My Sunday Best- Father's Day fun!

A blessed and joyous Father's Day to you all especially all the dads out there: my dad, my father-in-law, my amazing husband, godfathers, spiritual fathers, adoptive fathers, priests, and any other father figures out there.  You are incredible and your job is SO vital.  

I saw this quote by Pope Francis earlier and got all heart-eyed emoji.  

"To be a good father, the first requirement is to be present in the family.  To be close to his wife, to share in everything, joy and pain, burdens and hopes.  And to be close to the children as they grow; when they play and when they make efforts, when they are carefree and when they are distressed, when they dare and when they are afraid, when they make missteps, and when they return to the right path.  A father must always be present, but being present is not the same as being controlling.  Fathers who seek to control end up stifling their children; they do not let them grow." 

Our fashionistas with their dad

I'll give you the quick run-down of #mysundaybest plus a quick recap of our fairly quiet Father's Day.  

 

Last month, I won a giveaway with Pink Blush Maternity, so I bought a few new items for my maternity (and after) closet.  The only downside is that they are online so no trying things on.  The first couple things I ordered didn't fit right, but this maxi dress arrived and fit great, and all my girls were oohing and ahhing about "how pretty, Mommy!" and all that jazz and similar adjectives. 

My Sunday Best:

Navy and white striped maxi dress: Pink Blush Maternity

Brown belt: Goodwill

Brown cardi: Ross

Fav flip flops: Sanuks

Necklace: a lovely medal of our Lady and baby Jesus with my wedding rings (because some days, especially these warm ones, they don't fit on my fingers so easy...)

Earrings: Premier Designs

Baby bump: 28 weeks + a few days

And now onto our Father's Day celebrations.  We started our day with Mass, of course.  After Mass was a brunch with sausage, bacon, eggs, and raspberry muffins.  Naps followed for small ones, and Daddy got some time to read his latest Jeff Shaara war novel.  Kayla and I worked on a yummy chocolate/raspbery cheesecake.  I used this recipe and this recipe and kinda combined them plus substituted gluten-free chocolate grahams so that I could enjoy the treat too.  

It was delicious in case you were wondering. 

The girls made Chris tons of pictures and cards and we made him a special painted canvas using an amazing St. John Paul II quote.  

And we completed our annual Father's Day "survey" for each girl (who can talk).  It's so fun (and funny) to read their answers each year.  

 

 

Dinner was a recipe that I've had in my allrecipes.com box for years and Chris always enjoys: Savory Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Plum Glaze with potatoes, cornbread, and some grapes.  

Happy Father's Day!

And don't forget to link-up with #mysundaybest (use that hashtag on Instagram) or link up with Rosie at A Blog For My Mom and share your lovely Sunday style this week.  

My Sunday Best- Third Trimester

Mass this morning was a bear.  We had a nice talk with the girls about good behavior and the reality was that the sun woke them up veeeerrrrrry early this morning and they were just super duper antsy and tired.  For any of you with kiddos, this means I came home from Mass feeling like I had just been hit by a truck.  There is nothing quite like trying to keep a bunch of restless little buggers somewhat quiet and having to take a tired, cranky 18 month old out of the church multiple times for taking it out of you.  Especially when you happen to have a little one kicking you from the inside as well.  

But now the 3 youngest are napping and I laid down with stubborn Ava for awhile until she fell asleep, so I even got a little time to close my eyes and say a few decades of my Rosary.  Ahhhhhhhh. 

 

So here we are in our Sunday Best:

Mama:

Navy dress: Ross (not maternity)

Plaid shirt: hand-me-down

Bracelet: a lovely Rosary bracelet that was a gift from my brother's family last Christmas

Necklace: A beautiful medal of Our Lady and baby Jesus given to me by a friend

Earrings: Premier Designs

Shoes: Sanuks from my hubby

Kayla's dress: Carters 

Elise's dress: Kohl's (birthday gift from her Grammy and Granddad)

Ava's dress: Carters

Sophie's dress: a hand me down so I have no idea where it came from originally, 

but it's got a lot of use in this family.  

 

Ava is my goofball poser.  She wanted to be in the picture on the left, but didn't want to stop reading her St. Jane Frances de Chantal book.  And she's just got the sweetest expression ever on her face smiling at her little sis, so I had to include the picture on the right even though poor Sophie looks terrible since she was moving and she's all blurry.  

Link up with the hashtag #mysundaybest  on Instagram  or link up through your blog over at Rosie's blog where it is hosted.  

I am sure you've seen the tragic news of the shooting in Orlando.  One gal I follow on Instagram had posted the Prayer of St. Francis in response to this terrible tragedy and as an appeal to #prayforOrlando, which I thought was perfect.  So I'm going to share it here too.  

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error,  truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

My Sunday Best- Mother's Day

First of all, I would like to wish a very happy and blessed Mother's Day to all you moms out there.  To those whose kids are grown, to those whose kids are young, to those whose babies are watching you from up above, to those who have been like mothers to us, and to all those godmothers out there, we see the masterpiece of your beautiful, mothering hearts and love you so very, very much.  

"To be a mother is a great treasure. 

 Mothers, in their unconditional and sacrificial love for their children, are the antidote to individualism; they are the greatest enemies against war." 

