The weekend in pictures

When you are a good blogger, you blog frequently, chronicling the events of every day. When you are a good mother, you write things like this:
A neglected blog is a terrible thing. But neglected deadlines areworse. And a neglected family is the worst thing of all. So you shall have to carry on without me. But you will be fine. The weather is beautiful and I am sure you have a baseball game to get to. If you don't, though, please don't tell me. My psyche shall surely suffer if I find out that there is life beyond baseball and that other people are enjoying it without me. (HT: Danielle Bean)
And when a this blogger-mommy reads it,  she mentally exchanges "soccer" for baseball and hums about her ridiculously full IRL day.

But all day long, it nags at her that she hasn't recorded THE WEEKEND. So, she uploads some pictures and calls it all good--no major philosophical ponderings of the enormity of the milestones we marked, no hours spent trying to get the pictures to line up just right. Because Danielle said not to neglect my family for my blog. And she's very wise.

First there was the  State Cup Almost Win (pictures of tears deleted).
Then there was a beautiful ballerina who danced her heart out and made us so very proud.
And then there was graduation (by this time I was completely sick). Note to self: don't think that you can do the calligraphy on your son's diploma yourself. No matter how many times you've written certificates and envelopes and all matter of lovely things, this time, your eyes will bur and your hands will shake and you will not be able to figure out why. My favorite picture of graduation is this one of my husband and son. Mike spoke about Michael's accomplishments and was so overcome with pride (and not a little sadness that this time has come to an end) that in the end, all he could do was give him a big hug.
Then there was the gift of the children to their big brother. Patrick had designed a rosary and supervised as his siblings helped to string it. The spacers in the first decade are sapphires, Katie's birthstone. Michael will remember to pray for her when he prays that decade. The second decade is for the October birthdays--Karoline, Patrick, and Mary Beth. The third decade is Nicky's, the fourth Stephen's and the fifth, Christian's. Each of the Pater beads is surrounded by my husband's birthstone, so all the Our Fathers are for him. And I get the three Hail Marys at the beginning. With the rosary, we promised Michael our first decade of the day. It's still so hard for me to believe he won't be here in the fall when our days begin...
And then there was the scholarship presentation the next day. Nicole Megaloudis was a talented young college soccer player whose family was involved in the sport on every level from the youth game to MLS--much like ours. Nicole was Bobby's dear friend. Nicole was fond of saying, "Make it happen." I hope Michael remembers that life is very short and we only have a finite amount of time to make it happen. Live it-- live all of it-- like every minute matters. Because it does.