Last Day of Kindergarten

Despite all the weather that winter threw at us this past year, school did finally come to an end.  Surprisingly enough, this day was just as emotional as day one.  We still find it hard to believe that Callie has completed kindergarten and is moving on to first grade.  How did that happen so fast?

Callie had such a wonderful first year of school, and it was in no small part because of the fantastic teachers she had in her classroom.  Here she is with Miss Bargo, the teaching assistant for her class all year long.  Callie thought Miss Bargo was pretty cool.  Our favorite story about Miss Bargo comes from five days before Christmas break, when she asked Callie if she had a proper winter jacket because Callie kept going to school with her Cape Cod sweatshirt or a fall jacket that was a wee bit small.  John likes to think we were trying to toughen Callie up.  But truth be told, we had bought a winter jacket for Christmas and really just needed her to deal with the cold until Christmas morning.  The guilt was a little deeper in the days after Miss Bargo showed how much she cared about Callie.

Mrs. Bradley was Callie's teacher and was a perfect match.  She is kind, gentle, and firm, with both high expectations of her kids and a good sense of humor.  Callie loved learning about her and her family, and we could tell that Mrs. Bradley really knew Callie well and cared about her as a person.  It was great to be able to get a picture like this on the last day.

And here she is on the very last day, leaving Colts camp and kindergarten behind until school starts up again in August.  It is truly amazing how much Callie learned throughout the year.  She started in August not being able to read a word and ended it reading chapter books.  She also gained a number of friends, and we heard a lot of stories about Maddie Rudd and Kennedy Preston.  We heard quite a few stories about her and her friends chasing the boys at lunch, but we tried not to focus on those too much.  Just as important, she ended the school year excited to start the next one.  And first grade will be here before we know it.

Lucy and Libby

Summertime for many people means time spent with friends by the pool.  For us, it means getting the five-year-old inflatable pool out of the basement, filling it with water from the hose, and playing with Lucy and Libby when they are in town visiting their grandparents Sharon (a.k.a. Birdy) and Chris (a.k.a. Pop).  Who knew a five dollar purchase would lead to so many years of fun?

We say it every time, but it is amazing how old these girls are getting.  Even better, it is fantastic to see how well they all get along.  They are a fun bunch of kids and we fully expect that they will be having fun and getting into trouble together for years to come.  Reese and Lucy in particular show signs of being trouble in the future.

As you can see in this picture, Lucy and Libby happened to be in town when Zoey was visiting.  Zoey wasn't quite sure what to do with the chaos of noise and general shenanigans, but she gradually warmed up and joined in with the fun.

A Visit from Colorado

At the end of May, we were lucky enough to have some special guests from out of town.  Suzy, Brian, and Zoey were in the Cincinnati area for their nephew's high school graduation, and Brian's family was kind enough to let them travel down south to stay with us for a couple of days.  It is not the first time we have taken advantage of our proximity to Brian's sisters and it probably won't be the last.

Thankfully it was a beautiful weekend so we hit the ground running and headed over the Ecton Park to have a picnic lunch and for the girls to take Zoey on a tour of one of our favorite playgrounds.  Callie certainly was excited to have Zoey in town, but loved also having her aunt and uncle to play with as well.

Reese wanted to make sure Zoey got to see the great swings at Ecton, and of course she also wanted to show her younger cousin how high she could swing.  There is no doubt that one of the reasons Reese loves having Zoey around is that she gets to be the older kid.  And boy does she take this role seriously.  When Zoey gets a little older she'll probably push back a little bit, but for now she's more than willing to play along with her older cousin.

After the swing lesson they were off to the bubble lesson.  So while Callie played frisbee with Uncle Brian and Aunt Suzy, the two little ones blew and chased bubbles all over the park.  They had a lot of fun and were a lot of fun to watch.

