A little war re-enactment goin' on here...

Let's just say that Andrew has been reading a few books about war lately.  His interest has inspired the younger set to pose for a few photos.

Ready...set...march!

The battle begins (and never ends).

No... I didn't give them any ideas.  They did this all on their own.

Since our dishwasher died, we have been training in new helpers.  Joseph, Tim and Stephen washed dishes long enough to have moved into professional status. Then they all grew up and got paid for their labor.   Needless to say, we can't afford their going rate. Clare is gone to camp this week, probably happily washing the dishes for the Schoenstatt sisters.  In a nutshell, this means I've called in the reinforcements.  Some of their work leaves something to be desired.  Namely, dried on food...blech!  And, of course, there always has to be the funny guy that takes FOREVER to get the dishes washed but has such a jolly good time that I have to record it for posterity's sake.

This was his best Santa imitation.

Random Pictures

Our little Brudie's home girl.

Deacon Dabes



First strawberry of the summer!

Will Johnny be the lucky one to eat it?

Some snuggling with the little sister.

Garden Update

I only got around to taking pictures of the flowerbeds.  What a difference compared to these photos earlier this year!

Hostas are looking a little sad after the hail awhile back.

Zero luck with the rhubarb on the end. It always turns yellow. 
What's up with that?  Certainly isn't a lack of water this year.

This bed really perked up since it's last photo shoot.

Friday Night Volleyball...

has returned to our house for another summer season.I keep forgetting to take pictures of the actual volleyball games (or soccer depending on the mood), but here are pictures from the kickoff Mass.  

What do you get when you throw a couple of priests, a whole lot of  young people, some sand and a net together?

A mean game of volleyball!

Latest news at our house...

Timothy quit his job after the first week.  He feels like a quitter.  This bums me out.  I keep telling him it was a great experience and now he knows that he really wants to give the college thing a try.  It's all good.  Right?  Nah, he still feels like a quitter.  So I'm posting his latest endeavor with his resurrected band, These Guys.  They will be playing at Sonshine Fest in the music tournament.

Check it out!

Yarn Along

For the past few weeks, I have been working on this Oaklet Shawl.  I really like the variegated yarn and think it will get more use as a scarf, since we're not really shawl people around here.  My problem is that when I started my 2nd ball of yarn, the color pattern got all messed up and I think it looks bad.  I'm going to have to rip back and try again.  Any advice from the Yarn Along bunch to help me out of this pinch?  Maybe this yarn was a bad choice for this pattern?

My book this week is Brideshead Revisited.  I am only reading it because a friend gave me the book and said that it was a classic Catholic novel.  I'll be honest.... I'd rather be reading the medieval mysteries by Margaret Frazer that I had been gorging on at the beginning of June! Think I'll go back to them after this little side trip.

Check out Ginny's blog for more Yarn Along adventures.

Dad's solution

With the warmer weather and less clothing, Marianna has decided it's more comfortable to go without a diaper.  I, on the other hand, am not ready to tackle potty training her just yet.  We can't put her to bed in a diaper unless she is wearing at least a onesie.  Our clever Daddy came to the rescue with this solution...

...Gabriel's underwear make the perfect diaper cover.

Artwork from the boys

I had each of the boys pick out their favorite finished product from last week's art class.

Andrew's

Matthew's

They both had a great time and learned a lot. Very grateful for a very talented and patient teacher, they obviously didn't get any help from me.  I am a total art ignoramus.
Gabriel calls this "chocolate drawings".  Yum, I'm all for that.  Sounds so much more appetizing than that dirty,old charcoal, doesn't it?

A Belated Birthday

Marianna's birthday was last Tuesday, so I'm only one week late posting these pictures.  She doesn't care in the least.  It's all good, right?

So...what am I supposed to do with this thing?

Lots of little helpers to show the birthday girl what to do.

Slight battle over whose toy it is...I believe Gabers won on that score.

Then lots of Grandma love to go around.

