Last week I took the kids to a free nature program at a local state park and there were several other families that attended from our homeschool group.   The program was all about blue crabs.  The kids got to try to catch crabs with a stick, rope, and a chicken meat piece as the bait. (unfortunately, none were caught)  Here a few pictures of the kids trying the catch the stubborn crabs.


The park ranger caught some crabs in his crab cage and showed the kids what a blue crab looked like.  Then he cooked them up and they turn orange after they are boiled in water. 
Then the park ranger showed everyone how to break open the crab to get to the meat.  Here are a few pictures of the kids holding up pieces of their cooked crabs.  It was mixed reviews as some of the kids liked the crab meat, while some said it was OK and needed more salt :) The kids thought the yellow "mustard" colored stuff (which is actually fat) in the crab was yucky! 
It was a fun day to learn something new about our coastal community with friends!

I'm linking up this week to Hearts for Home Blog Hop


 

On the left side is the 70 year old christening gown hanging up that was hand-made by Leah's great, great grandmother.  My mom and her brother wore the gown as infants at their baptism and it has been passed down ever since.  My siblings, cousins, and I wore it at our baptism and now my children have worn it.  My son had blue long ribbons on the gown when he was baptized and at Leah's baptism he exclaimed, "I wore a dress at my baptism!" :)   On the right side is Leah modeling the beautiful gown.
It was a beautiful and blessed day filled with special graces, family, and friends!

Thank you for stopping by my corner of blog land to allow me to share this joyous occasion with you!

God bless!

This morning I will read again the book, The Little Chapel That Stood, to my 5 children.  It has become our annual tradition to remember 9.11.  It is a beautifully written and illustrated book that I highly recommend for anyone with young children.  Here is the product description from Amazon:

Product Description

St. Paul's Chapel, dwarfed by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center right across the street, stood strong after the "giants around it had come to a fall" in 9-11. Not a pane of glass had been broken. On 9-11 St.Pauls became a service dept immediately. Firemen hung their shoes on the old iron fence as they "pulled on their boots and raced to the Towers, climbing melting steel to flaming showers. Oh, what gallant men did we lose who never came back to get their shoes."
This historic chapel was built in 1766. When George Washington was inaugurated the first president in New York City, he walked down Broadway to St. Paul's to offer his prayers for the new nation. Alexander Hamilton lies buried in the churchyard nearby.



Inside the book cover I have these two pictures taped that were taken when my boyfriend, now husband, went to New York to visit my grandparents in August 1993.   My grandparents lived in Bronx, NY, but Anthony and I went into the city and made it up to the top of the Twin Towers.
   

Once a month our homeschool families meet at someone's home from our group and we say a Mystery of the Rosary and since we usually meet on a Sunday evening, we recite the Glorious Mysteries.  This afternoon our family hosted our homeschool group's Family Rosary night and since today, Sept. 8, is the day we celebrate our Blessed Mother's birthday, we also had our annual birthday party for our Blessed Mother.


One of the many reasons I love being Catholic is that our Church celebrates Mary throughout the entire year with lots of  Marian feast days.  Mary did have such an important role in salvation history by having the privilege to cradle Jesus in her womb for 9 months and raise our Savior and it's always nice to give her honor on more days than just at Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus' birth.

There are so many wonderful Marian Feast Days in the church throughout the year and celebrating Mary's birthday is one of our family's favorite.  My children love birthdays and celebrating our Blessed Mother's special day is definitely a birthday party our family doesn't want to miss!  

For Mary's birthday party we have always made an edible rosary.  In year's past we have made the rosary out of cupcakes and Hershey kisses, but for the past couple years we have used donuts!  Our group has found this to be the easiest, quickest, (and yummiest) way to celebrate such a special day!

Here are pictures I snapped quickly of this year's edible rosary:



Have a blessed week!

 

This post contains affiliate links.  

I'm guest posting on Lisa's "Try a New Recipe Tuesday" Link Up at her blog, Home to 4 Kiddos.

For the post I shared my Chocolate Green Smoothie recipe below that a friend of mine passed on to me.  This smoothie is what I usually eat drink for breakfast every morning.  The great thing about smoothies is that you can add or take away ingredients and come up with your own taste, but I will share the one I enjoy most in hopes it will be something you may be interested in trying.

Disclaimer:  I LOVE this smoothie, but after my husband and children (aka: cupcakes) tried it they do not like it :-(  They are missing out on a great taste and excellent nutritional benefits too.  Maybe one day they will grow to like it! And maybe your family will be brave enough to try it and like it! :)


In a blender (I love my Vitamix !) put in:

* 1 cup of unsweetened Almond milk
* 1-2 cups water, depending on how thick or runny you want the smoothie
* 1 handful of organic spinach leaves
* 1-2 cups of frozen fruit (I like to use the bag of frozen mixed fruit and the bag of wild organic blueberries from Costco for my frozen fruit.)
* 1 scoop of Whey Protein Isolate that I buy HERE from Amazon OR 2 Tablespoons plain, nonfat, gluten free Greek yogurt ( I buy my Greek yogurt at Costco and it's the Kirkland brand)
* 1 Tablespoon of Organic Golden Flax Seed that I get from Costco
* 1 Tablespoon of Chia Seeds that I get from Costco
* 1-2 scoops of Stevia Natural Sweetener that I buy HERE from Amazon.  (If you have never used Stevia before, a VERY little goes a long way!  There are over 2,000 servings in the little bottle of Stevia pictured above.) 
* 1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Hershey's Cocoa  (Use the Cocoa if you want a chocolate flavor smoothie, which I always enjoy)

Blend all ingredients together and enjoy!  If your blender mixes the ingredients well enough, you will not be able to taste the spinach leaves and the smoothie will be...well, smooth!