Friday, February 28, 2014

March Booklist time!

There are a few helpful guides to feast day planning listed in here..fyi.


March (Lent and Easter)

A Child's Book of Celtic Prayers
Children's Stations of the CrossIllustrated by the Masters by Mrs. McKnight- newly published in 2013

ABC Life of Christ: A Chronological ABC's Illustrated by the Masters By Mrs. McKnight

Stations of the Cross- Fr. Lovasik
Stations of the Cross coloring book- Fournier

Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church- Fournier
The Domestic Church Celebrates The Annunciation A Feast for Family Life- Fournier (I think I just about bought all their stuff)

St. David of Whales  Feast Day Mar. 1
Once Upon a Time Saints

St. Katherine Drexel   Feast Day Mar. 3
St. Katherine Glory Stories Holy Heroes

St. Casimir   Feast Day Mar. 4
Saint pictorial of this saint in my CHC Liturgical book.

St. Ciaran of Saighir  Feast Day  Mar. 5
St. Ciaran , The tale of a Saint of Ireland

St. Colette   Feast Day Mar. 6
Miniature stories of the Saints  book 4

St. Thomas Aquinas   Feast Day Mar. 7
Miniatures Stories of the Saints book 1

St. Perpetua and Felicity  Feast Day Mar. 7th
Cartoon Movie- very good, intense maybe for older kids if you have sensitive children.

St. Frances of Rome   Feast Day Mar. 9
Miniature stories of the Saints  book 2

St. Gregory the Great   Feast Day Mar. 12
Saints Lives and Illuminations
Miniature stories of the Saints  book 3
An Alphabet of Saints

St. Maud    Feast Day Mar. 14
Saints Lives and Illuminations

St. Louise de Marillac  Feast Day March 15
Saints for Girls- stickers

St. Longinus  Feast Day March 15
More Once Upon a Time Saints (first Roman soldier at Cross to be a convert)

St. Patrick     Feast Day Mar. 17- (my son was him in a parade- see picture here)
Miniatures Stories of the Saints- book 1
Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland- Paola
Saint Patrick-Tompert
Saint Patrick- Lovasik
Patrick brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle- kids movie
St. Patrick:Patron Saint of Ireland- one of a series of 4 books
Saints for Boys Sticker Book

Joseph of Arimathea Mar. 17
More once upon a time Saints

St. Joesph    Feast Day Mar. 19
Song of the Swallows
Miniatures Stories of the Saints- book 1
St. Joseph's Story
St. Jospeh Glory Story, Holy Heroes
Saints for Boys Sticker Book

St. Benedict   Feast Day Mar. 21
Miniature stories of the Saints  book 3
The Holy Twins-Paola
An Alphabet of Saints

Annunciation of the Lord     Feast Day Mar. 25
Listen to Joyful mysteries of the Rosary Holy Heroes CD
Feasts of Jesus
The Domestic Church celebrates the Annunciation: A feast day for Family life


Once Upon a Time Saints
More Once upon a Time Saints

The Tale of Three Trees- Angela Hunt

Stations of the Cross- Lovasik

The Feasts of Jesus- Lovasik

Easter in the Garden- Kennedy


The Easter Story- Winkler

The Easter Story- Wildsmith

3 in 1: A Picture of God

Little Rose of Sharon

He speaks! My little man speaks!

  We all have pregnancy stories- most reading probably really don't know about my Brenden drama that started with high blood pressure and preeclampsia, laying on my back for the last two weeks of pregnancy (34th and 35th weeks)- giving my kids to my mom around 8 am everyday till my husband came home from work at 9:30 pm. Then at 36 weeks delivering by emergency C section a small baby through whose cord prolapsed, we have no idea how long there was no O2, but he sure was bright blue all over when he came out- we figure very very low O2 for maybe 5 mins.
  I have nursed this child and nursed him trying to give him an extra bit of the DHA or whatever it is in breastmilk that makes them have a higher IQ. I was afraid this little one could have some delayed developmental issues. He's only 20 months right now.
 We all know kids learn at different ages and stages..blah blah. So no two are alike. My first son talked at exactly 2, he said a few coherent things and just spoke in his own vocabulary and was really easy to converse with him.
  I have been watching little Brenden like a hawk, and he is saying words!! He has always made distinct truck noises and bus and high loader noises- he also has his own vocabulary for objects. And he also makes lots of "ehh ehh ehh"- high and lows voice sounds, for lack of words when he needs something but can't get you're attention, always nodded or shook his head and pointed etc.. He says, bye bye, and has always waved, ball, momma, dada, and can make alphabet sounds, S, R, T, D, B, when prompted in school- he does participate!
   Last night he said "kitty" and today he said "yes"!! He does babble speak sentences too. He will bring an object to me or point to something like in a book and babble about it till I ask a question- he can say yes or no to, or till I said the right thing back and he acknowledges it with a head nod.
  I am so relieved, so hopefully this means he won't have any delays for speech as he seems to be going at the same rate as Knox. If anything he might just be a few weeks behind due to being early, but that's okay. Probably if I looked at what his birthday would have been if I hadn't been ill and induced, he will be on time.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

