{Sweet April Endings}

The end of April marks the official countdown to summer vacation. I pulled down my “fancy” family calendar a little early this month because the next few weeks will keep us very busy around here!

I’m sure I will have a thing or two to share over the next 3 weeks. I must admit, I’m a little excited that I will have a few extra minutes in my day to post some ramblings about the “who’s” and “what’s” in our home.

Before we bid farewell to April and prepare to flood the month of May, I thought I’d share a few things that have been going on at Casa de Mall.

The kids have been super busy with fieldtrips this month.

Miss Bry left on a big ol’ charter bus last Friday with the rest of her 6^th grade class and headed across state lines to Dallas, Texas. The long awaited trip couldn’t come fast enough!!! The anticipation left her pretty restless Thursday night but she was up and ready to go when her friendly "reminder" called at 5:20 am to make sure she was up. Under normal circumstances, I would not have a peppy 12 year old bouncing around my kitchen at 5:45 am!! I guess a 4 hour bus ride can put some pep in a girl’s day. Okay so maybe it wasn’t exactly the bus ride but rather the fact that she was on her way to celebrate being a fabulous 6^th grader (almost 7^th grader) with a bit of independence flowing through her veins.

The 6^th grade trip consisted of a trip to Medieval Times and a full tour of the Cowboy’s football stadium.

The trip must have been quite the experience because from the moment she walked through the door until the moment I shuffled her to bed, her mouth was going a mile a minute! Not only that, but as soon as her head hit the pillow on her bed, she was out! We didn’t see sleeping beauty again until 10:30 the next morning.

Kalyssa had quite the week. The 2^nd graders were treated to not 1 but 2 fieldtrips last week. They first got to spend the day with the Sherriff’s Department in a child-sized town also known as Safety Town. They had the opportunity to learn and practice safety skills that everyone should be familiar with. The second fieldtrip was spent at Art Break which is the largest children's festival in the state of Louisiana. Art Break showcases the artwork of local students. Unfortunately these fieldtrips were for the students only so I wasn’t able to get any pictures of Kalyssa in action but, keep your eyes open because there will be some pictures to come in the next week or so. Kalyssa was asked to take part in the May Crowning at church next weekend. I’m pretty sure I will have a few pictures to share!

Trav also had a fieldtrip last week. I was very excited about his fieldtrip because I got to go on a date with my favorite 1^st grader in the whole wide world! A mommy can feel pretty dang special when her little boy asks her to be his date!!!

In honor of Earth Day and for being fantastic 1^st graders (of course), we got to go see Chimpanzee at the movie theater. I must share, the movie was pretty good but then again I am an animal lover at heart! A little slow for a theater full of 1^st graders but they did AWESOME!!! I did mention that they were fantastic! After the movie, we had lunch by the river, rode the carousel, and even had a short trip on the trolley.

Our week ended with a surprise at church. Before Monsignor made his way up the church aisle, he stopped at our pew and asked the children to be his special helpers by helping him serve mass. Bryanna has been waiting for the opportunity so she was all for it. I didn’t expect the other two to jump in as easily but they were pretty excited to follow sissy. 

There are so many special rituals that go on during a traditional mass. Sometimes I don’t always get to take in how beautiful it all is. I'm usually caught up in the moment making sure that the kids are doing what they are supposed to be doing. They are still learning a lot of their prayers, especially Trav so most of the time I think I do what comes naturally from attending mass weekly.

The kids got to participate in something that is unique and foreign to most. There are not a lot of people who can say that they have had the opportunity to help serve mass. There are not a lot of people in this world that can say they got to assist with the bread and wine. There are not many in this world who can say that they got to stand next to a priest as he consecrated the bread and wine turning it into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. How amazing is that? How unique and beautiful is that? Pretty incredible if you were to ask me and the fact that I got sit in the front of our beautiful church surrounded by our wonderful church family and watch all three of my children serve mass...there are no words that can express how honored I feel to be their mom! 

The kids each had their own special part during mass. Monsignor made sure that they were all involved and our amazing church family was right there to guide them as they learned what to do. 

After mass I asked them what the best part was. Bryanna said that you get a different view of the church when you sit up on the alter and that she liked helping clean up after communion. Kalyssa liked that she got to help Monsignor rinse his hands with holy water. As for Trav, he really liked ringing the bells.

After the kids led the procession out of church, they were embraced with a lot of warm hugs and a lot of loving words. There was only one word that came to mind as we were all embraced that evening...

Blessed!

My beautiful family of 5 is absolutely positively BLESSED!