Little Flowers vs Blue Knights

Let the party recaps continue!

Catherine, Mary, and Michael had their end-of-the-year parties for their Little Flowers and Blue Knights clubs at church. The girls had a tea party with their longest skirts, hats, decorated tables, tea and treats, and a little play recapping some of the saints and virtues they learned about this year.

I was making this skirt for Catherine, and when we got to the "hemming" part, she refused to let me hem it. It drags at least five inches on the ground. I suppose when she shuffles a hole in the bottom then she'll let me hem it.

This is how Edie entertained herself during the tea party.

Catherine and one of her best friends, hiding from my camera.

We had also made a new skirt for Mary that week because she has apparently grown a couple inches recently so that none of her long skirts cover her hoop skirt anymore. We learned pockets, which pleased her a lot.

Group shot!

While the girls were at their tea party, Michael and the Blue Knights were having a bon fire. I sneaked out of the tea party for a bit to hang out with Michael and watch their badge presentation. The atmosphere was a little different, what with the swinging around of marshmallows-a-fire on sticks, but they were clearly having a good time.

It looks like we'll be able to wrap up our school year around the end of May, and then next year I have to start officially recording for Michael Jr as well. I'm having a "how time flies" moment...

Gussie's ISO

One time Mary had an umbrella with an owl on it, and she loved it, and she left it somewhere and it has been lost for ages. So one of her first communion gifts was a new umbrella. Ever since she has had that new umbrella, Gussie has been pondering what his new umbrella is going to look like. He's got it all figured out now; I typed this out verbatim during a conversation with him a few days ago:

"I want an umbrella with tractors and dirt piles and cement trucks and shovels and dirt piles on it. And tractors that are digging, and tractors that are dumping dirt, and dump trucks that are on it too. It should be blue, but the dirt piles are gonna be black, and tractors are gonna be yellow, and the cement trucks are gonna have black engines and yellow cements. And there's gonna be bulldozers putting dirt in dump trucks too. And there might be police cars on it. And there also might be tow trucks on it, so... that's all."

He asks me at least once a day if his new umbrella is going to be delivered that day or not. Since I have never seen an umbrella that looks even remotely close to this, I'm broadcasting his In Search Of request so you all can keep your eyes open and point me in the right direction if you see it.

He also wants a pair of overalls because it has finally gotten hot enough that he agrees he probably can't wear his snow pants every day.

Also he drew a horse.

And he's been asking to ride on my back pretty much all the time, which Edie does not think is a good idea at all but Gussie doesn't care. He asks me to take pictures of us every time I wrap him up. It's funny how the kids have picked up on how I take pictures of things I think are beautiful or great or funny or I want to remember; usually if any one of them is particularly proud of something they will ask me to take a picture of it.

Now I'm imagining this same picture, with Gussie in a pair of overalls holding his perfect construction umbrella over both of us.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

I'm just going to try to keep up my run of party posts here. Olivia recently celebrated her birthday at the Myseum which my kids thought was a fantastic idea - it is one of their favorite places. Most of what Edie can do is in the toddler area which has a smaller bounce structure, a goat pulling a cart, lots of blocks and gears and cars and play food and little bouncing hippos you sit on... basically toddler paradise.

This is all blurry because from the second she crawled into the bouce house she was literally a boucing rolling sliding climbing giggling blur.

While I was watching Edie, the rest of the kids basically went off on their own to the space maze and the pool noodle swamp and the giant slide and the big kid bounce house, so I didn't really meet up with them again until it was time for cake in the party room.

Cake and party blowers.

Thanks for having such a fun birthday party, Olivia!

A Bridal Shower

I'm trying to catch up the blog with all the recent party recaps! Cousin Matt and fiance Shelbie are getting married in a week, so I should probably get Shelbie's bridal shower recorded before then!

The girls and I left all the boys at home and joined ladies from both Matt and Shelbie's families at Grandma's house. It was the girls' first bridal shower, and I think they are already planning their own.

Grandma had treats and games and there were tons of presents. Edie alternately spilled things, destroyed decorations, and entertained everyone with oodles of cuteness.

Working hard on the ribbon bouquet for the rehearsal!

The girls all watched the present opening with rapt attention.

The beautiful bride-to-be and her sister!

Where's Edie??

Mamo won the candy guessing game and Mary delivered her prize of 300 chocolate kisses.

Gussie and Mary are the ring bearer and flower girl for the wedding, and they are both counting down the days. Gussie in particular is *very* excited to wear his fancy suit and black dress shoes, which he has polished every day since we bought them.

Happy 60th! (And Two Scary Bunnies)

Do you see how far behind I am on things here? I'm about to blog about Gigi and Papa's 60th Anniversary party, which happened in *February*. Oh well. But it's worth remembering, even three months later, because it was a lovely party and we are so thankful for these grandparents in our lives and great-grandparents in the lives of the kids.

It was a fun mix of Gigi and Papa's friends and family, and we lucked into a rather beautiful day for February. Plus we re-watched the amazing video Uncle Thomas and crew made for their 50th anniversary; the kids were enthralled as they had never seen it, and it was as funny the second time around as it was the first. So friends and family and movie tributes and speeches and treats and gifts made for a great celebration.

Completely unrelated: I forgot about these pictures but there were right after the party pictures in my folder, so here they are. (Unless I've forgotten that I didn't forget about them, and they were already blogged somewhere else?)

Happy Anniversary from Gussie Rabbit and Michael Rabbit!