Sorry, no pictures of the birthday cake.  First of all, we had Neapolitan ice cream (too hot to bake that day).  Second, I believe I was holding the birthday girl when we sang "Happy Birthday"(I must be the only person to take pictures in this family).  Oh, well!

A few prized possessions around here

A tube from Johnny's ear....he carries it around in a little ziploc bag. 
(After a year and a half in his ear, we had to do a little cleaning to
make it presentable.)

Andrew's Lego version of Tim's band. (Lego Tim is on the far left.)

Marianna's sunglasses....she even wore them to the Dr.'s office last week.
(They actually belong to someone's teddy bear.  Shh, don't tell her that, though.)

Johnny and Gabers have their own version of sprinkling holy water...

just need a bucket from the sandbox and an old paintbrush.

They assure me that no holy water was wasted on this cuteness, only lake water.

After six weeks of begging, I caved and the kids went swimming.  Big time excitement around here!



Gabriel gets the prize for finding the beach toys.

Here he is sneaking up on an unsuspecting brother.

Therese is sunning herself while Matthew keeps them moving.

Slinging weeds at each other.  Ah, what fun!

Stephen reminds us all that safety comes first.



Holy MOLEy

Joseph found a couple of little friendly's stuck in the window well of his bedroom.

I think he's actually kind of cute.  Not cute if he were in my house, but outdoor cute. 

If you know what I mean.

Update on the Fam!

I realized that I hadn't done an update for awhile...so here it is!

Joseph is still loving his job for the co-op. (After seeing how big the fertilizer trucks are that he drives, I'm not as thrilled as he is.)  His main topic of conversation is the weather (that's a really big deal to farmers) and the latest truck break-down or other work-related mishap.  He swears he's saving money for next year's college expenses but still manages to buy stuff like this...

Timothy just landed his first full-time job.  He has orientation tomorrow which, I am told, includes drug testing and loads of paperwork.  This means I will have to revamp the driving schedule for the next two weeks which involves drawing classes, VBS, and soccer practice. (Wah, wah!) I was impressed by how motivated he was to pursue this particular job.  Even more impressed with the fact that he wrote all his graduation thank you notes last week.

Stephen trucked down to Blaine on Memorial Day weekend for his first soccer tournament.  They took 2nd and spent a lot of time waiting through rain delays. He's also back to working only one job after working a total of three for a short time.  (Talk about an over-achiever!)  He always has a crazy story to share from the pizza delivery business.

Clare gets an A+ for being the best head-gear-wearer in the local area.  She's been committed to wearing it an extra couple of hours each day and the orthodontist is extremely impressed.  (This is one of those areas where home schooling is a real benefit because she would NEVER wear that thing out in PUBLIC.  I mean REALLY, Mom!!)  When the head gear is off she spends her time on the big swing in the backyard.

Look at that (almost) million dollar smile.

Matthew and Andrew have been on a reading binge.  Matthew has managed to make it half way through the Lord of the Rings.  He seems to like the sci-fi type books.  Andrew is into the Civil War and just finished reading Rifles for Watie.  I really need to get to the library to keep him on a roll.

Therese is perpetually listening to Adventures in Odyssey tapes.  When she's not listening to them, she's repeating lines from them.  Which make absolutely no sense to the rest of us.

I try to make Johnny and Gabriel play outside as much as possible to keep the fighting to a dull roar around here.  They've decided even sticks make good machine guns...

Marianna is trying to recover from a nasty diaper rash that has made her crabby for the last few days.  I found her posing for this picture tonight, though.

Must be feeling a tiny bit better.

Spring Music Recital

Here's the pictures from last night's festivities...

Therese in her pink confection dress.

Matthew played a solo piece and a duet with a friend.

Fr. Elmer made a guest appearance.

Andrew played "Ode to Joy" with Linda.

I missed a picture of Clare because Johnny insisted on sitting on my lap through that part of the program.  Oh well, 3 out of 4 isn't too bad!