Callie's first birthday weekend

Welcome to the post to end all posts. This is a multi-picture/multi-video/multi-media extravaganza that only partially captures the weekend celebrations honoring the arrival of Callie Alexis Bowes on October 3, 2007. So grab a seat, grab a drink, and enjoy.

Although we wanted to keep Callie's first birthday mellow, that was hard to do once Callie's California Aunties got involved. Most people capture the birthday festivities in a single day, but Callie chose to emulate her Auntie Denise by going for the whole weekend. Not quite up to a Denise birthday week, but she's working on it for next year.



You can't tell by Callie's action in this picture, but she was loving all the extra attention from Auntie Alicia and Auntie Lauren. For this photo Callie finally got to wear the onesie that, according to its label, was sized for 0-3 months. Clearly it was perfectly timed to welcome these Kentucky visitors.


Auntie Lauren also brought her daughter Kate, who makes her second appearance in this blog. Kate is now a whopping 6 months old and is cute as could be. Although Kate and Callie officially met three months ago in Monterey, Kate actually seems a bit more interested in Callie this time around. And yes, Callie is wearing a pink tutu in this photo. It was a generous gift from Callie's Great Aunt and Uncle Teri and Ron. She loves wearing it and, as Teri has reminded us, this tutu is sized to fit Callie for years to come.


It was so fun to see Callie and Kate hanging out and starting to play with each other. We see a budding relationship for years to come. And if Sarah and Lauren have anything to do with it, the two might be college roommates 18 years from now. And if John has anything to do with it, their room will be located within the walls of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale. If John is the master by that time, he can keep a close eye on both of them.



The official birthday celebration started Friday morning. The girls (Alicia, Lauren, Sarah, Kate, and the birthday girl) headed off to Alfalfa's for a nice breakfast before they made the pilgrimage to Keeneland Race Track for the opening day of the fall meet. What could be a better celebration for a Kentucky girl? Auntie Alicia insisted on betting on horse number 1, 3, 6, and 10 in every race. The number one for Callie's age, the number 3 for Callie's birth date, the number 6 for Kate's age in months, and the number 10 for Callie's birth month. You can imagine that when you bet on half of the horses you almost always win. We are still not sure how much money Alicia spent and if she came out ahead. But it was fun to win every race.


The next day we continued the festivities with a trip to Reed Valley Orchard where they were having their fall festival. We had a great time enjoying the wonderful weather, the bluegrass music, and good company. When we headed to the petting zoo it was quite obvious that we had the LA girls with us. Alicia kept taking pictures with her and the animals and texting them to her friends and family back in California.


After the petting zoo we headed to the apple orchard. Reed Valley has a vast array of apple trees and it was almost too hard to figure out where to start. From the picture below you can see that Callie not only enjoyed picking a couple of apples but also found herself drawn to the Fuji apples in particular.





She has become very independent over the last month and insists on holding her own apple. It's pretty fun to see.


Here is the birthday family at Reed Valley. John missed out on Keeneland because he was teaching, but we all were there for the apple picking. Now we just need to get Callie to realize how important it is for everyone in the family to look at the camera when we are attempting to capture a family photo. We should also note that this marked our fourth trip to Reed Valley since spring. We have now successfully picked raspberries, blueberries, peaches, and apples. Hopefully we will go back in a couple of weeks for pumpkins. We do love our Reed Valley.



Phase 3 of the birthday extravaganza started with very patient parents. This was our first time organizing a birthday, and our scheduling left much to be desired, especially since the party was due to start at a time when all the kids were supposed to eat. Here we see Callie, Kate, and Iain in various parts of the living room eating their meals so the true fun could begin. It almost looks like a how-to brochure that shows parents the various approaches to feeding your child. Intriguing.

Now we enter the interactive portion of our blog. At the risk of repeating ourselves, Callie likes ducks. Really likes ducks. So it was only fitting that she had the opportunity to play with a duck pinata on her birthday. Hopefully you will enjoy the following video as much as Callie enjoyed hitting that pinata with a wooden spoon.




For the record, no candy was in the pinata, and no ducks were hurt in the filming of the above video. It is also important to note that all of the children had their chance to hit the empty pinata. To show that no one had any hard feelings when all was said and done, the duck pinata chose to pose for this picture with all three children.




As you probably noticed, Charles, Fiona, and Iain joined in this phase of the birthday celebration. Iain is now 5 months old and really enjoyed being with the two older ladies. He's not a completely smooth operator at this moment, but he is working on it.


What is a birthday celebration without singing and cake? Well we figured that it just doesn't count as a birthday party unless those elements are there. Of course this does not mean that the cake was selected and ready to go days beforehand. No, the selection of the cake involved multiple trips to various bakeries and stores in the greater Lexington area. There were also some philosophical differences within the selection committee. Alicia pushed for the Barbie cake, Lauren thought a football cake would do, and Sarah was just mad at herself for pre-planning. John loves Alicia but is very glad she did not win this round. So enjoy Callie's first real encounter with fire, cake, sugary icing, and the paparazzi.





Just in case that video was not enough, here are three still photos that capture the various phases of operation destroy green cupcake.








Now we enter the final phase of this post. It is known as the we cannot thank our friends and relatives enough for their generosity towards our little girl.


Callie received quite a few cards which, as you can see, she enjoyed immensely. And yes, we made sure she opened the card first if it was accompanied by a present. However she seemed to really enjoy the cards. We had to remind her at times that no one had sent an edible card and therefore it was unnecessary to chew them. And if you ever doubt us when we say she gets excited about these things, this picture should remove that from your mind.



Callie definitely enjoyed and appreciated the numerous gifts sent her way from all across the country. She is still trying to understand the difference between the actual gift and the paper the gift was wrapped in, but we are sure that time will come. Every morning when she heads to her little play area she now has a wide selection of toys from which to choose. She does not know yet just how lucky she and her parents are to have such wonderful people in their lives.


This last picture highlights one of Callie's gifts from her Auntie Denise and it officially welcomes her and Kate into the girls' night out club. Although both little girls are a couple of decades away from those nights out, we can only hope that Callie and Kate are able to have the good fortune of friends like their parents have. We think they are off to good start.





So that's the whole shebang, or at least all that we are capable of doing at the moment. Callie has her one-year doctor's appointment on November 6th and we will provide a full report of all her statistics, abilities, and skills shortly thereafter. We hope everyone is well and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible during the holiday season.