This, that and the other

 Well school is wrapping up at our house and Marky had his very last co-op class on Tuesday.  We celebrated with ice cream!  This co-op has been awesome and exactly what we were looking for in terms of increasing the rigor and structure of his day and getting a taste of school without our whole life being dictated by a school schedule.

Julia got new riding boots- they are super tall and are taking a while to break in.  All part of moving into the next phase of riding!

The boys love playing on the farm while we wait for her lesson-

Many friends have had birthdays this month- so nice to celebrate them! 

I so enjoy my grocery store helpers.  :)  These are the happiest, sweetest boys.  Thank you, Lord, for these little cherubs!

Wednesday night was the last night for Fraternus for the year.  They had a beautiful Mass and dinner with awards given out.  Marc was out of town, but the children and I went and had a lovely time.

 Marky's small group- 7th and 8th graders-

Big Marc leads the juniors and seniors-

Prayer and singing at the end-

I caught the end of the singing-


Here are the lyrics-

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.

Rise up, O men of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.

Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!

Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!

Thursday we went to our local convent to help the Sisters with their newsletter mailings by stuffing and sealing envelopes and loading boxes.  We were blessed to spend time with Irish Dominican Father Lambert, age 101, who is sharp as a tack and so funny!

We went to lunch with friends-

Oh Tuckerman.  He scraped his leg up terribly by jumping from the top of a tree with an umbrella.  (sigh).

What's more concerning is that he is convinced it could work and this was just a case of having the umbrella at the wrong angle.  :)  He injured his other leg later in the evening at a playground.  It's not easy being Tuck Tuck.

We met BB today for lunch to celebrate Mother's Day!  Happy Mother's Day to BB and Zaza and all the loving mothers everywhere!

Oh and as an aside, we really enjoyed the Tin Tin Movie-

So I bought the three Tin Tin books, written from 1929-1976, and the boys have really enjoyed them.  

Years ago I bought a book lot of Lucy Fitch Perkins Twins books.  We never really read them, but now we are on a roll.  We have read The Irish Twins, The Swiss Twins and now The Dutch Twins.  We have several to go, but they are interesting and we read them in just a few days.  They were written in the early 1900s and are not politically correct (I skip over anything objectionable), but there is a charm and innocence that is sweet.

And today while reading The Dutch Twins we learned all about the dyke system in the Netherlands and the purpose of windmills to pump out the water from the fields.  We ended up watching several YouTube videos explaining how the dykes are engineered, and we also watched Rick Steve's Europe- Netherlands.  Now we know why the Dutch have the best cheeses, cows and flowers.  And we know why they say, "God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland."  :)