it clicked!

What Finn wrote BY HIMSELF Tuesday night.

What Finn brought home from preschool on Tuesday.

I am so proud of Finn! It has now clicked and he can write his name all by himself. Funny, he doesn't like to trace the words at school, but then can write it free-hand that evening!

random thoughts by Cullen

I am grouchy when I have to go to my rom (room).

A punishment of his....

Cullen's book about Feelings....

I feel silly when: I go on a chip. (trip)

I feel angry when: I git (get) bit.

That one cracks me up. In the picture he drew the 2 places

Finn bit him (pretty bad) not long ago.

Don't worry, I solved that problem... Finn doesn't bite Cullen anymore. :)

I feel scared when: I see litning (lightning).

I feel good when: I go to shokog (Chicago).

He is doing a great job sounding out words!! I love his spelling and handwriting! :)

Cullen at a friend's birthday party.

Ice skating at Compton Ice Arena on ND campus.

Another interesting remark Cullen made after a haircut Thursday.... His neck was itchy from all the freshly cut little hairs and he said "This is bothering me, I feel like Jesus on the cross!"

¡Ay, caramba!

Last week was a really busy week. I had to help at the school every morning to collect clothes for
Christ Child Society. (The Kindergarten [and 7th grade] Stewardship project.) They collected 1,453 items! Christ Child was thrilled with the donation, their bins were empty. We would fold, count and bag the donations, then tell each Kindergarten class so they could graph the total each day. This picture was in the newsletter...





For some reason my Stewardship parent responsibilities fall on the same week for both boys! I was also in charge of planning and cooking the meal for the fiesta in Finn's classroom. His class "went" to Mexico the last two weeks and ended with a fiesta.

Paczki Day (and thoughts of our duty stations...)

I found out last night that Fat Tuesday is also known as Paczki Day.

"Paczki Day is described by AnnArbor.com as simply "excessive consumption of fat, jelly-filled Polish pastries." It is a popular holiday in Ann Arbor, Mich., as well as American cities with large Polish populations such as Chicago, Buffalo and Detroit.

The word Paczki (pronounced POONCH-key), or pączek, is defined by Dictionary.com as: "A round Polish pastry similar to a doughnut, usually filled with fruit and topped with sugar or icing." Traditionally, Paczki Day originated due to the need to use up lard, sugar and eggs prior to Lent, which begins the day after." (taken from: huffingtonpost)

A day where I can eat a lot of filled doughnuts??? Count me in!! I brought home the strawberry jelly and Bavarian Cream. They are disappearing fast!

Anyway, this got me thinking about the many unique/different foods we've had because of the many moves the Army sends us on.

Upstate New York- I remember the "squeaky cheese" or cheese curds. You know it's real fresh by how much it squeaks on your teeth. :) There is a large Amish community nearby, buggies and all. You can't find brisket up there either, "You are too far North for brisket, all we've got is corned beef." Thousand Island Dressing- it was originally made in the 1,000 Islands. :)

Georgia- Ahhh, I will never forget those juicy peaches! The juice would run down your arm to your elbow. I tell Cullen that I ate a lot of them when I was pregnant with him. I also had boiled peanuts there, not bad. Another thing I loved from Georgia was their Mustard based BBQ sauce!! Delicious!

New Carolina- Where the sweet tea flows like water! Sean loved the sweet tea, I didn't care for it. If you went to a restaurant, you had to ask for regular tea... otherwise it would come out sweet. They had that yummy mustard based BBQ sauce too!

Colorado- The bubbling mineral water in Manitou Springs. Each fountain around town has a different taste to it. All very unique and they claim to have healing powers. You can even buy it on Amazon.com! Colorado is also pretty proud of their Palisade peaches and watermelon, grown on the Western slopes. But I'm jaded because I lived in Georgia...

NW Indiana- The authentic pizza, we love Rocco's they settled here right out of Italy. Got to love the Michigan apples and cherries! We are going to go apple picking this fall, and I can't wait to get my hands on some tart cherries for pies!! And of course these yummy paczki's... :)

I wonder where we'll end up next?

God give me patience!

Don't be jealous that you don't find surprises like
this in your toilet! I about jumped out of my skin when
I lifted the lid!!

The resident plumber strikes again!!!

