Last week, Andrew and I -- total crazies that we are -- took the two littles and drove down south to see Sarah Palin! It was GREAT! The crowd was huge, which gave me a renewed hope for this election. No pictures, but she was wearing some killer boots=)



The kidders wore the requisit red shirts on which I wrote 'World's Cutest "Punishment"' and on the back of Bella's it said "Vote For Life!" They were super cute!

Fun Times

Every year for the past few years, my Uncle has had a "Fall Party" at his big "farm" (which is really a fabulous, giant piece of hunting property. It's beautiful!). The kids now see it as the kick off of Fall and anticipate it greatly. On the drive out to the farm, the kids kept cheering "We Love Uncle Johnny!" Once again, the party lived up to their expectations. There was fire, hiking, hay rides, and pumpkin carving. A little piece of heaven for children. Pictures say it better than words.

Thanks to Annie for letting me hijack some photos!

I love how big the older kids of the family have gotten and now they are holding our babies!!

Reaching for the Stars!

Yesterday we got a chance to take the kids to Star Lab. Remeber Star Lab??? Fun times. It was great. Although, when I was seven, sitting in St. Mary's social hall, looking at Star Lab, I never though I would be in one of those bubble things nursing an infant and trying to prevent a two year old from deflating the whole darn thing! Wow. What an adventure. The "bigger" kids had a great time and I really think they learned a lot. It was funny though -- the constalations are all based in Greek Mythology which you don't realize is REALLY risque when told to young kids! Yikes! Luckily I think most of it was over their heads. It was quite an adventure!

Learning, learning.

Just when you think you have a handle on things, God sends you a monkey-wrench. Just to keep life exciting. For years, we have been trying to figure out the source of Christopher's skin problems, constant runny nose, etc. We finally figured it out -- it's a "horray" and "boo" moment all in one. While I am very excited to have it all figured out, it is taking a bit of adjustment. I pretty much have to throw my culinary skill out the window and start from stratch. I have to learn to cook without wheat / gluten, eggs, dairy, corn, yeast, and a few other minor things.

I have a new respect for people with serious food allergies -- and even more respect for their parents. Thankfully, even though he has these problems, nothing is deadly by any means. I don't have to shudder at the fact that something may possibly have brushed a peanut or been with in three feet of an egg. I have to be careful, but not fearful.

I am not complaining -- things could be much worse. And we have the answers we have been seeking. I actually had no intention of posting this as I didn't want to be whiney. But then I though of all of the people I know who have dealt with these same things and though maybe some people could offer some advice. Anyone?

Taking home the gold!

We spent the day watching Christopher battle for the gold at his Tae Kwon Do Tournament. He had such a great time breaking boards, sparring his friends, and watching the talented black belts.

He took home two gigantic first place trophies!! He won first in both sparring and breaking. It was quite a proud day for him!

In this picture, he is in the front row, all the way to the right, proudly displaying his two trophies.

Last night was a beautiful evening to be living downtown. At the Church, was the visitation and Vespers for a good and holy priest who past away earlier this week. Unfortunetly, we didn't attend. After a long and difficult day, I simply didn't have the energy to dress the kids up and corral them during Vespers. I was sorry to miss it, but I guess it is just one of the sacrifices of parenthood. Even though we didn't get to go, we did get a lovely visit from a priest friend who had gone to the Church. One of the main perks of living downtown and so close to Church is unexpected visitors stopping by!

After Father left, we took a nice family walk downtown and put the kids to sleep. It was a perfect evening for a walk. Shortly after we got home and tucked everyone away, I was sitting in the playroom with a window open. There was a cool breeze and outside was dark silence, occasionally broken by the solomn tolling to the church bell. It was such a mournful atmosphere, perfect for the remeberance of the holy man who has now gone Home.

Hooray for Being FIVE!

Today we are celebrating the FIFTH birthday of our sweet little Grace! I can't believe she is five -- this whole parenthood thing moves to quickly for my tastes!

Grace requested a cookout for her birthday, so we will be heading out to our old standby, Prophetstown, and letting her daddy grill dogs and brats. I always let the kids pick their cake and my sweet little girl simply requested chocolate cupcakes, which SHE will decorate with everyones favorite candies!



Happy Birthday, Gracie!

While I was sitting here shirking my parental duties in the name of blog cruising, my lovely son -- the one who likes to push my nerves to the brink -- jazzed up the front of the 'fridge with a lovely red shade of Sanford Sharpie. It doesn't exactly fit my kitchen decor. And those "Magic Erasers" aren't so magical after all. (Although, to give them there due, they DID get the marker off of the counter.)

Any suggestions? Short of a new refridgerator, that it. I guess we could squeeze some art time into the schedule today and let it grace the fridge. Or maybe that's what he thought he was doing?

