Last weekend, Elizabeth, Lee and I attended a retreat to prepare Elizabeth for receiving first holy communion. It was a wonderful program in which we learned about the eucharist, the church and how things are done, and prepared as a family for this major, upcoming event in Elizabeth's spiritual life. As some of you know, her grade in Religion slipped in the last marking period, and together with her teacher, we made a concerted effort to get her to refocus - and her hard work paid off. Lee and I were proud of how intensely she paid attention, how much she knew and how seriously she took the final part of the retreat, the sacrament of reconciliation. After the retreat, we went out to celebrate at Elizabeth's new favorite restaurant (other than Brown's), Longhorn Steak House. What a treat!
Sharing bread together was a large part of the focus of the retreat.
Each of the children made a banner, which will hang in the church during their First Communion celebration.
This is the bread that Elizabeth made. She fashioned her dough into a braid, with our help, symbolizing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as Lee, Elizabeth and myself.
Elizabeth and her BFF, with the bread that they made.
After she made her reconciliation, Lee and I placed this medallion around her neck.
This song is a favorite of the school priest and the children.
With the new year came a renewed energy on my part to look for and try new recipes - both cooking and baking. Lee and the girls, much to our surprise, have been trying all of my new creations, and by and large, I've been meeting with great success! Trying out so many new things has really been a great deal of fun.
Chicken and sausage soup.
Spaghetti squash with vegetable and feta cheese. A big hit with us - not so much with the girls (although they did discover that they love feta cheese).
Cubed and baked sweet potatoes - a huge hit!
Creamy tomato tortellini soup - super yummy!
Tex Mex slow cooker chili.
Lee got me a donut recipe book for Christmas and I've been putting it to good use. These are powered sugar mini donuts and they were delish!
- "It's not lost, I just don't know where it is." Polishing up those lawyer skills already.
- "I want to buy everything on this show." We watched a two hour marathon of Pawn Stars with the girls one night during Christmas vacation and they loved every second of it. It totally appealed to their sense of adventure - and, quite obviously, Emily's inner pack-rat.
- "How come I didn't get ANY Legos for Christmas?" Emily complained one day. Um, because you didn't ask for any? That's a pretty good reason.
- Me: I talked to Daddy and he said that you can't download "Gangnam Style".
Elizabeth: Why? Because of the S word? (S word being "sexy")
Me: Yes.
Emily: But that's not why we want the the song. We want it for "OPPAN GANGNAM STYLE".
Me: (laughing) Too bad.
- "Can we just leave the security tag on the jacket?" Elizabeth and I were negotiating over whether she could get a North Face jacket and one of things I pointed out is that she has to be very responsible with it, as people steal NF jackets. She thought that if the store left the security tag on, it would be less likely to get stolen....anyway, for those of you that are interested, it turns out that this particular jacket was not on sale (although other NF jackets were) and so, the negotiation ended.
- "Some of these guys are stinky but some of them are INSANE." Elizabeth's spot on observation from the New Jersey State Championship Meet.
- "It's beautiful!" That was Emily's response to my question about what it was like to listen to Elizabeth and her classmates play their recorders at school (Emily's classroom is next door to Elizabeth's classroom).
- "If we could wear jewelry to school, I would wear a locket with Memere's picture and Uncle Andy's picture. And Emily could wear a locket with Memere's picture and Uncle Barry's picture."
- "Can I keep Lambie forever?"
- "When are you going to start let me wash the dishes?" I'll be reminding Elizabeth of this one in a few years, I'm sure.
- "I wish I was a Hollywood star...."
- "I do like to dance, but I like to dance hard. I don't like to dance the same steps over and over again because I know them all." Sure you do.
- "Emily, if you had to choose between Lambie and Baxter, which would you choose?" Long, long pause. "You're joking right? I don't have to do that...right?"
We are in the midst of the annual community support campaign for the Y and we are again supporting Strong Kids, both with our own donation and our fundraising efforts. Anyone that knows us knows that we are huge supporters of Camp Ingersoll and the huge impact that it has on the children in our community. Each and every year, we not only send our girls to the camp, but donate to it and ask our friends and family to as well. Please consider making a donation through this link and if you do, be sure to let us know!
Elizabeth at the archery range at Camp last summer.
We scored some tickets to the early round of the Big East Women's Basketball Tournament and got the chance to watch the number one ranked Notre Dame women play on Sunday. We had pretty good seats, even if they were in the middle of a bunch of UConn fans (and UConn hates Notre Dame, so everyone around us was rooting against the Irish!). The game ended up being a lot closer than anyone anticipated and the girls had a great time watching and cheering, especially once they caught on to the fact that we were the only Irish fans around. We got a surprise visit from the Notre Dame leprechaun, who spotted us in the crowd of Huskie fans, and the girls were also featured on the jumbo-tron, which was probably the hi-light of the game for them!!
Go Irish!
Playing with my phone while waiting for the game to start.
Muffet McGraw accepted the trophy for Big East Coach of the Year.
Tip off against University of Southern Florida.
The Leprechaun and cheerleaders.
Emily has been sick for about a week, but always rallies for an event. The rally usually only lasts until she hits her car seat.
Last week, the local Girl Scout troops celebrated World Thinking Day, coming together for a big event at the high school. Ten different troops had booths, representing countries from around the world. Both girls' troops participate - Elizabeth's Brownie troop had a great England display and Emily's Daisy troop represented England, including a short Irish dance.
The troop leader asks each girl to tell her something about England.
Some photos that didn't make the cut for February:
Emily and J show off matching gaps!
On Valentine's Day, Elizabeth attended her first "real" party - a party that had nothing to do with a birthday. Boys and girls. And Mommy, lurking in the shadows, making sure that there was no slow dancing.
E and E
A little down time at the party - making girlie crafts with Alex's mom.
Elizabeth spent a day with two of her friends from her old school - here is a shot of her first time ever bowling!
Scouting service project - 300 sandwiches made in less than 45 minutes!
Last Sunday, we traveled to New Hampshire for the engagement party of Alison and Ian, Lee's cousin and her fiance. Although the drive was harrowing, it was worth it!! Not only did we get to congratulate the newly engaged couple in person and view Alison's spectacular ring, but we got to see the girls' reactions when Alison asked them to be her flower girls! Alison asked Lee and I in advance, but we kept it a secret from the girls, so they were totally taken by surprise and it was great. They were just so excited, especially Elizabeth, who is still talking about it all the time.
Emily was still battling exhaustion from being sick earlier in the week and spent most of the ride up like this. Why yes, she is wearing a furry purple vest.
Opening gift bags from Alison. Clearly, our kids are so spoiled that they didn't think that it was unusual that they were getting gifts at someone else's party.
Thanks for the t-shirt.....
Realization dawns.....
Complete excitement!!!!!
They both changed into their flower girl shirts immediately.
Napping again, but this time as a flower girl.
Showing off their shirts.
The girls made this Lego bride and groom for Alison and Ian as an engagement gift.
