Rest in Peace, Grandma Dillon

Eternal rest, grant unto her, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them her.

May her soul

and the souls of all the faithful departed,

through the Mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Our grandmother, Florence M. Dillon, died peacefully on November 21st. She will be so missed by all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We love you Grandma!

Here is Grandma's obituary:

Florence Marie Dillon

March 22, 1921 - November 21, 2010

Visitation St. John Vianney 9-11AM Friday November 26, 2010

Mass of Christian Burial Friday November 26, 2010 11AM St. John Vianney

Died peacefully November 21, 2010 at the age of 89 after a short illness at the Saint Camillus Assisted Care Center in Wauwatosa, WI. Florence was born on March 22, 1921 to Francis Edward and Edith Conner Kelley of Cleveland OH. She was preceded in death by both of her parents, Robert J. Dillon her husband and love of her life throughout 63 years of marriage, brother Edward F. Kelley, grandson Andrew Delaney, and great granddaughter Camille Delaney.

Florence is survived by seven children, Nan (Thomas) Delaney, James F. (Judy) Dillon, Patrick E. Dillon, Thomas R. (Billie) Dillon, Joan (Patrick) Rohrer, Michael K. (Jan) Dillon, and Timothy J. Dillon plus 17 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

Florence was an avid Marquette University basketball fan being a 20+ year season ticket holder, much to the chagrin of some of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who are devoted UW fans. Whether residing in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Iowa, she spent time volunteering at local hospitals, playing bridge and bowling in newcomer's leagues gaining many new friends. No one was more proud of her Irish heritage than Florence. Very seldom was there a family discussion where her "Irish" was not on full display.

Being a Mom was most important to Florence. Her way of connecting with each family member individually has left a feeling that everyone had a special bond with her. There will never be another one like her.

She will certainly be missed but never forgotten by all who came in contact with her throughout her wonderful life.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 AM on Friday November 26, 2010. Friends will be received at the church from 9:00 - 11:00 AM until the time of Mass. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, or St. John Vianney Parish Brookfield, WI.

Happy Birthday Molly Grace!!!

There was never a girl more excited to have a birthday than Molly Grace! She was counting down the days until she turned seven, which was on Saturday, November 2oth. We had a nice little celebration with family and her very best buddy, cousin Margaret.

Also, here is a picture taken in June from Molly Grace's Little Flowers group.  Aren't they cute?  We love you Molly Grace!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

 

If you suddenly get that it's too quiet feeling that mothers instinctually recognize as trouble, first check the magnetic tiles (a couple posts down).  If he's not found there, check the toilet!  If there is a toilet within a block of this child, he'll find it.

The Spaghetti Picture

I think every child needs at least one spaghetti picture on their resume, don't you think?

Wheel of UNfortune!

I am often asked what the little kids do all day when I am teaching the older kids. Well, wonder no longer. Little Seamus cannot get enough of the reading/spelling program I am using with Aidan and Molly Grace. It is called All About Spelling and it comes with many little letter tiles, among other items. These tiles are awesome for teaching, unless you're the mom of a busy toddler who is obsessed with them, in which case, they may just drive you crazy.  I'm pretty sure our little Seamus thinks he is the next Pat Sajak.

We use the tiles each day and store them on a magnetic board.  Because Seamus is drawn to the tiles like a magnet himself, we keep the board out of sight, behind a big bookshelf.  We slide it waaaaaaaaay far in, so his little paws cannot reach it.  It doesn't work.  Little Pat Sajak developes superpowers, sort of like Elastigirl, and somehow manages to reach waaaaaay in, behind the bookshelf, and pull the board out.  To our amazement, we often walk into the quiet room to find this scene...

To my greater amazement, he has not eaten, lost, stolen or stuck any magnet tile up his nose.  Yet.

Do you want to buy a vowel?  How about a consonant team?

I am actually thinking about buying a second set of these tiles for him for Christmas.  I have a feeling it would make him smile, like this...

And maybe when he's grown and hosting Wheel of Fortune, you'll say, "Hey, I knew that kid when we was a toddler!" And because I'm an optimist, maybe, just maybe, all of the time I'm putting into cleaning up these little tiles NOW will pay off LATER when it's time to actually teach him is letters, reading and spelling.  Ha! I can hope!

Some People....

....just do not want to see Halloween come to an end!

Erin is Counting

This is a short, fun, little video showing some progress Erin is making with counting.  She has been able to count to ten (knowing the number names in order) for a while.  But she hasn't made the connection to what those numbers represent, if that makes sense.  We have been working on number recognition, sequencing, and counting using objects, trying to get her to "get" one to one correspondence which of course is needed to understand numbers.  She is starting to get it! 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We recently bought some fun prereading and math preschool items for Erin.  She is so anxious to learn.  I am going to try to post some videos of our progress as we go along, over the next few months.  (It has been a while since we have done any videoing.  That is because little Mr. Trouble Seamus threw our camera with the video into the toilet.  It sat on the shelf for two months because we thought for sure it was broken.  This week we decided to give it some new batteries to see if by chance, it would work.  It did!  What do you know?!)

Erin's speech is really starting to come along too! I love that she is so polite.  I hear thank you several times a day, but often with different tones.  When she's in a hurry and just needing to get the words out, she'll say a quick, "ankyou".  When she's feeling grateful, she'll say, "THAAAANK you Momma!"  Other times, she'll imitate her sisters and brother and say, in a sing-songy voice, "thaaaaank YOU!"  Also, rather than saying "yes", she almost always says "sure", or "okay".  When she is not so agreeable, she'll say, "NOkay".  LOL  Cracks me up!

K-bye!  ;)

Twenty Years to Celebrate!

Oh my goodness! This is a poor quality photo (and my computer won't let me edit it), but I scanned it because it was the photo that appeared in the newspaper when we were announcing our engagement. Here we are, twenty years, and countless blessings later. God is good and we are very thankful!

Trick or Treat!

We had a great time trick or treating with the Cousins, the Halls and Theresa N.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the younger Hall kids.

Molly Grace, the princess



Elmo was there...

...but preferred the hood "OFF"

Conal was Indiana Jones. I'm not sure who Aidan was by name, other than one of the bad guy in the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom movie.  So, these two were a pair - good guy, bad guy. Ah, ya, given his getup, Aidan was, without a doubt, the bad guy LOL.

Group shot here.  Theresa N was a cowgirl, Anna, Bridget and Colleen were genies.  Clare and Teresa were princesses of India and Seamus was the great pumpkin.

Margaret was Dorothy, and Molly Grace

Teresa and Seamus (makeup courtesy of Eileen)