Happy QUARTER OF A CENTURY to my lil' sister!!

This is a seriously horrid picture, but it was all I had!!

FEAST!!!!

Wow. I love the Feast. Yesterday we went out for the "School Fun Day" and it was SO fantastic. I couldn't believe how much we all learned and how nice and informative all of the people were. It was like going to a living history museum. The kids all had such a wonderful time.

Then we went out today for the real event. We wandered around, ate yummy food, and had our picture taken by crazy stalking photographers. Seriously. My mom made Andrew and the kids fabulous indian costumes, so people kept taking their pictures. One girl even had her boyfriend take a picture of her and Andrew together -- weird!! And a little creepy.

Anyway . . . we we nt to the trading post and the kids really liked that. Which surprised me because I always HATED the trading post when I was a kid. Making up stories about why my acorn is better than your acorn was never really my thing. Even now, as an adult, I still can't come up with a good story! And now for your viewing pleasure . . .

Let's NOT go swimming.

Remember my last post when I said PeterXavier wandered away and that he doesn't seem to care that he is going to give me a heart attack?!? Well today, he topped it. He FELL into my parents POND!! Christopher had to pull him out!! Seriously. I was inside talking to my mom when all of a sudden Christopher comes running into the house yelling that PeterXavier "drowned in the pond!" Clearly, he has missed the really definition of "drowned" because there was his little brother sopping wet and grinning. I'm still a little shaken from the whole event. The rest of the evening I was completely paranoid about his whereabouts. I used to make fun of those kid leashes, but now I'm thinking they aren't such a bad idea. Or maybe I'll just rig up one of those running lines that people put their dogs on?? He'd LOVE that!

I hope tomorrow is boring. I've had enough adventures to last me a while.

Pushin' Thirty

As much as Annie would like to convince me that I am still "a quarter of a century", it is not true. Not that I mind all that much. It's been a pretty good 28 years, and I had great people with whom to celebrate the day.

We headed down to Indy for the Irish Fest early enough to get to the Mass as well as get in for free with this entrance fee of donated canned goods!

My parents and Annie's family met us later on. Unfortunetly, Annie and Martin had to leave because Anja Pie was sick. Boo.

Chrisopher LOVE climbing th rock wall and repelling back down. He quickly scaled to the top and pretty much flew back down. Grace gave it a shot as well, but I didn't get to see her. BECAUSE by this time we realized that PeterXavier was missing. He's wandered off before, but this time he was GONE. I was just about the get frantic, when I saw him walking back into the kiddie area with a very nice man who had found him. He was wandering around out in the main area when this man noticed him. He trotted back in like he was thinking"come on guys! What's the big deal? I just needed a little air!" I think his goal in life is to give me a heart attack.
The kids got to try their hands (or feet, rather) at Irish Dancing. They had lots of fun, although I think Christopher enjoys his (hilarious) free style better!

And this is what a long day Festing it up will do to little monkeys! They are so much fun to take places!

Silence

It is unusually quiet right now and I am loving it! Andrew took Christopher, Grace, and PeterXavier to the park and Isabella is just stirring from her nap. She still isn't feeling 100%, so she has kind of been snoozing all day. I just puttered around getting this and that acomplished. It's great to be able to pick something up, put it away, and know it will stay put for more than thirty seconds!

Tomorrow is Indy Irish Fest! Hurray! I think Christopher may be looking forward to it even more than I am. He claims that Irish is his favortie kind of music. What a smart boy.

Blah blah blah.

That's how I feel. Blah. I have had a rotten cold that just refuses to leave me alone. And now poor Isabella has it as well. I just pray that PeterXavier doesn't get it, because he always gets it a zillion times worse than anyone else.

Andrew and the kids are out helping a friend build a pole barn, but the sun set about an hour ago and they still aren't home. Either someone is lost in the woods, or they are gorging themselves on s'mores. Scratch that. They just got home. No one is wandering aimlessly through the woods. But they are quite, so they must have had fun and snoozed on the way home.

I just found this cool web site to make little bows for the girls hair -- super cute! And SO easy. That's my fun little craft for the evening.

Sorry for the totally lame and boring post. I need sleep.

Great Big Weekend of Exhaustion

Well. We survived the weekend, but just barely. Saturday was a beautiful day -- the Country Fair was great. I totally lost the pie baking contest, to my mother no less. Not that her sugar cream pie isn't great, it is, but seriously!

German Fest was . . . enormous. I basically corralled tired children while my husband worked some insane shift in the food tent. Everyone, including me, melted at one point. And I had a beer for dinner. The kids got third place in the Lip Sync contest. I think there were only three entries, but we wont tell them that. They were darn cute.

Can you tell who they are? Grace was supposed to be there (with a red shirt!), but she wasn't feeling well. And PX was in costume, but opted to hang out with Daddy instead.
















