On the Homefront

Aunt Karen was out of town when we celebrated Myriam’s birthday, so she and Anthony came over. Once again, Aunt Karen proved that she is WAY cooler than Mom and Dad by showing up with fun balloons, fun gifts and fun “Big Anthony.” (The girls love the Strega Nona stories and one night Myriam turned to me and said “We have a Big Anthony- Aunt Karen’s Big Anthony!). I think the nickname is going to stick. The gorgeous (and yummy) cake was provided by Anthony. Moon sand and a fun new backpack completed the perfect birthday evening.

We celebrate Myriam’s third birthday a little late because all the kids were sick on her actual birthday! Here are a few pictures from the evening.

The girls made this crown and cross the day before Ash Wednesday. The crown has toothpick “thorns” that they remove when they make any little sacrifice. Our hope is that all the toothpicks will be gone by Easter and we can paint the crown with beautiful colors to celebrate Christ rising from the dead. The small lumps next to the crown were also made by the girls with the extra dough. We decided they look like stones and will represent the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb. They couldn’t resist putting more toothpicks in their stones. More sacrifices to make! Therese made the large dough cross to decorate our prayer shelf. We are lighting a candle for each week of Lent. The pink ribbon is for Guadete Sunday.

Salt Dough Crown, Cross and Candles

Our good friend Miss Nancy Miggins brings her two boys over every Friday to play with our kids while Mommy goes to Mass and Confession by herself. What a gift! Our girls adore her beautiful boys and truly believe Miss Nancy walks on water. These photos were taken on a warm day in early February during a week of seventy degree weather. It is hard to believe this same backyard now has half a foot of snow covering it!

Myriam shows Brendan how to build with Legos on the back porch. This was one of our unseasonally warm days and we were taking advantage of the sunshine!