Camera Upload #2

Early October the kids and I enjoyed a brief visit with family in Minnesota. (Doug stayed back to install our kitchen back splash) It was good to see family and play some mean games of Foosball together. My boys didn't know mom knows how to play Foosball. I schooled em!  Ha,ha.  

After our weekend visit together, the kids and I drove up to the aquarium at the Mall of America. The aquarium was hosting Homeschool Week and offering fantastic discounts for homeschoolers. Wahoo! After the aquarium we checked out the mall a bit and then headed over to Ikea for some lunch. 

Mid-October the kids and I went on a little pilgrimage to St. Luke's Church in Plain, Wisconsin. St. Luke's has to be one of my favorite churches.  St. Luke's also has a walk/hike with stations of the cross leading to St. Anne's chapel at the top. It was a beautiful day for a walk!

Speaking of saints . . .  our parish celebrates All Saints Day with an evening event called "Saints Alive." (this year it was celebrated early)  Parishioners dress up as saints and everyone tries to guess who they are.  Each saint-in-costume tells about him/herself, which gives the group details from which to guess. It's always a fun evening. Usually we rush around the house the evening of trying to find things we can use to dress-up. I'm not a fan of last minute rushing around and neither are the kids. So this year we all started thinking up ideas and working on our costumes earlier than usual. It's a good night when the kids call it the "best ever." And double the costume duty. The highly secularized Halloween is right around the same time, so we've got double the costumes to come up with. It's busy but worth it, I think. Makin' memories!!  We are just about set for the 31st.

Basil is Saint Luke, Doug is Saint Ephrem the Deacon (the Syrian), I am Saint Monica (mother of Augustine), Mace is Saint Francisco Marto, Sage is Saint Brendan the Navigator, Nutmeg is Saint Margaret of Scotland). If you don't know who these saints are, look them up on Wikipedia. The saints are both fascinating AND inspiring!!