Happy Easter!

Our Easter started out very early. Quinton and Stephen left to be at the church to pratice processing and torch bearing by 6:30am. Fortunately, this allowed Stephen time to save us a pew (very important in small crowded churches) and to have quiet prayer time. Thus, he was more than willing to take the little monkeys out to the gardens when they could no longer sit quietly. After a glorious Mass full of Alelluias, which my children love to hear, we headed over to Nanna and Papa's house for egg hunts and good food.

The little ones were thrilled to hunt for eggs and jelly beans. Grandma Ricky hid the eggs this year and, at 82, she is by far the trickiest at it!

When Grandma arrived, she was greeted with lots of loves and pleas for help to find the hidden eggs before the dogs did.

Little ones decorated the patio with chalk.

Alleluia! He is risen!

Dominic was particularly taken with the Easter story this year, relaying to anyone who would listen that the tomb was empty and that Jesus had opened the gates of heaven. Yes, indeed.

Gracie cleaned up all the chalk art up for Papa. What could be more fun than water and a mop?

Happy Easter

Christ is risen, Alleluia

He is truly risen, Alleluia

Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday is our traditional day for dyeing, baking, and preparing for Easter. After the quiet solemnness of Good Friday, it is a light hearted and busy day.

Dyeing Easter eggs is taken very seriously.

Collette

Absolute concentration.

Xavier loved, loved, dyeing the eggs. 

Olivia

Grace

Happy Holy Saturday!

Their beautiful results.

The butterfly cupcakes were a quick and easy way to use up the left over cake batter from the lamb cake. The wings are simply melted chocolate piped onto wax paper, sprinkled with sugar, and cooled in the fridge. Dominic gleefully sprinkled the sugar and helped to assemble the bodies. All the children made the bird nests seen in the background which are cornflake and marshmallow treats.

This year's traditional lamb cake. 

The children loved the swirly wool and quickly laid dibs on who was to eat the head. Poor Collette had been promised part of the head but I accidentally let Dominic eat it. She was devastated. In order to assuage her feelings of betrayal and my mommy guilt, she has been promised a whole lamb head next year...only 365 days to go.

Counting Blessings

      I recently spent two days cloistered in the hospital with Xavier while wonderful nurses and concerned doctors ran numerous tests to find out if he had contracted pertussis. He found all the focused attention quite delightful, romping and playing the whole time. Thanks be to God, we were sent home with negative test results. However, I could not help but ponder and pray for all those in the hospital under far more grave circumstances. May they be blessed and consoled in their time of suffering.

Counting My Blessings

1. A healthy and happy Xavier who just so happens 

to love dressings up as a puppy.

19 months

2. A wonderful new dentist who spent many, many hours repairing my children's teeth and thus inspired dentist play at home.

Olivia x-raying Quinton's teeth.

3. Burly men who chop wood in the snow so we can have warm fires.

4. Boys who keep daddy company while he spends

 a week sore with back pain.

5. Children with a sense of humor and sheer determination.

(They moved the couch, footstool, and book basket outside while I took a short nap, hoping that I would live up to my promise to read to them outside)

6. Spaghetti and the dog lurking around the corner 

who is overjoyed to help with the clean-up.

7. A bountiful home library, children who love to read,

 and the inspiration that follows.

One hut among many that were built after reading Roxaboxen and Amazons and Swallows.

8. Soulful eyes.

9. Blaise too, because he patiently endures the snuggles and loves 

that my quietest and gentlest little girl heaps upon him.

10. The love that breathes life into our days and binds us together by the grace of God.

I am truly, deeply, and completely thankful for His goodness.

Eastern Hemisphere: Japan

We finished up Japan ages ago and have moved on through a few more countries but I shall try to recreate our time there. The children have declared it the most fun thus far!

Japan in general

My Japan by Etsuko Watanabe

K is for Kabuki by Gloria Whelan

I Live in Japan by Mari Takabayashi

Japan ABC's by Heiman and Sarah

A Carp for Kimiko by Virginia L. Kroll

Families of Japan (DVD)

Everyone made a Japanese four square of pictures from the abc book in addition to the map work and flag. The big kids made an interesting table on the different castes and their position within Japanese feudal society.

After reading A Carp for Kimiko, we did a directed drawing lesson on koi. Generally, I just Google 'how to draw...' and pick a lesson that is accessible to my limited drawing ability. These are done on black construction paper with oil pastels. They were gorgeous!

Collette drew another for her personal collection.

Art and Poetry

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho by Dawnine Spivak

The Boy Who Drew Cats by Margaret Hodges

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Origami Treasure Chest by Keiji Kitamura

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say

Cool Melons -  Turn to Frogs! by Mathew Gollub

The children folded many little origami boxes and hats. Haiku was also fun to explore.

Stories from Japan

A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno

Under the Cherry Blossom Tree by Allen Say (That is an interesting tale!)

The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck

Crow Boy by Taro Yashima

The Boy of the Three Year Nap by Dianne Snyder

Gift from the Mikado by Elizabeth P. Fleming (OOP but very worthwhile if you can find it!)

Part of our fun with Under the Cherry Blossom Tree was to paint our own trees in bloom. These are simple hand and forearm prints with dots of pink to represent the cherry blossoms.

Spring in bloom!

Science

Silkworms by Silvia A. Johnson

We also read about and watched many YouTube on the Snow Monkeys of Japan's mountains.

History and Our Lady

Manjiro by Emily Arnold McCully

Born in the Year of Courage by Crofford

Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Blumberg

The Day of the Bomb by K. Bruckner

Under the blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury (I can't remember if the big kids read this one for Japan or Hawaii. It works for both.)

Our Lady of Akito: We found many sources of stories and pictures on the Internet. The children then narrated and pasted pictures onto pretty paper for their notebooks.

Our intention had been to take everyone out for sushi but an illness struck and forced us to stay home. So, Stephen brought the feast to us! There was rice everywhere as they learned to use chopsticks. The set of wooden sushi was a big hit as they played restaurant with the photo menu and dressed up in silks.

Movies

Spirited Away - That was an interesting movie. The big kids liked it but the younger ones found it much too intense. It is an interesting Japanese fantasy unlike anything we've ever seen before.

Secrets of the Samurai Sword - The big kids and adults found this documentary fascinating.

Next Stop: Korea
(Very, very briefly)