Fall Fun!

This time of year the kids frequently express their disappointment in the lack of trees in our yard. Well, our church has a number of trees that put down a think layer of leaves, and the kids can't resist playing in them after Mass in the morning...

March photos

March began with a short visit from my parents. Unfortunately, the visit coincided with the Flu in our house. So, after spending a long weekend with our feverish, hacking kids, the germs followed my parents home, where they spent the next 2 weeks recovering from the Flu themselves. One Saturday we got to babysit! Our kids love babies and really enjoyed the day. Maria even got to bottle-feed a baby for the first time in her life.

We've had a few days here and there with temps warm enough to play outside without a coat! This was followed by big storms here this past Wednesday, including golf ball-sized hail and a tonado touch-down here in town. Thankfully, we had no damage here in our neighborhood. The weather is back to normal now - COLD! Cati asks me every few days when it will be warm enough to wear short-sleeves :) :) Eventually, I'm sure, but it seems hard to believe. I spent a couple of hours yesterday taking advantage of a good sale at Joanne's buying material to make some summer skirts, so we better get to wear them at some point!

Here are a few Sunday afternoon free-time photos...

Ok, I'm sure these are not afternoon photos because the girls are still in their jammies...

It wasn't Monday...I don't know why she decided to spell "Monday" with the ladybugs that she made.

Recently, Maria has enjoyed spending her evening freetime reading to Elena.

Here are a few school time photos...Chiara is working on learning numbers between 10 and 20.

Elena has discovered the joy of stickers!

Baby #6 is doing well. We're at 25 weeks now, so about 15 weeks to go. He seems to want to challenge Matteo for biggest baby. He's measuring at least 2 weeks above average at my prenatal appointments and whenever anyone asks my due date and I tell them, "July," I always get a look a disbelief, and occasionally a comment or two :)

We're looking forward to a fun April. We have 3 birthdays--Chiara will be 4 in a couple of weeks, then Dany's birthday a few days before Elena's 2nd birthday on Easter Sunday!

Valentines and a Taste of Spring

Here are the kids having fun making Valentines a few weeks ago.

This past Thursday and Friday we had a little touch of Spring here in western PA! As you can see in the pictures, the snow is all gone! Temps reached the low 60s and we really enjoyed it!! It was so nice going out without coats on. This morning, it was in the teens again :( Oh, well. I guess it is February!

A few January pictures

Here are a few pictures from the last 2 weeks.

Here is Cati doing a science demonstration. We started a science unit on birds and insects that we will study once a week. This demonstration showed how fast air flow over something causes lift, which causes birds to fly. The kids had fun spraying water across the table :)



This is what may happen to you as the youngest of 5 children... Your older siblings may dress you up for their own enjoyment. Elena doesn't seem to mind :)

Here is Maria practicing caligraphy. She's also been working on knitting a lot lately, but I don't have a picture.

Yesterday we attended the Baptism of Dany's collegue's baby. It just wore Elena out!

You may notice that I added a pregnancy ticker to the top of the blog. I had a check-up with the midwife 2 weeks ago and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. We'll have another appointment in a couple more weeks when we should get to schedule a mid-pregnancy ultrasound. This past week I started feeling the baby move a bit!

Afternoon at the Nature Park

Last Friday, the kids and I went with some other homeschoolers to Keystone State Park. They had a wonderful guide who took us through a hike in the woods to look for signs of the season. They learned a lot about local birds and plants.



There were a couple of stops on the hike to just sit and listen.

We all really enjoyed the afternoon! Well - we all really enjoyed the hike. None of us enjoyed gathering the center beforehand to see the wildlife on display there. The guide showed the kids the snake she recently caught. My kids were the only ones NOT interested in "petting" it :) :) What can I say - these are definite MY kids!

Inspired by the Winter Olympics

We've really been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics together in the evenings during the past 2 weeks. There's been a lot of talk around here about the "Snow games" as they've been dubbed :)



So, I dug up some pictures and videos of the kids enjoying time with winter sports. We may never be Olympians, but we sure have had fun!

How hard can it be???

Today is beautiful outside! It's so sunny and warm. We thought it would be a good day to take a picture for our Christmas card. We always know that this will be a difficult task...getting all the kids changed, getting everyone to stand or sit together, getting everyone to look at the camera. But, sometimes I forget exactly how difficult it can be to get a picture worthy of a Christmas card.

Here are some (not all) of the "bloopers" from our attempt this morning...

No, I'm not putting in the same picture of Maria over and over. She just had a problem with her bottom lip for some reason :)

Chiara remembers that she likes to run away during photo time...

Chiara decides that picking the grass is much more enjoyable than this...

After taking more that 50 photos (I'm NOT exaggerating), we did get ONE decent enough for a Christmas card. You'll just have to wait and see it in about a month!