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{A}’s Birthday Celebration

August 6, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

So in an effort to catch up a little bit here, I’ll start with {A}’s birthday celebration, which was over a month ago now!

Birthdays are a big deal in our family. We really like to take the day, and acknowledge the birthday person with gratitude for their life, and the blessing they are to our home and family, the best way we know how. We try to instill in the children, that just like Christmas, birthdays are not about the gifts we get, nor do we care for them to be the focus of our celebrations. They’ve learned that birthdays are about the celebration of their life, and gifts from loved ones sometimes come along with that occasion. Special birthday packages for the children often do come from loved ones by mail, as our extended families are for the most part not local to us. We know these packages are sent as an expression of love and birthday thoughts, and are accepted with love and gratitude.

So over the years some birthday traditions have come to be that are very special to us, as the ways in which we always celebrate birthdays in our family. It goes something like this:

No work, No School:

No matter what day a birthday in our family lands on, no one works that day (us parents), and we (primarily the kids, and so us too, as their teachers) don’t have school work either. The birthday person decides ahead of time what they want to do, or where they want to go, on their birthday. Sometimes it’s a family trip from overnight to several days, sometimes it’s a day trip, or an activity,….it can be anything within reason. The point is, we spend the day all together, focusing on them, and giving thanks for their life. We inevitably talk and share about the memories we cherish regarding their life, such as when we were expecting them, and the day they were born. We let them know, each in our special ways, how much they mean to us, what an integral piece they are in our family, how blessed we feel to have them, and how much we love them.

Birthday Pancakes:

Daddy started this tradition with {A}’s 1 year birthday breakfast. What is special about the birthday pancakes is that they are made into the age of the birthday person. This year, {A}’s pancakes were extra personalized, with not only her age, but her age in a roman numeral > She LOVES roman numerals, so she was very excited about that. As if pancakes don’t make her excited enough! This time, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to eat them, or not!

For her birthday, {A} first chose to go out to western MA to her Papa’s for a few days. Since there were people we needed to visit out that way as well, we planned that for our summer vacation and went the following week . For her official birthDAY, she wanted to go bowling! She said she thought it would be extra special, since it was the little ones first time going bowling. (Aawwww!) They all had a really great time. As luck would have it, Mama and Daddy were pretty excited about that idea too, because we LOVE bowling. We actually went bowling a LOT, back in the day when we were ‘courting.’ (More ‘aawwwww’) We did 10 pin bowling, but {A} wanted to go candlepin because it would be easier for {J}, {O} and {S} to do. They were all so cute and funny, and as usual, I took LOTS of photos, and here are just a few:

The birthday girl going for a strike!

Here she is again, being as silly as she often is. (Kind of missed the shot, but it is so HER, I had to include it.)

Our left handed man, {J}.

This is {O}; She was so funny, because she would hold this stance after every roll, until the ball had disappeared. She was quite the bowler!

{S} Oops! But nice form!!

Love this shot of our 4 bowlers.

After bowling, we took {A} surprise shopping to pick out a new skateboard. She’s been big into skateboarding for quite awhile now, so we knew she’d be thrilled. After 2 stores, she finally found one that she felt suited her skill and liked the look of. She left that store beaming, bouncing through the parking lot with her new board. She was really excited to break it in.

She decided that she wanted to save her cake (which she insisted on making herself) and the special packages/gifts she had received for the next day after mass (which she was happily serving at), which sounded great to all of us, because we were all plum-tuckered out too. And it just gave the opportunity to extend her celebration to an extra day.

So the next day after late morning mass, and lunch, she opened her gifts. She received many books, a journal, some money (very old for her collection, and to spend), a very special keepsake box from her Godmother that has ‘their’ special saying on it, and some other cool things too, but here is what she opened that day and she just loves it all.

Cake:

The birthday family member also gets to choose what kind of birthday cake they want. {A} chose (and made herself), chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting. I love the series of photos, so I had to make a collage with them. lol. The last photo (bottom right), she broke out laughing because when she blew out the candles, all of the smoke came my way where I was trying to take the photo, and I was pretending to really choke over it.

All in all she was very happy with her birthday celebrations she had planned out. She said it was ‘icing on the cake’ to be scheduled to alter serve at mass that day too. She was really hoping she would be able to serve on her birthday weekend, and she got her wish. She said she really wanted to serve because , in her words, “Serving is important to me. It makes my faith grow stronger, and I really wanted to spend some time with Christ, serving Him, for my birthday.” (Wow. We love that.)

As she says every year, “This was the best birthday I ever had!”.

The end of August brings the triplets birthday, and they have all been in a flurry of excitement, planning out their special day next! You’d think it would get tricky with 3, but somehow so far every year, they’ve all discussed their ideas and agree to the same things.

{A} – We’re glad you enjoyed your birthday celebration as much as we enjoyed celebrating you. May the light that we see in you every day, continue to bring you joy every day of the coming year, ‘and many more…….’. We love you!!

11 Years Ago …

July 5, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

11 years ago last night, on the 4th of July, 1997, we were in labor with our first child. I knew all along it was a girl. I just felt her in my heart….she was always there. As if she always had been. And then she was born, and I somehow recognized the sweet baby girl, who my heart had felt it had known all along. And we were never the same.

