I'm back!

with photos to share!

Let's start with the "First Communicant"
She's even got a certificate


Our friends have a great Mass kit and the kids had a blast playing together the other day! Here are both the girls after their "First Holy Communion!"


After the First Communion Mass, we had a wedding, and a newlywed visit to receive a "Papal" blessing!


Are they cute or what?

How you know you have a blog addiction

when you have a very vivid dream about meeting MckMama at a resale store, which turned into my backyard, which turned into my living room, then the visitor turned into cjane instead! I had visions of appearing on their "famous" blogs and even introduced the visitor (which at that time was cjane/Courtney) to Steven. What a hoot!

Technical difficulties

Port A Trip:

a photo post

what is that water as far as my eye can see???


sweet siblings :)


a shovel, a tennis ball, and a little splash of seawater.
this is the life.



More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD. Psalm 93:4


basking in the beauty


a father son moment


enjoying the pool


he's got the whole world in his hand!


Dollies and NeNe; a fun morning in the condo


SHARK!!!


out to lunch. notice that the adult male family members had eyes towards the golf tournament on the TV...they got to watch the US Open, and I had unlimited "House Hunters" and other TLC/HGTV favorites! and I even got to watch So You Think You Can Dance live (usually watch replays on the internet)!


yes, i really was on this trip. mommy is always behind the camera!


staying out of the sun!


loving their new boogie boards!


my first ice cream sandwich!


another sibling shot


building sandcastles with a new friend


the wind and the waves...


please excuse the orange paraphernalia.


it's been a long time since we've gotten a photo of the two of us!


enjoying the evening on the beach


finding shells


walking along the shore


my favorite steven shot


their sandcastle creation!


family foto


and the drive home...
driving on water??? on the ferry.


stevie clutching his ball. this was actually his best road trip ever! thanks be to God, a fairly easy drive.


Here is love, vast as the ocean.

a few more Ellie-isms

while you anxiously (I'm sure) await my beach pictures ;).....

admiring her little pink skirted swimsuit, "I think I'n so cute."

noting the dog laying outside in the holes he has dug in the bushes, "That's where Timber lays his eggs."

and if you read yesterday's comment you'll laugh at this one, as she comes up to me on the couch and gives me a hug, "Mommy, I love you. Happy Father's Day." (chuckling to herself)

We're back!

Hoping to load the 150+ pictures from the beach trip and the subsequent crazy divisional swim meet.

But for now...

Stevie is eating a frozen waffle after dipping it into his orange juice and jamming his fork down into the cup, while making growling noises. One funny kiddo.

Ellie in the car earlier this evening: "Mommy, I think we should get daddy a balloon for Mother's Day for Daddies!" We've reminded her several times that it's called Father's Day but it doesn't seem to stick!

Mary Clare is choreographing a dance number for her daddy and her PaPa. Should be a fun day tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be more relaxing than the road trip/swim meet of today. Yawn.

It might be a crazy life

but it's my life. (a la Jon & Kate show...pray for them!)

In the past few days...

~spent an hour trying to download "Pharaoh Pharoah" for the girls (their new favorite song). Had to talk to Amazon tech support in India for some assistance and I finally got it loaded. They dance to this ALL DAY LONG. It was the tap routine that some of MC's friends were in.

~allowed the little ones to run around the physical therapy office like wild indians. That will (hopefully) be MC's last day of PT. She has come a long way, thanks to Miss Carrie!


~took a picture of a mini potty chair in Kohl's because it was so cute...I wish more public restrooms would be kid-friendly. My kids can rarely reach the sinks until age 5 or so...and small kids are the ones who really need washed hands!!!


~Steven made me take a picture of this car on the road. Anyone know what it is?


~went to Fr. Matthias' farewell mass and reception. Mary Clare wondered why most of the people had brown skin there (he's Nigerian) and Ellie was very curious about the headpieces of the African women. It was a beautiful time and such an example to me of the universality of the Catholic Church. The prayers of the faithful were in various languages. This is a typical Fr. Matthias face. We're going to miss him!



~Reminding myself: do not take children clothes shopping, especially for bathing suits, and even if you have your mom along. Children will turn Sears' fitting room into a wild screaming playground. It was bad. Real bad. Thankfully I found what I was looking for there, which was only my 2nd store to try! I didn't learn my lesson and took them to Target tonight. Baby was screaming like a banshee in the cart so I had to let him out. Which meant I had to chase him down at least 10 times. When will I learn???

~Also reminding myself: SJ is usually happy as long as he is holding some kind of ball.


~And another reminder: massive amounts of blood in a child's mouth likely means he has bitten his tongue. Badly. And it was not my child. Don't be fooled into thinking that the Children's Museum is safer for 4 young children than a park. It may be cooler, but you will start sweating profusely in situations like this. Thankfully I had 2 friends (one with a dr-husband) and a museum director there to help me.

~While talking about twin vs queen vs king mattresses
MC: "So king mattresses are the biggest in the entire world?"
Ellie: "No, JESUS is the biggest people in the entire world."

~And my final reminder to self: going to bed AFTER 1:00AM will make getting up for swim practice VERY difficult. And then driving several hours with a (likely) screaming toddler SUPER difficult (hopefully I'm wrong).

We're off to the beach! "See" you soon!

Videos!

Especially for the family, here are videos of the dress rehearsal! We couldn't take photos or video during the real show, so this will have to do. Enjoy!

Ellie as a lamb; she starts as 4th in line. Aren't they adorable?


Mary Clare as a Hebrew child. Some confusion in the beginning, and then a funny little comedic action by the dancer to her left; apparently the little girl was telling MC that she couldn't feel her own hands! But beautiful little dancers :)

Dancing for Joy!

what a beautiful weekend we had, filled with family and friends and fun! i'll post other pictures later, but will start with the highlight of the weekend,
"Deliver Us" ballet show 2009

dress rehearsal
the girls love to watch the other dancers!


ellie's class performed as little lambs,
halfway through the teacher passed out little stuffed lambs for them to dance with!
they were positively adorable.
here she is doing her side gallops!


on stage for the finale practice with her classmates


mary clare was a hebrew child
here she is practicing the finale


on the big night, no cameras allowed during the performance,
but here they are with cousin E after the show!


and with their brother the wild child who didn't last in the auditorium more than a minute at a time. daddy and i had quite an interesting night! 3 grandparents came too but unfortunately i didn't get photos of any of them. we were so happy to share the evening with them, though!


ellie plie-ing!


mary clare, so proud


ellie with her teacher


and mary clare with her teacher

and after finally leaving the theater at 10pm, we had our first slumber party with Cousin E and Grampatti. a great time!

we are so proud of our little ballerinas! they worked very hard and had so much fun this year! what i love the most is how this studio encourages the children to dance for the Lord! their talents, the beautiful show telling the story of moses...all to glorify our great God!

Diving In!

(Awesome photo of Mary Clare at her swim meet last weekend, courtesy of my dad, and high resolution so you can actually click to see it big! We'll be missing swim events this weekend because...)

Starting tomorrow we have no less than:
1 physical therapy session
2 birthday parties and presents to purchase
1 special date for Ellie (during one of the parties)
1 farewell mass and reception for our beloved priest friend
1 dance recital
4 ballet slippers that need ribbons sewn on
1 room full of baskets of clean clothes that must be cleaned up for:
at least 3 overnight guests
1 Sunday mass
and preparations for 3 fun nights at the beach next week!

I better dive into bed so I can prepare for this leg of the race :-) Today's 5+ hour dress rehearsal has done me in. Have a great weekend, everyone!