She's growing up!

Birthday Girl!

Dear Family and Friends,
Once again I am delayed with my April post. Life never slows down around here. The past few weeks have been ridiculously busy for both Joey and me. We have been teaching make-up lessons and holding other extra music related events on Mondays. Monday is usually the day we both take off, so we have literally not had one day free for the past several weeks. We have a couple more weeks of craziness coming up, but then things should start to die down a bit as lessons and rehearsals come to an end.

April was a really nice month for us, in spite of how busy it was. We took Clara to the Children's Museum in Hartford at the beginning of the month. We had never been there before. To be honest, we were not that impressed with it; we felt it was over-priced and a bit outdated. However, Clara apparently really enjoyed it, since she continues to talk about it even now.

Hartford Children's Museum

Clara thought he was cute.

April was a big month for Clara. She celebrated her 3rd birthday on Easter Sunday. It was a relatively warm, sunny day, and Clara attended the 9:00 AM church service with me, as well as a nice brunch in the Parish Hall after the service for members of the adult choir. During the brunch, word spread that it was Clara's birthday, and the entire adult choir serenaded her with a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday". It was pretty special. After church services were over, Clara was able to go outside and hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden in the back yard. She had a great time looking all over the yard and playground for eggs. That evening, we had some good friends from New Haven over for a traditional ham dinner to celebrate Easter and Clara's birthday. Clara was really excited about the cake and candles, as you can see on her face in the pictures below. It was a really fun day. 

Joey and I had a birthday party for Clara on the Saturday after Easter. We invited 8 children and around 20 adults, so we had a full house. We were hoping to spend most of the time outside on the playground, however Mother Nature had other plans, and it rained most of the day. Since the weather was poor, we set up a table in the dinning room with crafts and playdough. The playdough turned out to be a hit, so the kids managed to stay pretty well entertained. 

Our Rector Father Alfred and his wife Nora were able to attend the party, and Father Alfred led the children in prayer before we had cake. It was a sweet party, and Clara was excited to get to spend time with so many little friends. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures during the party, because I was too busy making sure all of the kids were doing ok. However, one of the moms took pictures and video, so if I am able to get some of those, I will share them on a future post.

Clara's big birthday gift from Joey and me this year was a trip to meet Thomas the Train in Essex, CT. Thomas visits Essex once a year, and since Clara really enjoys watching his DVD cartoons, we thought it would be a fun event for her. We met up with some other friends of ours who have a son Clara's age, and we got to meet Thomas and go for a ride on him. The station was set up like a carnival, so there were games, clowns and balloons among other things. Clara really had a good time. She had such an excited look on her face when she saw Thomas pull into the station. I have some cute pictures from the event, but since I took them on my phone I will have to add them to this post later when I am able to get them on my computer. 

The Calvary Music School semester ended last week, however I have several weeks of make-up lessons to give thanks to snow cancellations, illnesses, being away for recitals, etc. I will continue with my full schedule through the beginning of June. Many of my students are planning to continue with private lessons this summer, so I am trying to figure out a schedule for that. This Saturday, 17 of my students will perform on our CMS student recitals. We have two recital times in order to keep the length to around an hour. It is nice to be able to hear all of the students playing the various instruments we offer at CMS. This past Monday my adult students gave an informal concert in the front room of our house. They enjoyed performing, and we were able to have a nice reception on the back deck of the house since the weather was warm and sunny. 

Joey is keeping busy as usual. Last week he spent 3 days in NYC attending a choral training conference at St. Thomas Church, home of the famous St. Thomas Boy's Choir. My dad came out for a quick visit to see Clara and me while Joey was away. Joey enjoyed his time at St. Thomas, and came back with a lot of new knowledge and ideas he hopes to use with his choristers. Last Friday, Joey's choristers performed their first ever concert. They sang six different sacred pieces accompanied by Joey on piano, and most of the kids also performed solos on their other interments of study. Joey teaches many of them piano, but there were also performances on trombone and saxophone, as well as a tap dance. Everyone was amazed by how much the kids have improved as singers and leaders since Joey started the choir 3 years ago. There are 18 members of the choir now, and Joey is planning the first trip to England and Scotland with the choristers during the summer of 2016. They will sing Evensong services at Cathedrals in both countries. They are really great kids, and Joey is really proud of their accomplishments.

Hanging out with some of the choristers at a bowling party following an Evensong Service.

I will do my best to give you an earlier May update. We are already halfway through the month! Clara has her first ballet performance at the end of the month, so I am sure I will have some fun stories to tell about that. I am chaperoning at two of the 2 and 1/2 hour dress rehearsals next week, and I am responsible for applying rouge and lipstick to about fifteen little 3 and 4 year old girls. I also have to make sure they all make it to the potty before going on stage. It should be interesting! 

Happy May!
Joey, Erin and Clara

Easter 2011

Easter 2012

Easter 2013

Easter 2014

Happy Easter from the Ripkas!