Sliding Into the Weekend!

Hooray for the weekend!  What's on your weekend schedule?  For us, there's a youth group car wash on Saturday morning then a date night for Jay and I that he is planning!  Sunday is Father's Day and will be a day filled with food and family!

Before I jump into the weekend, let's do a quick wrap up of the week!

#1:  Ellie

Ellie and Jay went to the Father-Daughter Dance at Ellie's school last Sunday.  It's special one on one time for them!  Ellie loves to go and they have gone to the dance for several years now.

Ellie is a typical tween that, most days, doesn't spend any more time than is necessary getting ready.  (Which sometimes leads to me or Sarah telling her to brush her hair again but this time in front of the mirror!)  I know this is just a phase....we have pics of Sarah at the same age and she laughs at how unruly her hair frequently looked.  

But, for the Father-Daughter Dance, Ellie had been asking to get a new dress.  At first, Jay had the typical guy response, "You already have a couple of dresses in your closet.  Just wear one of those!"  After a little reminder that girls like to feel special and pretty and we weren't shopping for an expensive ball gown, just a simple summer dress, Jay gave in to Ellie's blue eyed request.

#2:  Shopping

Fitting in a shopping excursion isn't easy in our family!  In fact, I took the three girls shopping on Saturday night after our excursion to the zoo.  Jay was out with the older boys and their friends at a Pawsox game and I hired our babysitter to stay with Peter and Luke.  

The night started out really well.  We had dinner at Panera.  Found a dress and some things for summer at Justice for Ellie.  Then found a bathing suit at JCPenney.

Kate was getting rambunctious towards the end and Sarah was getting overwhelmed.  If we could have ended our night right then it would have been best.  Unfortunately, because of a field trip with Luke I couldn't get to the grocery store on Friday and because of the zoo I couldn't go Saturday morning.  So, the four of us hit the grocery store.  We got through quickly, but by the end Sarah and Kate had both had it.  By the time we got home, put the groceries away, and I gave Luke and Kate a quick bath, all three girls were crying!

Ugh...so much for happy bonding time!  The joys....

#3: Cutie Patutie

Luke had his  last day of preschool celebration on Tuesday morning.  Kate even let me do her hair!  She had two little braids and two barrettes that matched her outfit!  (And she even left them in the whole day!)

This one's my favorite:)

#4:  The Last Day....

...at least for this year!  Luke will be doing one more year of preschool before going to Kindergarten.  His August birthday would  just get him into Kindergarten before the cutoff date, but he's not ready for the work demands.  So, instead of being the youngest Kindergarten student next year, he will be one of the oldest the year after.  If was a tough decision, but it's the right one for Luke:)  (At least I think so!  Otherwise, we will just pay for therapy when he's older!;)

Luke very proud of his crab shirt!

Lukie with his incredibly patient teacher!

His class and the other preschool sang a few cute songs.  As soon as they ended, you heard Luke yell out, "Now we can go home!"  (He did decide to have a piece of cake before he left!:)

#5:  Happy Birthday!

Jay's officially 40!  Even though the actual day was not quite the same as the 100+ people surprise party we threw for him 2 weeks ago, celebrating with our immediate families was still pretty special!  

Just look at all those faces intent on cake!
 (and our attempt to keep all four little kids from spitting all over it while they "helped" blow out the candles!)

#6:  Strawberry Picking

My mom's birthday was the day after Jay's.  She loves strawberries, so I usually make a strawberry shortcake for her birthday dessert.  Since it was a beautiful day, I thought Luke and Kate would enjoy strawberry picking.  (I brought Jon and Mike with me as back up!)

Luke:  "Mom, look at my strawberry!!!!"

"strawberry kissed lips" :)
Everytime Kate took a bite she said, "Mmm tasty!"

Double fisting

proud of her picks

enjoying their hard work!

group effort!

Making sure I'm in some pictures, not just always taking them!
(Although now I see that I am desperately in need of hair color!)

#7:  He Said/She Said

Luke:(who, moments before, asked for a snack before bed and was told no, opened the fridge)

Jay:  Luke, what are you doing in the fridge?

Luke:  I'm just making sure there aren't any bugs!

Jon:  Worst.excuse.ever!

Have a great weekend!

TBT

Well....we made it to Thursday!  

This picture is definitely an oldie!  This is a picture taken at Mike's baptismal party.  From left to right are my sil Julie, my sil Jackie, my sister Melissa, me holding Mike, and Jay.

That was over 21 years ago!  It's hard to remember sometimes that my 6'4" eldest son with facial hair was ever that tiny!  Good thing we take pictures to remember:)

To Love By Loving

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving.

 All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.

St. Francis de Sales

This was the Catholic Digest Quiet Moment for yesterday.  When I read it, I did shudder to myself a little bit!  I often fall short in the cleaning, organizing, and cooking parts of motherhood.  The ways I fail emotionally....like in patience and love....are the things that bother me more, though.

I don't know about you, but there are moments when my kids, (little and big), speak or act with each other in not so nice ways.  While I'm quick to correct and get them to try a "do over", it doesn't escape me that their tone of voice and/or the words they use sound a little familiar.  

