2 if by Sea...

One of the problems of not keeping up a blog is, of course, that when you do start back up and endeavor to chronicle the simple goings-on and events that are particular to any domicile from here to Timbuktu, they are not chronicled in any discernible order at all.  A small price to pay when one plays catch-up. you don't mind, right?
Here are some pics from our youngest one's 2nd birthday.  We had a Whale/Sea theme:

 Aren't these super cute? I got the idea from the http://www.makemecake.me/ where she suggests using a balloon cookie cutter on its side for the desired whale shape - love it!

And the crowd goes wild...

I tried for a more aquamarine tint, but this works.

A handmade crown by Big Sister for the birthday boy

Happy Name Day

"No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it."

On August 14th we celebrated the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe with unique emphasis.  Ezra's middle name is Maximilian and for each child we always try to do something special on the feast day of their namesake.  Here are a few things we did (in addition to going to Mass) to celebrate Ezra's Name Day:

1.  We listened to his Glory Story.  If you have never heard of Glory Stories, they are audio CDs that do a wonderful job bringing to life the story of a particular saint (they are many). Richard and I enjoy them as much as the kids do and this is one instance when I happily "collect them all":)

2. We also colored pictures of this amazing saint.

3. We had Nut Kiffels, a special Polish pastry typical to his native land that happens to popular in Germany, Austria and Hungary as well.  Nevertheless, I used this recipe and they turned out like little precious pillows.  I will be making these again...yummy!

4. Ezra got dressed up for the entire day! So handsome...

5. I wanted to make this craft but we ended up not having enough time:(  At any rate, Ezra had a very special day in honor of a very special saint.  

St. Maximilian, perfect Knight of the Immaculate Mary, pray for us...

Good Things

Clearly I was unprepared to maintain school, a family, moving into a 'new' home that needed serious attention and a blog all at the same time.  Something had to give while we moved in and renovated our 'new' (old) house and, sadly, the blog was it.  Nevertheless, I will try to update this dusty blog and devote some time to doing so with attention, thoughtfulness and an acceptable degree of humor: my readers would have it no other way.

Let's start with my favorite subject: Baking. Here are a few goodies that I whipped up in the last 6 months or so:

 I made these in honor of Our Lady.  I was shooting for the Immaculate Conception but I didn't really finish until the feast of Our Lady Of Guadalupe.  No harm done...they were ever so tasty but almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Ezra's 8th birthday cake. 

I love the checkered layers inside...fun, right?

Here are some Easter cupcakes that turned out nicely. I made two buttercream frostings: Fresh Lemon and Fresh Strawberry.  It was too hard to decide which I liked best...but if you had to twist my arm, I'd say Lemon: DElightful!

My first First Communion Cake:) I call it the Pretty in Pink.

An assortment of biscotti.  Who doesn't like biscotti?

Here are some pickles I canned with the staggering abundance of cucumbers from our garden.

Canned peaches I made with honey instead of sugar...my goal is that they last us through the winter.  I hope they make it that long;)

I know this isn't a very exciting or thorough post but I'm a little out of practice.  I hope to have another entry SOON showing the improvements we have made on the house as well as other exciting events! Stay tuned...