Spring is in the air!

Dear Family and Friends,

Spring has come to Connecticut these last several weeks. Flowers are blooming, the sun is out and the birds are singing. The weather at night has been cool, but we have reached temperatures in the 50's and 60's during the day. Joey, Clara and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather by trying to get out of the house as much as possible. We discovered the borough playground down by the docks. It's a sweet little playground and is home to an infant swing which has been a thrill for Clara. Just the other day we took a trip to Providence, RI to check out the zoo and ended up spending time on the wonderful carousel located on the park grounds. It's been fun exploring and trying new things with Clara.

Our Clara is growing a mile a minute. She has such a cute little personality. She loves to smile and laugh. Clara has had a few major milestones in the past weeks. She is now able to stand up from the floor without holding on to anything, and even more exciting, she took 10 steps all by herself one evening. It hasn't really happened since, but I think it peaked her curiosity, and I wouldn't be surprise if one of these days she decides crawling is old news. Clara is also starting to understand the meaning of a number of words such as "dancing", "kitty", "moon" and "milk". She loves cats, and when she sees one she tries to say "kitty". Clara turns one year old on April 20th. We have a small birthday party planned at the end of this week. My brother and his wife and children are coming to visit us from Wisconsin. It will be their first trip to the East Coast and also their first time meeting Clara. We are so excited for their visit and glad that they can be here to celebrate her birthday.

Holy week was certainly a busy week for Joey. His services went well, and we had a wonderful first Easter Sunday in our new church home. After church Clara blessed us by taking a three-hour nap which allowed us to rest and recover from a busy week. That evening we enjoyed spending time with some close friends who were kind enough to invite us to their home for Easter dinner. Clara got to wear her Easter dress, a gift from my mom and dad. She looked so sweet in it, and she had fun taking eggs out of her Easter basket and throwing them all over our living room floor. So much has changed since last year. Little Clara was only four days old last Easter Sunday! (See photo)

(Clara, Easter 2011)

We hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Easter weekend. The next few weeks will be busy with visits from family and celebrating Clara's birthday. I promise to include a post all about it. Happy Spring! Let's hope it's here to stay.

Joey, Erin and Clara

Overdue Post!

Clara is 10 moths old!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post. It seems the time has been flying by, and as a family we have been extra busy the last few months. I have to admit this time of year is my least favorite. These months tend to be very gray, cold and dry, so I always look forward to Easter and the beginning of Spring. Actually, the winter this year has been quite mild, and we have had a few spring-like days, so I shouldn't complain.

Things have been busy in the Ripka household. Clara is growing and changing by leaps and bounds. She has completely mastered crawling and is able to pull up to a standing position and walk while holding on to something. She can also stand for several seconds without holding on. The most exciting development for me is her love of dancing. She dances every time she hears music, and changes her movements based on the style of music she is listening to. As a child, I was very involved in ballet, and friends used to comment that I never walked anywhere, just danced, so I am thinking Clara may have inherited the dance gene from me. She will be 11 months old on March 20th, and we are starting to think about when we might be able to organize her first birthday party. I think it's incredible that our little girl is going to be a year old soon; she's growing up way too quickly!

Clara's first bath in the tub!

Post-bath cuddle time

Joey is doing well and keeping busy. In February he traveled to the U.K. to perform an organ recital in the chapel of King's College in Cambridge. It was a quick trip, but the recital was very successful and he was excited to play in such a famous venue. The only downside was the unusually cold weather in the U.K. The chapel was freezing, as were his living quarters in the college. He managed to play well in spite of his frozen fingers. He has a couple more recital coming up this month. This Wednesday he will perform a noon recital at First Church in Fairfield, CT. It just so happens the church sits directly across from St. Paul's Episcopal church where Joey was Organ Scholar while attending Yale. We hope to see some familiar faces in the audience.

On March 2nd, Joey and I performed a violin and piano recital at Calvary Church. It was the first major recital that I have given since Clara was born, so I felt a sense of pride in being able to play well in spite of my severely reduced amount of sleep and practice time. I also came down with the stomach flu 5 days before the recital, but somehow managed to pull through and perform. The church was completely filled with people from both our church congregation and the community, and we received a very warm and enthusiastic response. It was great to feel so supported and appreciated. Our program consisted of the Mozart Sonata for Violin and Piano K. 301, Brahms Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano Opus 78, Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata Opus 24 and Wieniawski's "Polonaise Brilliante" in A major. We performed Meditation from Thais as an encore. It was a challenging program but also such rewarding repertoire to perform. The recital represented a nice combination of both pieces we had performed together before and some new works. My parents from Minnesota and aunt and uncle from Virginia came to CT for the recital, and it was great having them here. Joey's mom was able to visit us from Minnesota for about 10 days prior to the recital, which was a huge help since she was able to watch Clara while Joey and I rehearsed together. Clara really enjoyed spending time with her grandparents and godparents during the last couple of months.

Post-Recital Photo

Well, that's the news for now. Hopefully Spring will arrive sooner than later, and we can start to enjoy the outdoors a bit more. We have yet to visit the beaches in Rhode Island, so we look forward to that. I will try to post more frequently now. We have some fun events coming up in the next few months, and I will certainly make sure to include a "Clara's First Birthday Party" post!

Best wishes from Joey, Erin and Clara!

"Another year over, a new one just begun" 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful holiday and great start to the new year. This Christmas was really special. Clara seemed to revel in all of the excitement, enjoying the company of her Grandparents and Godparents, visiting and meeting new friends at various Christmas parties, and ripping open and tearing into beautiful colored packages in order to discover fun toys from Santa. She seemed to enjoy it all, and we certainly loved watching her discover the joy of Christmas, even if her understanding of it this year was pretty limited. We hope that Christmas can be a magical time for her in years to come. Spending Christmas in worship at Calvary and helping lead through music was also very special for us.

Clara must have been good the last 8 months of her life, because Santa did not disappoint. Some of her favorite gifts included a pair of bongos, several handmade items from her aunts Christy and Cara, stacking rings, and several beautiful new books. Clara's Godparents, (my aunt and uncle) presented her with a very special ornate box frame which displays the baptismal shell and cloth from her christening, along with her name and the date of the service. We look forward to finding a special place in our home to display it.

We rang in the New Year with my parents and aunt and uncle from Virginia. Joey cooked up an amazing three-course fondue New Year's Eve dinner. Around 11:00pm we walked down to the ocean where a large bonfire was burning and celebrated the arrival of 2012 with the Stonington Borough ball drop and fireworks at midnight. It was an incredibly clear night, and the combination of the beauty of the stars in the sky with the sound of the ocean waves below made for a spectacular transition into the new year.

And now life comes back to normal. Joey is back at work, and I am back to practicing, teaching violin and taking care of our darling Clara. The Christmas tree and decorations are no more, and the living room is back to being Clara's playground. She is 8 months old now and sits up all by herself. She can crawl backwards but is still trying to coordinate the forward motions. Most importantly though, Clara now says "Da-da", a word that melts the heart of my sweet husband every time he hears it. What an incredible year it has been. May there be many more to come. Happy 2012!

Erin, Joey and Clara