$3 Spiral Bound Marian Devotions in the Domestic Church book.

  Just got my book today!!**  Family Consecration, Regina Caeli (you learn it over Lent on Holy Hereos fyi),  Crowning Mary, Gardening for Mary, Songs for Mary, teaches how to make a rosary, Mary and Jospeh Cloaks, Beeswax candles, stepping stones, Mary Baskets, Memorare Roses...and a lot more.

  I am so excited I found a really good book on sale for $3! The shipping is also about that much at check out fyi... but the original price was almost $16! I found them on Amazon as well for quite a bit more. So if your interested buy them on Ignatius Press' website. The authors also printed a Lent and Advent book as well. They looked good to me as well as far as I could tell from Amazon's reviews and descriptions. I imagine they might be for sale at homeschool conferences which have already begun for the year. But they weren't for sale on Ignatius' Presses website which might mean they are out of print.
51Jy3VwHYmL._SS500_-400x400.jpg (400×400)

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Laura Berquist's advice vs. State of Kansas

  I had to go and reread how much "in school" time is required by the State of Kansas for non- accredited private schools. This is copied from their website. Note it starts for 1st grade. (7 to 18 years old are the state guidelines on age).

Hours of Instruction
Classes must be held for a period of time which is
substantially equivalent to the time public schools are in
session. The time required for public schools is at least
186 days of not less than 6 hours per day, or 1116 hours
per year for grades 1-11.

  Anyway, I am reading up on 1st grade and Laura Berquist's sample schedule for 1st grade, from Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum. It says "allow for one and a half hours each day for school. This is ample time for formal subjects for young children." And then she has this nice little chart of the days of the week and what subjects you would study.
  I will leave it at that. 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

How to make a base schedule for homeschooling

Everyone knows consistency is the key with kids, right? I think that's wisdom that's just ingrained in our bodies and minds  Knowing that, you know a lot about a schedule then! Phew!!

1.  Okay, what are some things you do every day? Pray, eat, bath, naps, story time...good start.  Ok, write those in- with the chunk of time you estimate you will be doing them. I don't care if you eat at 11 am, or at 1 pm..you know best for your family. These are your ANCHOR POINTS.

2. Now start writing in your other consistent commitments...like maybe you have YMCA gymnastics, or Catechesis, or Little Flowers, or Familia, or family dinner at Grandma's on Sunday, or a regular altar society meeting you attend, or boy scouts every Thursday, Latin lessons, piano lessons, Lego club. Whatever it is, even if it's a biweekly or once a month (but consistent on going commitment) write that in now. (you can make a notation on your schedule it's once a month, or every other Wednesday..etc)

3.  Now for the good stuff. You want to know when your homeschooling is going to be done and how it fits in. Well, I think mornings are best for people when learning. So I only homeschool in the mornings- their minds are awake, they are rested and alert and they just ate. Try it in the afternoon and see how it goes compared to morning. Things just seem to move faster- could be my kids..lol But I think biologically we do better in the morning.
 Figure out what your kids best time to eat is important, in this scheduling, you may have one child who needs to be fed at 11:30 sharp or a melt down ensues. So be ready to call it quits at 11 am possibly to allow for changing a diaper and washing hands to get that food out quick by 11:30 am.

