Wrapping up the Easter Season and Celebrating Pentecost

This week we wrapped up our Easter garden parties with a great buffet lunch. We reviewed the readings and symbols from the last two weeks and enjoyed a lovely feast.

Our completed Garden of the Good Shepherd poster

"Oh, What a Beautiful City!"
The City Gates --- Built from pretzel sticks and cheese cubes
The Temple - "Shirley Temples"
Hallelujah! - We sang!
The Bride and Groom - White and dark chocolate covered strawberries
(and the candle holder favors from our wedding)
The Crowns - We all wore beautiful crowns for the celebration!

"The Heavenly Zoo"
The Water - Beautiful Pitcher of Water
The Deer - Deer Cupcakes
The Lion - Lucky Lion Lemonade
The Beehive - Honeycomb Cereal
The Peacock - Peacock Feather Decoration
The Pelican - "Pelican Toasties" (Toasted cheese and bread)
The Phoenix - Phoenix-Tail Shrimp

On Pentecost Sunday morning, I was awakened by this little "apostle" ---



 He was filled with the Holy Spirit.... tongue of fire on his head! I can't wait to show this picture when he's a bishop someday! ;)

Jon and the boys let me sleep in and they prepared a yummy breakfast. They decorated the house with red streamers too.

I love these streamers around the doves and tongues of fire we made last week.

 We attended a lovely Mass and the boys had their best behavior ever at Church! That afternoon we celebrated with a refreshing strawberry jello treat. We sang "Happy Birthday" to the church.

It's a shame to me that Pentecost isn't a more celebrated Feast. It's a really great and important one. We need to celebrate, honor, praise, and invoke the Holy Spirit more than ever in these days. His grace and power are awesome.

Come Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit

and they shall be created.

And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God,

who by the light of the Holy Spirit,

did instruct the hearts of the faithful,

grant that by the same Holy Spirit 

we may be truly wise

and ever enjoy His consolations,

Through Christ Our Lord,

Amen.

A Visit to the Art Museum

We are finishing up the last requirements of our school year.... checking everything off the list. As a wrap-up to our art lessons, I took the boys to the Columbus*Museum*of*Art on Friday. We enjoyed looking for examples of the types of art we've learned about (sculptures, murals, still-life, portraits, and landscapes). The boys loved the interactive kids' area. I'm seriously considering getting a membership to the museum and/or looking into their workshops and classes. There is so much to see and do. It's another gem in our city.

My favorite exhbit --- floating glass

Right now the museum is hosting an amazing 1700 year old mosaic that was just discovered in 1996 in Israel. It's impressive! And there's a great interactive educational room all about this mosaic as well.

Strawberries!

We had a great time picking strawberries with our friends on a beautiful day last week. Since then we've enjoyed the "fruit" of our labors. ;) Fresh strawberries, strawberry-hubarb crisp, strawberry jello, chocolate covered strawberries.... And I've frozen a bunch too! Yum!

Our Family Has Grown!

... by eight paws!

Introducing our two new adorable family members...

Gloria



Mario

We found them on Craig's List and went out to pick them up on Wednesday evening.

They are about six weeks old. We are all having a great time welcoming them into our home. They are exploring, hiding, playing, eating, sleeping, snuggling, and working their way into our hearts.

Mid-May in Michigan

Last weekend we headed north to visit Jon's family in Midland, Michigan. It was a beautiful weekend and we really enjoyed seeing our family after the long winter/tax season absence.

We took advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling, leaving on Thursday and not coming home until Monday. This was the first time the boys really did full school days in the car (Thursday and Monday). It was actually really fun! And our hotel room had two desks which were put to good use for school on Friday. So, we got away for five days without missing any school! Woo hoo!

Car Schooling!

Grandma always spoils the boys with cookies and ice cream!

We had a great pool at the hotel where we stayed.

Jon and Adam put in a new mailbox for Grandma!
(Ray was feeling sick on Friday so we had to spend most of the day at the hotel.)

Relaxing in Grandma's yard

Playing baseball with Aunt Susan

Aunt Susan brought and cooked some yummy fish for Adam!

Swimming with our cousins!

Picnic at Grandma's

A fun birthday celebration!

Look at this gargantuan pile of gifts!

Grandma gave Adam this amazing art set!

My brother-in-law owns a furniture store furthere north in Michigan. When he pulled up with this load of mattresses, I couldn't resist climbing up for a nap!

Fun and games with the big kids

Even though Ray was fighting a bellyache all weekend, he was insistent that we go to the roller rink down the street from the hotel. So, my niece Addie joined us for some Saturday night roller skating!

My guys on wheels!

Unfortunately, my pictures were mostly dark and blurry. It was awesome, though, to see Adam get the hang of skating. He was so independent and proud! And God bless Jon for getting out there and skating with them. He learned to skate at this same rink. However, that was three decades ago. He won't let me post a picture of the lovely bruises he's sporting from his skating escapades!

On Sunday we went out to the farm where Jon's mom grew up. Jon's grandma passed away several years ago and it's now time to clean out her things. Lots of the cousins came out to get mementos to remember her by. We enjoyed showing the boys the old farm. And we came home with lots of special Grandma stuff.

Posted at Great Grandma's farmhouse

Jon's grandma was a faithful devotee of our Blessed Mother.

Here's Jon showing the kids how this house was made of sod!

As usual, I came home with no pictures of Jon's mom. She never wants me to take her picture  unless she does her hair, etc. But we sure did have a nice visit with her and we can't wait to go back later this summer.