Kids Activity Updates

All our new school year activities are up and going! The girls are doing beautifully in their new ballet classes (but I haven't gotten any pics!). Mary Clare is in Grade 1, and has a wonderful class of mostly 2nd grade girls. Many of them have been taking together for several years and the 10-or-so of them are all at a similar level and enjoying the new challenges that this new grade level entails! They do a lot more barre work and are learning things like spotting, changements, and new feet and arm positions. She is also in Tap with several of the girls, which they always enjoy, and many of them are thrilled to have moved up to the new "lace up" tap shoes (I found MC a pair for $2 at a thrift store!).

Ellie started in a ballet/tap class of 4/5 year-olds. It was on a different day than Mary Clare's class and Ellie was very advanced for the class. After talking with the Director, we decided to try out the "Primary" ballet class of mostly 1st graders this week. She seems to fit in very well and will be challenged more. She was not happy about the change though; she had to leave a dear friend in the other class, and will probably not be taking Tap this year. But Mommy is VERY happy because now I only have to go to the dance studio ONE day a week, which I know will be needed once I'm there with a toddler and new baby! Thanks to the Director for having mercy on me!

Steven Joseph has been putting up with the dance classes okay. He brings his backpack full of toys and many times spends the 2 hours outside with the other brothers:


Last night was our Back to School Mass and Reception for our homeschool group. We had a great turnout of families, and we received a special blessing from our Pastor. Here are many of the kids after the blessing (thanks to my friend Michelle whose blog I stole this from; my photos are really bad!).

(gotta love SJ with the praying hands...we told him he had to be good to go to the birthday party!)

After the Mass we had a reception honoring the Birthday of the Blessed Mother, which had actually been the day before. We made our traditional Cupcake Rosary surrounding a statue of Mary. We prayed a Rosary decade, with 10 children (including Ellie) each leading a Hail Mary. Then we sang Happy Birthday, enjoyed the refreshments, and the kids ran wild. What a night!

Today we woke up early to get ready for our First Friday classes! The kids were excited to make their lunches, get their bags ready, and head to class. They weren't happy about my attempts to take a picture. My regular camera lens kept fogging up, then I realized it was out of battery. (I'm having a lot of issues with the camera and really need to send it in for repairs, but don't want to be without it when Baby arrives!)

Mary Clare in her 3rd year of Little Flowers. Ellie's 1st year! Steven Joseph tags along!


I only got a couple photos of the kids in class. It was so crazy with 22 little girls and doing 2 painting projects (a tote bag and t-shirt). I was pretty frazzled, but things went fairly well considering it was the first class and all the little girls were so excited to be there...

although Ellie looks a little bored laying her head on the chair in this pic! She tends to get very opinionated in class about what she wants to happen. When she's done coloring, she wants to start the next thing. She was frustrated that we had no more sunflowers to glue on her bag and refused to do any painting on it. Hopefully she will do better in class without Mommy as the teacher, if I take a little break when Baby comes! She did do much better when one of her oldest friends arrived later in the class.


Mary Clare enjoyed seeing old and new friends and was thrilled with her new t-shirt and wore it the rest of the day! She answered a lot of the questions during my lesson and was happy to be one of the oldest in the class.

Note Steven in this photo...I gave him a blank paper to color and he ended up cutting it into about 100 pieces! He was quite a hoot today; not sure how the rest of the year will go with him and the new baby!

Speaking of the new baby...Yesterday was my 35 week appointment and I got to get a fun peek at my chubby little baby! It's amazing how cramped it looks in there, but was still moving a bunch. Kept sucking his/her fingers and apparently has a head of hair! Measured at approximately 6 pounds, 11 ounces...although those can easily be off a couple pounds. Doctor still wants to wait to choose a date because the hospital won't let us schedule a c-section before 39 weeks, which we don't plan to get to. With my history, we're hoping that week 37-38 will be just right for this baby to be ready to come and meet us! So possibly only 2 weeks to go!

Hoping for a relaxing weekend with Daddy home. Yay!