More of YaYa's art

Smiley and the May Crowning

Last week Wednesday was the annual May Crowning Mass of Mary, and as is the norm the 2nd graders attended in full Communion regale and ran the Mass. Smiley literally opened the service with the following: 

Good morning, and welcome to our First Eucharist at --[school]--. Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life, Whoever Comes to Me will Never Be Hungry, and Whoever Believes in Me will Never be Thirsty."

Later, he was the male student chosen to accompany a girl up to the statue of Mary to place a crown of flowers on her head. 

After the Mass there was a nice reception - one Lisa and I couldn't attend because of a prior doctor appt. 

Great Job Little Man!

The Spring Festival (First Communion Celebration)

First off here's a pic of my baby:



After the recital we treated Smiley and the girls to some time at our parish Spring Festival, something the kids love but I . . . well, I normally weasel my way out of it :)

Neither Smiley nor I like rides, so he spent his tickets on the giant slide.





Lisa and the girls preferred to spend theirs on the tilt'a'whril.









Meanwhile Smiley tried his hand at skeet ball and won a gold-ish chain with an "Ace" pendant.





To top off the evening my daughters wanted to ride, er - whatever THIS thing is called. Smiley and I wanted noooooo part of it!







Ain't they beauties?





They had a blast on the ride, and Junie made sure to wave each and every time it rotated past us!


.


They all had a blast. After this, it was the drive-thru at Taco Bell followed by an impromptu picnic/romp in the park, and the before-posted Railroad Walk!

Another Bathroom Drawing by YaYa

The First Communion Dinner with the family

Yes, I know I keep posting the events of that day out of order. Sue me. 

After Mass and before the recital, we treated PDiddy Wee Diddy to a nice lunch out at Omega. Lisa even brought in a cake she'd bought to celebrate, graced with a Communion remembrance LuLu had wanted to buy her brother. 

Smiley ordered chicken tacos (while wearing a white suit! Gasp! But no spills!) and everyone else had yummy stuff of their own. After that it was on to the recital . . . 

Note YaYa doing what tweens do best: text. 

Our New "Baby" (tree)

Somewhere on this blog - I can't find the 'tag' that leads to it - is a sad little ditty about the city cutting down the damaged tree in front of our home. That, IIRC, was in 2010. A year or two later the city ground down the stump and as they made no effort to replace the tree, I assumed we were never going to get another. 

Then, magically deliciously, we were greeted with this Friday morning!

 

Quoting Lisa's Facebook: 

I have a new baaaby!!!  The city dropped a baby tree in front of our house to replace the beautiful, mature tree they took almost 2 years ago! I'm going to tell the kids to remember how old they were when it was planted, it will be fun to see it grow with them. His name (given by the state) is "Morton" 

The kids are happy, Lisa is happy - and so, surprisingly, am I. This means that my 3 year run of 'barely any leaves to rake' is going to draw to a close, but I can deal with it. The tree's a beauty :)

A sketch YaYa made (5-16) at school

Y U No Flush?

For Mother's Day YaYa gave Lisa a pretty dry erase board that we keep in the bathroom to leave reminders, post inspirational quotes, or whatnot for the kids. 

The following is YaYa's version of whatnot. Fed up with Junie's habit of not flushing the toilet, she quickly sketched out a toilet, complete with poo and 'stink waves'. 

She drew an arrow to the poo and wrote "RIP Your taco + salad' and directed another arrow at the toilet handle with the caption "it was made so we don't have to see what you ate." 

The title of this mocking artwork "Y U No Flush?" 

for 

The Railroad Walk

May 5th - the day of Smiley's First Holy Communion, was a grand day of many adventures. The others will be detailed in good time, but the final fling of the day was a stop in the park behind Pulaski High School, where we ate some Taco Bell and had the kids unwind by running around on the grass. I casually mentioned a railroad bridge nearby that I used to cross everyday walking to school. The kids wanted to see it, so what the heck - I took them across and down the tracks.  

To my knowledge, the bridge is no longer in use (I noticed the line was blocked off with gravel at the start of it, presumably by someone official-like), but the line that 'T''s with it is active. On the second trip over the bridge Smiley and Junie ran ahead and we heard a train blow its whistle. Now, let it be known that from MY vantage point I could see the train was headed down the track but if you were taking a photograph from where LuLu and YaYa were standing it looked like that train was a'barrelling down the bridge and right at the lil' ones who had nowhere to go. 

YaYa and LuLu screamed and screamed until the train went past, then ran to gather up their siblings. They (the older two) were clearly traumatized, while the little kids seemed perplexed by the attention. While it was terrifying for both of my oldest two, the incident made me fee warm inside - when push came to shove, they love their siblings and hated the idea of them being hurt. 

We may take that walk again, and soon, because the kids have expressed an interest in taking the tracks all the way to the road by our house (several miles) and to quote Lisa "they don't get as much excitement as I did as a kid. If you're with them, and its safe, I think it would be good for them."

What a great Communion day Smiley had!

LuLu goes to see Justin Bieber 10/21/12

Last October LuLu and Lisa went to see Justin Bieber in concert at the BMO Harris Bradley Center here in Milwaukee. This was her second ever concert, the first being NKOTB back in 2008. 

 Here are the four texts Lisa sent me from the show: 

7:33 PM [Spent $] 25 on junk . . .finally seated . . . ppl in our seats sigh . . .

7:55 PM No signs allowed . . . all confiscated . . . was sad to see the mountain of ‘em lol . . 

[re]member a fight at a nks [New Kids on the Block] concert about a sign . . .listening to mj/munchin breadsticks while we wait

8:06 PM Show starting in 2 min

9:36 PM – Starting encores . . prob can leave [to get us] soon

The opening act was Carley Rae Jepsen

Lulu: "I only got to see one of her songs, Call Me Maybe, cuz before we went into the concert we waited in line for souvenirs, and then someone was in our seat so we had to get someone [to move them]. I did like it a lot."

The Setlist: Carly Rae Jepsen--10/21/12--BMO Harris Bradley Center

1. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You"
2. "Good Time"
3. "This Kiss"
4. "Your Heart is a Muscle"
5. "Call Me Maybe"

The Setlist: Justin Bieber--10/21/12--BMO Harris Bradley Center

1. "All Around The World"
2. "Take You"
3. "U Smile" & "That Should Be Me" (a capella snippets)
4. "Catching Feelings"
5. "One Time"/"Eenie Meenie"/"Somebody to Love" medley
6. "Love Me Like You Do"
7. "She Don't Like The Lights"
8. "Die In Your Arms"
9. "Beautiful" (duet with Carly Rae Jepsen)
10. "Out of Town Girl"
11. "Be Alright" (performed acoustic)
12. "Fall" (performed acoustic, including Bieber on guitar)
13. "Never Say Never"
14. "Beauty and a Beat" (included Bieber drum solo)
15. "One Less Lonely Girl"
16. "As Long As You Love Me"
17. "Believe"

Encore:

1. "Boyfriend"

2. "Baby"

She had a blast :)

Her favorite part of the concert? "Seeing 

him," Lulu said.