Walking away from Cello

Emma is finishing up middle school and recently had her final Orchestra performance. She started the cello 3 years ago when she entered middle school and left the violin behind in Elementary school. Usually kids stay with their 5th grade instrument but at the end of 5th grade Emma declared that she wanted to switch to the cello. I was afraid of the expense of the instrument and asked her why. She went into the difference between instruments that play the melody on the treble clef and instruments that play the baseline on the base clef, and she felt it was important to learn the base clef as well. This was a reason I couldn't argue with and it turned out that cello's are loaned by the school system at a very cheap rate. So she made the switch.
 

Em has enjoyed playing these past few years and has performed well. Her orchestra teacher has commented that Emma is talented and hopes she puts in extra time so she will excel. Emma meanwhile had little to no interest in practicing. I commented to her that she could be pretty good if she practiced, and she replied "but I am pretty good". I asked her to imagine how amazing she'd be if she put in the extra effort. She could only grin. Then it came time to pick classes for Freshman year of high school, Emma looked over all of her options and she decided not to take 9th grade orchestra. Emma is gifted at music and really wants to continue but she would like to focus on piano and music theory. So her final middle school performance was her last with the cello. She is walking away from the cello, at least for now.

Our House

With the pending entrance of baby Pumpkin we are assessing our living situation and how our little one will fit into this space. We have lived in our house for almost 12 years and we have gradually made changes to it to fit our family. Before Megan was born we had our basement finished, and it made our house feel so much more usable and less cluttered. Then last year we opened up the kitchen and did a complete transformation. We love the new kitchen space everyday. Throughout our living here we have made the bedrooms and bathroom work. When Bridget joined us the bedrooms got really tight, but we found an inexpensive loft bed on Craig's List and everyone adjusted. The bathroom situation though has gotten less and less manageable. Regularly there are multiple people in there at the same time and privacy is something we only dream of. Right now we have too much stuff for the size of our house already and it feels cramped, we tried to lessen that a little at a yard sale this weekend, and mentally it helps to see stuff going. Now we are looking at how and if we can continue to work with our house to fit the new family size of seven.

Pumpkin will need to sleep somewhere. We discussed moving a bedroom to the basement, but none of us like the idea of one child being so far away from everyone else. The most logical move would be Emma, but the teen years are not the time that I want to separate her from the rest of the family. Or any of the girls for that matter. We are looking into putting on a 2nd floor addition. We have had contractors over and a number of drawings done. It is expensive so we are very tentative to take that step. We have also been looking into moving to a new house in our area. There is a lot of cost involved in this step too and so much uncertainty. We would also have the very real emotional hurdle of leaving our home. Rachael especially is attached to the place of her birth and is the least able to deal with change. It would be really tough to move. None of our options are standing out right now as the right one. We know we need to do something and we pray for God's direction in making the right step.

5th Grade Field Trip to Philly

   On May 8th, I got to go with Rachael on her class field trip to Philadelphia. She was so excited that most of her friends were in our bus/group. Thank God, the weather was perfect and it did not start raining until we were heading back home.

It was an early start, but the kids were very well behaved and when we got there did an outstanding job of listening to our guide, Mr. C.

Rae, like her sisters, really enjoyed the movie, National Treasure and she and her friends kept pointing out rooms or buildings they remembered from the movie. There was some joking around, but Rae is like a sponge for information. 

She also love to take pictures, sadly, a boy knocked her camera out of her hands, before she had a chance to put the cord around her wrist, and it started acting funny and the pictures were mostly blurry. But she did not let that spoil her mood and took pictures when she could. The lines were not very long and she and her friends did a great job of behaving themselves while we waited.

Mr. C was a great tour guide and the kids really seemed to enjoy his passion for the city and the history of our country. I spoke with him during one of our longer waits and he said he was a retired teacher and volunteered as a guide. I simply thought "that explains it, you are doing this for love not a paycheck".

We saw Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell and Christ Church (along with anything else related to Ben Franklin) and finally a printing press. Our group (that was 19 kids) split into smaller groups for lunch. The four girls in the picture above one more decided they wanted to try to fond a Philly cheese steak...... but the other parents in our group thought a sit down restaurant would be nice. We ended up in the National Mechanics restaurant, which had the strangest decor I have ever seen, ( would have provided pictures, but they gave me nightmares). After lunch we went to Xeno's candy store and of course Rae found a stuffed purple Hippo with "Philly" written across his chest. So I let he buy it instead of picking a bunch of candy.

