First Feis

A great day today at Erin's first Feis (fesh), an Irish dance competition. She entered two different dance categories and took first place in both. Attached are the before and after pictures - she was happy with her two gold medals, but not so happy about the sun in her eyes (maybe if her dad was a better photographer he would have planned that differently). She was a little bit nervous when we first got there, but relaxed right into it and did awesome (clearly). We were particularly excited because Erin was only recently moved up to a higher class where she learned to do the jig, and yet she still took gold in that dance. Most importantly, Erin had a lot of fun and she is very happy and proud of her accomplishments. Great that she got to see how all of her hard work and practice paid off.

6th Birthday

Not to be left out, Finn had a big event as well when he turned 6 on Derby Day. He made out like a bandit, and even slept with his new electronic, spring-loaded lightsaber. My buddy Mike Middleton absolutely loved the giant box kite that Finn got from his Aunt Shari and uncle Brendon (a replica of Darth Vader's Tie Fighter) but when he saw that you could also get a Millennium Falcon kite, he wondered if it could even fly. I had to explain to him that it made the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs, so yes - it can fly. Mike warned me when he arrived that he might have gone overboard on his gift, but as Finn's godfather he had that authority -- he and Cindee got Finn a child sized .22 rifle. It is pretty darn cool, and Finn is very excited to go and try it out.

Irish Dance

Saturday was Conor's first communion, Sunday was Erin's first dance recital. She did an outstanding job, and made us all very proud. The photo credits go to Mike Sugrue, who has a far superior camera to mine.

First Communion

Conor's first communion was last week, and I think he wore the family tie (Brendon and I, as well as our dad, wore it for ours) with more style than we did. I will take full credit/blame for the fact that Conor is not the most serious and devoted little Catholic, but he was perfectly behaved for the occasion.