April Vacation!

Dear Family and Friends,

I find it difficult to write about what a nice month this has been for our family, when so many are suffering after the bombings at the Boston marathon and the explosion in Texas. I remember the first post I did following the horrible tragedy in Newtown and wanting so badly to write something about what had happened, but I couldn't find the words. I still can't find the words. We all deal with tragedy in different ways. I was very depressed after Newtown, and it took a lot of talking with close family and friends to get through it. I felt selfish for being so down when I was not the one who had lost a child. I couldn't even look at Clara without getting emotional for several weeks after the shooting. I'm sure you have all had different reactions to the recent horrible events, and I hope that you have been able to find comfort and healing. While we must go on with our lives, we will keep the victims of tragedy and their families in our thoughts and in our prayers. 

Pray for Peace

This post will cover our recent Spring Break vacation, and I will do a separate post about Clara's birthday. 

Joey, Clara and I took a week long Spring Break trip to Alexandria, VA this month. We broke the trip up into two days of driving both on the way there and on the way back. Clara did a great job traveling with us and was able to entertain herself pretty well during the long hours in the car. She also stuck to her sleep and nap schedule the entire trip, so she was rested and happy. We stayed with my Aunt Gay and Uncle Harry in their beautiful home and got to spend some really nice time with them and with my cousin Adam. Clara met Adam for the first time and is crazy about him. We visited the National Cathedral, the National Harbor and Children's Museum and toured old town Alexandria. We also visited my dear friend Megan and her family since they also live in Alexandria. On the way back we spent the night in New Jersey and visited the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. Clara loved it. Thank you Gay and Harry for treating us so well. We had a great time!

Here are the photos from our trip:

Getting ready for bed in the hotel

Fun at the mall carnival!

Daddy didn't feel well after this one.

Hanging out with cousin Adam!

The National Children's Museum

Fun with chalk

Shopping for groceries

Big Bird!

Clara and Mommy

Children's Museum

Anything strange about this picture???

Peep store at the National Harbor

Walking on the Pier at the National Harbor

Joey, Clara and Gay (GG)

The National Cathedral

Attending Evensong at the National Cathedral 

Fun at Megan's house

The Birthday Girls! All three have April birthdays.

Good times with Megan and family

Daddy and Clara in old town Alexandria

The Adventure Aquarium

Clara's new friend

Not so sure about this guy

In the shark tank

  

Surfing at the Aquarium!

Check out the blog post all about Clara's birthday below this one! She turned two years old on April 20th!

Wishing you all beautiful Spring weather, especially in MN where friends and family have been enjoying April snow storms!
Take care,
Joey, Erin and Clara

Clara is two years old!

"I am two!"

Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a week since Clara's 2nd birthday. I wrote the post about our trip to D.C. on Clara's birthday, and I was really excited about writing this post, but came down with a fever, cough and sinus cold the day after her birthday. This is the first day that I have felt like doing much of anything. The illness really wiped me out, and I had to miss a week of teaching. Anyway, I am feeling pretty good and am ready to write. 

April 20th, 2011

One year old!

2 years old!

Our sweet little Clara turned 2 years old on April 20th. I remember wondering last year on her first birthday what she would be like at the age of two. So, what is she like? She is sweet, loving, feisty, stubborn, independent, curious, intelligent, beautiful and full of life. She talks and sings a lot, and her true love right now is ballet and dance in general. She also has a love of books. I'm glad that Joey and I read to her from the very beginning, because she loves to be read to, and she is also very good at pronouncing words and recognizing letters and numbers. She lets us know when she is not happy, but she also has moments of sweet compassion and tender love which sometimes bring me to tears. She loves animals, and she loves to be outside. 

Hanging out pre-party!

We had a small birthday party for Clara at our house. Clara loves the "Hello Kitty" cartoon character, so we made that the theme of the party. I made the mistake of googling "Hello Kitty Birthday Party" and found out that people go crazy with the theme. We kept our party pretty simple, although I thought the cake was really cute and fun. Clara was happy the entire time, and when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her she had the biggest smile on her face. Joey made macaroni and cheese, and we had a fruit salad and a veggie tray. The weather was a little cool, so we kept the party inside and hung out in the big front room of the house. It was a good time. 

Chocolate on the inside. Yum!

Getting ready for the party

"Happy Birthday to You!"

The cake table

Make a Wish!

Cake hangover

Opening present

Clara and friend.

Awesome Clara sized umbrella.

And so another year of Clara's life has begun, and again I find myself wondering what my little girl will be like at 3 years of age. She is going to change a lot this year, especially in the language area. I find myself trying to slow down time as the baby side of her slips away and the little girl side comes more and more to the surface. But I guess in the eyes of a parent, your child is always your baby. I think twenty years from now I will still look at my little Clara and see her big blue eyes, soft pink lips and round baby face. 

I don't know how Joey and I were so lucky to be given such an incredible gift from God. Happy Birthday baby girl. We love you so much!!!

Clara's gift from Mommy and Daddy: A 1/32 size violin

It still looks big next to her!

Some post-party music

Eggs, Bunnies and a Green Hat!

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

Easter 2011

Easter 2012

Easter 2013