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She changed our world. She changed our souls. She changed our definition of love.

To {A} – You will never know how much you mean to us. To our whole family. We know God has special and amazing plans for you and your life, and we feel so very blessed to watch it all unfold, to watch you grow, day by day, becoming all God meant for you to be.

We love you so very much. Keep listening to your heart, and being just who you are. You are a gift to the world.

Happy 11th Birthday Baby Girl!

Love ~ Mama, Daddy-Boy, { J}, {O} and {S}

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Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

July 4, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

Just sharing some candid photos from the 4th of July parade this morning. Off to the fireworks now!

Tomorrow is another day full of even more fun and celebration!

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Have a safe and fun 4th of July holiday weekend, Everyone!

Ssshhh…Chipmunks in Training!…by Alexis Grace

July 3, 2008 By A 2 Comments

I’ve trained yet another chipmunk!! Meet my new little friend, ‘Chipmouse‘. You may or may not have read my last post about my other chipmunks I have trained. I really love training chipmunks, and this is my third.

My Mama was the first one to spot this new one. At the time, he was such a youngin’ that she said,”What is that!? It looks like a mouse!” Dad and I said at the same time, ” It’s a baby chipmunk!!” He has grown a lot since we first saw him, only 2-3 weeks ago.

This little one was not as skittish as the other two, and caught on quickly to what I wanted him to do. First, I had my hand, full of seeds, on the ground, and slowly lifted it up until he had to jump in to eat. Then he jumped off to go spit out his seeds at his burrow. When he came back, I had my hand higher. He could jump in easily. Finally , I put my hand so high, that he could not jump in, so he crawled on to my legs, and ran up my arm to get to my hand.

It was only a few feedings later, that he let me start playing with his tail and really having fun with him. The last chipmunk, Flash 2 would only come out to eat if it was just me out there. Chipmouse went back and forth from his borrow to me, passing Mama, and letting her get some photos.

Isn’t he so cute!?

Secret Rosaries in the Dark

June 28, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

Life has continued to be as eventful and busy as ever around here, with all kinds of fun, activities, learning, and work. Our heavier business work loads, that come with this season for us, has continued to use up our blogging time. But we give thanks to God for His ways in providing for our needs, and know you all understand the less frequent postings lately.

This morning, I wanted to take the time to share a humbling moment I experienced as a mother, one night last week. The little ones had been put to bed awhile before, and they weren’t seeming to settle in fast enough for me. I usually don’t mind them talking quietly for a little bit before drifting off to sleep, but I was attempting to get some work done, and was feeling quite distracted by the inaudible rumblings I could still hear coming from their bedroom nearby. Perhaps I was low on patience that night, because I was beyond annoyed as stomped towards their bedroom on a mission, ready to tell them once and for all, to “please ‘shush it’ and go-to-sleep!” But what I heard so clearly now, as I was about to put my hand on that doorknob, was 3 sweet little voices in perfect sync, and it stopped me in my tracks; “.…..Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. <Pause.> Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee….” Tears welled up in my eyes, as did the jumbled feelings of guilt, shame, and happiness, as I realized they were saying the rosary together, in the dark, and using their fingers to do so. As I took a deep breath, I decided I wouldn’t ask them to ‘shush it’ once and for all, after all, and just stood there and listened for awhile

Mind you, I have heard them pray together in the dark many, many times before. But never the rosary. Where did this come from? I’d love to say from me, or their father, but that wouldn’t be the truth, as too young as I mistakenly thought they were. I think likely they picked up the basics from the Catholic TV channel they watch a bit of every day, and their IRL friend on those shows, Fr. Bob. It just occurred to me now to ask them if they saw that on TV. I don’t really monitor what they are watching exactly, because they pretty much are only allowed to watch that channel, and after all, Fr. Bob is there! : ) It’s often his show! But I am sure at some point we at least taught them about rosary beads, what they are for, and generally how you use them, when they received some as gifts.

The next day they asked for those beads they had received before, and the day after that as well. They all sit lined up, and begin the rosary together. They’ve actually been all the way through it on their own! Other times it’s just a few decades, which is more than I’ve done in quite a while. Their big sister lent them a book that has 2 prayers in the rosary they do not know by heart yet: The Apostles Creed, and Hail Holy Queen. How convenient they can read so well. I was rather impressed with their discipline and dedication, and felt like I was witnessing a lesson meant just for me.

While we usually have daily family prayer together, we hadn’t yet attempted the rosary together. I assumed it was rather long for little ones, and maybe not so easy at their age, to mediate on the mysteries. Honestly, even I struggle deeply with an attention span like that. But perhaps we should begin to add the rosary to our family prayer life here and there. Maybe a daily decade would work, as we incorporate and teach the mysteries we are meant to meditate on while we recite the prayers (which would admittedly be an opportunity for us parents, to brush up on our rosary skills). No doubt it would be a spiritually fulfilling experience, and one it appears my little ones are indeed ready for, while the rest of us are long over-due.

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