The highlights of my evening were finding the long lost Liederhossen and seeing my son look like this. He was great!

On Sunday, through torrential downpours from our pal Ike, we attended the Ivy Tech Homecoming, organized by their totally awesome director of alumni affairs! The noon music was fantabulous, plus allowed us to visit with Nana, Martin, and Anja!

Can you see Belle's hat in this picture? She's her Daddy's Ivy Tech "homey".

Unfortunately, due to rain, the Elephant Rides at Prophetstown were canceled, and I lost all gumption to drive all the way out to Jonah's birthday, so the only big event of the day was Homecoming. But by the end of it all, I was completely exhausted, so my wonderful hubby took us out for dinner. It was totally relaxing and gave everyone a decent meal. It was much needed after surviving on pizza and hot dogs all weekend!

Busy Busy Weekend

Here's what's on tap . . . Country Fair and pie baking contest, 4:00 Mass, GermanFest ALL NIGHT LONG!, Andrew goes to Ivy Tech Homecoming at the crack of dawn, More Country Fair (Elephant Rides!!), Ivy Tech Homecoming for the rest of us, Jonah's birthday while Andrew cleans up homecoming. Monday -- SLEEP.

Homeschooling in this house is going really well. This morning, Grace brought me "My First Book About Space" and said "Read this book called ABC Letters!"

Our Babies Got Bling!

I tried to blog this about ten times yesterday ,but my computer was seriously mad at me. I think we are friends again today, though.

Annie and I took our girlie-girls out Monday night and got their ears pierced!! It was super cute. The girls didn't exactly have a great time . . . but they sure look CUTE now!! And, if they could talk, I am sure they would agree that it was worth it.






I think this picture of Annie is SO PRETTY!

Poor little Anja-Pie was a little upset. When we took Grace to get her ears pierced as a baby, it was so much less traumatic. She hardly even whimpered! We got Anja a cookie and she cheered right up. We have yet to get a picture of both girls together, but I am sure you'll see it when we do!

Musical Fun

Last night we went to the free family concert by the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra out at the amphitheatre. It was GREAT! The music was fantastic -- famous pieces, upbeat enough to keep the kids attention, many things they recognized. Christopher was excited to see his violin teacher in the Orchestra! They also had kids activities on the grass beforehand and a comedy show that was a little silly, but the kids loved it. The newspaper took this picture of PeterXavier, but I don't think they ran it. Boo.

Republican National Convention

Did you watch it?? Did you LOVE it?? Do you wish you could have coffee with Sarah Pailn, in hopes that some of her energy and conviction will rub off on you?

Despite the fact that my husband has a degree in Political Science, I have never had one iota of an interest in politics. Until now. Until Sarah Palin. Until someone I could really relate to started fighting for the issues that are really important.

Last night we watched the RNC through our Internet connection, for lack of cable. Last night, for the first time, our nation saw a woman contending for a place in the White House. Sarah Palin is a woman in the truest sense of the word. She is not a woman trying to be a man. She is a woman, embracing her femininity and womanhood as a tool with which to better our society and our nation. That is true Feminism. It is not some pseudo-machismo that unhappy and insecure woman are trying to achieve through "choice" and "empowerment".

Despite all of the truly fabulous things she said in her speech, perhaps her actions and those of her family as they received the applause of the masses told even more of the convictions of Sarah Palin than any words ever could. Her embrace of baby Trig and the presence of Bristol's boyfriend as a member of the family spoke volumes on her incredible pro life stance. She leaned down and listened intently as her young daughter (who has perfected her princess wave!) had something "important"to say. This is not a woman who pawns off her family to daycare and babysitters in pursuit of her own self-gratifying career. She is woman who can be a Mama and a powerful national leader all at the same time!

Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Today we invited over a crew of friends to help us celebrate the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. I have been so inspired by Jessica and her friends "Summer with the Saints", but I just had to rip off some of the great ideas!

We made crowns on honor of Mary being our Queen. This little craft went over way better with the girls than with the boys!!
The boys were much more into making manly bracelets with the colored pipe clearners. Go figure.

The kids all made miniature crowns (and necklaces) out of pipe cleaners and crowned Our Lady of the Backyard. It was a pretty wet day, so the Coronation was a quick one!

After a feast of Mac and Cheese, we each had a yummy slice of crown cake.

The kids had a wonderful time playing, eating, and crafting with their friends. They learned about and celebrated this wonderful feast with such a joyful spirit!

Since Annie found it necessary to publicly ridicule my "stroller", figured I'd entertain you all with a photo of it. Yes, it is the size of a small motor vehicle, but it serves us quite well. I actually walked to the park the day the photo was taken, complete with the watermelon keg (thanks, Jill!), and no one laughed at me! Half way there, (it's a whole two blocks) I did take Belle out to carry her and Grace got it. It gets a little tough to maneuver when all three kids are in it (I don't usually carry watermelon kegs with me), as I figure at full capacity it weighs about 130 pounds. Seriously, with that work out, I should be much more trim than I am!

