Family Fall Fun

 

 

Do you have those special places where your family memories are made?  One of those "places" for our family is the apple orchard!  We love making a special trip each fall and we lucked out this year with beautiful weather!  We had such a great time picking apples, exploring all of the fun things to do and most importantly spending time with family!

 

 

Each year we take a photo of each child by this old tractor that they love!  It is so much fun to see how they grow and change.  We missed one year when we were living in a different state for my husband's Medical Fellowship, but other than that we have made the fun trip each year!

 

Ryan

 

 

2010 (10 months old) & 2011 (1 year old)

 

 

2012 (2 years old) & 2014 (4 years old)

 

2015 (5 years old)

 

Connor

 

 

2012 (1 year old ) & 2014 (3 years old)

 2015 (almost 4 years old)

 

Luke

 

2014 (1 year old) & 2015 (2 years old)

 

Past Family Photo Fun!

 

2010

 

2011

Baby Brother Connor was born just a few weeks later!

 

2012

2013

 

This year we lived in Minnesota for my husbands Medical Training!

 

2014

 

 

2015

Our fun from this year!!!

 

 

 

 

Life is Precious Week 1 - Angel in the Waters

We started the Life is Precious Curriculum this week with the first book study of Angel in the Waters.  This book already holds a special place in our family as it was a gift for our boys when they found out that they were going to be big brothers to our baby Samuel who soon later went to Heaven after our miscarriage.  It is such a beautiful story with wonderful illustrations giving a glimpse of what life inside "Mother" might be like.

We loved diving into this story more and learning a TON about Fetal Development in a child friendly way.  The first day we learned all about fetal development and the growth of a baby inside Mommy versus the sizes of foods.  We also used the little baby model that came with showing the size and formation of a 12 week baby.  Our children also thought it was really fun to see how their brother inside of my tummy right now is growing and that he is currently about the size of a pineapple (8 months)!

On another day we made a flip book called the Miracle of Life.  It showed fantastic pictures of fetal development that we could use as a guide to talk about how life begins and how a baby grows.  We also watched the Baby Steps DVD included in the curriculum which showed 4D images of a baby in utero.  Also, since we have quite a collection of our own ultrasound photos we looked at ultrasound photos of each of the children from when they were in Mommy's tummy and how they grew!

This weeks lesson plans worked out perfectly with the liturgical year as well, as it was completed with learning about and celebrating our Guardian Angels; just in time to celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels on October 2nd!  We talked about who the angel was in the story, about each of their own guardian angels and made cards for our Guardian Angels.  We also went over the Guardian Angel prayer again (which our oldest two children know and our youngest is in the process of learning!) 

 

Guardian Angel Prayer

 

Angel of God

My Guardian dear

To Whom His love

Commits me here

Ever this day

Be at my side

To light and guard

To rule and guide. Amen

 

"Just as you do not know how the life breath enters the human frame in the mother's womb, So you do not know the work of God, who is working in everything." - Ecclesiastes 11:5

We are simply loving this new curriculum and cannot wait to continue with the rest of the books included in the upcoming weeks!

Celebrating the Feast of St. Therese

 

Today on October 1st, we celebrate the feast day of St. Therese of Leisieux or "The Little Flower of Jesus".  St. Therese has been one of my favorite saints for some time now, and although I could probably go on and on about her, what is most impactful about her to me is her own words.  I find myself constantly writing her words down in my prayer journal and them sustaining me through hard times and helping me praise the beautiful times.  So that is what I leave you with today, St. Therese's beautiful words (and with them some really beautiful pictures of flowers taken by my wonderful husband!)

 

"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice.  Here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word.  Always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love." 

 



 

"To remain a child before God means to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God.  It is not to become discouraged over our failings for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much. "

 

"My strength lies in prayer and sacrifice; they are invincible weapons and touch hearts more surely that words can do, as I have learned by experience."

 

"How can I fear a God who is nothing but mercy and love?"

 

"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."

 

"Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude."

 

"I know that love strengthens every vocation, that love is everything, that it embraces all times and all places, because it is eternal."

 

"Jesus has shown me the only way that leads to the fire of divine life:  it is that of a little child who, full of trust, falls asleep in its father's arms." 

