2nd Grade Mass

Jack was one of the petitioners at today's all school Mass.

For those whose lives are closely linked with ours, that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as Christ loves us, we pray to the Lord...

We Must-ache you to have a happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Jack's First Reconciliation

Jack made his First Reconciliation last week.

The school he attends is populated by children from two different parishes. These kids do not make their Reconciliation or Communion through the school. They do it through their parish. There are 10 kids total in our parish who made their Reconciliation last week. Five of these students are from Jack's school and unfortunately he is the only boy in the whole bunch. Of course the school parents wanted all the classmates together in a picture. When Jack saw we were funneling him up to a group of girls at the altar he stopped dead in his tracks and refused to be moved. (This boy does much better when he has advance notice so I told him he could skip the picture that night but that he would HAVE to get a picture with his classmates when they made their First Communion.) As I was talking to him I heard a bit of whispering and then these young ladies announced "If you won't come over here Jack then we are coming to you." Without any parental nudging, these ladies just decided they would move the location of the photo shoot right over to Jack. So I say, "Thank you, ladies!"

After the humiliation of beign photographed with ladies he tromped right up to the altar for his solo shot.



 Father with all the kids - see the lone boy trying to kinda, sorta hide back there by Father?

 And some of my favorite homework.

The boy who went down.

The look he gave me after I said "Yes, you do have to eat your chicken."

 While I wasn't looking he left the table and returned wearing his penguin towel. As if wearing a penquin towel is going to keep him from having to eat his dinner? I said "You can dress like any animal you want but you still have to eat your chicken." And the good Mother I am? I took pictures and tried not to laugh as he went down.

 And laid there.

Shrek

At the Coterie we are deep into performances of Shrek. The company was fortunate enough to meet David Lindsay-Abaire on opening day. This is the gentleman who wrote the book and lyrics for Shrek. (Some days my job is really cool.)

Here is the cast and much of the design team posing for posterity!

A boy and his Daddy

Election Day

 John and I took the boys with us to the polls before school the morning of Nov 6. Wyatt went to the voting station with John and Jack went with me. We talked about how important it is to participate in your government by voting and we placed our votes. I'm not sure why little Wy is so cross here. He was excited about going in to vote with us.

Uh - am I not the cutest voter you ever did see?

Bedtime Photo shoots

Trickles

I always try to catch a snapshot when I see these boys connect. We were heading in to the Coterie one afternoon and as we approached the escalators they just reached out and held hands. Sometimes they fill my heart with so much joy that it trickles out of my eyes - then when I get to work folks think I'm upset and I have to explain that I'm just in love with my children.

Boy Scout bowling

 Jack

 Wyatt

The seven 7 year olds and two 5 year olds that John Owen was in charge of at the bowling Alley. Notice the dads at the table in the back? Yeah, they let John Owen have all the fun. Luckily I was there with another mom. We stepped in a few times to keep things from going up in flames a time or two. The boys had a good time, but John Owen was ready for some Tylenol and a long winter's nap by the time we got home!

Halloween

 The boys love my cat costume and asked me for weeks if I was going to wear my cat tail.

 Ready for some trick-or-treating! I was quite surprised that Wyatt wanted to be Luigi again this year. I have no idea who Jack is. A ninja? A GI Joe? Both? I never understood his explanation. He was just so excited over the costume - and I was so excited that Wyatt didn't want a new costume that I just bought Jack the costume he was waving around as he jumped all over the aisle.

The school hosts a Trunk or Treat the weekend before Halloween. It always falls on a day that I am in tech (working at minimum from noon to midnight) so I have to scurry over on my dinner break. I honestly think they like Trunk or Treat more than Halloween night. They are excited to see their friends and their teachers. And, it goes so fast - you don't have to walk all the way to the next house, you just hoof it over to the next parking spot. On Halloween evening I was sure we were going to be out for a good while but after about 30/40 minutes the boys asked "Can we go home?" and "Are we DONE yet?" It made me wonder if I am raising commies. What kid doesn't go after getting -more- candy?