A New Routine

Stonington is so beautiful this time of year!

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post. This time I actually have a good excuse. At the beginning of May, Clara decided to stop napping. She didn't do it gradually. She literally went from sleeping 3 hours every afternoon to not sleeping at all. We tried many things to keep the nap in place, but they all failed, and after a while it wasn't worth a fight. Nap time used to be blog time for me. Clara goes to bed earlier now than she did when she was napping, but honestly, by the time she is asleep my body and brain are fried, and all I want to do is go to bed. I will attempt to cover the month of May and beginning of June in this post. Things have been really good. We took a fun family vacation in the middle of June, which I will write about in my next post. It's taken a little while to adjust to our new "no nap" routine, so forgive me for the delay! 

This was the bun I did for Clara's dress rehearsals.

This is Clara's professional bun the day of the performance!

Clara is doing great. The month of May was spent taking Clara to her usual ballet class as well as several long and intense dress rehearsals leading up to the end-of-the-year showcase performance. I volunteered to be a chaperone for the final two dress rehearsals, and I had no idea what I was getting into. At one rehearsal, a few mothers didn't bother to show, up even though they had agreed to be chaperones, so I was told that I would be taking care of 10 three and four-year-old girls all on my own. I was responsible for making sure they all used the potty, ate their snacks, got their costumes and make-up on, and lined up in order for the run through. My stress level was intense, and I was so thankful when another mother stepped in to help me. She must have sensed how nervous I was. I love kids, but don't ever ask anyone to take care of 10 little girls all at once, especially when they are dealing with costumes and make-up application. The showcase ended up going really well. Clara looked so sweet in her bluebell costume, and she did a good job up on stage. We were not allowed to video tape or take pictures of the performance, so we are waiting to get the DVD in the mail, that we purchased from the ballet school. A few times I questioned whether putting Clara through the long, intense dress rehearsals was really worth it, but she continues to talk about her performance to this day, and wears her bluebell costume around the house all of the time. I think it was a really good experience. 

Clara dancing on the big stage!

Congrats sweet bluebell!

Celebrating a great debut!

Clara has had some "firsts" recently. Her first ballet recital, first trip to the dentist, first nightmare (she now has dream catchers in her bedroom windows), first viewings of Disney movies like "Pinnochio" and "Beauty and the Beast", first time on a tricycle. It's fun to see her try new things. She went through a time when she was fearful of loud trucks and other noises, but she has moved past that now. Clara talks all of the time, and we love hearing the things she has to say. When she gets in trouble or has to go to "time out" she always wants to sit and talk about what happened after the upset is over. She tells us multiple times a day that she loves us, and she gives a lot of hugs and kisses. Clara has taken the elements up to the alter for communion during church services twice now. She walks all the way from the back pew to the front holding the cup and then hands the cup of wafers to an acolyte and walks back down the aisle. She focuses so well and holds the cup very carefully. Sometimes she seems a lot older than three, although she definitely has her three year old moments too!

Mother's Day 2014

Father's Day 2014

The Calvary Music School year ended for Joey and me at the beginning of May with the Spring solo recitals. Fortunately Clara waited to drop her nap until after the semester ended, so we could adjust our schedules in order to continue with make-up lessons. I had so many snow days, sick days, and away days this year that I continued to teach make-up lessons up until the beginning of June. It is a relief to finally be finished with them. Joey's adult choir rehearsal, chorister rehearsals and hand bell rehearsals have all come to an end at this point, and we are enjoying having a bit more free time.

Our beautiful church!

This month I have continued quite a bit of summer teaching. I'm really glad that many of my students are continuing with weekly lessons during the summer. They lose so much when they decided to take the summer off. Joey continues to play Sunday services and is doing a lot of planning for the fall.

When we are not busy teaching and practicing, Joey, Clara and I enjoy being outside on the deck, going to the library and playground, going to the beach and state parks, visiting children's museums and exploring new towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"Devil's Hopyard State Park"

"Misquamicut, RI Beach"

Children's Museum in New Haven, CT. Recognize this room?

Audubon's Education Center in Bristol, RI. 

Joey and I celebrated seven years of marriage on June 9th. It's hard to believe it has been that long. Actually, I met Joey when I was 16, and we started "officially" dating when I was 19, so we have been close throughout our adult lives. Joey is a wonderful husband and father, and I am so lucky to have him in my life. It is so special to be able to share your life with your best friend. Joey took me to the Weekapaug Inn in Rhode Island for our anniversary. We had a delicious meal and really enjoyed spending the evening together. Clara was at home having fun with the babysitter. 

Roses from Joey

Seven years and no itch!!!

July is going to be a really interesting month. My parents and aunt and uncle are spending the first week of July with us, celebrating Joey's birthday and the 4th of July. Joey will present the third annual "Stars, Stripes and Pipes" concert of patriotic organ music after the Stonington 4th-of-July parade. On July 5th we, along with my parents, will start a four-day-long drive to Minnesota. Joey is performing an organ recital at Bethel College in Saint Paul, MN on July 14th, so we are excited about that, as well as the chance to visit with Joey's family and other Minnesota friends. If you are a friend or family member in Minnesota, we would love to see you at Joey's concert. It is at 7:30 pm in "Benson Great Hall" on the Bethel campus.

My next post will cover our recent vacation. I have a lot of fun pictures to share. We hope your summer is off to a great start! Stay Tuned...
All the best,
Joey, Erin and Clara

Family "Selfie".

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!