Of course, one of the great things about the visit was that we knew we would all see each other again very soon on Cape Cod.  So the girls had a good warm-up couple of days where they got to play together and got to know each other better.  And we promise that our time at the Cape will actually lead to pictures of Uncle Brian and Aunt Suzy as well.

Horse Racing, Mother's Day, and Mayfest

Ah, the month of May, when all good Kentuckians dress their best because they know for at least the first Saturday of the month everyone in the country is looking at them.  We are no different.  The newest fashion trend is something called "the fascinator" and ultimately it is just a headband with some pretty heavy duty accoutrements.  So when we showed up at the Johnson's to watch the Derby, Sarah broke out all the necessary supplies.

The girls, including Vivie Ann, were pretty excited about the craft project which included toule, feathers, flowers, ribbon, and most important of all, a hot glue gun.  If you look closely you will see that Reese chose zebra striped ribbon while Callie selected more of a leopard print motif.

By the time the bugler had issued the call to post, the girls were styling and ready to root for California Chrome.  In all honesty, when Seth asked us if we wanted to place a bet when he went through the drive-through window at Keeneland (yes, we have drive-through betting), we put our money on a horse whose name eludes us at the moment.  In true Kentucky fashion, however, we got the horse name because that is the one Callie had selected in her kindergarten class the day before.

Mother's Day this year included pancakes in bed and a whole stack of drawings and overly stickered pieces of paper that the girls had prepared for their dear mother.  Now that the girls are getting older it is definitely fun to get them involved in the spirit of the day.  However, it does not last long since it only took a  minute before both of them were asking Sarah for bites of her breakfast.  As long as they didn't take her coffee she was willing to oblige.

Mother's Day typically falls on the same weekend as Mayfest, which is a great little fair held in Gratz Park in downtown Lexington.  Last year Sarah missed the big day because she was in Las Vegas.  Callie rode a pony and John didn't have a camera.  This year we obtained proof of Callie's equine escapades.

Although she hasn't asked for a horse of her own at this point, Callie certainly enjoyed the ride.  Interestingly, Reese showed no desire in getting on the back of even the smallest pony they had.  We often talk about Reese as if she is the more adventurous one.  However, that is only on her terms, and horses have yet to be a part of that picture.

One fabulous surprise for our Mayfest experience was that we shared it with Caitlin, the associate pastor at our church.  It was fun spending the afternoon with her and the girls, especially Reese, enjoyed getting extra attention.  Reese and Caitlin were a bit inseparable at times, as this picture shows.

At one point, Caitlin also somehow ended up taking care of both of the girls while Sarah was on the phone and John had to go pay the parking meter for the car.  Reese and Callie had no clue their parents were otherwise occupied because they were having too much fun with Caitlin over at the petting zoo.  All in all it was a great afternoon.

Because Mother's Day is all about what Mom wants, we decided that our next stop should be the playground at Cassidy Elementary School.  We have seen the evolution over this past year, but each playground visit reminds us of how much Callie now resembles a monkey.  She loves climbing, swinging, and hanging.  Every now and then there is a flip of some sort thrown in for good measure.

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey hang upside down too.  Reese has no problem going trick for trick with her big sister.  However, look closely at the picture and you will see John standing close by.  He has much less of the carefree monkey mentality of his daughters and is always preparing for a possible misstep or call for help.  Those calls seldom come.

Sarah, on the other hand, provides some clue as to where that monkey magic comes from.  And for now, she can impress her daughters by keeping up with the playground antics.  However, those days are becoming numbered and it is only a matter of time before both John and Sarah will be limited to taking pictures of the antics instead of copying them.

By the end of the day we were all tuckered out, but we were happy with all that we had done together. The girls are very lucky to have a Mom like Sarah, and Sarah is very lucky to have such wonderful daughters.

And John is lucky because Reese and Callie didn't eat all of the ice cream sandwiches.