4. It doesn't matter what your subject order is really- everyone is different. I like starting with the memorized stuff, and math problems. We take a break doing music and Holy Heroes. Lastly we usually finish with our Angel Reader Phonics. And if we didn't get art done, that is the one thing we will do in the afternoon! WE LOVE ART! (we aren't in music lessons yet- but when we finally are old enough that will be an afternoon program hopefully)

5. I have only one child who is moving up to 1st grade in April, and my daughter is preschool aged, but does the MODG kindergarten work alongside the older child. So she is getting some schooling, when she feels like it. I don't feel like I need to push her as she naturally just joins in and asks for work. I am pretty sure she will be bored though next year with Kindergarten since the material has already been memorized. The reading is the only thing she is still figuring out (I digress).

6. If you have multiple kids you are going to start homeschooling, I think you can use these rules as well, you may want to start earlier and try eliminating any commitments outside the home UNTIL you figure out what works best for your family. Like maybe wipe the calender clean until you have a month under your belt. DON'T FEEL GUILTY about saying NO, this is your children's education. It comes first! And believe it or not, they do work alone, once directions have been read to them, you can move onto the next person. Better to ease yourself into this new life than be over committed and burn out in the first 6 months.

7. Consider not answering the phone, or allowing visitors over during homeschool hours. I ignore my phones for the most part, it can wait.  If you get a visitor during homeschool hours, don't invite them in during class, it's too disruptive and distracting. It's better to wrap things up and continue later.

8. Don't forget prayer and Mass, if anything can't be cut out of the week, it's prayer and Mass. You must pray for God's grace and guidance and you need the spiritual nourishment.

9. Now you have your schedule, keep it with you.  Mine is easy to memorize right now so I can make appointments for the most part without referencing it.


Our base schedule for day to day homeschooling

My husband's work schedule is so varied.all.the.time. But me and the kids pretty much have a base routine we stick to. I am creating a new Google document of our schedule right now. I couldn't get my other document off our laptop so it was just easier to start over, and I need the spreadsheet practice anyway.

  I didn't have much time to work on it tonight, but I did get a lot on there. I have more optional things I need to add into the whole thing- stuff I want to go do with kids, but forget. Once I am done I am printing it out, and posting it in the kitchen and homeschool room, it was just in the kitchen before to help my husband- I am not sure he looked at it or appreciated the time I took to make it (LONG TIME as I am slow since college). And perhaps every month, I will write on it sort of like I do in the planner!? I am sure I can use it for more than just looking at. It's a work in progress- I am sure you can relate, it's never the same week to week when you through in eye therapy, conferences, vacations, work training, illness, appointments and family visiting, babysitting or anything else last minute. And then it changes with holidays and summer...etc.

 I am thinking as we plan each week, I can circle our optional activities on the fly- ask the kids what they want to do that week. I noticed we do good with about 2 or 3 extras (includes doctors appts etc) during the mornings every week.  Really I prefer 2 things and I don't like back to back days of it either. That includes if we attend Mass during the day time school hours. Otherwise we get behind on our syllabus- and that drives me crazy! I don't know how a school teacher could stand it. I admire the fact they are probably not as stressed out as me getting off a few days or a week. I really really dislike telling children to hurry we have to leave, or hurry hurry get this homework done- we have somewhere to go to.

Well now hopefully you get the idea! So what are you waiting for? Do you have base routine? Have you made one yet? What extra activities do you try and include during the week?

{Here's my page dedicated to this topic. It has a few guidelines and explains where I am coming from and how I learned what works.}

Friday, February 21, 2014

Illustrated by the Masters: A few Stations of the Cross books for children to share with you- hope to enhance your Lent

I found this newly published book, Children's Stations of the Cross, on Amazon with real art work in it! I am so excited to give it to our kids for Lent this year. We attend Stations of the Cross every Friday as a family (including grandparents), as well as using the Holy Heroes Stations Cd every night. (be warned they sell out fast once Lent hits- the symphony music is very emotional and dramatic, very very well done).

$_35.JPG (300×218)

I also ordered them this other book, ABC Life of Christ, as well it looks like just as much fun. Same author and I am sure the art in it will be just as great. Probably going to give that one for Easter. 

