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 To be honest, we were not that impressed with it; we felt it was over-priced and a bit outdated.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!

Spring is here!

HAPPY SPRING!

Dear Family and Friends,
Today is such a beautiful day here in Stonington; the sun is shining, the birds are singing and it is currently 66 degrees! Spring took its time this year. We had unusually cold temperatures during March, and it's only now beginning to warm up. We are so ready for Spring! Clara is excited to spend more time outside, and Joey and I are enjoying getting back to our post-dinner family walks in the Borough. We spent the morning at an Easter egg hunt, and we are looking forward to tomorrow, when we will celebrate both Easter and Clara's 3rd birthday! The weather is predicted to be beautiful again tomorrow, so it should be a wonderful day.

CLARA LOVES LUCY!

March had its ups and downs. In the middle of March, I came down with some of the worst stomach flu I have experienced in a long time. I got sick during a very busy week for Joey. He had to miss practicing for several recitals he was preparing for in order to take care of Clara while I was trying to recover. He gave two recitals at the end of the week without being able to practice on the instruments ahead of time, thanks to my lovely stomach bug. Fortunately, Clara and Joey managed to avoid getting sick themselves and, as usual, Joey performed really well. Clara and I were able to join Joey for his recital in Norwalk, CT the following week.

BRINGING OUT THE SUNGLASSES!

SPRING CHICKS!

On the more positive side, we enjoyed a nice visit from my aunt and uncle and parents during the middle of March. My mom and dad were able to come out during my mom's Spring Break, and my aunt and uncle joined us for St. Patrick's Day weekend. We celebrated with some delicious smoked corned beef from our favorite BBQ restaurant Chester's, as well as cabbage, Irish soda bread, and cupcakes.

Recently Joey and members of the Calvary organ installation committee traveled to Ooltewah, TN to see the shop of the Richards, Fowkes organ builders company. They also spent time in Chattanooga, TN touring several churches, with Joey demonstrating on the organs. It was a quick trip, but it was good for the committee to see the shop where the new Calvary instrument will be built and to learn about the process.

Clara is doing really great. She continues to enjoy her ballet class once a week, and is looking forward to playing the part of a bluebell flower in the upcoming Spring Showcase at the end of May. We are so proud of her, because she is now potty trained. We were nervous about getting started, and we thought it was going to take forever to teach her how to use the potty, but the process was actually very easy, and she caught onto it really quickly. She is getting to be such a big girl. She is becoming more and more affectionate as she gets older. There are no other words more precious to us than "I love you daddy" or "I love you momma". Clara loves to sing, and we have been learning a lot of new songs. Today she learned how to sing "You are my Sunshine". She is definitely our Sunshine!

GETTING OUR GARDEN STARTED!

Clara is excited about turning three, and she is going to have a "Spring" birthday party this Saturday, which might include an Egg Hunt if the weather is ok. We have enjoyed Holy Week at Calvary Church. I was able to attend a few of the services during the week with Clara, and we are looking forward to going to the 9:00 AM service tomorrow morning. As usual, Holy Week at Calvary has been very busy for Joey, but he really enjoys the various services and really doesn't get stressed out about it. Clara was born during Holy Week on the Wednesday before Easter in 2011. Of all the times we could have had a baby, we had to have her during one of the busiest church holidays! It's hard to believe that was almost three years ago. Where does the time go?

EASTER EGGS!

We hope you have a wonderful Spring with beautiful, warm weather, and we wish you a very Happy Easter!
Until next post,
Joey, Erin and Clara

OUR FRIEND "SKIPPY SQUIRREL" EATING ON THE DECK.

January/February 2014 Update

Calvary Church, February 2014

Dear Family and Friends,
We have been having quite the winter here in Connecticut. According to locals, we have had more snow this winter than CT has seen in recent years, and we have experienced unusually cold temperatures. However, Joey and I really can't complain too much. We both love the snow and get excited about impending snow storms. I guess it's because we both grew up in snowy Minnesota. Also, while CT has seen single digit temperatures a few times during the last couple of months, Minnesotans have been experiencing -30 to -45 degree wind chills.