Walk in the woods with Bridget

Last Thursday Bridget and I had the rare opportunity of day just to ourselves. The big girls were at school and the cousins were all on a field trip, and it was a beautiful day. I talked it over with Bridge and she really wanted to go to the tire park.  It is a state park with a playground made of recycled tires. We packed a snack and off we went. The tire park only has a few things that Bridget likes to play on, one is a series of tires half buried in the ground. She walked across them over and over, while I held her hand. We chatted as she stretched from tire to tire. Then we decided to walk on one of the hiking trails. It was a little cool in the shade of the tall trees but we warmed up as we got moving. Bridget pointed things out a long the way and slid her little hand in mine as we walked. Bridget was hoping to find a waterfall but no luck on this trail. She followed the blue trail markers and I got a chance to really enjoy her talkativeness. She lived up to her Jabberjaws nickname as we walked. We only spent a couple of hours at the park but it was perfect. We time we spent together enjoying creation and each other, hand in hand.

Belly

Baby Pumpkin is growing as expected, about the size of an avocado, at 16 weeks.  My belly on the other hand looks more like 25 weeks. Although I'm ahead of schedule, at least this is the enjoyable size of being pregnant. My belly is cute and definitely pregnant looking, that sure beats the indistinguishable slightly larger form. I hope I don't get to the large uncomfortable stage too early.

I got a great treat last week. Magaly has recently begun sonogram training and was looking to practice at the Pregnancy Center West. I was happy to loan my belly for some practice. We spent about 45 minutes, trying to find, and watching little Pumpkin move around. I saw the heart, brain, spine, fingers and toes. It was wonderful just to lay there and watch our little one on the large screen. Since my belly has popped out, the girls have reacted eagerly. They all talk to my belly and pray for Pumpkin each evening. Emma is learning fetal development in school and is anxiously waiting to be able to feel Pumpkin, each evening she puts her hand on my belly and asks Pumpkin to move. I have found myself frequently wondering if the sensations I am feeling are our baby, but right now it is still hard to be sure. I look forward to being conscience of Pumpkin's activity and to be able to share that with the rest of the family.

Megan, Welcome to the Table of the Lord

Watching my little ones grow in faith is one of the privileges of parenthood and this weekend I watched as Megan was welcomed to the Lord's Table to receive her First Holy Eucharist. She has been preparing all spring for this Sacrament during her religious education classes and as we got closer she attended a workshop at church. Megan and I cut out felt letters and symbols for her banner and then at the workshop Jim helped her glue them on and decorate. They also learned about sacramentals and reviewed how to receive the Eucharist.

We got her a first Communion memory book and she and I started filling it in. She was getting very eager for her big day and was thrilled to get to try on the dress. The girls have all worn the same dress, that we picked out together before Emma's first Communion, and despite their different shapes it has fit each of them beautifully. Bridget was in awe of the dress and Megan, and helped put the veil on Megan's head.

We all worked together to get the house back in party hosting shape. It had a long way to go since the whole family was down with stomach flu the week before. But everyone was motivated especially since PawPaw was coming to stay with us for the weekend. By the time PawPaw arrived things had come together. The girls were all excited to have PawPaw in town with us to celebrate.

Saturday morning was bright and cheery and was a beautiful day to witness Megan's reception of Christ. We arrived at church in plenty of time only to realize that we left Megan's banner at home, so Jim ran back to get it while we found our pew. I don't know how it happened but we got the first pew right behind the girls. I walked Megan downstairs to get lined up and headed back upstairs to join the rest of the family. My dad was vesting for Mass, so Megan was excited about that and she got to carry up the gifts. When Megan presented the gifts to Fr. Whatley dad introduced her as his granddaughter. She was beaming.

We were all so thrilled for Megan. We took pictures and then headed back to the house to celebrate with the family and Megan's Godparents, the Brinks. Megan debated whether or not to change out of the dress but wound up wearing the whole time. We had lunch of chicken salad and pigs in a blanket out back. And Megan requested ambrosia fruit salad with marshmallows. The cousins ran around and the adults chatted. Megan opened gifts toward the end and was really wowed by the frame Ms. Kirsten made. She used a wood burning technique to personalize the frame. It was beautiful. We shared ice cream and cake, that had orange icing per Megan's request before our guests started to head out. It was a really special day.