41SVKCj-KiL.jpg (500×363)


I like this concept of handing kids books with real art though, we have been using Lacy's mass books now for over a year- they are worn out, I need new ones. So if you like the idea of kids looking at really good art and getting good visual aids as well as helping them keep their focus on what's happening in Mass..that another one to consider buying.
Another few books we like for Lent are Lovasik's Stations of the Cross and are Children's Stations of the Cross by Susan Brindle (btw Susan Brindle as a lot of other good books for children and older kids). Knox and Genna faithfully used their Lovasik books every Friday for Stations. I was amazed my kids could follow all the kneeling and standing and keep that book in their hands and pay attention.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Come Holy Spirit Come.. "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Father Lovasik

  You know the priest that wrote all the little saint books? Well he writes grown up books too! One that I am on my 5th time reading  is called, "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Father Lovasik. (thank you Mary Kroupa- I think you gave me the book, and then I bought my own????- Please jog my memory- age and kids are to blame dear sister),
    I finally got it back from my brother who has inconveniently forgotten to give it back to me for a year! lol!! I joked with my mom- that I secretly hope it's because he read it, but I was told he lost it in his truck...iyiyi. I need to help him clean his truck again. He had retrieved it from a friend in KC, who had borrowed it for quite a long time before that. So I am grateful I got it back!
  Anyway, our family is reading "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Fr. Lovasik, out loud every night, it's been going slow. But the kids know when to sit and be quiet and listen. I just read two or three pages. It is upper level reading for all of us. (But I love Cardinal Neumann and believe in knowledge liberating our minds more- and upper level reading helps).
     This last week's Gospel Matthew 5:20-37, the withholding forgiveness and keeping anger "with brother" and also "let your yes mean yes" tied in perfectly with what we just read. The yes mean yes is like a promise- even small matters. We have been really trying to drill into our kids about dependability- that even small acts, of arriving on time is charity towards another.  The Holy Heroes Gospel video last week was spot on with this book. I had to giggle at the kid being late for the appointment in the video.
      
    The kindness that springs forth from our innermost being is "no doubt the remnant of the image of God."... "If you are earnestly conforming yourself to the image of Jesus Christ, sharpness, bitterness and sarcasm disappear." Devout people, as Fr. Lovasik points out, can be insufficiently uncultivated in the ways of kindness, many devout people are unkind. I don't want to be a devout unkind person! What good is it to be a Catholic and be notorious for being sharp and unkind?? OMGoodness! And my kids pick up on my sharpness...especially my oldest. Reminds me of the bible verse of making friends with hot tempered people (Proverbs 22:24). And really when you read all of Proverbs, there is a lot of good advice in there, just a very poetic Shakespearean way, or if you can relate better- maybe some good advice you find in a fortune cookie..and I am rambling..
   Another one that was called to mind, "a gentleman never ....mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments and never insinuates evil that he dare not say out loud."  I know because of my previous profession I have become judgemental and probably pretty sarcastic and a bit of a smarty pants. I dare say too much out loud...lol and that's why I am blogging apparently. But never mistaking personalities for arguments..this one is very good. If I can remember this one and repeat it over and over...and I am rambling again.
  Still I really love this book. And you would think sure sure 5th time reading it, I should have it down..no it's a life long journey and practicing and failing miserably- dragging my self to confession and picking myself up again. I know I am terrible with kindness and sharpness, and I often withhold it, but maybe with age I will become better at it. I always feel peaceful after reading it too. "Kindness springs from the soul of man; it is the nobility of man- a divine rather than human being." Act on those impulses of kindness! Do as St. Paul commands and outdo each other in showing honor. That is the Holy Spirit raining grace down on you in that moment during the act. Let it flow- come Holy Spirit come!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Valentine's Day week long celebration- lots of pictures! Prepare yourself!

      It was an unusual Valentine's Day for us due to work schedules, but everything worked out and we got everything in. My love was gone this past week for training, so it was just me and the kids hanging out. We had a Valentine's exchange on Monday night after we got home from Catechises. Brad had also taken us out on Sunday night to see that Frozen movie- which I ended up really liking the message- wow, true love is self sacrifice- i.e. laying down one's life. So we all had filled each other up with love, some gifts and encouragement before Daddy left for training. (You can skip reading the next part and just enjoy the pictures unless you want me to tell you about my 5 year old's decorating thoughtfulness)

        Any who...Thursday my Knox on his own (I never ever said one word about decorating or flowers or candles etc) got out our smell tea light candles, he got down two vases and filled one with glass marbles and those other glass decorating things.  He cleared off AND set the table and then found fake flowers from downstairs in our craft bins to stick into the vase. WHOA! Who gave this boy a lesson in chivalry? Knox was too little to remember Brad giving me roses for Valentine's day 3 years ago.  So..this was completely on his own. THEN as if that wasn't enough, the kid got the beautiful plums and nectarines out of the fridge and filled the other vase up- and they ate them at dinner!


see the fruit?


