showeredwithgrace

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Tomorrow's the day ~ we've been creating lovely valentine suncatchers this afternoon to prepare.  If valentine's has crept up on you too, this is a simple and quick craft.  All you need is clear contact paper and cut up pieces of colored tissues, scissors and ribbon to hang if you like.  We cut the contact paper in squares, littered the sticky side with colored tissue, topped with another square of contact paper and pressed them together.  Then we cut them out into heart shapes and hung them up.  Easy peasy.  And soooo pretty.

In honor of the day ~ polishing up our pennies with lemon juice to make them sparkle.

 

 

I think Abraham Lincoln would be pleased.

We had a visit from Saint Nicholas at our parish church today.  Our fearless Rose Red was frightened of St. Nick and wouldn't go anywhere near him but she had lots of fun with the crafts and yummy treats!

 

 

   

   

 

 

Scenes from a Thanksgiving . . .

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

   

 

 

Hope yours was happy!

This All Hallow's Eve ~ St. Agnes of Rome.

We had a lot of fun on the beach today!

Happy Fourth of July!

We drove over to Newport California to celebrate the Fourth of July with an old friend this year. 

 

Grandma and Grandad,

These Valentines were made for you!  Grandad's is the one with the dove and Grandma's is the one with the sparkly jewel.  Too bad we missed you when you dropped by!  Happy Valentine's Day.

Love,  Rose Red

 

A VALENTINE MYSTERY POEM

                 Is My Valentine at the Zoo?
Write down the first letter of each line for the mystery phrase (two words).

Valentine, valentine, who will you be?
A yawning sloth that hangs from a tree, or a
Long-legged giraffe with big brown eyes,
Elusive elephant of enormous size,
Nattering parrot or yackety yak,
Thirsty camel with a hump on his back,
Itching monkey, bumbling old bear,
Nosy narwhale, or panda rare,
Earnest emu who cannot fly,
Smallest chickadee in the sky, or

Dandy kangaroo who bounds so high?
All of these animals in the zoo
Yearn to be mine...but I'd rather have you!
----Unknown----

Shhhhh ~ Rose Red's Valentine's day surprise!  Heart shaped soap flakes for her bath, heart shaped pasta for dinner and a little blue mailbox of her very own!  And I think she got mail today!

We were busy today with glitter and gluesticks, pretty pictures and lacy hearts creating homemade valentine's for our loved ones.  The gluesticks and the glitter were especially sought after !

A sampling of our creations ~ and a peek at our breakfast nook.

I have a surprise for Rose Red for Valentine's Day that I still need to finish ~ more pictures on that tomorrow (hopefully) !

They wore the masks!

We had Jambalaya for our Mardi Gras party dinner and these yummy treats ~ deep fried pastries called Beignets ~ and our crepes are coming up next!  Happy Mardi Gras Everyone!!

Sadly, our friends have come down with the flu so our Fat Tuesday celebration will be a little less merry.  Jambalaya and sweet crepes are on the menu tonight and preparations are moving forward.

Do you think they will wear the masks ?!  I love the masks.

The dollar store delivers yet again !  I couldn't help but pick up these feathered masks ~ hmm, I'm thinking Fat Tuesday .  .  . Jambalaya and dessert crepes ~ purple and gold ?  Perhaps we'll make it a party!  A last hurrah before Lent begins.  Masks for all of course.  If I can pull it off I'll post pictures.

For fun I thought I'd share with you twelve corners of Christmas that you would find in my home if you came for a visit ~ only two more days of the Christmas season left!

Happy 10th Day of Christmas!

Did you think Christmas was over?  We have days of celebrating left!  The Christmas season in our church continues on until the Feast of Epiphany (this year January 6th).  Rose Red has been receiving a little gift in her Christmas stocking each day since Christmas Day.  I'll share with you what she will be finding in her stocking when she awakens today on this seventh day of Christmas and the first day of our New Year.  New beeswax crayons!  Drawing is a favorite with her right now so I know she'll be delighted. 

Her old set of beeswax crayons sadly melted in the hot sun at the end of the summer season.  But with a few fun foil shapes I picked up at the dollar store and a little low heat in the oven ~ magically we have beautiful new crayons ~ very friendly on the budget too!

Rose Red was St. Therese of Lisieux ~ 'The Little Flower' for Halloween this year.  Her good buddy 'Romeo', our godson, went as St. Francis of Assisi.

As you can see, Rose Red was very interested in what was being dropped into her pumpkin!

Happy Halloween!

We have Saints popping up among us ~ with any luck they'll be here by All Hallow's Eve ! 

Happy Grandparent's Day Grandma and Grandad!

There was lots of family fun by the river last night for the Fourth of July Celebrations !  We had a great time.  All the families were out and sparklers were being set off everywhere.  There were people in boats and lounging by the river, laying on the grassy hills and in the waterfront hotels.  The fireworks display was wonderful and we could watch the whole thing from our hotel room window ~ which we did for the last ten minutes or so ~ prime viewing !  There were fun things for the kids to do, people peddling around in ice cream carts playing music, making balloon hats, face painting, etc.  It was a great Fourth of July ~ day and night.

 

We are back in Corvallis, Oregon where Rose Red is celebrating her very first Fourth of July this year! 

We had lots of fun watching the Fourth of July parade  .  .  .

She even received her own copy of the Bill of Rights !

More pics .  .  .

All in all a great day!  There is a riverfront festival here in Corvallis with music and food vendors, water play and more!  Rose Red enjoyed every bit of it ~ and she devoured the roasted corn!

Happy Birthday America!

Firework display tonight ~ pics to follow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

We had lots of fun at Shamrock Dairy Farms today!  And we saw lots of cows!  Ee i ee i o!

Off we go!  Ee i ee i o!

Rose Red was very excited and decided her straw hat would be just the thing to wear on this hot day ~ it hit 100 degrees F today !

Eighteen calves were born today at the Farm !

We saw tractors filling up the cows feed bins, the cows being milked, and more!

We were even allowed to feed the babies!

All in all ~ a great day!

O-K ~ who remembers when milk came like this?!

Now I'm off to put Rose Red to bed. 

Ee i ee i o!