Mari made these in her homeschool enrichment classes. Good stuff.
Church Involvement
For the past few years we have been attending church at Holy Trinity, in Beaverdale. It is a nice, small church with a great community and a great priest. Over the years we have become more involved at church. Susan and I lead Children’s Liturgy every couple of months, we volunteer at education events, and I help direct the annual Good Friday Passion reading. This past Sunday Mari and Andrew got into the action, acting as Altar Servers for the first time. They did a great job!
Mari’s Birthday
Today we celebrated Mari’s 10th birthday. The Beinkempers, Liesses, and Reagens came over in the evening for some Skyline, cake, and presents.
Mari at 10 is developing in a smart, helpful young lady. Mari has always understood people, and the world, and I continue to see that developing. She is often insightful and creative. Often when we are driving in the car she will randomly share something she has been thinking about or a new idea she has come up with.
Mari is still up pretty early, but usually when she wakes up she likes to lay in bed and read until Lucia wakes up. Then she will help Lucia downstairs. Mari likes toast for breakfast, and she is in love with mustard. She is eating more yellow mustard than I have ever seen anyone eat. What she is not doing, is eating it outside. She is refusing to eat outside this summer, because there are too many bugs. Mari is in bed at 9:30 these days. Normally that would be 9:00, but she is insisting on 9:30 because it is summer. She share a bed with Lucia and helps Lucia fall asleep every night.
Favorites
Color: Blue
Song: Honey, I’m Good
Food: Skyline
Mari Singing
Mari Plays Jingle Bells
White Christmas?
It isn’t looking like it is going to be a White Christmas, but the kids at least got to play with a little bit of snow this morning!
Mari Plays the Violin
Today Mari had her first violin lesson. I didn’t get to go to the lesson and it was great to hear the sound of the violin in the house!
Mari Playing the Violin
Mari gets a Violin and Lucia is a Pickle
in 3rd grade we like the kids to start learning an instrument. Andrew has been taking piano lessons for almost 2 years now and Mari has decided to start the violin. We went to the music store today to get her violin and now it is off to the races. Not really. We can’t even figure out how to make a sound. Mari has her first lesson tomorrow.
In other news, Susan and I had dinner with some friends tonight and Erin watched the kids for us, including Lucia. When Erin asked the kids, “Who made this mess?” Lucia answered “Pickle.” She thinks her name is pickle, which is what Susan calls her sometimes. if you ask her what her name is, she says “Pickle.” Hilarious.
Mahoney State Park
Monday and Tuesday of this past week we made a quick trip to Mahoney State Park. Monday evening we celebrated Joe’s graduation then on Tuesday we hit the pool and watched some soccer.
Mari’s 9th Birthday
Today we celebrated Mari’s 9th birthday! It was a fun day, with swimming in the afternoon and then the Reagens and Liesses over for some Skyline for dinner.
I was looking back at Mari’s bio from her 8th birthday and not much has changed. She continues to be on a very consistent schedule, waking around 7:30 or 8 and going to bed at 9. Of course, as she gets older there is more variability here. Her favorite food is “I don’t know.” Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite song is Royals.
Mari is going into 3rd grade next year and she likes language arts, which for us means reading stories and then drawing a picture from the story and writing a short summary.
Mari Get Her Ears Pierced!
Today we are back in Des Moines after a busy weekend and it is a big day for Mari! For a few months she has been asking to get her ears pierced for her 9th birthday and this afternoon we went for it! She was definitely a little scared, but she kept telling us that she wanted to do it. In the end she followed through and her ears look great!
We got her ears pierced a the Pink Elephant, which is a tattoo parlor in Ankeny. They do a great job with kids and know what they are doing. It was an interesting experience for the kids as there was a lot to learn about.
Mari’s Haircut
Mari has been wanting short hair for a while, but we all agreed to wait until after her First Communion. Two days later, she went for it.
