In mid-October after the auction of grandma's things, mom and dad planned to travel to officially close up 370 Thurston Woods Unit B and Paulina and I took the opportunity to travel with them. Paulina had the time of her life, trying on jewelry, playing with the various ceramic animals that could be found throughout the nursing home, putting on make-up and delighting all the guests at the Villas for lunch with her pixie like presence. It was a nice visit.
Kim Kennedy (first row far right) is a mom of a girl in Isabel's class and she helped organize a benefit dinner for
Hope Clinic International. A family from school bought a table and so Maria and I got to attend "for free" (I wanted her to see the kind of mission work she could be a part of as a future medical professional) - it was a rainy, cold night but definitely the kind of event and organization that fills you with warm feelings - we were happy to donate to the cause!
Hopefully Mike can post a better picture but apparently on a shopping trip to Meijer with Paulina she insisted he purchase this Elf outfit for her. Too cute.
The Archdiocese of Detroit honors the top student in each class 10th/11th/12th grade by inviting them to the All-Scholastic-Catholic medal presentations at Ford Field during the various Prep Bowl games/Catholic League Championships. All 3 years Maria was presented with an invitation and though we missed last year, we more than made up for it this senior year with dinner out in Detroit and a visit to
"The Belt" and
Punch Bowl Social prior to her ceremony at half-time of the big game. The city was hopping but not too crowded like it gets on Lions and Tigers games so it was pleasant to walk around a bit before going into Ford Field. One of her classmates from SSA-Joy was honored as the top grad from Catholic Central too and it was nice to run into him, as well as another classmate who plays Tuba in the CC band!
We are so proud of Maria! She has worked hard to maintain her perfect GPA and with classes that are no joke!
As always we spend Sundays with Grandma Paula and Grandpa Joe. Wadet and Victoria often join us and Paulina was lucky enough to get a little manicure :) The girl loves her make-up!!
Speaking of manicures, Carmen took me out and treated me to a mani the Wednesday before my birthday and on my birthday morning when I got out of the shower before our tour of Franciscan, Maria had this stash of goodies waiting for me! Such a lucky, lucky mom!
Grandma Rose and Grandpa Bob watched everyone else so that both Mike and I could take Maria on her second college visit (she went in September to U of M with grandpa Bob) to
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. Though neither Mike or I had ever been, we know many, many alumni and have heard wonderful things about this very Catholic school. Spending my birthday there did not disappoint. We left after school and spent the night at the local Super 8 so that we could get up and spend the day touring and meeting with folks.
One of the fine alumni we have gotten to know is a former teacher at SSA and this was her tribute in the athletic building! Not too shabby...
Almost life-size nativity at "the Port"
We ate (free!) lunch in the Dining Hall and the girl on the left is Kylie - one of Maria's friends from SCA who happened to be touring the same day!
This is a chapel in one of the dorms. Each dorm has it's own individual chapel in addition to the main chapel and an adoration chapel on campus. Now that's some full-on Catholic presence :)
It was a LOOOOONG drive through Ohio (not quite 5 hours) so I had brought two "license plate bingo" cards that we played - but it was the parking at Franciscan that we saw so many different state license plates! We could have easily filled up both bingo cards. It was really pretty amazing.
While we visited Franciscan, mom and dad dealt with getting everyone off to school for All Saints Day. Apparently there were no pics taken but Mateo was Juan Diego, Peter was Michael the Archangel, Mikey was Raphael and Isabel, as an 8th grader, manned the games in the gym for the festival that takes up the second half of the day.
We arrived home about 8:30pm on Friday night after a quick trip to Red Robin for birthday dinner out. The next day Maria and I were back on the road about 13 hours later for a whopping 5 minute drive to
Madonna University - another of her top 3 college choices.
Though we got a lot of good info and the day was much shorter, I think Maria was plain worn out because we ended up ducking out of a tour just so she could be home sweet home. We got a lot of great info on the Nursing Program though and some more information on scholarships so that was good!
Paulina enjoyed the swag bag :)
Speaking of worn out kids, Peter was having a rough day on Saturday! So while Maria, Carmen and I took the other 2 boys to Mass, daddy and Peter went out on a nature walk. He got his great jacket from grandpa Bob and it seems like wearing it worked ;)
One of my presents for myself was this fireplace entertainment center. In a turn of fantastic luck it arrived on my birthday and since I was gone, Mikey and Grandpa Bob assembled it for me and it was ready and waiting when we arrived home. I really like how it makes the living room seem so cozy!
On this past Sunday, the girls and I worked the
Saint Catherine's Open House - which was a smashing success! This time instead of going on tours, Maria and I were giving them! Easy enough to get steps in all 3 days of my birthday weekend! Immediately after the open house, Mikey played his last flag football game of the season. It was cold! But he had a great last play almost scoring a touch down!
Maria saw an idea on Pinterest or something like that to be "shadows" for Halloween - so against my better judgment I'll have 6 (Carmen just wants to hand out candy) trick-or-treaters dressed all in black tonight! May their guardian angels surround them!
Paulina really likes making poses in her costume like the morph suit guy on the package does :)
And these final pictures of are of my birthday celebration at grandma Paula's - mom made my favorite cake (dad's favorite joke) a confetti cake with cherry frosting! Paulina could not have been more delighted. She loves singing Happy Birthday, she loves saying it, she loves blowing out candles and she loves having no clothes on. HAPPY is the perfect caption for this picture.
