melted smoosh

  1) May Crowning. May has been known as a special month to honor Mary, the Mother of God, ever since the 1700s (I had to look this up!). both our church and our school had special May Crowning ceremonies where the children process into the church and lay flowers at the feet of Mary, and a specially selected child places a crown on Mary's head. before I joined the Catholic church, I thought such Marian devotions were idolatrous. the only figure we should be crowning is Jesus, I thought (and should we even have figures at all?). of course, any tradition has the potential to be misunderstood and divert focus away from the true intention of the practice, which is to honor Mary just as Jesus honored her. the act of worship is reserved for God, but the act of celebrating our universal spiritual mother is a welcome foil to the cultural denigration of women over the centuries. 

true to form, May was packed full to the brim with activities, end-of-school events, and the quotidian rambunctiousness of a family of six! 1) zoo trip. we kicked off the month with a visit to the zoo -- we typically don't go often enough to merit a membership but the weather was perfect! Elizabeth and Victoria are at prime zoo-going age where they are so excited to see the animals, and I daresay the older girls had a good time too.  Cece brought her camera to document the wildlife photo op on the termite hill the elephant almost looks like a poster, but that is the real bull elephant striding towards the glass! one of the highlights of this trip was watching the gorilla family interact. the baby was crawling all over the mother, who was just trying to take a nap, and then eventually some of the adolescents started playing chase. we watched their antics for a good thirty minutes! baby watching a baby we all cracked up when he crouched down to lick some water out of the puddle! face...