Things Missed - Part 1

I'm going to start a short series of posts called "Things Missed." This is the first entry of that series. The purpose is to share some important events in my life that took place during the time that I was not posting on my blog. Most of these events were happy, but one was not. I'm calling them "Things Missed" for a couple of reasons: the first reason is that I missed the opportunity to share them. Sharing these events and the few pictures I take of them is something I like to do; it was one of the reasons I started this blog. The other reason is that you, the handful of readers of this blog, missed them. Some of you readers are family and already shared these events with me in person. But to those of you who only know me through this blog, I want to share these events with you too.

Nina's First Communion

In the Catholic faith, Communion, or more appropriately, receiving the Blessed Eucharist, is one of the seven sacraments.  If one is raised in the Catholic Church as a child, they typically receive their First Communion at about 7 years of age.  Nina has been attending religious education classes for two years now, and has been learning about Jesus, and learning her prayers, and learning all the other things about the Catholic faith that is taught to children. When I went through it - it was called Catechism.  In other faiths, it's sometimes referred to as Sunday School.

After much preparation, the day finally came when Nina was ready.  Here are a few pictures we took of the day.  First up is Nina and Brady.  (yes, Brady does have a piercing above his eyebrow.  This was a birthday present we granted him when he turned 14)

Here we all are squinting in the bright May sun light. We received many compliments on Nina's dress.

Here she is by herself:

The church frowns on lavish parties for First Communion recipients.  They actually have several rules particularly with regard to attire.  The girls' dresses must meet a certain standard, and are required to be approved in advance.  During the parent meetings that took place in the months prior to the big day, we were instructed on what is appropriate.  I recall the coordinators telling us "these are not bridesmaids".  We (err, Laura) planned a party, but kept it appropriate.  Her big thing is decorations.  Here is a gift bag from the party that was given to all the child guests, complete with some religious articles:

And here is our backyard with the borrowed EZ-ups and rented tables and chairs.  Thanks to our friend Liz for the butterfly decorations and the purple ribbony stuff you see.  (I don't know what it's called, I'm not in charge of decorations)

So that's it for my first installment. Please check back when you are bored and have run out of interesting blogs to read and maybe I'll have another Things Missed post for you.