soccer gal

with kindergarten on the horizon dan and i are finding ourselves in a parish tug of war. 

on the one hand we have our lady of the pillar...where we are currently parishioners. it's a great parish with a beautiful, beautiful church. it holds some big history for us. it's where we were married, and where our three beautiful daughters were baptized. we were very close with the pastor who performed all of the above ceremonies. however, this past summer we found out that our beloved father tobin was being relocated to a different parish. i, of course, took this as a sign to move on. no, no, no...not only because fr tobin has left...i was having second thoughts long before we heard that news. you see, the school is very small. which academically would be very beneficial to our girls. if you are not familiar olp is connected with chaminade an all boys college preparatory high school. this particular school begins in 6th grade so by the time the kids reach this grade level....the class sizes are instantly cut in half. i heard the graduating class this past year was like 8 kids. i cannot even fathom that. along with the small class sizes all i can think about is the fact that we have 3 girls. 3 girls who will eventually turn into 3 pre-teen girls. i cannot stop thinking about all the awful stories i hear about mean girls and bullying. those tween girls can be so mean. i want my girls to have lots of options to have as many friends as they could possibly want. this may sound silly to all you boys out there...but us girls worry about things like this. 

we are technically in the boundaries of st. clement. a wonderful parish that i would be more than comfortable being apart of. however, dan isn't too keen on it. for reason i can understand. he went there for a few years and his experience wasn't the best. yes, i am aware that was a long time ago but that stuff stays with you. which is probably why i want my girls to have a grade school experience much like my own...which was great! also, the majority of dan's family went through st. clement so there is a part of him that wants to go his own direction. i can understand that.

then we come to my 1st choice...st. gerard majella. yes, as you read on i will probably sound like a sgm cheerleader...but hey, it's my blog. i'll brag if i want too. puns, the girls preschool, is basically half st. clement, half st. gerard. i have talked with quite a few moms up at puns and they all rave about sgm. not to mention a mom who lives just up the street and is really trying to convince us to join so we can carpool. the parish just seems like us. it's not too stuffy, which pillar and st. clement can sometimes feel like. it seems like a big family. a place where parishioners not only just go to church or simply send their kids to school...but become involved in every aspect of it. something that i would really like to do. a place where dan and i already have a few friends but has the potential to make a whole slew of new ones. a place where the class sizes are big enough for our girls to find their niche(2 kindergarten classes of 30 kids) but since they employee not only teachers but aids it brings the ratio down to 15:1 which is wonderful academically. i have a tour set up for tuesday and am very excited to hear more. 

this also brings us to the main event of this post. our little soccer star! a former (st. peters) classmate of mine informed me that sgm was offering a pre-k soccer program this year and would ryan be interested in signing up? of course she would! we have had "practices" the past two sundays and she is really enjoying it. she was so excited to tell me that this sunday starts their "games." it's amazing to see our little drama queen in action!

of course we couldn't leave home without a little photo shoot