14 Days of Valentines!

I saw the 14 Days of Valentines on Pinterest, so I thought that would be a fun thing to do. Each day the kids get a cute valentine to surprise them. Some of the things I saw on different sites on Pinterest & others I thought of on my own. (The first one was courtesy of my sister Dianna.)
On Friday, they got their first one:

It is a deflated Mylar balloon inside a bag. You have to pop it with your hand...

and it will slowly fill with air, pop out of the bag, and turn into a filled balloon:

 These were SO fun! (You can get them at Dollar Tree. They come 4 in a pack!) The balloons literally popped out of the bag and into the air. The kids really liked this surprise. They also liked it when they learned that they were getting 13 more days of fun Valentines!

On Saturday, the kids woke up to these: 

Giant glow sticks in their favorite colors! These were also a hit. (and also from Dollar Tree...gotta love that place!) The kids can't wait to see what it next!

Catholic Schools Week!

Catholic Schools Week was this past week. They had a lot of fun activities to help celebrate this special week! On Monday, they had Cougar (The All Saints mascot) paw cookies and then they sent off yellow balloons with All Saints address and our mission statement on it to see how far they went!

During the week, they had a religious store open where they could buy religious items, a spelling bee, religion bowl, a special story teller, an 8th grade VS the faculty volleyball game, hat day, & silly sock day. On Friday, the parents came to eat lunch with the kids. Jeff ate with Lily & Riley, and Emma & I ate with Zach! 

In the afternoon, they had mini sessions. I loved doing mini sessions during Catholic Schools Week when I was in school. They were SO fun! The kids all get to pick 3 things they want to do and get to spend 20 minutes doing each thing. Zach got to do Chemistry Camp, Robotics, and Horse Care. Riley went to Chemistry Camp, Robotics, and Horse Care too! (They had lots of choices, but these two obviously have the same interests!) Lily chose Donut Dipping, Cake Pop Making, and Horse Care. They all had a lot of fun!

Lily's Weekend With Meadow

Last Friday, Lily got to bring the class owl, Meadow, home! She has been waiting all year to bring the owl home! When you get to take Meadow home, you do fun things with her & then "Meadow" journals what she got to do with the kindergartner she went home with & you add photos to the journal. Lily got to keep Meadow on a 3 day weekend, so she got to do lots of stuff with her! First, Lily introduced Meadow to Baby Lamb:

Then she dressed Meadow up:

Then she let Emma play with Meadow. But Emma tried to eat her, so we stopped letting Emma play with her. ;0)

After Jeff got home, we went out to dinner to Chili's & Meadow came with us. (So did Emma!) :0)

On Saturday, Lily & Meadow played all day long. She drug that owl all over the house! Then when it was time to go to church & then the Pinewood Derby, Lily buckled Meadow into the seat next to her.

At the Pinewood Derby she had Meadow with her (or made Jeff hold her) while she raced her car.

On Sunday, it was so nice, that we all went out to play, even Meadow!



That night, Rachel & Ares came over to get Lily for a sleepover! So, Meadow went with them! Rachel was very nice & took pictures of Meadow while she was at their house. Here she is with Brigid, Lily, Ares, and Ceri:

They got to make their own pizzas for dinner!

And play Operation! (See, Baby Lamb wasn't left out...she got to go too!)

Meadow even got a check-up with doctors Ares & Lily:

On Monday, Lily & Meadow just played together, and she had to go back to the class on Tuesday.

I think that Lily was kind of sad to see Meadow go. But she knows she is going to go on a new adventure soon with another kindergartner! Lily also got to share the fun things that they did together on Tuesday when her teacher read the journal and showed the pictures to the class! And now she has some more fun kindergarten memories! =)  

Beautiful Weather and Riley Rides His Bike!

On Sunday, the weather was beautiful! We headed outside to soak up some sun before it got cold again! Zach & Riley tried out Riley's new skateboard & Lily rode her bike & scooter. Zach also rode his bike, but the only picture I have of that was very blurry. He's too fast for me! ;0)

Then I finally talked Riley into trying to ride his bike. He was nervous, but he got the hang of it SO fast!

He was zipping up and down the street all by himself in no time. He was so proud of himself! =)

He still has a little trouble starting off, and his stopping is not that graceful, but he'll get the hang of that soon enough. Good job Riley!!

Pinewood Derby 2013

We went to the annual Boy Scout Pinewood Derby again last Saturday. The kids & Jeff had been working hard on the cars. Lily entered a car again in the Outlaw Class, and both boys had cars on the regular race. Zach made a silver car with lightening bolts, snakes, and dice, with the words Chance and Zach 10 on either side.

Riley got a Scooby Doo wrap to go on his car!! He was so excited!

Lily painted her car sparkly purple and put princess stickers on it. (I know..everyone is shocked by this decision!) ;0)

My three boys:

The race finally started, and the kids got to racing!

When it was all over, Lily got 4th in her race. Riley got 5th & Zach got 8th. Not too bad. =) The best part was that they had fun and they were all good sports! (Which is a big accomplishment for one of them in particular...)

They are already planning their cars for next year!

Snow Day!

I have been meaning to post these pictures for awhile now, but just haven't gotten to it, but better late than never, right? ;0)
These were taken over New Year's when we got a little bit of snow. The kids were still excited about it though, so they got their stuff on & went out into the cold!

Lily did not last long at all. I'd say she was out there for less than 10 minutes. Jeff made her hot chocolate when she got back in & made a "gingerbread men hot tub" for her. She thought that was pretty funny. =) 

The boys lasted longer, but when they finally did come in, they got hot chocolate too. Now they can't wait until it snows again!

Riley's 1st Reconciliation

Riley received his First Reconciliation yesterday! He was SO nervous! When we got there, he seemed to be doing well, and he was the 3rd person to get to go in, so that was good because then he didn't have to wait long. We had been telling him all week, that nothing he would say could possibly make Father upset, and Father H. reassured them all of that before too. When he came out of the confessional, it looked like he was going to throw up, but he didn't. :0) And he was fine. He did say that it didn't make him feel better at all. Poor guy! They made heart necklaces representing God in their hearts. As the good mom that I am, I forgot to take a picture of him yesterday, so here he is this morning with it before school. :0) 

 Congratulations Riley!! We are so proud of all of your hard work to get to this point in your spiritual life! Now on to First Communion!