for nana

happy saint patrick's day to all of our friends and family! i will grudginly admit that my cultural heritage is a bit of a mix...i cannot identify all of the places i have descended from. but because of my nana i proudly declare myself irish (which isn't hard to claim, considering my fair skin and abundant amount of freckles). nana celebrated St. Patrick's day each year....she wore the green, partied with friends, and sent a card to each of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. she & bop spent years working on geneology, tracking down our roots in ireland. because of them we have a close relationship with our cousins across the ocean. it was nana & bop that took me on my first trip to ireland when i was 12. nana bought ella her first pair of shamrock socks (sam is wearing them today). nana gave her family a sense of history and never let us forget our heritage, and for that i am ever grateful.

each saint patrick's day i sent nana a picture of the kids in their st. patrick's day attire. this year i share it with you instead....here are the scheper kids over the years proudly wearing their green.

a trip down memory lane...

saint patrick's day makes me miss my irish cousins...here are a few pix from the trip that Mom, Tess, Ella and I took in 2006 to visit our family in county kerry.

owl babies

it all started with the letter of the week....this week in ella's kindergarten class they are learning about the letter O. and for small group work they made paper bag owl puppets. she came home all fired up about owl puppets. and what ensued was three days of constant puppet making in the dining room. ella and max spent every spare moment creating puppets...all owls of course. on thursday she and max treated michael, sam and i to a private performace of "owl babies" (a very cute book by martin waddell). and we also found several books at the library about making paper bag puppets, who knows what we can make with a huge box of paper (thanks sandy cohen printers), some paper bags, glue, scissors, and googly eyes...the possibilities are endless!

consider these words...

i just wanted to share a few words of wisdom with you. the quote threatening my children is from greenup cafe - i am proud to say we left the breakfast without incident...no puppies, and no espresso for sam!

and the "cheer up" poem adorns an old cigarette box from nana's house.

sunday

my fabulous fabric from st. theresa's textile trove (cincinnati)

sam and his legos

michael's curtains

a mid-day snack

legos & sewing

we had the most fabulous sunday yesterday....we stayed in our pajamas all day, except for max, who insisted on wearing pants AND a clip on tie (the casualness of pj day must have bothered him). we spent almost the entire day in the dining room creating masterpieces, and sometimes just relaxing. michael made curtains, i made a surprise baby shower gift (my first attempt in a loooong time at machine sewing) and the kids made wonderful buildings out of legos. ella took a break from all the hard work to have a snack and read a book. and sam just wandered around watching all of the creativity flow.

rest in peace uncle al

michael is in this picture (so is his cousin emily)...can you find him? hint: back row

sadly, i never went to the uncle al show :(