Autumn time!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sorry I am behind with my monthly blogging. September started with a bang, and we have been going like crazy without much down time. 

Joey is back in full swing with Calvary Church duties, Calvary Music School business and teaching and performing. At the beginning of September, Joey presented a recital and lecture about the historic Hook organ at United Church in Stonington. The church is located a few blocks from Calvary Church, and the instrument is beautiful. Joey is going to record some organ solo music there soon, and we may also record a piece for organ and violin.

Joey performing on the Hook organ at United Church, Stonington.

 Joey's choristers presented an Evensong service in collaboration with choristers from a church in Hartford last month. It's amazing how much Joey's choristers have matured in their singing. It was a moving service and his children's program continues to grow. It will be fun when Clara is old enough to join the group. She certainly loves to sing!

Joey and our wonderful Curate Emily making announcements at Calvary.

I have been keeping busy with 23 violin students. I teach everyday now except for Sundays and Mondays. I really enjoy my students, and I enjoy the challenge of teaching everything from beginning violin students to advanced, as well as adult students. I also really enjoy taking care of Clara when I am not teaching,k and it makes me bit sad to think that she will be starting nursery school this time next fall. I think my work load right now is just right, because it allows me to do what I enjoy professionally, but also to have a lot of time with Clara.

One of my sweet beginning students.

Joey and I both have an active performance year coming up. Next Sunday we will give a recital of violin and organ music in Killingworth, CT at a small Episcopal church in the woods. The church has a beautiful tracker organ and a nice acoustic. For more information click in the following link: 

http://churchinthewilderness.org/Calendar.html

I will provide a list of upcoming performances in a separate blog.

Clara is doing great. She will be two and a half on October 20th. She has started back to ballet class and is in a group with mostly 3-4 year olds. She has moved to a more advanced class which means mommy and daddy are not allowed to be in the class and observe. She does great being in the class without us, but we really wish we could watch her in the class. She always comes out of the dance room with a huge grin on her face, so we know she is enjoying it. Her language continues to grow in leaps and bounds. She talks quite a bit and loves to learn new things. Right now we are studying different types of leaves out of a book from the library. She can recognize and name about 10 different species of leaves. She still takes a nice afternoon nap everyday and sleeps well at night. 

First day of ballet class!

Running to class. So excited!

I am glad that Joey and I have kept Mondays free for family time. We really need that day to recover from a busy week and enjoy doing fun things together. In spite of the fact that we have all suffered from colds this month, we have been able to do many interesting things. Some of our recent Monday activities have included; A trip to Block Island, visiting Holmberg Orchards and Clyde's Cider Mill, touring the Stonington Lighthouse Museum, various trips to different play grounds, and taking scenic drives to quaint New England towns. We have had a lot of fun on our days off.

Stonington Lighthouse Museum. 

On the ferry to Block Island.

Playing on the beach at Block Island.

Clara in apple cider trance!

Fun in Jamestown, RI.

Clara is growing!

 I was hoping the work on Calvary House would be complete by now, but the house is still in the process of being painted. It has been a bit chaotic having so many workers outside and sometimes inside our house. During one week we actually had to move out of our house because the fumes were too overpowering and not healthy for us to breath. Fortunately we have wonderful friends who were willing to put us up and take care of us for a few days. The house is going to be really beautiful when it is finished. The back and sides of the house are pretty much done leaving only the front side to be completed.

Learning about shapes.

 October is going well so far. My parents and aunt and uncle are here visiting at the moment, and Joey's mom will arrive on the 19th and stay for two weeks. I will be celebrating a big birthday on the 19th, when I turn 30 years old. Wow, I can't believe I'm going to be 30. I don't have any bad feelings about turning 30. In fact, I am the happiest in my life now that I have ever been. I have so many wonderful things to be thankful for, and I look forward to the years to come.

Clara loves Lucy!

I will try not to be so late with my October blog. We are having a beautiful fall here in Connecticut. The weather has been mild and sunny for the most part, and the colors on the trees this year are really vibrant. We recently had fall family photos taken, and they turned out really well. I will share some in the October blog.

We hope you are enjoying the month.
Until next post,
Joey, Erin and Clara

Clara's pumpkins.

Fun at the Orchard!

Dear Family and Friends,
It's been a super busy month and I have a lot to blog about, but it's going to have to wait a few more days. For now, I will give you some fun pictures to enjoy from our recent "Fall Fun Day Monday" trip to Holmberg Orchards. We have Mondays off this year, so we try to make the most of them and enjoy little trips here and there. We are experiencing beautiful fall weather here in Connecticut, and we hope you are also loving this wonderful time of year. Watch for the September blog post coming soon and happy October!

Joey, Erin and Clara



See how Clara has grown since last year!