Who taught this kid this stuff? I haven't ever decorated like this before! (maybe I should take some pointers from him) So after bed I decorated their homeschool table and filled up their mailboxes and made them cards.



 That's far from the icing on the cake people..
  Friday after a day full of errands, Knox kept insisting we have a feast day party dinner (I wasn't doing anything super special for that night) and he had me shut off the lights and windows and that wasn't working well for me since I was cooking spaghetti. But after I was done cooking I let them continue with their planning. He got back up into the candle cupboard in the hallway, found the battery tea lights we bought at Christmas, placed all those under white paper lunch bags on the table.
Then he moved things around to look pretty..(same flowers and fruit vase and my new roses from Brad and Knox's Grotto). We had spaghetti and I was sure to compliment all he did to make dinner special.


      We received some special Valentine's from our friends and neighbors. Tracy and her kids gave us some Bible verse Valentine's- something unique we hadn't received before from anyone ;) You know I was liking those! Thanks Tracy! Another great printable Valentine is here.

(Prepare yourself for lots of pictures)

Saturday
         I (Brad was working) had my parents over for rib eyes I grilled and a delicious dinner and dessert. We also made a huge castle with them out of my mom's refrigerator box (she has been saving for us since December). We like Christina Katerina and the Box, so we had some good inspiration for how it should look. 
     We had made our cookie dough and St. Valentine's puppets.  But I mostly felt like I prepared food all day long. The salad is Havarti Cheese and Red Delicious apple salad. Our family's old family friends' (we grew up with their kids) mother had/has some awesome cooking skills. Anyway, that's one of her salads. Great one for Valentine's Day feasting!




See my real roses from Brad? He came home from training for about an hour and a half before leaving again for work. He brought me roses ;)

The Bishop himself! St. Valentine, with a prayer card on the back.


Brenden helping with filling for our strawberries.




Scroll to Sunday to see what Genna made.




Valentine's dinner





Sunday






The heart theme here is:  Sacred and Immaculate Heart Cookies, along with the Lego swords (goes well with our Castle) in cheese and strawberries. The Lego swords represent the 7 Sorrows of Mary)



Sacred Heart and Immaculate Hearts for snacks, along with the Lego swords + cheese in a castle


Lego swords in cheese and strawberries to represent 7 Sorrows of Mary (Remember Candlemas a few weeks ago and Simeon's prophecy?)




Saturday, February 15, 2014

Stand alone Lourdes Grotto- our knockoff of Illuminated Ink for MODG Kindergarten syllabus

There are some cool art projects we get to do with MODG, but they involve buying these kits from Illuminated Ink. I didn't buy any of them. Yea, I run the risk of maybe not getting it done if I forget to pick up art supplies. But I really just like making our things on our own. It's a lot more fun. Plus I already had the supplies for this one in particular...lol Come on now? Who doesn't have popsicle sticks and rocks and a holy card?



 There's a couple ways you can do this, you can print off a coloring page on card stock or use a holy card (we had already done a lot of coloring and cutting this day in particular- so Knox chose to photo copy a holy card). 


We printed off the holy card front and then back with the prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes and glued it onto the grotto.



I had him glue dot the popsicle sticks together, then I ran hot glue with his and Genna's assistance over the crucial joints. You can use large or skinny popsicle sticks, whatever you have on hand- we had large.


Glue layers until you can get it to stand up. We weren't careful and in the picture above you can see the end of the popsicle stick sticking out, that will make your grotto unstable. We fixed it at the end by gluing an extra stick to each side that was slightly below the ends that stuck out. It made a nice flat surface to balance and stand up on it's own. (photo below shows those extra sticks at the base- they are slightly below the ends)


He picked out the pretty stones he wanted to use and arranged them. I figured he would have covered it in rock, but he didn't like the look. He also coloring the popsicle sticks with a brown marker, so the wood looks stained.





