Skipping Town

Friday 5/25 Summer begins for us only when we open the house and head to NH for the first time. We had the kids miss school on Friday and drove up in the morning, anxious as always to see with our own eyes that the house was still standing after a long winter. It was, and lilacs were blooming all around the house and barn. I stayed outside with the girls while Andrew went inside to do the first walk-through. It's always dicey, this first glimpse of the interior. In years past, we've found more than one gruesome tableau involving dead mice in myriad arrangements. This year, there was one dead mouse and epic mouse droppings, and a vacuum that stopped working over the winter. So getting the house clean enough to enter took some doing. Lucia and Greta were happy enough to run around outside. Andrew cooked hot dogs and burgers on the grill Friday night, and we ate outside. Greta has a grotesquely wiggly bottom tooth and couldn't eat her corn on the cob; Andrew cut it off wit...

On Sunday, May 6, Lucia made her First Communion. She'd been looking forward to this event for months, ever since starting her second year of CCD, the year when second-graders make both First Confession and First Communion. Over President's Day in Connellsville, Lucia, my mom, and I went to the little kids' clothing boutique in town and let Lucia choose a Communion dress. She was over the moon about the one she found--poofy, lacy, with buttons all the way down the back. She was also over the moon about her white patent-leather shoes, which had a small heel (not my first choice--but it's nearly impossible to find dressy girls' shoes without small heels these days); her sparkly headband; and her sheer pantyhose. She was just thrilled with the whole outfit and asked daily if she could put it on (she couldn't). In March, she had a First Communion retreat, where she got to taste a host and the wine, and practice the right way to receive both. (We also watched a vid...