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!

What We've Been Reading - September 2015

"What We've Been Reading" is a series here at Children of the Church to both keep track of what we are reading and to share with others what we have been reading in our home.  Reading is such an important part of our daily lives and also our homeschooling journey.  Thank you for following along and please feel free to share what you have been reading as well so we can all learn together!

September 2015

Children's Book List (Our children are 5 1/2 years, 3 1/2 years, and 2 years old):

• Chapter Books (Our oldest son and I usually go back and forth each reading a page for Chapter books, and sometimes I just read them aloud to the children)
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Children's Stories
• Behind the Mask:  A Book about Prepositions by Ruth Heller
• Merry-Go-Round:  A Book about Nouns by Ruth Heller
• Kites Sail High:  A Book about Verbs by Ruth Heller
• Many Luscious Lollipops:  A Book about Adjectives by Ruth Heller
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
• Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
• Stone Soup by Marcia Hoff
• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
• Pete the Cat:  Rocking in my School Shoes by James Dean
• Dandelion by Don Freeman
• Fables by Arnold Lobel
• Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola
• Angels, Angels Everywhere by Tomie dePaola
• Catholic Mosaic Books
• Mother Teresa by Demi
• Peter Claver by Julia Durango
• The Tale of Three Tress by Angela Hunt
• St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodges
• Before Five in A Row (See Links to Read the Post about our "Row")
• Blueberries for Sal
• Play with Me
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
• Usborne Books: 
• Ted and Friends Phonics Readers (12 books)
• Illustrated Stories from Aesop
• Explore the Continents Booklist: (North America)
• The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
• The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
• Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett
• The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePoala
• Catholic Treasure Box
• Books 5-9

My Book List:

• Raising Boys is a Full Contact Sport by Rachel Balducci
• A Purposeful Path by Casey Beaumier SJ
• Teaching from Rest:  A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie
• A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy:  Walking with Mary from Conception to Baptism by Sarah Reinhard
• A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms by Lisa Hendey

*This post contains Amazon Affiliates.  Thank you for supporting us at Children of the Church!

Feast of the Archangels Liturgical Playdate

Image Source

 

Do you remember how I started to have Liturgical Playdates with friends and their children last spring for the Feast of St. Patrick and the Feast of St. George?  Well, my amazing friends and I have had such a fun time that they are carrying on the tradition as well to host more awesome playdates!  Today, one of my dear friends had a group of us all over to her home for a Feast of the Archangels Liturgical Playdate. 

 

Here are a few things that she did to put together this awesome Liturgical Playdate!

 

1.  Decorations: 

• Prints from Happy Saints to display images of St. Gabriel, St. Michael and St. Raphael around the home
• Beautiful Fall Decorations and Holy Cards

2.  Learning Activities/Books:

• Coloring Sheet of the Archangels from Happy Saints
• Cut Out Swords for Coloring with the verse "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edge sword ..."  Hebrews 4:12
• Archangel Wings to Color and put on to wear with yarn
• A reading from Saints for Boys about Saint Michael and the book My Friends the Angels

 

 
3.  Fun Activities:

• Homemade Pinata for the little Archangels to destroy and defend against (and of course get candy from)!

4.  Food:

• Our awesome hostess made angel hair pasta and glazed carrots along with homemade angel food candy
• Each guest also brought a snack including Blackberry Punch, Angel food Cake with Blackberries and Strawberries and Sour Gummy Worms with Toothpicks (Swords) piercing them!

We had a wonderful time and cannot wait to have another fun Liturgical Playdate with friends in the near future!

 

A Prayer to St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

-The Archangels

 

Heavenly King, You have given us archangels to assist us during our pilgrimage on earth. 

 

Saint Michael is our protector; I as him to come to my aid, fight for all my loved ones and protect us from danger.

 

Saint Gabriel is a messenger of the Good News; I ask him to help me clearly hear Your voice and to teach me the truth. 

 

Saint Raphael is the healing angel; I ask him to take my need for healing and that of everyone I know, lift it up to Your throne of grace and deliver back to us the gift of recovery.

 

Help us, O Lord, to realize more fully the reality of the archangels and their desire to serve us.

 

Holy Angels, pray for us.  Amen