Knox's finished grotto




Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Good Deed Valentine's-I will pick up your bandannas!

Last week we pulled out our Valentine's decor and spruced up the house a bit. The kids got their little tin mailbox's out too. I decided that since we really don't get the experience of exchanging Valentine's in a group party setting that we were going to make "Good Deed Valentine's" for each other. This is was to go along with our Love Bible verses that we read each day in a count down.
 So this was tedious for Knox and Genna because of the printing involved. They can really only control a few little things, like picking up toys, helping mommy or daddy when asked- and then offering up the chore and doing it for the sibling who was asked instead, or putting clothes away, sharing a favorite toy, hold a door open..etc.  Oh yea..Genna said she would pick up Knox's bandannas..lol!


 I wasn't really sure if this was going to work well or not- as far as getting a message across. I had them make 8 Valentine's, for the 8 days we had left till Valentine's day. We used these Bible Verse Valentine's I found on Catholic Icing and glued them on the inside of this fancy card stock. 



Then they decided to print "I love you" or draw a picture, and give a good deed to the other sibling in the card.  I have them sneak down stairs and stuff a new card in each other's mailbox each day along with a piece of candy, and then they put the red flag up. SO they know there is a surprise in their mailboxes waiting.



 I put the cards on a binder clip so they can keep track of their little notes to each other and also it helps the giver fulfill the good deed rain check. (it says do dishes- Knox is offering to do her chore, and Genna's says, share horsie- a favorite toy)


 We also made some for Daddy, he had to leave for a week for training, but he got to open his package of cards tonight. 


So far Genna did share her horsie, and Knox held the door for her. I believe he picked up her clothes the other night too after bath time. Anyway I call it successful!!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A Lourdes tea party at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Happy Feast Day!

The snow was heavy this last week and it's still all over the ground. The grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was covered with snow today when we went to noon Mass at St. Anthony's. I love visiting St. Anthony's- it's definitely the best place to be for noon mass on Tuesdays. You get blessed by Fr. Pham with St. Anthony's bones. Plus they have every Saint statue and grottos and altars all over the place and many beautiful paintings and stained glass to looks at. Anyway,  poor Bernadette needed to be dug out of the snow. I wish I had taken my camera, we couldn't stand out there for very long because it was so cold. We always say a prayer at that grotto each time we visit. It's so peaceful right there in that alley.
  It just so happened that in our Kindergarten syllabus for MODG we happen to be on the right week (it doesn't go by dates) for the week for the Lourdes Grotto. Funny how I must have timed the start of our school year and breaks perfectly cause I had no idea that this was on his syllabus this week. FREAKY!!  So tomorrow we will work on that art project. But for now, this evening, we made a tasty treat- a Rice Krispie grotto for Our Lady of Lourdes. Since my parents invited the kids to sleep over tonight, we made it there. And we decided to have a real tea party at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I stuck the coffee creamer plastic container in there to help the Krispie's keep their shape. It worked perfectly.



And lucky for us, we had all the ingredients at home for making this treat even the Little People's Mary from the Nativity set. The green leafs were Special K flakes from their Chocolaty Delight cereal. I love that cereal- the flakes are sort of sweetened. I added green food coloring after I melted a small amount of marshmallows in the microwave and then I mixed in the flakes- I just guessed at how much I needed (and yes I sorted out the chocolate). The roses were Grandma's stash of Betty Crocker's Fruit Gushers. Perfect! BTW you can also find this grotto idea in your Catholic Icing Preschool book, Catholic ABC's.


green food coloring and corn flakes from a Special K cereal



Fruit Gushers for roses


I stacked squares of Rice Krispies on the sides- like rocks I guess.


Nothing special, just a square piece I molded to cover the backside of the cave.


patiently waiting for dinner to start



Now for the tea party. My mom got out our old tea pots and cups and other little collections we used as kids, and yes we did end up breaking one little cup tonight- it happens, they are real. Genna used my old blue cup and saucer. (LOL! You didn't know us Fisher kids were so refined..playing Queen's tea with ALL our grandparents and friends, raise you're pinky!)



Ok we can't be serious the whole time...








Clean up!