Disney on Ice

We began our vacation by taking the girls to see Disney on Ice. They loved it! Just tonight, Gabi wanted to give us a show in which she "ice skated" (on our wood floors) about various celebrations ("celebrations" being the theme of Disney on Ice).

Even Katarina enjoyed the show! Actually, she slept through the first part and then woke up to eat, but after that she watched intently. She's such a good baby! Bella wasn't feeling well, so I didn't catch any great pictures, but she liked the show, anyway. All my girls were very well-behaved.

Bella is still talking about the Mad Hatter singing Happy Birthday to "you and you and you!" The girls' favorite part of the show was the princess dance, of course:

Road Trip!
The next day, we started our two-day drive up to Notre Dame for Katarina's baptism. Initially, while we were in the car, Bella kept insisting, "No, I want to go to a trip!" Poor girl knew we had been promising a long road trip to Notre Dame, but she didn't understand what that meant.

I took a few pictures when we stopped for gas.

The girls tried out all the rocking chairs in front of Cracker Barrel.

We broke the 12-hour drive into two days, and we found a hotel (each direction) with a swimming pool for the girls to get a bit of fun exercise between days cooped up in the car. I really liked the Country Inn in Effingham, IL. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of the kids swimming.

On our last day of vacation, we ate lunch at Lambert's in Sikeston, MO.

On the return trip, the girls loved blowing bubbles whenever we had to stop so I could feed the baby. For obvious reasons, I didn't take any pictures, though. Overall, the trip was easy. The girls watched plenty of Kai-Lan and other videos on our DVD player in the new minivan. This far exceeded their usual TV-time allowance, but at least the lessons were good. Gabi wrote down the words to one of Kai-Lan's songs:

"When you cause a problem, here's what you should do: First you say you're sorry, then you help to fix it, too!"

Katarina Lillian's Baptism

Katarina is 2 months old today. One week ago, we baptized her at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. The ceremony was short, intimate, and informal. Several of our friends gathered with us, welcoming her into the Church and promising to guide her spiritually as she grows.

"Katarina Lillian, the Christian community welcomes you with great joy! In it's name, I now claim you for Christ our Savior by the sign of the cross. I will trace that cross on your forehead; I invite your parents, godparents and family members to do the same."

In this sacrament of baptism, Katarina has received the Holy Spirit and the grace to hear and respond to God's voice calling her to the fullness of life. She has been drawn into a community that will help her attune her ears to the voice of the One who calls her to life and to love and to belonging. We pray that she will be strengthened to resist the voices of evil in the world.

"Bathe this child in light."  "Katarina, you have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ... Bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of Heaven."

"Katarina, you have put on Christ; in Him you have been baptized. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!"

Katarina's godparents are our ND friend Cathy and my cousin Jennifer and her husband Ryan. Jennifer and Ryan were unable to attend the baptism, so George served as a proxy godfather. Godparents promise to be examples of faith to inspire Katarina.

Father Jim Foster baptized Katarina for us. As the chaplain of Knott Hall, he lived down the hall from Michael when we were at Notre Dame and said all their dorm Masses. He was also the chaplain of the Glee Club and traveled with them on tour. In addition, he serves in the pre-med program administration since he had been a doctor before receiving the call to the priesthood. With all of those connections to Fr. Jim, we asked him to preside at our wedding six and a half years ago. We were honored to have him celebrate Katarina's baptism with us now.

Before the afternoon baptismal ceremony, we celebrated with a Sunday Brunch at Tippecanoe. Thank you to all our friends and family who joined us in proclaiming, "Yes, we will be there throughout Katarina's life to help her discern what is true and good; to help her discern what is life-giving and what is love-giving; and to help her grow to become the best Katarina Lillian that she can possibly be."

Michael is 30!

Michael turned 30 almost two weeks ago. We had a small family birthday party for him when he came home from work. The girls were very excited to give Daddy his gifts, and Gabi especially enjoyed baking his birthday cake.

Springtime Festival with Uncles

With our recent road trip to Notre Dame for Katarina's baptism, I am a bit behind on blogging. The weekend before our vacation, Uncle Stephen and Uncle Brian came to Little Rock for an impromptu visit because Uncle Stephen wanted to meet baby Katarina.

Gabi and Annabelle put on a show for their uncles using the fireplace as a stage. They each sang their favorite song: "ABC" from Bella and "Hey Diddle Diddle" from Gabi.

On Saturday, Daddy had to work, but the rest of us went to the Springtime Festival at Wildwood Park. When a harpist played live over an outdoor loud speaker, Bella told me that she liked the music. We heard story time in the Asian Garden, followed a moving play about different forms of art, danced around a May Pole, hiked through the gardens, and watched electric trains. Gabi enjoyed sitting by a mini-town and blowing her train whistle as the train passed.

It was an enjoyable day, but spending all morning in the sun tired everyone out!

Of course, Uncle Stephen also spent much time over the weekend reading books with the two older girls. Thanks for coming to visit! We'd love to have you any time.

Circus

The Scimitar Shriner Circus came to Little Rock, and we went with Gabi's friend Isabella. Overall, it was rather disappointing, but the girls were entertained. I did enjoy the acrobat who climbed the long scarves as well as the large group of boys sitting next to us who sang along with "Who Let the Dogs Out" during the dog and pony show. Gabi's favorite part was riding the elephant during intermission. After the circus, the girls listened to a player piano in a cart outside and even got to climb in to check it out.