Manitou Springs

After a full 6 months which included living in a dorm for 7 weeks, launching a new website and numerous speaking engagements and conferences, Kevin and I were blessed with a little R & R thanks to the generosity of FOCUS and Grandma Sue, who watched the kids (thanks mom!). 

We decided to head for the hills, or rather, the mountains. I'll give you three guesses to figure out where we are.

It has lots of crazy rock formations...

with plenty of places to climb and hide...

and amazing views.

Did you get it?

Yep, we began our trip in the Garden of the Gods. Well, technically we began at an outlet mall, but that's not really exciting to most people, unless you're me because the entire Ann Taylor Outlet was 40% off.

Our adventures also took us zip lining near Royal Gorge.

I was having fun, even although I look bored. They make you zip in a super safe fashion to begin and then our camera ran out of batteries before we got to the flipping upside down part.

We also fulfilled a recent dream of mine to visit an ancient cliff dwelling.

The big rectangles are the doors and one family would live in each 5 x 8 foot room. I can't even imagine how that worked after seeing them.

Lastly, before heading home we adventured up our first 14ner together, Pikes Peak.

The view is so far reaching you can see Kansas in the photo below. You can also see the red rocks of the Garden of the Gods.

The song America the Beautiful was penned up here by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893. These are the "spacious skies" she was speaking of.

It truly was amazing.

And I should admit that we didn't actually hike this, we took the cog rail. Don't judge me... it was 30 degrees up there and almost 80 at the base.

At least we got out and walked around instead of running for the windowless shop for world famous donuts. If only I had know there was a coupon for a free one. Friends, don't make the same mistake I did.

So, we are relaxed, we are rejuvenated and we are ready for whatever new craziness is coming our way!

1st Snow

After an 80 degree weekend, we are having our first snow!

It took the kids less than one hour to beg to get out there for some snow swinging...

and general snow fun.

We haven't even had a chance to play in the leaves yet! Oh well, it should warm up again this weekend, but for now the 10+ inches of show are welcomed.

All Saints Day/Halloween Saints Costumes

Last week I received an Oriental Trading Company catalogue and flipped through it expecting to see the same crafts and cheap toys that I steal ideas from and re-create myself, but then something caught my eye.

$6.00 robes and $3.00 veils in any color in the Christmas pageant section.

You're shocked too right? I about called my husband I was so excited.

Let me explain. For the past several years I've been making my kids saints costumes. While I have (mostly) enjoyed doing that, this year, it's just not happening and I don't want a repeat of last year when I scrambled to make a costume for my 2 year old. My original plan was to not dress him up, then guilt set in.

Look at my adorable St. Anne. She's wearing a black robe and red veil. Humm, I could buy that costume for my 5 year old for $9.00.

Mixing and matching robe and veil colors lead to endless saint possibilities. If you order all black your child can be Benedictines like Sts. Benedict and Scholastica. Brown for Carmelites like Sts. Francis of Assisi and Therese of Lisieux. White for your son to be a Dominican like Sts. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas and the next year you can add some wings and a halo so your daughter can be an angel. OR you can add an over the arm sash to a brown robe and become almost any biblical character.

Unfortunately, they don't have toddler sizes, and you'll need to attach the veils on as hoods for some of these, but I don't think that would be too difficult... think tucking it in behind the kids neck and using safety pins. Still if you think outside the box, you could come up will all kinds of cheap ideas!

They also had some other options.

For $10.50 my now 3 year old will be St. George the dragon slayer. And for $6.00 my 5 year old daughter will be Queen Esther in a purple robe. I'll need to make her a gold sash and crown, but that will be nothing compared to years past.

They have plenty of beautiful Mary costumes for as little as $13.00 and of course St. Joseph! The robe is so colorful I think you could be either biblical Joseph.

And thanks to the Easter pageant, your child can even be Jesus for $10.00. I love the beard, but it's $6.50 more.

They actually sell monk costumes so you can have a Franciscan for as little as $7.99!

I'll be sure to post some pics of the kids when we put these cheap and easy costumes on for our up-coming All Saints events!

The Rosary and Kids

Last year I posted a few times on integrating the rosary into family life. Since October is dedicated to the rosary, and today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, I thought it would be appropriate to pull them out of the archives!

Part 1 consist of making an edible rosary. I've seen people make these with mini-cupcakes too, so cute!

Part 2 is all about how to make praying the rosary a pleasant experience with hands on activities.

Part 3 shows how we have used art to help make the rosary come to life.

Part 4 features some our favorite rosary products.

For DOZENS of ideas on how to teach your kids about the rosary check out this link from The Catholic Toolbox. Also, we love Holy Heroes, check out their Rosary CD set!

Turning 3

Happy 3rd Birthday to our Paul!

He has a history with his cakes.

(Photo by Voboril Photography)

1st birthday, not happy.

2nd birthday, not happy.

3rd birthday, intrigued. He didn't finish his piece, but at least he wasn't mad at it.

It was a good lookin cake.

He was pretty excited about his presents. Our big boy is very loved and was sent some fabulously fun things from his extended family. Thanks guys, we are so blessed!

Two more pics...

1. This last weekend was the Augustine Institute vs. FOCUS flag football game. Paul apparently wanted to play because here he is running on the field. Dad is to the left running after him. QB had no idea this happend and fans can be seen laughing. You can also see the removed flag in the upper right corner flying through the air, which signals the end of a play... good thing. So much awesomeness in one picture, I had to share.

2. I also had to share one of my Dad and me partying since he and Paul share a special day. The day Paul was born was the anniversary of my Dad being welcomed into heaven. I can't wait to share more parties with him again someday.

Flowers for Therese

"My mission - to make God loved - will begin after my death. I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will send a shower of roses." St. Therese

I love embellished headbands. I'm not really sure where this obsession came from, but it's becoming rare to see me without one. For the past few weeks I have been wanting to find the time to make some headbandable felt flowers to add to my collection and today, on the feast of St. Therese, seemed to be the perfect time to do it.

We always celebrate the Feast of St. Therese because she is FOCUS' patroness and we love her. Why is a cloistered nun the patroness of a missionary organization? Glad you asked. Head over to the FOCUS equip blog to find out, my husband posted on it yesterday.

After eating our traditional rose colored and shaped pancakes MC and I got to crafting.

The instructions on how to make them are almost identical to the instructions I posted on how to make headbands using scrapbook flowers. The only differences are replacing the scrapbook flowers with flet flowers (I printed off some patterns from Danielle's Place and used them as my guide) and sewing on buttons instead of using craft brads.

The back of a felt flower, I used ribbion with this one.

I took my inspiration from Running with Scissors who showcased some beautiful bouquets, although mine are not nearly as ornate!

MC was a perfect model and is very excited about her new headbands...

and clips.

I think St. Therese would approve.

Later today we'll pull out the kid's books on St. Therese that we picked up in Lisieux last year, as well as our Treasure Box books that I posted on last year. I'm stilling trying to figure out a fun flower dessert, so we'll see if that happens.