2012

2013

Fun in the pumpkin patch!

Apple Picking!

Lost in the corn!

Family Fun!

Goodbye Summer.

Stonington Borough, August 2013.

Dear Family and Friends,
Stonington is truly a spectacular place during the summer. I could easily spend hours watching sailboats come in and out of the harbor, or listening to the lapping of the ocean waves on the shore. The Borough is so alive with people shopping, enjoying the various restaurants or walking down Water Street to swim or relax at Dubois beach down at the point. Growing up in Minnesota, I always enjoyed summer very much. Some of my best memories are from spending time at the lake cabin of some of our dear family friends.There is something about the ocean, however, that is intoxicating and magnificent. Maybe it's the salt in the air, or the cry of the seagulls, but it leaves a lasting impression. I treasure the past two summers that we have been able to live in Stonington and enjoy such a beautiful community. I love that Clara goes to bed at night humming along with the fog horn, and Stonington is always a wonderful place to share with family and friends. So now I feel a bit sad having to say goodbye to summer. It was a good one.

We have stayed busy this month with teaching, choir camp, and other various projects. Joey took time to fix up the guest room in our attic. It was dirty and unpainted, and not a very welcoming place to be, but now it is a nice, cheerful room and we have already had guests use it. 

Joey has also been cooking some fabulous meals lately, including a lobster and sweet corn chowder. It was delicious!

Fresh lobster from the local sea food market and sweet corn from a farm stand.

Yum!!!

We have also had a lot of fun doing things as a family, such as swimming, going to the beach, visiting the Providence zoo, going on picnics, and enjoying our vegetable garden. We grew tomatoes, basil, green and red peppers, and green beans this year. Joey has experience with canning, so we spent last weekend and this weekend canning various vegetables, as well as making fruit jams. We canned 81 jars of various jams and vegetables! It was actually a lot of fun, and Clara and I are both very much looking forward to the canned dill pickles, since we both love them.

Clara's upgraded pool at our house.

Enjoying a friend's pool with an awesome view.

Clara's arts and crafts.

Two love-struck Giraffes at the zoo.

Picnic Time!

A small sample of our canning.

Vegetables from our garden.

As I sit and write this blog, there is noisy pounding happening on the outside of our house (Calvary House.) The house is in the process of being completely fixed up on the outside. It has needed a lot of work for quite some time. The exciting thing is, once the outside of the house is fixed, it is going to be repainted to look more like it did historically. Word on the street is that it's going to be white with some kind of iridescent blue trim which picks up the stones of the church. The color of the shutters is still being debated. It is going to be so much more beautiful than the current grey color, although we will miss referring to it as the "haunted house." Once it is all done, I will be sure to include a picture. Hopefully it will go quickly, since Clara is having a hard time napping with this pounding going on.

Practicing Piano.

Clara is talking a mile a minute these days. She is so interested in the world around her. She loves to be silly and laugh, and she is an extremely physical child. She continues to enjoy dancing and will return to ballet classes soon. This year she will be in a class with 3 and 4 year olds, and while I have no doubt she will be able to do all the moves, I hope she does ok relating to the other kids. We will see how it goes. Clara can also be quite serous, and will sometimes become very fixated on an activity or sit and observe other kids. I see both Joey and myself in her, depending on her mood. She is definitely our child.  

Practicing for ballet class.

Clara's serious face.

We are looking forward to the fall and are excited about the things we have lined up. It is going to be an extremely busy fall. Joey will of course maintain his full-time duties at Calvary Church, as well as his part-time position as Artistic Director of Calvary Music School and the piano and organ teaching he is doing. He is still acting as dean of the New London American Guild of Organist (AGO) chapter, and he also has several organ/piano recitals lined up as a soloist, and in collaboration with me as the "Ripka Duo". Our first recital is in October and will be a violin and organ program. We also have two other recitals scheduled in CT and MN. In between our joint recitals, Joey has several solo organ recitals and organ presentations lined up. I will give more details in the next blog for those of you who are local and might like to come to some of these events. 

I am expecting to have anywhere from 18-23 private students registered for lessons this fall, which begin on September 3rd. I will be teaching Tuesday, Thursday (every other week), and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Joey will teach Wednesdays and Thursdays along with his Wednesday evening chorister and adult choir rehearsals. He will also lead hand bell rehearsals on Thursday mornings. Somehow Joey and I have managed to make our schedules work and still have Mondays off for family time. We don't really have weekends free for obvious reasons. Trying to fit practice time in with everything else is usually the biggest challenge, but somehow we make it work.

We hope you have had a wonderful summer and that you have a nice start to fall.
Till next post...
Joey, Erin and Clara

Our sweet, energetic 2 year old.