Preserving Family History and Making New Memories - Our Wisconsin Trip

Earlier this month we were able to go on a family vacation to Wisconsin to attend a family reunion with my husband's family!  Traveling with four little ones ages 6 and under can sure present itself with a vast variety of challenges, but we still had a blast!

 

 

Family Time

 

The best part about getting away for a while is the precious time that we have together as a family.  We have learned that it works best for us to try to rent a home instead of staying in hotel rooms once our family continued growing!  It is great to get away from my husband's work schedule and have some quality time!

 

 

 Amusement Park

 

Watching the joy in little one's faces and seeing them enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood is such a blast.  There is a great little amusement park in the town that we visit and we had so much fun there that we snuck in two visits there during our vacation!

 

 

 

 

 Mini Golf

 

Playing mini golf with little ones is pretty hilarious, but also tons of fun!

 

 

Family Reunion

 

My husband's great grandfather and his wife settled in this small community in Suamico, Wisconsin decades ago.  He ran a general store, which still exists today, now as a restaurant.  The place where they lived still exists and the Historic Vickery Village (my husband's family name) now includes an old general store, school house, town hall, caboose, and many additional historic buildings.  It is truly amazing to come to this place that has so much family history and watch our children learn and explore.

Fun Around Vickery Village

 

Our boys had SO MUCH FUN exploring Vickery Village and all that there is to do! 

 

 

 

 

 

All Because Two People Fell In Love - Four Generations

 

The families from my husband's great grandparents all got together for our family reunion. We were so blessed to have about 80 people together from all around the country to celebrate together!

 

 

Preserving Family History - Making New Memories

 

We are so blessed to be apart of such a wonderful family and have such an amazing place to bring our children that preserves our family history.  My husband's great grandfather's rocking chair was brought to his original general store this weekend so that we could all see it and take a turn to sit in it.  There is something pretty special about seeing our own four young men sitting in the same place, in the same chair that their great - great grandfather did many years ago. 

 

 

 



Give Your Child the World - Our Last Four Weeks

 

We have been having so much fun reading great books that are taking us around the world this summer with Give Your Child the World!  Our first four weeks were packed with fun that you can check out HERE!  Here is what we did during the last four weeks of the program.  Also, stay tuned for a reflection of our own home and special books that you can read to learn about where we live next week!

 

The Middle East

 

This week was interesting because many of the books from the Middle East were pretty intense and a lot about war.  Our children really like to learn about history including about wars, but it was a lot different to hear and see things from the perspective of the people living in the war zone.  Our favorite book this week was the Librarian of Basra.  It was a great story about a wonderful librarian who was trying to make sure to save all of her books during the war.  "She waits for the war to end.  She waits, and dreams of peace."

 

• The Librarian of Basra:  A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter
• Silent Music:  A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford
• How Many Donkeys? An Arabic Counting Tale by Margaret MacDonald and Nadia Taibah
• Listen to the Wind:  The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
• Nasreen's Secret School:  A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter

 

Asia

We had read a lot of the selections that they recommended from Asia when we were studying countries this past year with Explore the Continents from CHC.  Our favorite story this week was Tikki Tikki Tembo!  All of our boys adore this story and since we were traveling this week on our family vacation we also got this book on video with Scholastic Videos to watch in the car.  This is a great way to help entertain our children while traveling on long car trips and still promote a love for great books! 

We also went out to a Japanese restaurant for the first time with our children to celebrate my father's 60th birthday this past week.  They all did a pretty good job trying different foods and loved learning to use chopsticks!

• The Monkey and the Crocodile:  A Jataka Tale from India by Paul Galdone
• The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman
• The Paper Crane by Molly Bang
• Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett
• The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop
• The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack
• Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
• Crow Boy by Taro Yahima

 

 

 

 

 

 Latin / South America

It was perfect to learn more about Latin / South America just as the Summer Olympics were beginning in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!  Along with reading some fun books this week we also learned more about Brazil, the landmarks including Christ the Redeemer and more.  We also have watched some of the Olympics and our little guys now dream of being Olympic swimmers one day!

• The Umbrella by Jan Brett
• The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola
• The Rainforest Grew All Around by Susan Mitchell
• The Tortilla Factory by Gary Paulsen

Rio Olympics

 

 Antarctica / Australia

 

Our final week of Give Your Child the World we explored Antarctica and Australia!  We loved re - reading one of our favorite books Mama, Do you Love Me this week!  We also took a fun trip to the zoo where we were able to see some of what we have been reading about.

 

• The Little Polar Bear by Hans de Beer
• Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara Joosse
• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French
• Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
• Australia ABCs:  A Book About the People and Places of Australia by Sarah Heiman

Can Mary Teach Him How to Walk?

 

As we approached the anniversary our baby's due date, when he would now be nearing one year old if he had lived as a part of our family here on earth our oldest son asked me in passing "Mom, do think Mary can teach him how to walk?" 

"Who?" I replied.  I thought he was talking about our Samuel.  We talk about him often, but this time was different.

"Samuel.  I know if he was here with us that you would teach him to walk.  Since he is in Heaven, do you think Mary can teach him how to walk?" 

I tried to respond without tears filling my eyes "Yeah, buddy.  I bet so".

You see the thing is, through the eyes and heart of our little children I am constantly reminded of Mary's maternal role in my life and the lives of those around me.  In witnessing Mary's fiat, and her Magnificat of praise to God they become daily reminders to me to TRUST in God's plan.   

The day that we found out that God was possibly calling our child to Heaven the Gospel was Luke 1:46-56.  The Gospel on the anniversary of his due date on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, over a year later was the same prayer from Luke's Gospel.  The prayer of Mary praising God's greatness. 

I know that God has a plan for all of us.  Even though we are called to go through pain and pick up our own crosses we are also called to our own way of saying "Yes" to God, just like Mary.  Sure I wish that I would be a part of teaching each of my children to walk, but that was not a part of God's plan.  Yet, how great would it be if Mary could?