We started the month with horse racing and we ended the month with horse racing.  But this last type of racing was a whole different animal.  We had Ella with us for the afternoon and decided to take in the sights at the annual High Hope Steeplechase at the Kentucky Horse Park.  It was quite a show and very different from any other horse racing we had ever seen.

The course was quite long and you only had a short time to watch the horses as they thundered by and jumped over the obstacles set throughout the course.  However, we must admit that we agree with the girls that the best part  of the whole day was when we got to watch the parade of the Woodford Hounds.  It was a whole new experience for us, which is always a good thing.

Scavenger Hunt

So if anyone knows us, you know that we are always up for some fun.  And we must say that the Abraham family has a similar approach to life.  Good things normally happen when we get together.  On this particular Sunday Kelly had planned a scavenger hunt for her youth group.  When she realized that few if any of them were going to show up, she called us to see if we wanted to spring into action.  Within minutes we were on our way to the UK Arboretum to take on the adventure.

Kelly had spent the previous day taking pictures of different items and places in the Arboretum.  Our job would be to identify those places.  But first we had to split into teams.  Team One - Kirk, John, Callie, and Ella.  Team Two - Sarah, Reese, and Claire, with some camera assistance from Kelly.  She wanted to play a neutral role since she knew where all the items were.  You had to find the spot and take a picture of your entire team at the proper place. All told there were probably 25-30 different landmarks.

Creativity was definitely a plus when it came to the pictures, and you can see from this small sample that we had a lot of fun finding ways to get the entire team in each one.  For a little more than an hour we ran all over the Arboretum trying to figure out where the different landmarks were.  Some were pretty obvious and many were pretty obscure.

All the girls had a ton of fun, and certainly showed their competitive side.  No one was willing to back down from the challenge, and neither team wanted to give any hints to the opposition if they found a particularly tricky one.  The Arboretum is a pretty big place, but each team found almost every single landmark.

And when the competition was all done, Team Two found one more landmark than Team One.  So close.  But we all realized that this was definitely the type of activity we would want to do again.  Now it is just a matter of finding another good park or other location that will provide as challenging a course as the Arboretum did.

We ended the day with a family dinner at Puccini's, one of our go-to pizza places in town.  It was just another great day hanging out with the Abrahams.  Tough to go wrong when you get our two families together, and we continue to thank our lucky stars that we have them in our lives.

Easter with Nana Banana and Sport

Since we have lived in Lexington our Easter tradition has normally involved hanging out with the Chrismans.  This year we were extremely lucky to have that tradition overlap with a visit from Nana Banana and Sport.  This meant they got to be up close and personal for all of our Easter preparations.  Let the egg dying commence!

Callie is a strong participant in these kinds of craft activities at this point, and does not need any real oversight.  Reese still needs a bit of watching, especially when liquid is involved.  And when that liquid is vinegar with dye then it is all hands on deck.  Nana Banana and Sport did well in managing Reese even as they demonstrated their own creative sides.

The final products were pretty impressive, especially since we included a new ingredient, vegetable oil, into the mix.  It made for some neat tie-dye effects on the eggs.  Reese and Callie were just really excited to have their grandparents in town.  This was illustrated particularly by their willingness to pose and smile for pictures at almost every opportunity.

On Saturday morning the whole crew ventured downtown to the Farmer's Market.  It was early in the season so there weren't too many vendors out and about.  We did manage to locate the kid craft table, however, and their theme that week was the Lorax and Earth Day.  Callie and Reese smiled for the camera and did their best impressions of truffula trees.  Pretty cute if you ask us.

We then returned to Jacobsen Park to show off our new kite-flying skills and playground acrobatics.  Over the past year Callie has become a monkey bar daredevil and is constantly looking for apparatuses on which she can hang upside down.  And that of course means that Reese wants to hang upside down with her.  They truly are quite a pair.

Every night that Nana Banana and Sport are in town means some good bedtime book reading.  Callie and Reese love to have their grandparents read to them, and their grandparents are more than happy to oblige.  Of course, by the end of the day our activities have usually worn everyone out, and it is often a question of which of the four is going to fall asleep first.

