A Celebration For Healthy Hearts!

Herma Heart Center (from Children's Hospital of WI) has an annual event for children who have gone through open-heart surgery. It was, of course, our first year participating, and we all had thankful hearts for our little Erin!! We had a lot of fun at the event which was at the local children's museum. We met many families and even recognized a few.


The kids took full advantage of all that was offered...





Mike strategically placed the bench here so he and Erin could take full advantage of the fish.




Nothing like playing in water....






And if you think the excitement ends there, you are mistaken. On the way home we were pulled over by a police officer, sirens and all. Moira, our camera happy girl, didn't waste any time snapping a picture of the confused faces in the back seat. Of course she put the camera away when the officer started shining his flashlight into the car :) As it turns out we had a back tail light out. Whew....and you all thought Mike was speeding didn't you? ;) Thankfully, we just got a friendly warning.

More Photos of Father Daughter Dance

Bridget, Colleen, Eileen

Bridget, Mike, Teresa

Teresa

Mike, Bridget

Colleen, Kelley

Margaret and Molly Grace

Father-Daughter Dance

It's once again time for the much anticipated Father-Daughter Dance for home schoolers in our area. The girls look forward to this event all year! Here are a few pictures I took just before they headed out the door. I'll try to post another picture of Mike with five of his girls (Erin's too young to go) soon! I think it was the year of the polka dots...

Erin at 11 Months

Erin- 11 Months

Interviews (Bridget)

This is Bridget, and this is my first time posting something on the blog. I did some interviews with my siblings, here they are:

Molly Grace:

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: An Irish dancer.

Q: What's your favorite princess item?
A: Um.....I can't choose.

Q: Who's your favorite princess?
A: Cinderella

Aidan:

Q: Are you going to be an Irish dancer?
A: No

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A Packer player

Q: What if you couldn't be a Packer player?
A: I would have to kick a player off the team and dress up as him.

Q: What's your favorite game to play?
A: Aidan attack...(a good guy, bad guy game)

Q: What do your sisters make you play?
A: Store! And they won't let me be the cashier so I don't want to play.

Teresa:

Q: What's your favorite game to play?
A: Store! I'm the cashier

Q: Do you like to play in deep snow?
A: Not really.

Eileen:

Q: What's your favorite sport?
A: Irish dance

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
A: I like to bake, babysit, e-mail my friends and practice dance.

Q: What is your favorite subject in school?
A: Grammar

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Remember the Titans.

Moira:

Q: What's your favorite sport?
A: Irish dance, and football to watch

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
A: Photography, dance, talking to friends on phone, computer, Packer stuff

Q: What's your favorite movie?
A: I don't know

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: I'm not sure, but maybe a nurse.

Sharing a Room With Molly Grace....(Moira)

... is very interesting. After we say a little prayer at night we will talk for a bit. We sometimes call Molly Grace the cheese-head from Boston. The cheese-head part is because she talks like a North Wisconsin native (which she is). She'll say, "dis" instead of "this", and "dose" instead of "those"! Then she gets the Boston part from not pronouncing her r's corectly. Anyway, lately at night, she has been telling me ALL ABOUT how her wedding is going to be! It's so cute! Our conversation a couple nights ago went like this:

MG starts talking, out of the blue, expecting me to know what she is talking about, saying, "I wanna weah a whitepinkandpuwple dress... and um, a pink vwail and puwple shoes, and dere gonna be dose new ones we saw at du stowa."

Me: "But MG, you are suppose to wear everything white at your wedding."

MG: "Oh yeah... Well fine, I'll weah white evewyting. Den du udda ladies will weah pink...HOT PINK!"

Me: "Oh. What will the guys wear?"

MG: "What guys?"

Me: "Ya know, the groom and groomsmen."

MG: "Aaaa, I'm not gonna have dos guys."

Me: "You have to!... How are you going to get married if there isn't at least ONE guy?"

MG: "I'm dus gonna get maweed."

Me: "TO WHO?"

MG: "NO ONE!"

I was laughing my head off and explained to her that if she is going to get married a guy has to be involved!

So then last night we were talking again:

MG: "I figowed it out!"

Me: "What?"

MG: " My new wetteen."

Me: " Okay, tell me."

MG: "White."

Me: "Anything else?"

MG: "Will Turna." *

Me laughing: "Oh, that's nice!... Good luck with that!"

* For those of you who don't know who Will Turner is, he is one of the main characters from Pirates of the Caribbean, played by Orlando Bloom.

Happy Bithday Bridget!!!

Wow, eleven years has sure flown by. Bridget has brought joy and laughter into our family. We can't imagine life without her! We love you Bridget! God bless you!!

It's Game Day!!! (Moira)

WOOHOO! We couldn't be more excited! Sadly, I didn't have a extra couple hundred bucks laying around so I will not be going to the game. My dad is, though, with one of his brothers and many of his cousins. I'm just so thrilled for him, *wink*!

It is forcasted to be a HIGH of 2 degrees. Right now, it is -13 degrees, but with the wind chill, it feels like -34 degrees! You might think I'm crazy but I would go, with NO hesitation, in a heart beat!!! I thought the cold would add to the glory of the frozen tundra. Only true, die hard fans sit 4 hours in below zero weather just to be there!!! It is supposed to be the 2nd Ice Bowl.

Back in September my mom and I were looking through blog templates and came across a Green Bay Packer one. I got all excited and really wanted to save it as our template. My mom was not so excited about the idea. I said, "Okay, if the Packers go to the Super Bowl can we do it for a couple weeks???" She said (somewhat sarcastically), "Alright, yeah... If they go to the Super Bowl." The other night we were getting supper ready and I reminded her of that little promise back in September. So if you come to our blog tomorrow and find it with a Packer template, you know the reason, and who wanted it!!! :)

Just So You Know....

...according to Aidan, Jacob and his son, Joseph, did not have penguin feet in "real life". But Joseph did wear glasses.

Aidan has been busy with Old Testament stories this year. He is often wide-eyed as we read through the stories. Honestly, he is captivated by the blood and gore found in the Old Testament. He loves the strong themes of good verses evil, and remembers the stories in vivid detail. Sometimes he even adds a hilarious element of his own, as he did here:

Check Out These Cute Little Snowmen!

Eileen and Bridget have been busy with St. Camille's Youth Group again. These little snowmen are made out of coffee creamer containers. Arent' they cute? They had fun crafting and sleding this week (before out sub-zero temps hit)!