First Communion

This has been an exciting year for our family, spiritually speaking. We have had Matthew's Baptism, Ben's First Reconciliation, and now First Communion! But before it was Ben's turn, it was Caroline's turn! Unfortunately, I have no pictures of her in her dress, but I assure you she looked beautiful. We got caught up in a bit of traffic leaving the Church and by the time we got back to their house she had already changed :(  But Mama Kay got in some Matthew time back at the house.

Caroline opening up her presents.  Congratulations Caroline!!

Aunt Domi and Matthew.

The very next weekend was Ben's turn!  But before the big day, Mama Kay and Papa and Madgie and Patch came over on Friday to have some fun.  After a few rounds of musical chairs, they started playing Simon Says.

And then Uncle Chris, Aunt Ginny and Brendan came and Ben played some catch with Uncle Chris!

Saturday morning, up and ready early because mass started at 9:30.  Here I am with my very handsome first born!

And the required silly picture...

Proud parents with Ben.

Silliness.

We actually got to the Church early (wow!) and waited.

Ben processing in!

 Pictures were not allowed during the mass, but they did have a school photographer there who took some pictures.  We were very lucky that she got great pictures of Ben getting his First Communion!  I downloaded these from the school website!
 

 

And after mass ended (and they sang a great song), Ben was very happy and we took some pictures with his friends.

With Fr. Gilbert

Fr. Matt

His teacher, Ms. Dray

Ben and Caroline

This was his communion person that he had to make.

Congratulations Ben!

Ben with Uncle Chris, his Godfather!  We were so glad you could come for it Uncle Chris, thank you!

Ben in front of the Church

One of his best buds, Nick

Family shot!

Mama Kay and Papa with their two First Communicants!

With Madgie and Patch

Us again.  It was such a nice mass and everything went so smoothly.  Ben was perfectly behaved and really excited about it.  We are still getting used to the fact that Ben can now receive - it catches Paul and I off guard when he goes to get communion every Sunday.  We both have a moment of panic of wanting to pull him aside, but then remember that he is that old now!  It is special to watch your child get his First Communion, but just as special to watch him get his second and third and fourth...

Back at the house, ready to party!  Ben requested Italian Beef Sandwiches, so we got some catered Portillos!

And we let Ben light his Baptismal Candle!  I read somewhere to light the candle for all the sacraments and I loved that idea.  I guess it used to be tradition and then when that person dies you are supposed to light the candle and let it burn until it extinguishes on its own.  I hope I can remember to light it for confirmation and Ben's wedding to keep the tradition going!

And Ben's cross cake. This was the cake pan that he begged me to get for Matthew's baptism so we could use it for his First Communion too...and then he wanted an ice cream cake instead!  I told him I would be making him a cake, so we bought ice cream to have on the side, but then totally forgot about the ice cream when we were having cake!  Oh well. 

With everyone hanging out for the rest of the day, the men decided it would be a good time to set up our playset that had just been delivered that week!  Thank you all so much for your help!

Gifts

And once Brendan got up from his nap he got to play outside with his favorite thing...lots of balls!

Pretty Abbey

The kids were so excited to "help" get the playset up!

Father and son working together!

Aunt Ginny and Brendan eating a snack!

A better shot of the Baptismal candle.

Oh what a cutie pie :)

The next day was Mother's Day.  We went to mass early and Ben got to wear his suit again.  He got to process in with Fr. Matt, who brought the kids (only 3 of them at 8:30 mass) up on the altar, introduced them to the congregation and gave them a round of applause.  It was very nice.  After Ben's second communion, we had everyone over for a nice brunch.

Aunt Ginny got to spend some time with her Godson, Matthew!

Madgie and Matthew.

This picture cracks me up - obviously Matthew did not like what Patch was saying to him!

Oh, I guess that Patch guy isn't too bad after all...

More fun with Brendan before they had to leave. 

Everyone left on Sunday.  We want to thank everyone who traveled to be here with us for this wonderful weekend.  It certainly meant a lot to us, and Ben, to have you here for this special occasion.  And thank you to Ben's Godmother Aunt Theresa, who couldn't be here, but she let us know she was thinking of us and sent us a very nice basket of cookies and treats to enjoy throughout the weekend!

Ben turns 8

I was going back through the blog and realized that I never updated it for when Ben went to the doctor for his 8 year wellness check. He weighed in at 64 pounds and was 51 3/4 inches tall, putting him in the 75th and 70th percentile respectively.  Ben has had a fairly good year.  He has been working hard to prepare for his First Communion (more on that later) and he was very excited to learn cursive this year in school!  He continues to enjoy math and science and his handwriting continues to be his biggest weakness.  Although I am hoping that his interest in cursive will help change that a little bit!  Ben really enjoys playing sports and can get a bit competitive at times.  He has really upped his soccer game this year and loves to play goalkeeper.  He is very into reading and will read pretty much anything, which is a great quality.  He is currently reading the third Harry Potter book and enjoying that series very much.  He continues to be a class clown in school, which does get him into a bit of trouble, but his teachers really like him and tell us he is very bright and insightful when he is participating in class discussions.  He is a great big brother and it has brought me so much joy to see him interacting with his brother.  He is an amazing kid and we love spending every day being his parents.