Easter 2013

We have decorated Easter eggs before with Reese, but this was the first year she was definitely into it and could take part fully in the activity.  John is happy to report that there were no major spills, in large part because he was constantly monitoring all potential threats.

Fortunately, Reese and Callie paid little attention to their father hovering over every move and simply had fun coloring the eggs with crayons and then dipping them into the various dyes.  Sarah, who was not deemed a spill threat, had greater leeway to decorate at will.

The final product of our egg-dyeing session was pretty impressive.  We would like to draw your attention to the three or four sparkle-infused eggs.  Callie was most proud of these decorating wonders. However, we think we will continue to find sparkles on the dining room floor for years to come.

But it is a small price to pay for the beauty those sparkles provide.  Also, note that we only lost three eggs during the whole process.  We were much better at eating our finished product this year and didn't waste any of the eggs.  However, there is a limit to how many egg salad sandwiches any family can consume in a short period of time.

This year the Easter bunny was extremely generous.  One could even say that the Easter bunny is setting some standards that might be difficult to maintain over the years.  It is possible that the Easter bunny might need to slow down just a bit.  But the girls were very excited about the chairs, although there was a bit of confusion on Callie's part when we had to exchange one of the chairs that had a broken strap.  Callie had not realized that the Easter bunny also shopped at Dick's Sporting Goods.  

Although this may sound a bit cliche or obvious, one of the most enjoyable and meaningful parts of our Easter Sunday is going to church and spending time with close friends.  These four girls to the left have spent a lot of time with each other over the past several years, and they have a blast when they are together.  We feel so lucky that Callie and Reese have Claire and Ella to look up to.

Of course, Easter also means getting together with the Chrismans.  This year represented a big change, however, because Sharon and Chris were in the midst of a big kitchen renovation.  That meant that Easter lunch took place at our house. Before you get too impressed with our hosting abilities, Sharon and Chris still provided the bulk of the food.  We just provided a kitchen with working appliances...and the salad.

What's also nice about having the Chrismans over is that they can take a good family photo of us.  This is a pretty good one, if we must say so ourselves.

Callie and Reese were very pleased with their Easter dresses and were more than willing to put up with their mother requesting numerous photos.  They were all smiles for quite some time.  And it really is a good picture of the two of them.

Enjoying Winter 2013

It's always difficult to capture all of the highlights of the winter activities and what is new and exciting in our lives.  But we've tried to do our best in this post.  We start with one of the best toast/bagel/birthday cakes you have ever seen.  It was part of a great birthday morning for John's 40th.  Sarah and the girls surprised him with a fully decorated dining room and made him feel very loved.

Fortunately, John has had gray hair since college, so 40 just means his age matches his hair for the first time in his life.  

In other exciting news, Reese continues to have the energy level of the Energizer bunny.  And she is rapidly developing new skills every day.  In the video below she shows off her alphabet knowledge while providing a glimpse of what we deal with every night at bedtime.

She is very cute, it's true.  But that cuteness only ensures she is not put to sleep in the closet every night.

It was actually a pretty mild winter in Kentucky in terms of snow and freezing rain.  No heavy snows and no ice storms this year.  But we did everything we could to take advantage of any little snowfall that occurred.  The girls were pretty excited to get to put on their full winter gear, play outside, and then come indoors for hot chocolate.  They would certainly be happy if it snowed more often.

One great activity during the winter is always the Saturday afternoon book and craft hour at Joseph Beth.  On this particular Saturday, while John was out of town, the girls and Sarah went to the Teddy Bear hospital that Joseph Beth had set up.  It featured real nurses from area hospitals and the girls got to take their Teddy Bears around to nursing stations to do everything from putting on a band aid to removing an appendix.  Reese and Callie thought it was pretty nifty.

Sometimes there are pictures we put in the blog because we believe they are too cute to leave out.  This happens to be one of those pictures.  Reese is certainly a happy girl, and she loves the water, whether it is in the bathtub or the pool.  It is often very difficult to actually get her out of the bathtub.  She can be pretty determined about getting her way when she has her mind set on it.  You wouldn't necessarily know it from looking at this picture, but trust us, she is not always as sweet as she looks.