Patience is not my greatest virtue.  It's something I get to practice a lot in a house of 8 children with different strengths, weaknesses and personalities.  You would think I would have it mastered by now, but not so much!

It's not easy to react with patience and calm words in the midst of chaos....normal or otherwise!  There are times when I do really well, and there are times when I need a few 'do overs' of my own.

I remember being at a baby shower about 10 years ago and we were sitting with some of my parents' friends.  One of the women was talking about her son and his girlfriend.  The mom was disappointed that the girlfriend wasn't what she had hoped for.  Mom wanted a warm, fuzzy girl for her grown up son and this girl was not those things. 

At that point in the conversation, I had to stifle some serious laughter!  This mom is a really nice person, but there is no warm and fuzzy about her!  

And you know what they say.....boys will marry a girl like their mom and girls will marry a boy like her dad!

Doesn't that make you shudder a little?  Yeah, me too!

I've spent lots of years trying to grow and become more of who God means for me to be.  God's had a lot of chiseling to do and He is certainly far from finished!  

My hope and prayer is always that He makes up the difference in what my kids need and what I have to give.

And now, I am off attempting to make some memories.  I'm taking Luke and Kate strawberry picking at a local farm.  Today is my mom's birthday(Happy Birthday, Mom!) and she loves strawberries!  So, strawberry shortcake is the dessert on the menu.  You can't get much better than fresh, local strawberries!  (Well, as long as Luke and Kate don't eat/squish them all:)

I'm bringing Jon for back-up!  (and my camera!)

Enjoy this beautiful Wednesday!

Weekend Outings

June:  week 2!
Amazing!
This time of year is so busy.  We went to the Roger Williams Zoo on Saturday.  It's a bit of a drive from our house but the kids really like it-especially Peter, who calls it the 'Big Zoo'.  In fact, Peter has been talking about it all winter and we've been telling him we would take him in June.

Well, on June 1st Peter was raring to go!  Unfortunately, there was no way we could take him that day because it was Jon's graduation!  Peter was emotionally escalating so Jay grabbed the calendar and we wrote "Big Zoo" on Saturday the 7th.

Thankfully, the weather was nice because we were going no matter what!

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It was a good time:)

A special Happy Birthday shout out to my incredible husband!  I know it's a little anti-climactic after the big surprise party, but I hope you have a great day!  Love you!

And It's June...

Inconsistency seems to be my new blogging theme!

Things have just been so crazy with all the end of year events for each of the kids.  Not to mention that having bronchitis completely threw me on my butt!  Throw in Jay's surprise party in the midst of all that, and I am just one tired mom/wife!  Most days I still need a 10 minute power nap while Kate and Luke snuggle with me and watch Wallykazam!

I'm still struggling with the eye sensitivity/panic issues following my migraine problems in late April.  Some days are better than others and I'm hoping that the saying, "Time heals all wounds", will be kicking in soon!

In the meantime, I wear my sunglasses a lot, don't function as well as I used to, and try to be honest with myself about my new emotional limits.  (Which hopefully will be temporary!)

On a positive note, this weekend was filled with some special occasions!  Saturday night was Jonathan's Baccalaureate Mass and Sunday was his graduation.  I can't believe that four years went by so quickly!  This 6 foot tall, handsome young man used to be a pudgy little toddler that wouldn't leave my side!  Sniff, sniff!

Before Jon left for graduation

As he processed in

As he processed out

Throwing up his cap with his class

With most of his closest friends

Laughing at Andrew's smile...or lack thereof

Jay's mom made a cake for the family.
We all got together at our house for pizza from Jon's
favorite restaurant and some special dessert!

That's a wrap!  Four years of high school goes by in the blink of an eye!  I'm grateful that we have 3 years before we have to go through another high school graduation!  (And that year should be a doozy as well....since Ellie will graduate from 8th grade, Sarah from high school, and Andrew from college!  Ugh!)

Of course, it won't be the last graduation for 3 years since, God willing, Mike should be graduating from Assumption next year!

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a race track and they are all speeding off and growing up and I'm still at the start line trying to figure out how to make the shift work!

Congratulations, Jon!  We are very proud of you!

Prom!

After last weekends craziness and excitement, I'm looking forward to a quieter weekend!  Well, mostly quieter anyway....Jon has a Baccalaureate Mass on Saturday night and graduation on Sunday afternoon!  I still can't believe we have a 3rd child graduating from high school and heading off to college! Sniff!

For 7 Quick Take Friday, I'm sharing my 7 favorite pictures from Jon's prom last week!

#1:  The Classic Shot

Jon and his date, (and one of his closest friends), Amy.
They have known each other since 1st grade.
Many of Jon's friends went to prom together as friends:)
#nodrama

 #2:  Photo Bomb

I love this pic!
The guys are most of Jon's closest friends.
Amber, also a super close friend that Jon has known since 1st grade,
photo bombed:)
So much fun:)

#3:  Swag Pose

I'm cheating...this is a group of pics:)

Jack trying to figure out how to get his jacket on his thumb and over his back:)

Look to the right....

