Living Rosary

Our school has a beautiful tradition. Each year when the 2nd graders recieve the sacrament of First Holy Communion, the 2nd grade class participates in a Living Rosary. The girls and boys dress up in their First Communion outfits and they take turns saying the Hail Marys and Our Fathers. They usually need a few more students, so they pick one person from each grade to represent that grade in the Living Rosary. Lucy got chosen as the 1st grade representative. What an honor! This has made her even more excited for HER First Communion next year!

Lucy's Field Trip!

I got to be a MOM and go on a field trip with Lucy's class.
It was so much fun. I get to go on a lot of field trips, but I am usually in teacher mode. This time I just got to it back and soak it all in. Of course I had to take a half day of one of my 2 personal days to go, but it was well worth it!

Lucy's class went to our city works day. The kids got to go to lots of different stations to learn about all of the public works (garbage, sewage, police, fire, traffic etc.)

Wicked (and Mothers Day)

Lucy and I had an AMAZING mother/daughter evening. We got to go to the play "Wicked" together. It was such an awesome production and we were both very impressed and entertained. We also had a chance to go get some dessert together after the show. What fun!

Mother's Day was so nice this year. The McCarthy's invited us to their country club for a delicious brunch. The kids and Pancho spoiled me with flowers and gifts too. I felt very loved and appreciated :).

Annora's May Day Tea Party

Lucy's friend Annora has an annual May Day Tea Party.
It is so cute with tea cups, flower basket making, cupcakes and even a May Day pole.
I love watching my little girl with this adorable and sweet group of friends.

Easter 2011

Easter was a little bit quiet for us this year.  We spent Easter with just our little family of five!  Although I missed the usual chaos of extended family, it was kind of nice to spend our first holiday ever with just us.  I actually made Easter Dinner for the first time in my life too! The reason that we were "Home Alone" this year was because I was leaving the next morning for New Orleans and Pancho sponsored our good friend Michael Heer into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil the night before.  Mom and Dad headed up  to Portland for the usual Easter at my cousin Michele's House.  All in all it was a fun and relaxing day.



New Orleans!!!

I was so excited when I heard that the National Catholic School  Teachers Conference  was going to be in New Orleans.  It is a city that I have always wanted to visit. Only 2 teachers from our school get to go each year, and since this is only my second year at my school, I thought that my chances were pretty slim at getting chosen.  It was such an honor to get to go and even more exciting that I got to go with my good friend April who teaches preschool at O'Hara!

What are the chance that our hotel (Embassy Suites) would be located on the corner of Julia and Fulton Streets? It surely was meant to be that I go on this trip!

The conference was Tuesday thru Thursday, but we flew on Monday and Friday.  Even though I was very excited to go  on this adventure, it was very hard for me to leave my family for that long.  I missed them a lot, but they seemed to adjust to "Daddy time" just fine :).

Our hotel was beautiful.  It was decorated like the French Quarter inside.  Each night they had a "Happy Hour" (which April and I never missed) and contintental breakfast every morning.

This is the one of  the most famous places in New Orleans.  It is called Jackson Square in the middle of the French Quarter.  The beautiful St. Louis Cathedral is in the background.

Pat O'Briens is a popular restaurant and bar in the Frenchh Quarter that serves their famous drink "the hurricane".  Yum!

Whenever I told people that I was going to New Orleans, most of the people who had been there before, told me that I needed to go have a begniet at Cafe du Monde.  April and I loved it so much, we went back 2 more times!  Begniets are a deep fried pastry covered in powdered sugar.

We took a tour through town on a carriage like this one!

We took a river boat dinner cruise up the Mississippi River. It was a warm beautiful evening!

Dancing to  Jazz band on top of the River Boat

Me, Josh (St. Paul PE Teacher) and April

The above ground graves were so interesting to look at.

They bury their dead above ground because the city is below sea level.

We took a city tour that took us through the Ninth Ward.

This area was hit hardest by Hurrican Katrina 5 years ago and it is still a long way from back to normal.

Then we went to the Garden  District where many celebrities own homes.

This house is owned by Sandra Bullock.

This is the house that Eli and Peyton Manning grew up in!

Here we are on our horse and carriage ride and tour.

This was our driver Tulu!  He was so funny and entertaining.

Bourbon Street was Amazing!

What a super, fun and amazing trip. It was very much out of my comfort zone to leave my family and class for a whole week.  I have learned that sometimes it is good to step out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself, I am sure glad that I did. Everyone at home survived just fine without me :), and I made some great memories!