~ pretty, happy, funny, real: St. Kateri, Family, Kaya & Twilight Train Edition ~

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter

 

{pretty}

 

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

~*~ Lily of the Mohawks ~*~

Her feast day is July 14th.

St. Kateri was the saint from which Butterfly
chose as her Confirmation name.

 

Little Lamb made her sister a {pretty} lily white cake to help celebrate her feast day.

 

 

Little Lamb made "St. Kateri" out of fondant,

molding and sculpturing to make a {pretty} topper.

Hand-made with love, for her sister...

Little Lamb made the Lilies, too!

Saint Kateri, pray for us!

 

 

{happy}

 

My niece turned ONE, it was a very {happy} Birthday!

It was wonderful to see cousins visiting together...family from Washington were in town.

My SIL did a wonderful job with decorations, fun & food...

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SWEET LITTLE COUSIN (& NIECE)!

 

 and more {happy}, as Conductor creates lights for his garden train!

 

{funny}

 

Kaya is a nearly nine month old lab, who has taken up residency at our home (after stealing our hearts).  She figured out how to use the slide and was so proud of herself.

 

 

{real}

 

She's really ours...for {real}!

 

 

Go to Like Mother, Like Daughter to find more contentment...

~ Oh no, O.J. ~

Update:  Seems that our newest fish, "Sushi", went on to join "O.J." 

We aren't exactly sure what happened to O.J. 
He was found in the corner of the colonnade (his new favorite spot)...well,....dead.

O.J. (photo on the upper left)

Did he miss his old home too much?

Was he just at the end of his life cycle?  We did enjoy him for a full year and who knows how long he was alive before that...

Little Lamb placed him in a little toothpick box to be place in the ground.  (When I was a kid we just flushed them down the toilet...)  The children placed the box in the boxcar...

If you peek through the windows of the door, you can see the orange box inside...

(Big brother obliges) The ground is prepared...

(Big brother eager to try out his new engine)  The send off...

The placement...

Securing the site from raccoons grave robbers...

The Marker...

Little Lamb places a California Poppy down and that's that.

An interesting fact about the California Poppy:  The flowers of California poppy close each night, and on cloudy days.

 Notice how the poppy is closed? 

How appropriate for this occasion.

~ Re-Purpose & Gardening Projects ~ phfr - style!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Re purposing a wooden crate that some supplies were delivered on:

{happy}

Water hose nozzle, cultivator, trowel, gloves, sunglasses...

This wooden crate has been use a couple times as decor for a "market stand" in two of our Altar Boy Pilgrimage to Rome elegant dinner events as seen here and here.  {happy} to use the crate for so many purposes!

Conductor has really worked hard to landscape this barren patch of dirt.  He designed the rock scape as well as the garden layout and installed all the irrigation, using a water drip system.  Butterfly dug the trench & planted the flowers.  Little Lamb helped to dig out some of the garden areas, too.

{pretty}

Flowers & shrubs of choice:  Bougainvilleas & Marigolds, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Miniture Rose, Redwood Vine, and many others...very {pretty}.

Surrounding the garden will be a fully functioning train and rail road tracks.  G scale 1:20.3 ratio.

{funny} it's a birdhouse cabin.

Conductor made this 'house' as part of his railway display

He's taken two of his favorite hobbies and created a school project filled with many valuable and challenging opportunities...

This project is not only allowing him to, of course, be creative, but to problem solve and make multi-layered decisions.  This isn't child's play.  He has moved wheel-barrels of dirt and rock; he has dug and cemented posts and assembled a gate with a latch...with the help of Butterfly & Dad.

{real}

Although still a work in progress, many plants have been planted, a meandering path leveled...

We will be updating the progress as it happens...hopefully. :o)

 

~ To find more contentment, go to Like Mother, Like Daughter ~