Random Chitter Chatter...

... of my many blessings, in the van this morning :)

"Mom, I'm worried about little chicken"(little chicken is a plastic 1/2" toy)

"Why, little chicken is at home"

"No, I brought him, and now I can't find him"

"You probably dropped him"

"No, I did not"

"He's probably in your chair"

"No, not my chair, maybe someone else's chair."

"Sarah!"

"Mom, Sarah just threw her toast at my head"

"Sarah Elizabeth, don't throw your toast"

"But, I didn't want the crust"

"I MISS MY ROCK"

"Mom, Sam misses his green rock"

"What green rock"

"MY GREEN ROCK, AND NO~BODY SEARCHED FOR IT!!" (The green rock story is about 2 years old, or so.  How does he remember these things?)

"Everybody has a rock collection.  Little kids, big kids.  I don't know about babies though.  Woman's don't have rock collections."

"Mom is a lady"

"Ladies are womans"

"Mom, S says Jesus isn't powerful.  And, Jesus IS powerful"

"No, Jesus isn't powerful"

"YES HE IS POWERFUL!!"

"I'm powerful"

"You are going to die from my electrical hands"

"BAM!!"

Ahhh... the joys of riding in the van with some of my favorite people :)

Family Fun...

Saturday, we were supposed to go to a fall, horsedrawn hay ride at our local nature center.  They were having a hay ride, caramel apple dipping, and gourd painting for the kids.  When we woke up it was wet, windy and cool.  We started thinking it may not be a good day to go.  As the morning went on, and things got moving in our home, we realized it just wasn't going to work out.  There was grocery shopping to be done, and the wind was supposed to get up to 30 miles per hour.  M is not a big fan of strong winds blowing in children's ears.  We weren't too worried about the bigger kids, but the two youngest were an issue.  So, the decision was made to stay home.  Although we missed out on the windy, horse drawn hay ride, we still had fun at home :)

CARAMEL APPLE DIPPING!!





GOURD PAINTING :)









AND OF COURSE, EATING ALL OF THOSE YUMMY APPLES!!



J got a loose front tooth while eating his!

Life is GOOD!!...

Blue Knights...

     There aren't many Catholic activities for homeschoolers in our area.  There is a wonderful christian homeschooling community, but nothing specifically Catholic that I'm aware of.  We are members of a Catholic homeschooling group in another city about 1/2 hour or so from here, but that drive gets to be a bit much.  So, we decided to try and get something going here in our home town with a few local Catholic homeschoolers!

    Hubby has started up a Blue Knights club for Catholic boys.  The Blue Knights club provides an opportunity for young boys to have a great time, while learning about their faith.  Here is an excerpt from the Leader's Guide ~ "Using the concept of Knighthood based on virtue, the seeds are sown so that the boys can understand St. Joseph's role as guardian of Jesus and Mary.  The martial aspect of Knighthood also is used as a springboard to develop the obedience of faith."

     The first meeting was last night.  There are 5 wonderful young men in the group.  The first meeting was about the virtue of faith, and St. Peter.  I took a few pictures before the meeting started, but stayed out of hubby and the boy's way after.  I wanted this to be their time with dad, and the other young men who came.  hubby did have the help of another dad that came and stayed to enjoy the time with his son.  Hubby appreciated that, because the other dad helped keep things on track :)

     I think they all had a great time ~ I heard LOTS of laughing and yelling!!  Usually a good sign that boys are having fun!!  Here are some before pictures:



This is the table all set and ready to go! Hubby started the meeting with an opening prayer.  He used a toy sword to knight all of the boys after placing the breastplate/capes on them and calling them "Sir (name insert)".



These are the "Shields of faith" I made for the boys to paint for their craft time.



These are the SAD looking cupcakes I made!!!  They overflowed all over the pan while baking, so #1 they are larger than your normal cupcake, and #2 I had to cut them all up just to make them some what resemble a cupcake!  They were supposed to resemble these cupcakes!  Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to make the boats, so I just tried to make due with what I had on hand!



This is the Bible Memory Shout board!  I did hear some shouting for this, which was great!

     After making their craft, the boys went out and played a game outside!  There was so much laughing and yelling!!  We opened up a window in the room we were hanging out in to listen!!  It was a glorious sound!!  I LOVE hearing children laughing and having a great time ~ we all giggled just listening to it :)

     I'm looking forward to planning for the next meeting, and having all of those wonderful young men back!!