Joey, Clara and I were able to experience some true Minnesota cold when we flew to Minnesota at the end of January to perform an organ/violin recital at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul. We were supposed to perform in the small chapel as part of the "Elizabeth Chapel Series", but when we arrived the chapel organ was having mechanical problems. It was pretty much unplayable. Fortunately, the church is very large, and it has four pipe organs, so we were able to move the recital to the large Sanctuary, and Joey performed on the Fisk organ. We had to make some balance adjustments, and some of our repertoire choices would have been better on the chapel organ, however the recital went well. We had a good audience, which included a lot of family and friends, and people seemed to enjoy it. We were able to spend a short amount of time at both Joey's parent's house and my parent's house. It was a quick, four-day trip, but we had fun, and the travel all went smoothly. Joey has another recital booked in MN this summer, so we look forward to being back in July.

Picture following our concert in Minnesota.

Clara on her way to a Princess birthday party!

Clara is a busy girl these days. And, as sad as it is to admit, she is definitely not a baby anymore. Recently Joey was trying to put Clara's winter hat on, and she said "Please don't mess up my hair daddy!" Do we have a toddler or a teenager on our hands? Well, she will always be our baby, but her use of language and ability to express herself are more in line with a little girl now, rather than a baby. We started potty training Clara two weeks ago, and she is doing really well with it. She seems to know very clearly when she needs to go, and she always makes it to the potty in time. So far we have done the training at home, but we plan to start training outside of the home very soon. We have a little potty for the car and a travel potty chair that fits over an adult toilet. She is very proud of her potty training. In fact, we were at a resteraunt the other night, and when the owner came over to greet us, she announced proudly for all to hear, "I WENT POO POO ON THE POTTY TODAY!". Fortunately the owner had a good sense of humor.

Clara pretending to paint the wall.

Look at all of the snow Mamma!

Clara practicing her ballet.

Clara is enjoying ballet classes, and is going to perform in the Spring Showcase this coming May. We are not sure what character she will be in the ballet. She could be anything from a flower to a carrot! In January, the ballet school had a parent's week, and we were able to sit and observe the class. It was fun to see all the things Clara is learning, and since we were alowed to bring cameras, we have both pictures and video to enjoy.

Clara is such a sweet, happy girl. She will be three years old this Easter Sunday, April 20th! She recently got her acceptance letter from Calvary Nursery School, so she will be attending school two days a week beginning this fall. We think she is going to really love school. She enjoys being around other kids and keeping busy with projects and activities.

Clara's heart decorations displayed in the kitchen.

Clara's "Make A Plate" Art from the Library now hanging in her room.

Clara is a good helper. She always puts her laundry away when asked.

This time of year is challenging when you have a young child. It's cold and snowy, and there are not many activities to do unless you go somewhere indoors where you will inevitably pick up germs. We do visit the library pretty regularly, and I try to keep art and craft activities in the house. Clara had fun preparing for Valentine's Day by making heart decorations. We stayed home for Valentine's Day this year. Joey made a delicious dinner, and Clara had fun playing with her big balloon from daddy.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Joey and I are keeping busy with our work. I have added a couple of new students, and I have a nice lesson schedule that works well for Joey, Clara and me. We have our Mondays off again this semester, and we try to do something fun as a family on those days. Joey has several recitals coming up in March, along with a trip to Tennessee with members of the organ installation committee to see the shop where the new Calvary organ will be built. Joey will play some of the shop's completed organs for the shop concert, which is open to the public. During last summer and fall, Joey and the organ committee traveled around visiting different pipe organs built by some of the world's best organ builders. We also hosted a few builders at our house while they took measurements, came up with ideas for designs, and met with the organ committee members. Now that a contract has been signed with Richards Fowkes Company, it is exciting to learn more about the new instrument for Calvary, and it will be interesting to watch as the process of creating the instrument begins to unfold.

Lucy likes the snow too! 

Resting with daddy during a snow storm.

Joey's homemade Italian meatball soup for a cold winters night.

We hope you have stayed healthy and happy during these cold winter months. As much as I like snow, I am starting to get the itch for Spring. We had one 50-degree day this past weekend, and it was so nice for Clara to get outside and play on the playground.

Clara loves the snow!

Until next post,
Joey, Erin and Clara