It's Good Shepherd Sunday, and by an accident of circumstances we ended up going to a different Mass than usual, and I'm glad we did! Today especially we pray for vocations, and Father discussed what that really means in his homily, which echoed a lot of the sentiments I feel when it comes to my children and their vocations.

I went about it all wrong at first, I think. Our oldest has always had a keen interest in the liturgy, and started "playing" Mass at a very young age. We encouraged this, talking about how he would be a priest when he grew up, and maybe even a bishop! Or a pope! I hated when he got older and expressed a desire to get married... My little priest! By golly, we're a Good Catholic Family and we're going to show it by having THE MOST VOCATIONS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE!!!

Oh wait.

That's not the point of vocations.

Birthday Balloons and Mass Celebrations {PHFR}

{pretty}

The sum total of the decorations I made for John Paul's birthday party this past weekend:

The bunting is still up, and will likely be up for a while because it's just so cute and festive!

The balloons started deflating the next morning and the whole thing got dismantled by John Paul... But it was fun while it lasted!

{funny}

Both on the day of his birthday and at his birthday party a few days later, he blew out his candle before we finished singing to him and then laughed as if it were the funniest joke EVER!

Which, of course, made it pretty darned funny.

Also, how do you like that fancy cake plate? I call it "the cardboard Costco box it came in" - we're fancy around here.

{happy/real}

A friend found him a chalice for his birthday and saying Mass is WAY more impressive when you're using a fancy chalice and not a green plastic cup.

You like the fancy vestments? Fleece, baby. No-sew. Maybe some day I'll make him nice ones, but these are working great for now!

Right now he doesn't want to be a priest, though. But he's 6, so he's got time to discern ;)

It was a private Mass - Cecilia pulled her chair right up to the altar and told me, "This is just a very, very small Mass and I have the only chair and it's a *special* chair" and since she's the one who set up the altar and prepared everything, we'll let her have that.

Mason jar cruets. For the hipster priest.

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real!