March 2014: Lent, Feast days and other random pics

I finally unloaded all of our March pictures off the camera :)

Shrove Tuesday: Strawberry oven pancake for dinner!

This Lenten season has been going well.  The kids are doing their calendars from Catholic Icing, and are following along with the Holy Heros Lenten Adventure.  I gave up Facebook for Lent, although I still think I am spending too much time of the computer.  I do think I have spent more time praying, and have been able to read some in the evenings.  I hope to plan some Holy Week activities to make it a special time for my family.



St. Patricks Day- March 17th

Snakes like the ones that St. Patrick drove out of Ireland.

March 19th: Feast of St. Joseph

Last year we made a paper altar craft and this year we made a real one with all the traditional foods. Maybe next year I will be motivated enough to expalin the meaning of all the foods we used, but I got the information from this blog.

Lucy loves having friends her size over.  These two couldn't get enough of this walker and the little shopping cart.

Alex's first map.  A church and a place where I go to meetings (?).  He draws all his people with bee bo's (belly buttons).  It's so funny!

Kiddie train :)

"These are signs so we can know God loves us."-Alex :)

Saying "hi" to Jesus.

I love my girls and their big hearts.  Mary always prays "for people that don't have houses and will be cold forever", and Lucy is so affectionate.  She always walks up to Mary after her nap to give her a hug :)

Favorites as of March 2014:

Alex's answers

Favorite color- red
Favorite toy- rocket
Favorite fruit- grapes
Favorite tv show- Jake (Jake and Neverland Pirates)
Favorite lunch food- meat and cheese
Favorite thing to wear- rocket shirt
Favorite snack- bars
Favorite animal- dog
Favorite song- shine song ("Down With the Shine" by the Avett Brothers)
Favorite book- space
Favorite cereal- peanut butter Cheerios
Favroite outside activity- snowmen
Favorite hoilday- Easter
Favorite thing to have in bed- firedog
Favorite breakfast- bagel
Favorite dinner- pancakes
What do you want to be when you grow up?- work on maps

Mary's answers:

Favorite color- pink
Favorite toy- elephant
Favorite fruit- banana
Favorite tv show- Jake
Favorite lunch food- penaut butter sandwich
Favorite thing to wear- heart shirt
Favorite snack- teddy grahams
Favorite animal- bunny
Favorite song- kids bop
Favorite book- bunnies and lambs ?
Favorite cereal- chocolate Chex
Favroite outside activity- playing ball w/ mommy
Favorite hoilday- Thanksgiving
Favorite thing to have in bed- bunny
Favorite breakfast- cereal
Favorite dinner- noodies (noodles)
What do you want to be when you grow up?- like mommy

Mary is 3!

The morning of her birthday, we took the kids to an indoor playground called Little Monkey Bizness.  They loved it!

Her birthday gift :)

The next day we met the family for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, and then we came back to our place to celebrate Mary and Bobby's birthday.

Valentines Day 2014

Finally unloaded Valentines and Mary's b-day pics from the camera!

We started our Valentines celebration earlier in the week with a party at our co-op.  We ordered pizza and had snacks, and kids went around and gave Valentines to the kids to their class.

Of course Alex wanted to make space Valentines...

On Valentines Day, Alex made us oven pancakes before going to work.  We spend the morning reading and looking at videos about St. Valentine, and had heart-shaped sandwiches for lunch.

Opening gifts after daddy got home.  They got tights (socks for Alex), plates and red M&Ms.  I subsequently threw out the M&Ms a few days later after reading about the health risks of artificial food dyes (they are made from petroleum) and how they are banned in Europe- yuck!  I am really going to start paying more attention to food labels.

Alex and I had salami and cheese sub sandwiches and chocolate chip cheesecake bars and watched a few episodes of "Arrested Development" after the kids went to bed.  It was a fun day!

Kid updates- February 2014

Alex is 4.5 and is so curious about everything!  He loves to build with blocks and I frequently find crosses, rockets, churches and houses everywhere. I even found a compass made out of blocks once :)  Every day, he and Mary color pictures, and they always include hearts, houses, people (sometimes with belly buttons, lol) and trees.  The other day he drew me a picture and and when I asked him to tell me about it he said, "It's mommy kissing Alex and hearts come out."  :)  He loves to be near me (especially in the evenings when the other two have gone to bed) and sometimes crawls in my lap and says, "I want to be close to your heart."  He is so sweet, and both him and Mary love making presents (toys wrapped up in blankets) for Alex and I.  School is going well, although it is hard to keep him focused.  He can write most letters, can read simple words, and we are working on simple addition/subtraction.  The memory work is fun, and I think memorization is fairly easy for him.  This semester he is doing music, and I am excited to sit in on a class soon and see what he is learning!  

Space is still a big thing, and he got an awesome set for Christmas that included this Mars rover.  I am considering having him talk about it for his next presentation at co-op.

Some artwork from the last few months...

My sweet Mary will be 3 in two days!  She loves her baby sister and is (usually) so sweet and gentle with her. Alex is still her favorite playmate though, and is lost without him when he is not around.  She loves "noodies" (spaghetti or mac and cheese) and is still a good eater.  Her eczema symptoms are really mild  right now. I'm not sure if it because it's winter, but I am hoping that it is due to a new cream I got that has calendula in it.  The true test will be this summer, when it seems to flare up bad.  Hoping the calendula is the miracle treatment we have been searching for!  She is good at keeping herself busy while I work with Alex, and loves to do "busy bags".

Lucy is now 14 months and is reaching some fun milestones.  She JUST started taking a few steps the first few days of February and is my latest walker (Alex was 12.5 months and Mary was 13 months).  Even now, she only take 6-7 steps at a time and then prefers to crawl the rest of the way.  Her first word was "nana" (banana) and she also says "dada" intentionally, and "poop" (lol!).  She still nurses a lot, and I have to be careful when I sit down on the floor near her because she will crawl over and try and pull down my shirt!  Part of me wants to continue for as long as she needs, but I am also getting baby fever, and will need her to go longer stretches without nursing if I ever want to get pregnant again!  Her new favorite thing to do is climb on Mary's toddler bed and bounce around on her knees.  And she is such a daddy's girl, and gets so excited when Alex gets home :)