Anyway, as Annie noted, my dear stroller deserves a name . . . any suggestions?

This past Saturday was the annual St. Boniface Pilgrimage. Although we didn't participate in the entire thing -- it isn't very stroller friendly!-- we did meet the group at Reihle Plaza and joined in the final few blocks of the journey. It is amazing to carry Our Eucharistic Lord through the streets of our town. We are so blessed to have a parish that routinely has Eucharistic Processions! This one was particularly wonderful (to me!) because not only did we walk farther than we usually do, but this time we went right in front of our house!! It was really exciting! There is something beautiful about a throng of people, sweaty and tired, walking through town adoring their Savior. It was wonderful!

**I shamelessly ripped this picture off of Elisabeth's facebook! Thanks!!

Feast of the Assumption

Reason I love the Church #246 -- Infinite reasons to celebrate . . . with food!!

Today we celebrate the day Our Blessed Mother was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven. Over the years, Holy Mother Church has found many fun ways to celebrate this Feast. One tradition is the Blessing of the Herbs. This is fitting, since so many are named after Our Lady. We will celebrate with Herbed (rosemary!) Butter on our bread as well as this yummy Assumpta Salad.

Mary Queen of Heavan, Pray for Us!

Michigan adventures

Spanish Suntans

On our little vacation this weekend, we pretty much loafed on the beach most of the time. We soaked up the rays, resulting in some pretty nice tans for my Filipino children and a mighty crispy burn for me. Admiring her tan this morning Grace declared : "I look like I speak Spanish! Oopigdah!"

Doesn't she know that her dad is the director of diversity?? We can't be racist!!!

Birthdays, Weddings, Beaches, and FUN

We've been busy here in the Antonio House. Friday was Christopher's big Sixth birthday. We had a cookout here with family and a few friends.


In keeping with my Ugly Cake tradition, I made a racecar cake (per his request.). I must say, now that I have six years of cake decorating (and eating!) under my belt, you can really see an improvement (but not in my waistline!). They are getting to be somewhat recognizable!


Of course, guns seem to be a required birthday gift for this little guy. He was thrilled to get FOUR (ok, one was a crossbow, but close enough).




On Saturday, we loaded up to van and headed north for my cousins wedding and the our camping trip in Michigan. The wedding was really fun. What can you expect from a big italian family and an open bar?? The kids had a blast dancing with everyone.
Four cute monkeys making their Mama proud!


We had to get PeterXavier a kiddie cocktail so he would stop stealing our drink!



Here is Christopher dancing like a mad man right in the middle of the wedding party!! He's definitely not shy!

After the wedding we headed up to Lake Michigan for three days of camping and hanging out on the beach. We had a GREAT time. More pictures later -- now the sandy laundry is calling me!

Big Boy

Happy Birthday to our Big Boy Christopher, who turns SIX today!! Time sure flies. It seems like yesterday that we were held our tiny little boy and first knew the joy of parenthhood. It's been a super fun six years!!

And a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Daddy!

I'm in Love

Could he be any cuter?? Seriously, if I weren't Catholic, I'd convert just to be affiliated with Pope Benedict.

And he sends text messages!!

Faith and Family

I have been subscribing to Faith and Family magizine for years now and LOOOVE it. I was SUPER excited last week when I got an email inviting me to a sneak preview of their new and improved website Faith and Family Live. It is totally fantastic.

In your excitement and enjoyment try not to forget about your children. And your hubby might need dinner . . . or clothes for work tomorrow . . .

Quote of the Day

Grace: Mommy!! You're making my pants laugh!!

Truth Be Told

I think we are having a little trouble with telling the truth around here. Grace, frustrated with her brothers sleeping in, appraoched me this morning:

Sometimes, to wake up Christopher, Daddy dumps water on his head . . . so can I do that??

Daddy has never been known to do that. I just said no.

Growing too fast

Bell-ee is three months old today! I can't believe how big she is getting -- rolling over, smiling, babbling, and laughing! We have been so excited to have our newest little monkey. It is amazing how you are in awe of everything they are and do, even though you have had other children. It's so fun!

And lest you think she is all photogenic giggles and smiles, let it be known that it took me 29 shots to get this smiley one. Usually, she looks like a (cute!) goober.

Cannibalistic 2 year old.

PeterXavier said his first sentence today:

"Watch out, I'll eat you!"

Fossils. Apparently, their mom is one.

I can hear my kids playing out in the sandbox. The game involves excavating items from a time long ago. I keep hearing them exclaim:

"This is from the 1980's!!"