Weekend Fun- Mother/Daughter Retreat, Blueberry picking

This weekend was busy and such fun.  The boys swim camp (and Julia's horse camp) ended on Friday afternoon.

I picked Tucker and Charlie up and came home and started reading "Farmer Boy" to everyone.  Tucker started whining that his ears hurt terribly. We ran up to the doc in the box, and it turns out he had an inner ear infection and some swimmer's ear to boot.

P.S. He was cute at the doctor's office.  The nurse took his temperature and he said, "Oh- is that in Fahrenheit or Celsius?"   The doctor said, "take two doses of this for 7 days," and Tucker said, "In other words, take 14 doses."  :)  He kept pulling his shorts legs up and looking at his legs.  I said, "what are you doing?" and he said, "I just keep looking at this farmer tan."

Julia had a blast at her 4-day horse camp.  She made several crafts including this frame.

This past weekend Julia and I went to a Mother Daughter retreat at Casa Maria.  We had the best time- it was such a blessing!  We heard talks, had Mass every day, had Benediction, a Eucharistic procession and prayed the rosary.   We also played games, made friends, sang songs and the girls performed skits for us!

Playing games with the Sisters- this was roving Pictionary- the sister with the next clue was always hiding from us!

The middle school girls-

The high school girls-

 Julia's group did a version of the Wizard of Oz- Julia was a munchkin.  They wanted to find the wizard to discover how to become saints. 

 The Wizard was our retreat priest.  He told them the secret to becoming a saint is to to know, love and serve God (with your heart, mind and strength- which they all needed).  :)

 

Julia was thrilled to be enrolled in the brown scapular on our last day.  

Meanwhile Marc had a fun boys weekend.  They played football outside, played the Wii U and went to Bass Pro Shops.  :)

And now "it's the most wonderful time of the year...."  Well, it is to a lot of my family because it's blueberry picking time.  Most of you know BB and Poppy have a blueberry orchard and the beginning of June is blueberry picking time.  We went out Sunday night and had pizza and picked a gallon and a 1/2.

 

 The ripen one at a time-

  

 

Tucker insisted that he was old enough to ride the mower.  Poppy said he could ride once he was tall enough to push down the clutch.  Tucker worked for 1/2 an hour, but he got it down and was off!

This and That

Just some random picture posting today.  :)  We were so excited when Tucker made us this Happy Anniversary banner last week!  He cut out every single letter from white paper and colored them.  Then he taped it all up on the banister.  We love our little crafting sprite!

The misspelled word just makes me love it more!

 

We are enjoying the lazy summer days.  There has been a lot of costuming, painting and crafting at our home.

 Tinker toy solar system-

I walked into the bedroom and Charlie said,"Do you wonder where that dwumming is coming fwom?  I'm hiding behind Daddy's dwesser."  :)

We are enjoying spending dessert and reading time on the porch at night.  We finished Little House in the Woods and are going to start the next in that series, and we have also started The Indian in the Cupboard as well.

This week Charlie and Tucker went to a little 4-day half-day swim camp at our gym.  I wanted them to get some good swim instruction before the summer got going.  It has been great!  Before this week Charlie would NEVER take his puddle jumper off.  He was too nervous.  If I would suggest it he would say, "but Mommy- I can't swim!" 

On the FIRST day of swim camp when I came to pick him up he was jumping off the wall and swimming underwater to the swim coach!   It has been amazing progress!  Here he is about to jump off the wall-

 

When you turn 12 you are allowed to exercise at the gym.  Marky LOVES it and asks me everyday if we can go.  (We do NOT go everyday) :)  He loves exercise like Marc does- didn't get it from Mommy!

By the way, he's loving rugby.  The other night at practice I saw the guys picking him up.  It looked like a cheerleading move.  I learned that when they throw the ball in the hoist a guy up high to catch it.  I doubt that Marc will be the one they lift- he ended up being heavier than they realized.  I think he'll be the one throwing the ball in.  Still, it was fun to see him get lifted up.

I think I mentioned that during the school year Julia went to Mathnasium for math instruction.  It's literally two minutes from our home, and I just wasn't having success teaching her math.   She's done great with their tutoring.  Marc and Tucker have always begged to go, but we just didn't have a reason to send them.   This summer I am letting all three of them go for a little mini-session of 10 one-hour lessons.  Tucker is beside himself about it!   He loves math- he really loves it and talks about it all the time.  Yesterday while eating an apple he was saying, "You know, 10 minus negative 1 would be 11".   I just say, "Is that right?"  :)

Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ)

On Sunday we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi.  It's traditional to have a Eucharistic procession on this feast day that honors the Institution of the Eucharist.  We were blessed to be a part of the procession at our local convent, Casa Maria.  Julia was a flower girl, and Marc was an altar server.

Julia and her close friends-

A fun fact- last year on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Marc and Marky were in Regensburg, Germany, on the boys choir tour.  They saw a beautiful Corpus Christi procession there!

  I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
 
 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

   So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.   Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”   John 6:48-58