Berick the Beetle

Meet Berick the Beetle. Many of you may remember a post last September about the meal worms Sister was raising. Back then they both had different names. After hatching into beetles, she renamed them Berick and Beatrice. Beatrice had a crack in her shell which allowed Sister to tell them apart. Sadly, Beatrice died the first day home. Maybe it was all the dancing and twirling Sister did while holding them in a small plastic vial while begging me if she could keep them.

I thought it'd be a great idea to put them in our garden out back. After all, isn't that where beetles belong? Sadly, Sister didn't feel that would be a good place. She explained to me (not calmly) that she'd raised them from larvae and couldn't bear the thought of them being eaten by a praying mantis. Thus, I agreed with the hope that their life cycle must be close to its end.

My initial fear was that they would breed. Now that Beatrice is dead I hope that is no longer a possibility. We don't actually know the gender of either of them, but like with rabbits, I'm sure we would have ended up with one of each and had hundreds soon enough.

Sister is obviously very excited that she was able to wear me down and agree to allow this creature in my house. Out of guilt (mainly because I read the Gregor series recently and it featured heroic cockroaches) I found an old fishbowl that we could put him in since the little tube he came home in was really small. It seemed cramped to me. The plastic over the top has holes in it. I mainly put it there so our cat wouldn't get any ideas of a midnight snack. I don't think Berick can climb the glass sides, though he spends quite a bit of his moving time trying. Beetles don't fly do they? (Shudder).Baby Bear loves to climb upon the step stool and watch Berick. He is very fascinated with this little creature. I don't know why. It doesn't even move most of the day. Half the time, when it does move, it tries to climb the sides of the glass bowl and falls on its back. I've had to put it right side up over a dozen times in the past week. I often wonder if the beetle is trying to die. Somehow, though, as soon as I right him again, he goes off to check out the food of the day (carrot, apple, pear, etc). Thus, Berick lives on.

Sister's First Reconciliation

On Monday evening Sister celebrated her First Reconciliation in preparation for her First Communion in April. It was a special evening. We had a yummy pizza dinner with Papa and Memere before the service. After the service we came back to our house to have ice cream sundaes. Suffice it to say, it was a busy and late school night, but a beautiful and special one too!

One of the overarching "themes" of their Reconciliation classes was the story of the Prodigal Son. God is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep. If any one of us is lost, he'll search for us and rejoice when we are found. Each of the candidates made their own "sheep" to represent themselves. These sheep were all lined up in front of this beautiful painting of the Good Shepherd after they confessed as they thanked God for his forgiveness. It was such a powerful sight to see all those unique sheep gathered around Jesus at the end of the service.
Sister and our family before the Reconciliation Service.
Memere and Papa attended the Reconciliation Service with us as well.

Momma and Sister thanking The Good Shepherd for his loving forgiveness after confessing to the priest.

Sister showing off her patron saint rosary that Memere and Papa gave her in celebration. She even brought it to school the next day to show her teacher and friends.

Veteran's Day

What a special Veteran's Day/Veteran's season we had this past week! It all started with a sensational Veteran's Day assembly at Sister's school on Tuesday. She was thrilled that both Papa and Daddy (our honorary veterans) were able to attend. After a great speaker, a couple beautiful musical performances, and several super student speeches, they held a roll call of veterans who the students had submitted. Each Veteran's name was written on a star that was placed onto a US flag. They also all came and stood and given a beautiful St. Michael medal with the Guardian Angel on the other side. After all who were present were standing, we all said a prayer over them. It was actually pretty emotional for me to see my father and husband standing next to each other up there.On Wednesday, we enjoyed spoiling our personal veteran with some family swim time, Burger King for lunch and Costco meatlover's pizza for dinner. I had a staff meeting for work Wednesday evening, so Sister's annual Veteran's Day party was postponed until Thursday.

On Thursday evening Sister hosted her annual Veteran's Day dinner party for Papa and Daddy. She does all the planning, but assigns jobs for others. She even wrote a beautiful prayer and speech for it. I've posted them below. What a talented writer she is! She typed them up. I just pasted them into this blog. For entertainment, Sister and Brother both performed some patriotic songs. Brother was especially proud to say the Pledge of Allegiance for us since he learned it in preschool. He followed it with God Bless America just like they do in preschool as well. I'm not sure that he realizes he can stop after the pledge is over. Oh well, all of us loved it and I even got it on video!

I hope all of you were able to recognize the special men and women in your lives who have sacrificed so much so we can have all the freedoms and safety that we do today. God bless America and thank you to all of our military personnel both active and retired!!!

Sister's Speech:

Today, we are here to celebrate the veterans, that have died, are wounded, and are still with us today. Every November 11th, we celebrate the people who are fighting, so we can live. War might end, but the veterans will never be forgotten. We will always think about the kind men and women, who have left their families, just because of the war. The war has divided our families in half, but we pray that one day, all the countries will make peace with each other. They may go scared, but I am sure that they will come back happy. The war is furious, but those men show that anyone can do it, if their brave enough. Today, we show our thanks, our happiness, our peace, to them. That they, men with families, left them to serve in the Army, Marines, Airforth, Navy, etc. They have risked their lives to save us. Us, people, they don’t know, they save. To help us. Veterans know we need a town, a town we truly except. Not a fighting town, a free, and brave town. We always think about the heroes who save us. They do more then save us, they fight for us, in the air, on land, and in the ocean. They have many, many, jobs. you can choose to be a plane, a boat, a sub, or just marching to battle. They are heroes indeed. They do paperwork, clean of ships. They do their job the best they can! The job that is most important is to fight for our beautiful country. They still have fun, like the veteran said, but they also suffer. They can choose to and to not, become a veteran. But they choose to become one, because, like I said, they may go scared, but I’m sure they come back happy. This party we are about to celebrate, is in celebration of them. They are heroes now and forever more. They make us and our country safe, but they might not be saving themselves. Think about it, our heroes who went into war, just to fight for our country. Help us think of them through the party. We will need help. That is what people and families, right this minute, are doing.