-Pope Francis

I especially want to wish my mother and my mom by marriage a very joyous Mother's Day.  You sacrifice so very much for us and have since you first knew we were living inside you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generous, self-sacrificing, faith-filled love and for turning into the best grandmas out there as well.  

And special love to our Mama Mary in heaven.  Greatest mother ever and always willing to help out us mothers down here on earth with tons of love and grace.  

And now a special thank you to my husband.  My husband?? Yes, a special thank you on Mother's Day to you as well.  Without you, I wouldn't know what to do in this whole journey of motherhood.  You rejoiced with me when we saw the positives on those pregnancy tests, you held my hand when our babies came into the world, and you've loved and encouraged me all throughout the ride--the ups and downs of this vocation.  

And last but not least, a big shout-out to my beautiful girls and the little one inside who call me "Mommy" and make my heart so happy.  You are each such unique and incredible souls, and I'm so honored to help guide you on your way back to Jesus someday.  May Mama Mary always wrap you each in her arms and fill you with the grace you need to love her Son as she does.  

And now we can talk about the #mySundaybest link-up for a quick second.  Rosie, from A Blog for my Mom, hosts it over at her blog, and it's a fun way to share your style (or motivate yourself to get some!), as well as to encourage and be encouraged by other women of all ages, shapes, and sizes.  You are beautiful, you are a daughter of God, and it's important to own that.  This is a fun little way to help each other remember that.  

 

Here's the details of my Sunday best for Mother's Day:

Navy/white striped top with coral lacy accent: Maternity section at Ross

White skirt: Goodwill

Earrings: Premier Designs

Necklace: just some of my favorite people: Jesus and Mary

Shoes: Sanuk

Baby bump: 22.5 weeks

And I'll close with a quote I share every Mother's Day because it's just so beautiful. 

"The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother."

-St. Therese of Lisiuex

God bless all you moms and fill you with his abundant grace and peace today and always.  

A Fancy Nancy Birthday Gala

I didn't go overboard (though I totally could have with a theme like Fancy Nancy) for Kayla's birthday party.  There was however, lots of fun and fancy.  

Of course, I didn't get pictures of most things (fancy that!), but here is run-down of what the party entailed:

Food:

These strawberry cheesecake bites minus the graham cracker sticks.  They were fancy and delicious!

Watermelon bites served with toothpicks (always fancy!)

Cinnamon pita chips with fruit salsa (something like this..., although I just chopped up strawberries, raspberries and apples and added a little brown suguar)

Pink Lemonade served in champagne flutes with ribbons

Ice cream parfaits--so vanilla ice cream with fun toppings.  We did gummy bears, the remainder of the fruit salsa, pink and white sprinkles, and crushed up oreos, plus chocolate syrup and whipped cream on top.  

Fun:

Spectacular Spectacles (that's the title of one of the Fancy Nancy books)-

The kids just put little jewel stickers on sunglasses to glam them up. 

Decorate a princess crown or top hat

More fancy jewel stickers plus glitter glue and some construction paper.  the kids had a blast.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the final products.  

       

You can see a few of the crowns in this picture I snapped with some of the fancy champagne flutes and flowers with the elusive azure butterfly (from the Fancy Nancy book, Bonjour Butterfly!)

Pass the Tiara (that's fancy for hot potato!)

The kids always love this game and the winner of each round won some glowsticks.  

Fancy Photo Booth

We asked guests to "dress fancy", which they did, but I also had some extra fancy for people to use in the photo booth.  

Fancy Nancy Read Aloud

Kayla's current favorite Fancy Nancy book at the time of the party was one about the stars (Fancy Nancy Sees Stars), so that was the book that I read aloud to the kids at her party.  It was fascinating (that's fancy for very interesting) and all the kids learned a bit more about stars and constellations.  

Behind the couches where they were seated, I made some cut outs of some of the constellations.  It added to the decor, and was also nice because the kids could see them and we could almost pretend we were outside gazing up at the night sky looking for constellations.  

Looking at the pictures, I should have used a bright yellow to color the actual "star" parts of the constellations....

Decor:

Fancy words

I printed a bunch of these "Regular/Fancy Word sheets and we came up with fancy words to put up all over the room. 

Fancy Canvas Art

I made an outline with paints of a butterfly on a canvas and let the birthday girl (pre-party, of course) paint the butterfly to use as decoration for her gala.  

I loved her finished product (and now we have more pretty artwork to decorate her room!)

I painted this of the Eiffel Tower

I'm no artist, but it's for a kids party and can be used in her room too, if she wants.  

We also found some coloring sheets online for Fancy Nancy and Kayla colored them.  Doilies and fancy scrapbooking scissors added some fun texture and elegance to our decor. 

It was not without some rather un-fancy mistakes though. 

I really wanted to have the kids walk down a runway and have a "Fashion Show", but our floor plan just would not have worked for that. 

 I accidentally bought plates instead of bowls (what was I thinking?), so we had our parfaits in cups. 

 Not so elegant.... 

Aaaand I also forgot to get spoons (I thought we had a box, but apparently they were forks...).  

Oops again!

So we ate the parfaits in cups with forks.  Fail.  

We ate with "pinkies up" though, so we'll still call it a win.  

And the birthday girl was thrilled with it all, so we'll definitely call it a win.  

We love you, Fancy Kayla!

And join in this fun Pinterest party link-up with your own fun ideas/recipes/pictures!