Dear Family and Friends,
Happy April! I love this time of the year because it means Spring is on the way. Temperatures have reached the 50's this week, we have been able to have the windows open and flowers are starting to bloom. Now if only we could get rid of the cold wind that never seems to go away.
I really like the month of April because it is the month in which Clara was born. She will be two years old on April 20th! It's so hard to believe. Her baby days are definitely on the way out as she begins to display more toddler-like behavior every day. It's a fun and challenging phase and Joey and I are enjoying every minute of it.
March was a good month. We had a nice visit from both my parents and my aunt and uncle from Virginia. They all happened to be here with us for St. Patrick's day so we celebrated with the traditional corn beef and cabbage dinner. After a few drinks we had fun posing with "The Hat". Haha!
Joey kept busy this month planning for and getting through Holy Week. He played many services leading up to Easter Sunday and also did a program of organ music entitled "Baroque Organ Vespers for Good Friday." All of the services went really well and the church was full for both Easter morning services.
I think this was the first year Clara really enjoyed the festivities of Easter. She was born during Holy week of 2011, just four days before Easter Sunday, so this was her third Easter. We read a book called "The Story of Easter" which is a biblical children's book describing Jesus' death and resurrection in a child friendly way. She loves the book and insisted on reading it again and again. Clara also enjoyed dying Easter eggs and going to see the Easter bunny in Mystic. After church on Easter Sunday Clara hunted for Easter eggs both in the backyard of Calvary House and in our house. We had Easter dinner with some good friends in North Haven. It was a fun day. Interestingly enough, Clara's third birthday falls on Easter Sunday 2014. Maybe we will have to have a birthday Easter egg hunt or something.
We will be taking our first official family vacation of the year during the week of April 14th. We are going to drive to Alexandria, VA to visit my aunt, uncle and cousin as well as some friends. We will stay with my family and are planning to do some fun things in the D.C. area. It should be a fun Spring Break. When we return we are going to have a small birthday party for Clara. She is having a "Hello Kitty" themed party since she loves cats so much and always enjoys anything with the Hello Kitty face on it.
Easter Sunday was also fun for us because Joey was featured in the Westerly Sun, a local Rhode Island newspaper. It's a cute question and answer piece, and who knows, you might learn something new about Joey. If you would like to read the article click on the following link:
http://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/in-the-easy-chair-joey-ripka/article_d5af6302-9889-11e2-ae8e-0019bb2963f4.html
Be sure to check out my "Videos" post. Keep scrolling down after this post and click on "older posts" to see the videos. The first video shows Clara attempting to play a student violin which is way too big for her. I was tuning it when she came over and wanted to check it out. She did a nice job with her rhythm and since she normally practices on a violin with no strings, she was thrilled to be able to make sound, as you can see in the video. The second video shows Clara dancing while I was sight reading some Irish fiddle tunes. You will have to excuse my wardrobe as I was not expecting to be filmed. I will try to post some more videos of Clara's dancing at some point.
We hope Spring is on the way wherever you are. Enjoy this wonderful month.
Until next post!
Joey, Erin and Clara
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| Easter 2011 |
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| Easter 2012 |
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| Easter 2013 |
