Kindergarten Mass @ SMG

Most of you know that Ethan attends St. Maria Goretti Catholic Private School (SMG). As such, he gets a religious education along with his regular education. Part of this includes attending mass every Thursday morning with the entire school at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church next to the school. Each week a different class, group of teachers, or school organization "hosts" the mass. This means that they do the opening annoucements, read the scripture readings, do the prayers of the faithful, and bring up the offering.

Last week the kindergarten classes hosted the mass so Claudia and I made a point to attend. It was so cute to see the little kids go up to the lectern and stand on a stool (because they are so short you know) to do their reading. Each student that had a reading part either had a teacher with them or another fifth grade student to help them in case they get stuck (each kindergarten student is assigned a fifth grade buddy at the beginning of the year and they help them with bigger projects periodically throughout the year). They are just learning to read after all.

Ethan's part in the mass was to help carry one of the six quilts that were being offered during the mass to help needy families. Two of the quilts were made up of clothe patches with a hand print from each student in the class. The rest of the patches and the other four quilts were made from cloth donations sent in by parents earlier in the year. One parent spent many hours making these quilts and we really appreciate her for this.

After the mass was officially over, the kindergarten class stood on the steps of the alter and sang a song for the assembly which was very cute. Ethan, as usual, didn't participate very much. He stood up there and did some of the movements but didn't sing a word. He likes singing, just not in front of a lot of people.

Below are a few shots from the mass and singing afterwards. Some of the photos didn't turn out really clear due to zooming in so much (They made the parents sit in the back and sides of the church).

Rocky and the Star Student

Ethan's kindergarten class has a program called Star Student where one student each week gets to be the Star Student. This entails taking the class bear, Rocky, home for the week and doing activities with him and then documenting them in a journal. Needless to say, Ethan was the Star Student last week.

The first event that Rocky attended with us was the wedding that I posted about last week (see previous post). He sat with Ethan at the Pizza/Donut place afterward and slept with him that night.

We didn't have much opportunity all week to do other activities so we took some pictures at home and then we finally took Rocky with us on an adventure to the mall on Thursday evening before Ethan had to return him on Friday. Christian really liked Rocky and spent as much time playing with him as Ethan did.

First Rocky ate dinner with us at the food court then we took him to Barnes and Noble where he enjoyed reading some Captain Underpants.
Next we went to Build-a-Bear to try on some clothes. He really liked the leather jacket, sunglasses, and motorcycle. I think he is a rebel at heart.

While at Build-a-Bear, Rocky met a celebrity. Check it out below.

Finally, we stopped at Gamestop where Rocky played a little PS3 while Ethan looked at games to buy.

On the way home, we stopped at CVS and printed out a few photos for the journal and then Claudia wrote in the journal for Ethan at home. It is supposed to be written like a diary from the perspective of Rocky so Ethan's teacher can read it to the class on the Friday before picking a new Star Student.

We really enjoyed having Rocky stay with us and hope that he has fun with the next Star Student.

The Paz-Ronderos Wedding

Last Friday, January 8, we attended the wedding of Claudia's uncle Mauricio and his fiance Eliana Maria Ronderos. He got divorced last year from his first wife and started communicating online and via phone with and old friend in Colombia that he has known since he was little. They started to hit it off so she decided to come here for a while to see if it could work. Long story short, it worked out and they got married on Friday evening at 5:00 PM. Her name is Eliana and she is a wonderful girl. Mauricio and her make a great couple.

They called Claudia earlier in the week to see if Ethan could be the ring bearer in the wedding and of course we said yes. He did a very good job of taking care of the rings. Here he is up front as the priest blesses the rings.

Since all of Eliana's family still live in Colombia and could not make it to the wedding, she made arrangements to use her laptop to connect with them via Skype so they could watch the ceremony and some of the reception. I was in charge of the laptop so it would stay connected and pointing at the happy couple during the ceremony. It was a little difficult since the camera was built into the laptop near the top of the monitor but I managed to keep the image on them so her family could enjoy the wedding. I carried the laptop, while still connected to her family, into the reception room but the signal strength in there was weaker so we kept loosing the connection. Eliana managed to talk with them a bit and introduce all of us to them as well before we decided to give up on the connection and just enjoy the reception. Below are a few photos from the reception.

It was a fun night but we were still a little hungry afterwards so we went to eat nearby after we left the reception. There was a pizza and donuts place just across the street from the church that was pretty good.

(There will be a future post about the bear in the picture above with Ethan.)

All in all, we had a fun evening and we are glad to welcome Eliana into the family. We look forward to seeing her at all of the family gatherings.

Promotion

Most of you don't know but I got a promotion at work recently. I have been with Bass Enterprises for just over four years as a Treasury Manager. I decided to discuss things with my boss late last year and as a result, I received a promotion to Assistant Treasurer as of January 1, 2010. It came with a decent raise (considering the economy) and a membership to the City Club Fort Worth here in downtown Fort Worth (which is owned by Bass). I am really looking forward to being able to workout there and Claudia is excited about the childcare available on Friday and Saturday nights while we eat a nice dinner in the Club. To eat without children every once in a while will be wonderful.

My Last Day Off of 2009

Last Monday, December 28, I took the day off of work so I could spend some additional time with my family (and because it was my last vacation day at work and if I don't use it, I lose it). We decided to go to the newly remodeled Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Not realizing just how big the place is and how much time it would take to see it, we didn't get there until about 2:30 PM (It closes at 5:00 PM). We went right to the first area we saw that had all kinds of activities for the kids to participate in that would teach them about aerodynamics, electricity, and build their creativity.

First, Claudia helped Ethan cut a paper cup into a shape that would fly up a wind tunnel they had available.

Then I helped Ethan clip electric objects to a hand crank that would generate electricity to power the different objects. We lite up a light bulb, turned a propeller, and ran a small fan. It was pretty cool.

Finally, Ethan and Claudia started inserting objects into a peg board to create their own obstacle course for a rolling ball. They had lots of fun doing this while I watched Christian who had just woken up from his nap.

After that one room, we moved on to another area that had lots of other cool activities for kids and adults. There was this one teenager building a giant tower from little wooden sticks. The tower made it to about 8 inches taller than in the photo below before it fell.

Claudia and Ethan decided to build some towers of their own. Claudia built hers to about her height before we let Christian, aka "Destructobaby", knock it down. He took one swipe with his hand across the base and it fell to pieces. I didn't even have to tell him to do it. I just set him down next to it and he looked it over and took a swing. He did help pick up the pieces though.

We found one last area before the museum closed that was just for kids. It had a REALLY LARGE train set that I know my Godson, Ben, would really have enjoyed. Christian especially liked it.

Since we didn't get to enjoy the whole place, we decided to buy a membership so we could come back as much as we want all year.

After we left the museum, we went to the original Kincaid's Hamburgers on Camp Bowie to get dinner. If you have never had a Kincaid's burger, you are really missing something. After dinner, it was dark enough to go look at Christmas lights that people still had up. There is this one house that always does their entire yard and home every year and it is the most popular house in Fort Worth to look at during the holidays. Claudia and the kids thought it was beautiful along with the other houses we saw in the rich neighborhoods of Fort Worth. Unfortunately, we were so awestruck that we forgot to take any pictures.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.