Sister's Prayer:

Dear God, May every veteran in your care be safe. Please keep close eyes on young soilders. We trust you and love you. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thankful Turkeys

We've begun a new tradition each November: making Thankful Turkeys. Yes, I completely copied this idea from a friend and fellow blogger. Her turkey was much bigger and more fancy and can be found here: http://princerellas.blogspot.com/2009/11/forgotten-holiday.html

Each evening I ask the kids to name one thing for which they are thankful. It has to be something new each day. For instance, Brother has tried to say the new girl in his preschool class three days in a row now. It only counted the first day. He's doing much better than he did last Lent when we did a similar activity. Every day he would just say, "Everything." Sister, of course, has lots of things to say and writes her own. Then we glue them to the turkeys. By Thanksgiving our turkeys should be covered in thanks!

By the way, the turkey with the pink background is Sister's and the blue is Brother's. Baby Bear doesn't have one since he isn't able to communicate well enough yet. (;

Baby Bear is 15-Months-Old!

Baby Bear turned fifteen-months-old on November 1st. Today was his 15 month appointment. It was a harrowing experience mainly due to the fact that we had to keep waiting for everything. Not a great time of year to have a well-child check with there are so many sick kids needing to see the doctor. Oh well, we survived with a huge fresh lump on the head (new spot this time), a frazzled mom, and two exhausted young men.

Here are Baby Bear's newest stats:
weight- 25 lbs 9.6 oz 65th percentile
height- 2ft 9.25 inches 95th percentilehead- 48.5 cm 84th percentile
He is able to say quite a few words including:
Momma
Dadda
dog
no
hi
bye
night (nigh)
this
there
He loves to copy the sounds Brother makes all the time (whooshes, whistles, crashes, and such). Sister is great at making him happy in the van by singing to him or making silly faces to him. As you can see from some of these photos, he can't stand having the gate closed on him and is always trying to figure out how to overcome it. He's tried climbing under, through the bars, and over. He will just hang there screaming or laughing while I try to get dinner ready every evening. Some of his favorite activities include: emptying containers, putting things into containers (not necessarily the ones they go in), driving trains and cars around, stalking the cat (and laying on him when he catches up to him), walking and running around, climbing everything (especially into Brother's bed where he'll hide among all the stuffed animals), and opening and closing doors, drawers, gates, etc. He is extremely independent and dislikes holding an adult's hand when walking around. He is also very opinionated refusing to eat certain things one day that he'll demand the next. He is funny and extremely social. It is difficult to keep him from going up to everybody around us to say hi.
He is still facing backward in his carseat because he loves to socialize with Brother and Sister who sit behind him in the van. With both the big kids they couldn't wait to face forward, but he seems to like seeing them and if I face him forward he wouldn't have anyone to look at.

All Souls Day

Every Monday morning Sister's school has a short assembly. The grades all take turns leading it. Today was Sister's class's turn. They did a wonderful presentation on the Beatitudes and followed it with a sweet ceremony honoring their loved ones who have died for All Souls Day today. Each student from her class lit a votive and placed it on a prayer table for a deceased loved one. Sister chose our family's matriarch who we lost last November. She was an amazing woman of strength and love. So, today we are saying prayers for our dear, Aunt Sissy. May God bless you and hold in in the palm of His hand!

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.

Trick or Treating

Halloween 2009

For dinner the big kids and I made our traditional mummy dogs and Halloween shaped mac and cheese. As you can see, Baby Bear was pretty upset that he didn't get to help. Next year, Baby Bear!We tried to get a family photo of the whole Toy Story 2 group. There's Buz Lightyear (who was worried that his wings wouldn't show so he kept jumping in front of the whole group, Jessie the cowgirl, Bullseye the horse, one of the military guys, but where is Woody? Sadly, he is being blocked by Buz. It was the only shot that I was able to get with his hat on too. You may notice I have a death grip going on his hands, so who knows if he is smiling or screaming anyway. My Bullseye mask seemed like a good idea when I came up with it late one night. Unfortunately, I couldn't see much of anything in it. Here's one where you can see Jessie and Woody better. Buz is actually smiling, even though he wasn't front and center. Unfortunately, I didn't make it into this one, so Jessie is holding the mask in memory of me. (;Before doing our traditional trick or treating around our neighborhood, we tried out the trunk or treating at the church. Each of the cars was decorated to represent a bible story or a saint. The kids had fun guessing which one. Here we are in front of Joseph and his coat of many colors. As you can see, I gave up on the mask and went for the cowgirl look. It was windy enough that our hats kept blowing off. Spiderman is one of Brother's friends.Here Brother and his friend are in front of Noah's Ark. It looks like Baby Bear is headed over to visit the Archangels and get some more heavenly chocolate.Sister takes Baby Bear down the slide and Brother has fun running around the play ground halfway around the trunks.Here the group is with Saint Peter. See, he even has the keys to Heaven around his waist.After finishing with trunk or treating, we went around our neighborhood. Brother and Sister had to keep reminding Baby Bear not to go into the houses. He seemed to think people wanted his company and was more than willing to check their houses out. He's certainly not shy! After collecting way too much candy, we went over to Memere and Papa's house to use their cable internet to video phone them. It was neat for them to see the kids in their costumes and Baby Bear running around. Then, we went home and watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown like we do every year.

Happy Halloween!!!