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This weekend the kids celebrated their first Holy Communion at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Moorhead, MN.  We had most of the Minnesota contingent of Club Owen as well as the Cabanela grandparents present to witness the event.

We had to get up early since the mass was at 8 O’are’U'crazy on Sunday morning, much earlier than the normal weekend wakeup time for Cabanelas or Owens (we usually go to the late morning masses, but Carolina had a dance performance in the afternoon and we needed to be sure we had time after mass for the family to commiserate before the dance).  It actually snowed overnight, our first snowfall in May that I can recall… but as Zakari pointed out, it matched their outfits for communion:

Este fin de semana los niños celebraron su primera comunión en la iglesia católica de San José en Moorhead.  Teníamos la mayor parte de el contingente de Minnesota de la familía Owen y los aitites Cabanela presentes para ver el evento.

Tuvimos que madrugar ya que la masa era a las 8 de la mañana el Domingo, mucho antes que el tiempo que nos despertamos típicamente durante el fin de semana (típicamente vamos a las misas de las 10 o 11.30 , pero Carolina tenía que hacer su baile en la tarde y teníamos que estar seguro de que iba ver tiempo después de la misa para que la familia podía charlar antes del baile).  Nevo durante la noche, nuestra primera nevada en mayo que puedo recordar … pero como Zakari señalo, iba bien con sus trajes de comunión:

Despite the early hour, we all made it…  A pesar de la hora temprana, todos llegamos a tiempo …

The twins and their proud parents got to process down the isle. Los gemelos y sus orgullosos padres tuvieron que processar por el pasillo.

One advantage of the early mass time was only 5 kids were celebrating their first Holy communion at that time so the procession was short and all the kids had active roles in the mass (the 10 am mass had 26 first communicants!).  Carolina did an excellent job with the first reading… nailing the word “exultation”:

Una de las ventajas de ir a la misa inicial fue que sólo 5 niños estaban celebrando su Primera Comunión, así que la procesión fue corta y todos los niños tuvieron un papel activo en la misa (las 10 am Misa tuvo 26 primeros comulgantes!). Carolina hizo un excelente trabajo con la primera lectura … clavo la palabra “júbilo”:

After the readings and the homily (during which time Father bribed each kid with dollar bills while questioning them about their faith), Zakari got to read some of the Intercessions and he did an excellent job there as well…

Después de las lecturas y la homilía (tiempo durante que el padre sobornó a cada niño con billetes de un dólar, mientras los interrogaba acerca de su fe), Zakari llegó a leer algunas de las intercesiones y lo hizo perfectamente ..

Then the kids had to bring up the gifts:  Luego los niños tuvieron que traer los regalos:

After which was the First Holy Communion.  The twins were both happy with their experience, which is all a parent can hope for.  Después de que fue la Primera Comunión. Los gemelos eran felices con su experiencia, que es todo lo que un padre puede esperar.

Here’s a shot of the twins, their parents, and their grandparents.  Aquí hay una foto de los gemelos, sus padres y sus abuelos.

Oh, and for those relatives who have played the computer game Portal (which the twins love to watch me play sometimes)… “there was cake”…   Ah, y para aquellos familiares que han jugado el juego de ordenador Portal (que los gemelos me encanta ver jugar a veces) … “tuvimos pastel”…

Well, last year, Zakari did the Pinewood Derby with the cub scouts for the first time and took 3rd place.  Given how much fun Zak had with it last year, it seemed like a good idea to try again this year.  However, this year, the weekend before the Pinewood Derby was taken up by my Dad’s retirement from 36 years of service at the Mayo Clinic.  As such, we had to plan out our work on the cars a bit more than last year.  Furthermore, this year, Carolina wanted to race in the family category.  So we started two weeks ago on the cars.  Zakari and Carolina designed their cars and I cut the wood (with their help).  They painted the cars and helped polish the axles of the wheels (which is really the important thing if you want to win).  So we were very excited when we went there today for the races.

Zakari raced with the wolves and took first place in his first five races.  Unfortunately, he came in second and fourth in the other races… So his final standing was second in the Den, which is, as he kept reminding me, one place better than last year.  As one of the top three in his den, he got to race against the Pack.  He ended up in sixth place out of 15.  Not too shabby.

(above) Zakari watches his car (the red one with fire on the side) win another race.  Given his expression, you could say he was excited.

By this point, two and a half hours had passed and Carolina was tense.  She wanted to race already.  So as almost everybody left, our Cub scout pack ran the family races.  Carolina won all eight heats!  She took first place in the family category!  All in all, she says it was worth it. :)

(above) Carolina is just a little excited having won her fifth race in a row!

(above) Zakari and Carolina stand with pride, showing off their trophies from the 2011 Pinewood Derby for Pack 626 of Moorhead, MN.