The next series of pictures shows our adventure at Jacobsen Park that took place one weekend when we just couldn't stand to be inside any longer.  It was about 25 degrees or so, and even snowed a little bit while we were there.   But we realized if we just kept running, we could keep warm.  On the plus side, from John's perspective especially, the playground was virtually empty and we had the run of it all.

The playground there has all sorts of cool twists and turns.  Part of it is built like a castle with multiple levels.  We all had fun playing tag and hide and go seek.  And Sarah took advantage of the opportunity to break out a little artistic photography action.  This is a pretty cool shot of Reese from about ten feet up.

Once our limbs were frozen we decided to have a picnic in the car with the heat on.  It was great because the girls wanted to be in the back by themselves, and we got to sit up front closer to the heaters.  

It was a great day, and a good way to make sure the girls strengthen their New England genes.  It was also a great reminder that you don't really need much more than each other to have a good time.

Another fun winter activity that we indulged in was movie night, where once again Reese benefited from having an older sister.  We certainly did not have movie night when Callie was 2.  But the girls prepared by getting their babies ready for the big show, and we happened to have a bunch of popcorn boxes we could use to make them feel like they were really at the movies.  This also allowed us to introduce them to our favorite movie treat - the mixture of popcorn and M&Ms.  So tasty.

Needless to say, wintertime involved a fair amount of dressing up.  Both Reese and Callie spent a lot of time in their respective princess dresses.  Reese could not get enough of Tinkerbell, while Callie remains devoted to the princess dress we got from one of Aunt Suzy's friends back when Callie was Reese's age.  It's pretty stunning that it still fits...well not really fits, but doesn't rip.

So that is a very brief overview of the winter moments when we were not traveling or entertaining visitors.  It's nice to know that sometimes we are able to simply entertain ourselves.

Nana Banana Sport Visit 2013

Hiccups in short trips can certainly make them shorter.  Unfortunately Nana Banana and Sport had a long delay in Detroit and didn't get to Lexington until much later then expected.  But once they landed and got to our house, the girls couldn't be happier to get the weekend of fun started.  The weekend began at Joseph-Beth, where we spent a couple of hours looking at books, making chickens out of toilet paper rolls, feeding the ducks, and having a nice lunch.

Although it was still mid-March, the weather cooperated during the visit and we were also able to spend some time outdoors.

One of the great outdoor spots near our house is the University of Kentucky Arboretum.  And this is the second year in a row that we have purchased a membership to the Children's Arboreturm, where they have even more activities available.  However, since we got there before the children's part opened, we had some time to play around on the logs that they have set up for just that purpose.

The girls jumped at the opportunity to run around outside, especially with their parents and grandparents in tow.  It's amazing how two little individuals can order so many adults around.  And the cool logs they have set up at the arboretum provide quite a few good photo opportunities.  Sarah couldn't resist this one since it was amazing how many people you could fit inside this particular stump.

It's been neat to watch Callie grow over the years.  The physical growth is clear to see, but we have also begun to notice how much she is growing in terms of her desire to conquer her fears and declare her independence.  As the picture to the left shows, she is now willing to do things that only a year ago would have scared her to no end.  Now it is just John who is scared when she does things like this.



We also planned ahead and made the most of the day by having a picnic in the arboretum as well.  Although it was a little windy we all enjoyed the good food and sunshine.

And finally our patience paid off, and the children's section opened.  Now we could further enjoy all that it has to offer.

Although we visited a lot of usual spots in this section, Callie and Reese quickly spotted the newly furnished pioneer cabin that had been set up over the winter.  Here the girls are washing some pretend clothes and hanging them up on the clothes line. Too bad that this pretend activity couldn't be put to use at home.  Although they do like sorting laundry, we have yet to get them to do every load from start to finish.  Hopefully that will change in time.


Another great activity involved learning about the different birds common to Kentucky and the sounds of their calls.  This was a pretty influential lesson, since the girls are still accurately identifying various birds months later.

They also got to make a personal set of binoculars to watch the birds.  Not everyone was clear on the function of these toilet paper binoculars, as you can see in the picture above.  But Reese had fun with them regardless.  All in all, it was a great visit with Nana Banana and Sport.