What I've been doing since last I blogged

Life just gets busy sometimes, you know? Here's what I've been up to since my October 5th post:

- The Deac and I became Godparents to little Abraham Joseph. The ceremony was lovely and he was very sweet and cuddly through most of it. The next day he was churched and I took him to Holy Communion for the first time. There are photos in my Flickr account if you'd like to go see. At the last minute, I decided to make little favors for the guests at the baptism out of tulle circles and Jordan almonds. They were closed with thin blue ribbon and a cross charm. I think they came out cute and were super easy to make!

- The girls played soccer. I coached Maura's team. The season is nearly done! Our last game is Saturday. It's actually been a lot of fun, but I don't think I'm going to sign up to coach in the spring. I might consider doing it again in the fall. The girls' soccer photos came out really cute.

- We played several games of Munchkin with our Munchkin-loving friends. We've also spent some fun non-Munchkin time with our non-Munchkin-loving friends.

- I attended a workshop for parents of Suzuki musicians. It was very helpful and encouraging and included loads of ideas for motivating kids to practice and develop a love for music.

- I played on Facebook some. It's fun to get in touch with friends and family I haven't seen or heard from in a while.

- I set up a plan for our evenings and mornings that is helping things get done in a less chaotic manner and we have a new routine that includes all the things we used to forget to do in the rush to get the kids either to bed or out the door in the morning. Now, they get a bath, brush teeth and hair, practice violin, clean up, pick out clothes for next day, get read to, say prayers, every night! And lunches get put together the night before so I'm not consistently late for work every morning.

- The Deac switched to his evening schedule. He now works from 2 pm to midnight 4 days a week. We are all still adjusting, but so far it doesn't seem too bad. He now drops the kids off at daycare in the mornings and gets to spend some time with them then.

- Maura's Godparents got back from their trip to Greece and brought her a cute wooden Pinocchio doll (complete with exchangeable noses!)

- We had our Parent-Teacher conference with Emmelia's kindergarten teacher. She is doing REALLY WELL in Kindergarten. The teacher evaluated each child for verbal ability and expected each one to score a 30 or less.... Emmelia scored a 76.

- Emmelia continued doing karate and got her yellow-striped belt. She's now learning the 20 forms, that has some long Japanese name I can't pronounce (but Emmelia can, at least she comes close).

- Both girls have continued in their Suzuki violin lessons. Maura is, unsurprisingly since she's been exposed at home for 2 years, picking things up really quickly. Emmelia is making strides now that we are practicing more regularly. She is playing her first solo - a variation on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - this weekend at a recital. Her arms are growing and I need to order her a 1/8-size violin.

- Emmelia went on a field trip to a pumpkin farm with her kindergarten class and and friend and I also took the girls to another pumpkin farm last weekend (photos in Flickr).

- My Mom had her annual Art Show at her studio. There are links in my sidebar, so please check them out!

- I had my annual physical for work and am generally healthy. Yeay!

- I volunteered in Emmelia's classroom and listened to kids read and helped with art projects.

- I helped organize and attended a meeting of the local chapter of the Health Physics Society. Tomorrow I'm going to a talk on a radiation incident that happened in Brazil 20 years ago up at CSU.

- I took the girls to the Fall Carnival at Emmelia's elementary school. They had a great time (photos in my Flickr account).

- It snowed, briefly, last weekend. But still, first snow! Maura wanted to make snow angels and was disappointed that she couldn't.

- I helped the girls decorate pumpkins with their "Potato Head" decorations (you guessed it, photos in Flickr account)

- I haven't scrapped much, but did make 3 layouts:
Simply FamilyGrape PickingDecorating Pumpkins (06)- My friend Amy (Doodleboogs at SOTB) decided to stop designing, so I guess I'm back down to 2 CTs. It has been a ton of fun working with Amy and now I'm looking forward to seeing some scrapping from her since she'll have more time on her hands!

- We are preparing for our Disney trip next week and getting really excited for it! I doubt I'll be blogging again until after we're back - so see you next month! Have a safe and happy Halloween!