Lord, give me patience!! I don't know how many times I prayed for this today. (Not kidding.) This is an example of a very long day with Pirate Red-Beard (Sean's nickname for Finn). I got home from sorting donations at Cullen's school to find that Finn had moved his step-stool to the fridge, took out milk and chocolate syrup and mixed himself a VERY chocolatey, chocolate milk! Then put both the milk and chocolate syrup in the fridge. (His follow through impressed me, I must say. He's always been my organized child.) He did all this while Sean was in the living room doing homework. Like Sean said, he's too smart, it's hard to get too mad about it. Finn has already learned it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

After Sir Talks-A-Lot (Cullen) came home from school, it was game on. Is there a full moon tonight? The boys were bonkers!! Tonight was my night to go to the rosary, but Sean was so swamped with homework I knew it would be best to separate the boys. So I took Cullen with me to the rosary. He was an angel and even knew the Our Father and Hail Mary from school, so he prayed aloud with the rest of us. Be still my heart.

Then I get home to THIS! Cullen lifted the lid to use the restroom before his shower and we both about jumped out of our skin! Then came the laughter, big, uncontrollable laughter complete with tears... I'm still not sure if they were tears of joy or horror! ;)

Ohh, THE JOYS of BOYS!

Happy Birthday, Sean!

Happy Birthday to Sean!! We had a quiet day at the house. Sean had LOT'S of studying/homework/group projects to keep him really busy today. He had a good day though, I made lot's of his favorite foods (eggs a la golden rod and brisket). Since we do not have a Baskin Robbins here (we miss it so much come birthday time!), I made him some oreo cupcakes. Yum!

Happy Birthday, Sean! We love you and are thankful for your hard work that allows us to see this great country! Go Irish!! :)

ND Hockey

"God, Country, Notre Dame."
You can see the band playing.
Finn LOVES the Notre Dame Fight Song. :)
He listens to it on the iPad all the time...

We took the boys to their first hockey game Friday night. The boys were enamored with those big hockey boys skating so fast. I think they could appreciate it because just last week we were ice skating... and that is HARD! Of course Finn thought the Zamboni was the coolest "tractor" ever.

Notre Dame just opened the new Compton Ice Arena in October. It was fun for Sean and me to see because they were working on it when we came out here to find a house last July. Sean told me the Compton Family built this stadium after their son graduated from ND in 2010. He told them how they had to stand outside waiting in the cold to get into the old hockey stadium (he wasn't a hockey player). Coincidentally his family owns the San Jose Sharks...

Salt Lake City

Sean, Matt and Jason from their suite at the
Jazz vs Lakers NBA game.

Here are a few pictures of Sean from his working weekend away in Salt Lake City.

Chicago!

I wanted the boys to sit on the state they were
born in... but Finn and Colton refused and then
Grayson jumped to Iowa. :) (from CO)

Finn, Grayson, Cullen, Colton and Sonya
Getting ready to walk around the Museum of
Science and Industry in Chicago.

Finn being mechanical.

My boys had fun with this little experiment.

Tractors?!?! Awesome!!!

Huge tires on this tractor!

Finn in the drivers seat on the combine.

Finn's favorite of the museum.
(there is the large tv screen in front of the combine)

Cullen and Grayson holding hands. :)

The incubator to the left held a few dozen eggs, where
you can watch the baby chicks hatch out of the egg.
Here Finn and Grayson are watching the older chicks run around.

This combine exhibit was REALLY cool! In front of this
real, full-sized combine is a large screen playing real footage of a combine
cutting down a corn field. Finn has been pretty interested in combines
lately, so this was a great experience for him!

I thought this was appropriate for our little red head.
Or "Pirate Red-Beard" as Sean has nicknamed him. :)
(Cullen is "Sir Talks A Lot")

Sean (and Matt) were out of town for business, so Sonya and I made arrangements to get together while the guys were away. I drove the boys to Chicago Saturday morning. We went straight to the Museum of Science and Industry. We spent a lot of time there and had lunch there. It is a HUGE, hands-on museum, we didn't even make a dent in seeing 1/4 of what it has to offer. All the boys were good and had a great time exploring!

We went back to Sonya's house afterwards to let the boys rest (and Colton nap). After some downtime and naps, we took the subway to Millenium Park to ice skate. Finn LOVED the subway (he sees it on Curious George), but Cullen didn't like the smells. :) Ice skating was interesting, to say the least. I'm not too good, and not good enough to help my two never-ice-skated-before boys. But we all survived and I'm happy to say we all enjoyed it!

We then walked to a quaint diner for dinner. At dinner someone told Finn he had beautiful hair and he said "I have red hair like my grandma." I was blown away! I had never heard himsaying anything like that before and he now officially knows he has red hair. (He used to tell you it was brown.) After dinner we walked back to Sonya's house. All four boys were exhausted (it was about 10 our time) and ready to go straight to bed. All four boys slept in the same room and we only had to warn them a few times to quit talking and sleep. Sonya and I (at last!) had great girl-time and stayed up late drinking wine and catching up.

We drove back home to South Bend this afternoon. We had a great time with our friends and are can't wait for next visit!