Candy, Pickles, and Strawberries

We headed south today to celebrate (a little belated) Pa's birthday. We were going to try to make it to Mass in North Vernon, but that was a little optimistic... We did, however, cruise into Columbus in enough time to be early to St. B's service. And what luck! They were having kids do most of the reading and singing for this service. Plus... there was a puppet show. Thomas stole the show, too. One of the puppets mentioned candy. "CANDY!?!?!?!?" Thomas erupted incredulously. There were a lot of snickers in the large church following that. So, of course Veronica had to follow suit. It was quite an appropriate eruption from them, so we even got a lot of compliments on how good they were following the service.

Still heading south, both kids were excited to know that they would be seeing Uncle Danny. Thomas stated, "Danny's not playing football today because he's not wearing a team shirt." Knowing my brother's wardrobe consists of 95% wrestling team t-shirts, I called Danny. Sure enough - he would greet them wearing a team shirt!

Veronica and Thomas had their first "butterfly" painting. (I had them paint on one half of a piece of paper and then fold it in half to give a mirror image. Then, I made one boy and one girl butterfly body.) These were their cards to Pa. I transcribed their messages to him on the cards as well.

From Veronica: Happy birthday, Pa. We love you. PS. Eat your pickles.

From Thomas: Happy birthday to you. PS. Strawberry

They saved Pa a few breaths and agreed to blow out his candles.