Look to the left.....

 #4:  Fun Pose

This pose was a suggestion of Isaac's sister(in the green).
Everyone looked at one person and Jon's naturally goofy nature took care of the rest!

 #5:  Jon and Amy being Jon and Amy

Such goofballs!

#6:  Poor Mom 

Amy is laughing in this shot because she noticed her mom crying!
These kids just don't understand how hard it is for us that they are growing up!

 #7:  Strike a Pose

I love this shot!
The guys were such good sports:)

They all had a great time at the prom and at the incredible after prom party that their school puts on!(Love that they have somewhere safe to go and can keep having fun together!)

Have a great weekend!

Surprise!

I'm keeping my promise!  I've been going back and forth in my head, but I think I'm just going to jump into Jay's surprise 40th!

So, months ago I had it in my head to throw Jay a surprise 40th birthday party.  Actually, about 5 years ago I had thought about how we should celebrate our 40th birthdays....we will both be turning 40 in June.  That was pre Luke and Kate.  I had thought that I would get a few of our closest couple friends and surprise Jay with a weekend away.

And then we had more babies....neither of whom sleep through the night!  So, I improvised, and a surprise party at our house made more sense!

I created the invitations, booked a bouncy house, and worked on a menu.  I was keeping things more simple than I would have in the past because of my struggles with panic attacks in the last month.  I am not the 'plow through anything, queen multitasker that I have been in the past.  Right now I have very obvious limits....and taking care of me by not taking on more than I can handle is important.

Anyway...I had a hefty guest list so I prayed for good weather from the get-go because if it rained I was in big trouble!  A large number of Jay's relatives that live 2-3 hours away all said they were coming.  Lots of our friends were able to make it.  The countdown was on to the big day!

It was a herculean effort to keep the party a secret!  Jay and I talk about everything!  I always bounce ideas off of him.  I found myself constantly ready to blurt out things like "Do you think we will have enough food?" or "Do you think it will rain?"....and stopping myself at the last minute!

Then, there was the whole issue of trying to get the house and yard ready for the party without being obvious that we were getting the house/yard ready for the party!

Since we were supposed to have house guests with us for the 2 nights leading up to the party, they were a great excuse to get the house "company ready"!  So, basically I tricked Jay into fixing lots of those little things that have needed to get done for a while but have been buried on the 'to-do' list!

My older kids were HUGE heroes in the 2 weeks leading up to the party!  Mike was especially helpful getting some of the bigger projects done.  He cleaned up the yard, cut and cleaned up all the overgrown brush around the fence, kept the grass cut, and even helped me get a fresh coat of paint in the main areas of the house!

Andrew and Jon helped with projects too...painting the deck, indoor clean up, and just about anything I asked was done without complaining!  I so appreciated that!

Things got a little ugly in the days leading up to the party!  I ended up getting really sick with bronchitis!  From Tuesday to Thursday I was on the couch unable to do anything!  Talk about panic!  That's when the kids and our families stepped up big time!  (Andrew even went grocery shopping for me!)

It was a lesson in humility for sure!

It took a village to put this party together!  Not being able to control and multi-task everything made it extra special!  I kept praying and asking God to bless the day and He did!  The weather was absolutely perfect, I had lots of help from my family and Jay's family to set everything up, and it was just a great day!  The bouncy house was a huge hit and kept all the kids occupied and having fun all.day.long!

You know it's from God when you can not feel 100% and have 110 people in your house and have everything go so well!

Jon went to buy balloons at the dollar store that morning and they were out of
"Happy Birthday" balloons!  So he got a 'Feliz Compleanos" balloon instead!
His spanish teacher would be so proud!lol

The dessert table and a "40" picture collage!

Jay's mom made the rubics cube cake.
 I cut out 80's quotes and taped them to cardstock and a lollipop stick and put them in the cupcakes:)

Sarah, Andrew and I made a Pacman wall:)

I wanted to do a few special things, but not go overboard!  I'm happy with the way everything turned out!

The best part is that Jay actually had no idea at all!  Our friend, Corey, kept him out of the house on Sunday morning.(thank-you, thank-you!)  We even got away with telling  Jay that our neighbor was having a party and we stuck a balloon on their mailbox to make it look authentic!  It was so great so see Jay's look of shock when he walked in the house and everyone yelled 'surprise'!

Laughing at something Corey said as he walked in the door.

Confusion....Why are all these people yelling surprise?

Really confused face

The "you got me" face

Mike hugging Jay

Peter joining in!(Peter was so happy there was cake!)

Jay and his mom

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Luke and other kids having fun in the bouncy house:)

Kate, Sarah, and Jay's sisters, Julie and Jackie!
They dressed up 80's style:)

The party started at 12 and our last guests stayed until almost 6!  It was great!  The kids all had so much fun:)  There was plenty of food!  The weather was perfect!  The company and conversation was wonderful!  

Jay kept saying, "I can't believe you threw me a surprise party!"  "I can't believe that this many people came!"  "I can't believe I actually know this many people!"

It was truly a blessed day!