A quick project

I finally got one of the projects I had seen online in several places done!  It was so quick too, I might even make this as a gift in the future...for my homeschooling type friends.

 Pre-cut squares of felt (Wal-mart).

 Fold in half.

 Cut width to fit your cross (Michael's).

 Round the edges, add a hole for the top of the cross.

 Cut a strip from the extra piece to use for the stole.

 Repeat for colors of the liturgical year (we still need a blue stole for Marian feast days).

 Check on the cute guys in the back yard, weeding in their overalls.

 Hot glue some ribbon around the edges of each piece. We used white and gold.

Screw your cross on to small wooden discs (Michael's). 

And you have a complete set of liturgically based vestments, which you can now change after you go to mass and distract your kids by asking what color the priest is wearing.  At least until your 3 year old figures out that the priest will be wearing the same color as the cover on the chalice that is out before mass and tells you so, therefore preventing the distraction later on.

Mini-golf

One of the fun coupons we got for completing the summer reading program at the library this summer was a free round of golf.  Rose enjoyed it so much, we will probably be going back this fall.  Look at that stance!

 James however spent most of the time whacking at his ball, missing it, then running down the course and putting it directly in the hole.  That and trying to go swimming in the water features since he didn't understand it was too chilly to go to the pool that day.

St. Rose of Lima Feast Day

Today was the feast day for St. Rose of Lima, who is Rose's patron saint.  This year, we found a church named St. Rose of Lima and went to Mass there.  It was a cute little church and everybody was excited for Rose once they found out.  Prior to leaving, I had seen that there was a state park nearby, so I packed our lunch and off we went after Mass.

 My favorite pics of the day!

 Rose really wanted to eat lunch in the middle of this pretend boat - even though it was the middle of the playground and there were probably 3 school buses worth of kids that had just arrived.  Oh well, it was fun.

 Rose probably spent a half an hour on this zip line, and would have kept going if James wasn't ready for his nap.  She was the youngest one using it so I had to keep the bigs from cutting her out of the line:( but she still had loads of fun.

After the earthquake...we brought snack to the park for all the neighborhood kids.  I made chocolate cupcakes, iced with strawberry icing, and rolled fruit by the foot pieces on top to look like little rosebuds.  Not sure if you can tell or not on this pictures, but they were really cute.  

While we were waiting for dinner to arrive - Rose had voted for pizza delivery - we colored a St. Rose of Lima print out. 

Overall, I think she had a good day.  The earthquake just made it memorable!

Earthquake!!

What? An earthquake hit on the east coast?  I have lived here since 87, and don't ever remember one, and now we have had two in a year or less.  What is going on?  Anyway, minimal damage, but it did scare us all.  We were outside playing when the house started to sound like it was going to blast out of our yard.  At least I now know which shutters need to be secured this fall...

From a large geode that I keep up a shelf or two.  It fell on the bottom half of my built-in bookshelves, dented it, and caused the trim to separate a little.  Nothing I can't fix.

Pretty much everything on this shelving unit fell over or off.  This is after I picked it up off the floor.  

I have also been finding small things throughout the house, like the soap bottle in the sink or a crooked picture.  Hopefully it wasn't just a precursor to something bigger.  Rose keeps running to the door jamb saying the house is going to jiggle again (I told her what to do in case we were inside next time).

Dan's Birthday Fun

For Dan's birthday, we went to the baseball game and sat in the president's club seats.  These are right behind home plate and you could see us on tv!  Not only that, but there was a carving station buffet line, free draft beer & house wine, and any ballpark food you wanted while you were in the stadium.  Afterwards, we could watch the press conference from the dining room.  It was a great night, but I think we can only afford to do it once a year!!!

Rose Cuteness!

 Trader Joe's has cute little carts (for cute little girls of course)!

 Someone fell asleep eating lunch in the beach house.

 Yes, this is Rose in a cooler with all the stuffed animals.  Mom, your cooler is being put to good use after dropping off the extra food from the beach!

A weekend at the beach...

Like father, like son (too cute)

He plays hard and sleeps hard!