's 2nd Birthday ~ A Backyardigans theme

The rest of the cakes in this post, I shelled out cash for. While I feel a lot of "Mom Guilt" when I do that, the timing of the parties makes me realize that it's just a sacrifice I need to make. This cake was for a party 2 weeks after Maire was born. (Walmart)

Alexis' 2nd Birthday ~ A Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme

Have I mentioned there are only 20 days between Maire and Alexis' birthdays? I know there are those of you out there with much closer birthdays to celebrate, but this time frame definitely intimidates me, especially when Easter falls in between. We barely get the decorations down from Maire's birthday before we have to plan for Alexis'. So, Alexis tends to get store-bought cakes. This cake is actually a bunch of cupcakes. Enough cupcakes weren't included, so I asked the baker to add the extra orange ones. (Walmart)

Alexis' 3rd Birthday ~ A Dora theme

There is a month and a half between Alexis and Isabel's birthday, so theoretically, I should have time to plan a cake, but with this party, the crafts/activity planning took over. I had grand thoughts of a Mardi Gras worthy cake, but ended up last minute going with a store purchase. This is definitely an easy route when you have a popular kids theme party. (Walmart)

Isabel's 5th Birthday ~ A Princess and the Frog/Mardi Gras theme

For Maire's last birthday, we went with a generic puppy dog theme. I looked online for ideas, but everything I came across scared me. BUT...when we looked at the local grocery stores, we didn't find anything we liked, either. So we went with a Blue's Clues themed cake because Blue is a puppy, and Maire does like to watch the show from time to time. Buying the cake turned out to be a blessing because 2 days before her party, I came down with some awful virus that stuck me in bed for 5 days. We post-poned the party a week and stuck the cake in the freezer. All of this, my husband took care of, so we were actually blessed to have an ordered cake. (Base Comissary)
Maire's 2nd Birthday ~ A Puppy theme

This next cake was for a party the week of our moving from Boston to Colorado. I don't know if I even felt guilty about buying it. I don't know if there was even technically a theme. We did send out Dora invitations and had a Mexican Eye pinata. (We have a pinata at every party.) (Stop and Shop, I think)


Isabel's 3rd Birthday ~ A semi-Dora theme

And finally, the last cake on our list. I honestly had every intention of a "semi-homemade" cake for this one, based on my pregnancy and preparing for our upcoming move. The theme was Strawberry Shortcake and I had all of these pictures in my head of a store bought cake frosted with white icing that I would bring home and decorate with fresh strawberries and maybe a picture of the actual character. But alas, this party happened exactly 2 weeks after the "new" date of Maire's party and we had a last minute surprise out-of-town visitor (a wonderful blessing) for the party. Plus I was not fully recovered from my illness. So the day of the party, we went to Walmart, our guest needed to do some last minute shopping of his own, and I found this cake. White with pink and red decoration. Good enough! I just had them pipe the wording on it right there and we were good to go! I should also mention that the activity for the party was creating your own dessert with those individual shortcake cups, whip cream, strawberries and blueberries. The cake was more for the ceremony of blowing out the candles and something for the grown-ups to eat. (Walmart)

Alexis' 4th Birthday ~ A Strawberry Shortcake theme

There you have it! We actually have another birthday party this weekend. The cake will be purchased as the movers come in 12 days and we are busy preparing the house and dealing with all of the end of school year activities that don't normally interfere with Isabel's birthday. It will also be a larger than normal event, since Isabel is sad to leave her friends and we allowed her to have an unlimited number of invites. A post to come...

Small Successes - Vol 2

I wasn't going to post about this today, not feeling very successful and all, but then my husband said something that made me rethink it. So my one small success is...

Tonight at dinner, as we sat down and were beginning to say grace, Tom began by saying "Father" and then Alexis continued by saying, "Son, Holy." I was in total shock. She has been attempting to do the sign of the cross with us for a while now, but I had never heard her actually try to pray, except to say Amen. After finishing our praying, seeing the shock on my face, Tom said, "See, you must be doing something right." That's when a light bulb went off in my head. There are more important things in life that we teach our children than potty training, how to make their beds, and cleaning up their toys. If we can teach our children the greatness of God and His infinite love for us, then we can truly call ourselves successful.

Create Your Own Holy Water Fonts

I found this link over at First Heralds. I think it's such a great idea. I've been looking a little bit at fonts, because I think I want to put them in our new house, and this came along at the perfect time. It's wonderful because I can get Isabel involved. She's pretty aware of the fonts at church, even though some days she doesn't seem as interested.

If you haven't visited First Heralds yet, it's a new blog "helping toddlers and preschoolers learn about the Catholic Faith." They have some wonderful ideas for May. I'm so excited about this blog because I need all of the help I can get.

So Strange...

It's just after 10 and I'm in bed. And it's quiet.

How does that work, you ask? Well, the baby is sleeping and Tom and Isabel aren't here.

They're gone.

They flew to Texas this afternoon. Tom has a class over the weekend and he took Isabel with him, partly to give me a little break, and partly so that his family could see her. His family only lives about 2 hours away, so various members will be driving to see them throughout the weekend. Tom's mom and grandma will be with Isabel the whole time while Tom is in class. So it works out for everybody.

After Alexis and I dropped them off at the airport, we ran to the grocery store. Then we came home, ate lunch and napped. (I took a teeny, tiny one.) This all seemed pretty normal. But then Alexis woke up. It all started feeling a little strange. Having only one child. And I think Alexis missed Isabel. She played differently. She wasn't as content without me. Maybe she was just having an off day. When the magic hour rolled around that I normally am so anxious for Tom to get home, I knew he wouldn't be coming home. Dinner was kind of flat. Alexis is cute and all, but not much of a conversationalist. I put her to bed early because she didn't get all of her normal naps in today and she has been sleeping in with the time change. Then I took the trash out for pick up tomorrow (a small "adventure" since I don't usually do it) and then I packed a care package for my brother.

I've been looking forward to the quiet all week, but it was strange. Tom has taken Isabel on a trip like this before, but I was pregnant at the time and very sick. I used the time to rest, relax and regain some energy from all of the throwing up I had been doing. So today was very different. Although I am grateful to have a break from a two year-old's constant questioning, there is a definite buzz of family life that I am already missing. Who would have thought that it would happen so fast?

I have lots of things I need to accomplish while they are gone and hopefully, Alexis will cooperate.

Oh, and husbands...when you go away and take our firstborns with you, it would be appreciated if you would call as soon as you landed and not make us hunt you down to make sure everything is okay. Just a thought.

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