Halloween sneak peek...

Today is the Halloween parade at school for k-3rd grade. So, Ella and Andrew get to dress up for it and Christopher is out for the first time (he gets to look forward to next year when they study the saints and the 5th graders dress up as their chosen saint for the parade - very big moment to look forward to!).

I've been working hard on their costumes this week. From the get go Ella has said she wanted to be a St. Mary's (high school)/SS. Simon & Jude (grade school) cheerleader. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and she'll say 'a St. Mary's cheerleader'. I finally convinced her a few weeks ago to just go with SSJ for the parade (and purpose of simplifying the shirt). Her best friend Elise decided to be an SSJ cheerleader with her (is this the start of many years of dressing alike?...I remember doing this with my best friend growing up and we loved it...it will be so cute & fun if Ella & Elise do this too).

I was so happy with the way her costume turned out. I took pictures last night when it was all finally completed....

Andrew also came up with a great idea this year...He is going to be 'Ash' - the main boy in the Pokemon series, he reads the 'Pokemon' books and trades the cards with his friends. It has been the big thing this year. The boys will sit down (and Ella too - she knows all about Pokemon cards from them) and trade cards and talk about their different evolutions and powers and it is a nice quite activity that they can sit for hours and talk about.
I finished Andrew's costume last night too...

pictures from the parade will be posted tomorrow....

Happy 8th Birthday, Andrew!!!

My second born is now a big 8 year old!! My outgoing, funny, little Andrew is now a big 8. I can't believe it. This picture was taken over the summer and it just captures Andrew's fun loving personality. He has really outdone himself already at school this year - academically, socially, spiritually and we could not be more proud of him.
We drove back from our little California trip on Andrew's 8th birthday, pulled right up to the house and had the entire family (grandparents and 7 uncles) over for dinner. We did not even unpack the car. It has become a tradition to have the grandparents and 'uncles' over on the kids' birthdays, so they always look forward to it...

Chris picked up Carolina's (as requested by Andrew...we tried to talk him into Pei Wei but he had his mind made up) and we had a nice little celebration. Nani made him his cake(s) since we were en route from Cali...

Miss helpful Ella put the candles on the cake(s)...

and John now calls candles "Happy"....
I love this picture of Andrew and Christopher from our trip. I didn't realize it right away when I first looked at the picture, but they are totally in sync - I mean just look at their arms, legs, heads...it looks as if they are doing some kind of cha-cha slide dance they spent hours practicing when in fact it was totally unplanned. It just makes me think of how close they are and what great friends they are. Don't get me wrong they do fight, and fight often but they are also very close, and I hope they will always be.

And I had to include these pictures from Disneyland this summer as Andrew has always been our major Star Wars fan (this started at a very young age due to our neighbors passing down a bunch of Star Wars action figures to us). All three kids got picked over the summer for the Jedi Training Academy Camp Show at Disneyland...

Thanks, mom, for making the cakes. And thanks to everyone who came over and made the birthday boy feel so special - he couldn't wait to see all of you!
Andrew - here's to a great year as an 8 year old...we love you!

scenes from a wonderful fall break

we had a lovely time in southern cal with lots of r & r and time together as a family.

the first day was great. it all started with this...

then it was off to work (or shall I say play?)



endless fun playing in the sand together. the kids were so focused on keeping water in their ditch they would take turns announcing "water duty! i'm on water duty" and whoever was would run back and forth filling up a pail and dumping it into the ditch. they took this role very seriously and were proud to have the responsibility of it. andrew is on 'water duty' in this picture (in the background).

although chris and i did spend a good amount of time observing how much fun they were all having together (and reading our books), we did also lend a hand joining in on the fun.

the older three did eventually jump in the water, clothes and all...

and the little one was surely ready for a nap by the end of the afternoon...

p.s.

sorry the orange was getting to me...it didn't last until halloween! my house has been decked out since the beginning of october though, pics on that later.

breakfast talk

John and Chris looked so cute this morning eating their cream of wheat together...

the conversation went like this:

"dad... bobby chuck" (truck)- (referring to uncle bobby coming over in his truck last night)

"dad...elmo"

"dad...ernie"

"dad...chuck" (truck, again)

"dad...elmo"

"dad...mmmm"

so sweet, just want to eat this little guy up...he brightens our lives every day and we thank God for him (and, of course, his brothers and sister...but this is just the cutest age!).

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

last Sunday (ok, now 3 Sundays ago...as I'm finally writing this post!) was my mother-in-law Carol's birthday. Ella picked out a red dress the night before to wear to mass and all day in her honor (since red is her favorite color) and Chris put a red shirt on little John John too.

we had a nice breakfast celebration at Uncle Kevin's house...he made delicious egg & bacon croissant sandwiches with lots of fresh fruit to go with them (we brought the monkey bread). we went to my in-laws for dinner and had another great meal followed by Cathy's rum cake for dessert. the last couple of years, grandma has been using her birthday as a good excuse to order these cakes and they are heavenly both to the palate and the eyes. they come with pretty writing and curly ribbon all over them, and you get to choose the color (Carol chose red, of course) of these embellishments.
if you've never had a Cathy's Rum Cake you definitely need to get one sometime for a special occasion (a little pricey, so make it a real special occasion!).

John couldn't wait to dig into the cake. As he was sitting there waiting for the candles, he started sliding his finger along the side of that beautiful cake - he just couldn't contain himself. He continued sliding then licking until we were ready to sing...which horrified his sister...

As I was standing there, ready to help with the cake cutting/serving, I noticed how beautiful the side of the cake was...gorgeous detailing...

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful mother-in-law and grandmother for my children. Happy Birthday, Grandma...we love you!!

oldest & youngest...

the scene at our house before bed last night:

Christopher and John-John goofing off together...

yes, that is a play baby doll stroller...i remember when christopher did the same thing to ella with the same toy stroller when she was this age (and after many times of pushing her fast around the house, eventually she fell out of it, of course, ...no permanent damage done though).

so my oldest & youngest having fun, laughing together before bed (always a good idea to get them going before bed, right?) i love observing the different relationships between the kids...and as we all agreed last night as he was making us laugh..."what would we do without our little john-john". actually i said it and andrew said, "mom, our family wouldn't be complete"...and then i felt my heart swell with happiness.

have a great first day of October....hence the new blog colors to get me in the fall mode.