Easter Sunday started off with a couple of gift baskets for Callie and Reese from the Easter Bunny.  This year the bunny delivered umbrella hats, flip flops, headbands, underwear, books, and of course, candy.  Just because the bunny is practical does not mean that candy is overlooked.  That would be just plain silly.

Next stop was the Easter egg hunt at church, and this year it was more of a scavenger hunt to find the special egg in each room that helped tell part of the Easter story.  There was a big crowd of kids, so at times the story may have gotten a bit lost in the craziness.  But it was a very strong effort by those who organized it and the girls had a lot of fun.

This is a picture that we enjoy taking every year, not only because Ella and Claire are such wonderful friends, but also because it is one more way we can track how fast everyone is growing up.

These four girls have become good friends and they play so well with each other at this point.  It never hurts to say again how lucky we are to know them.

We decided to do a little photo shoot in front of the church and got some good ones.  This one certainly highlights the girls' personalities.  Callie constantly checking things out and wondering what other folks are up to, while Reese is just hamming it up and demanding your attention.  And they both still like to have the opportunity to dress alike, which still surprises us at times.  But we will indulge them as long as they want to do it.

Once we had a picture of the girls then it was time for a picture of the girls with Nana Banana and Sport.  We strategically did this one before one of the entire group knowing that a meltdown could occur at any moment.  Thankfully the bribe of an Easter basket treat allowed us to get all the shots we wanted without any tears.  In this one Reese felt the need to stand off to the side, but at least she didn't cry.

It was perfect timing that just when we needed a photographer our pastor was walking by.  He was happy to help us out, perhaps because he wanted to make sure we had proof that John has worn a tie to church at least once.

As you can tell it was a beautiful April day, and the fun had only just begun.  Next up was a fantastic Easter dinner at the Chrismans.

What made the afternoon even better was the fact that Sharon and Chris's daughter Sarah was there with her husband Alex and their two girls, Lucy and Libby.  Callie, Reese, Lucy, and Libby have a lot of fun whenever they have a change to get together, so they were all looking forward to having their own personal Easter egg hunt.

Sarah and Sarah did a great job of managing the hunt.  The best part was the sharing of Easter eggs so that everyone ended up with an equal number of eggs and no one felt left out.  The girls were really sweet with this part and did not complain a bit, which is pretty impressive when you are talking about four kids who are 6, 5, 3, and 2 respectively.  It also shows how much they like each other.

All in all it was a great day.  And while this picture captures some of that fun, we are not sure how we managed to not take a picture of the incredible spread that Sharon and Chris put on the table again this year.  We keep hoping that their ability to host events like this will rub off on us.  No signs of it yet, but we remain optimistic.

Spring Fever

The arrival of St. Patrick's Day is always a good sign, especially because we were looking forward to spring after a long winter.  And this year John, Callie, and Reese had the additional fun of marching in the parade in Lexington.  Our friend Seth is the campaign manager  for one of the city council candidates so we marched with his group and the girls helped pass out candy with Vivie Ann and Mason.  A good time was had by all.

Some folks go for the traditional corn beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  We just headed next door and joined the Chrisman's for their sushi and edamame meal.  Callie loved using chopsticks and Reese was a little bit adventurous and tried some of the sushi.  They did not go for the green wasabi, however, which was probably a good call on their part.

Another sure sign that spring has arrived is the opening of Keeneland.  This year we welcomed some visitors from out of town and showed them our fine local track.  Scott Casey and his wife Jill flew in to visit a horse named Dramarama that Scott is half owner of with a friend.  Needless to say they are a little more knowledgeable about the ponies than we are, but we have the good fortune of living so near the ponies.  Scott and John are friends from back in Los Angeles, and it is fun to know that Dramarama may bring them back to Lexington for the fall meet.

We have been to Kitefest in Jacobsen Park in years past, so we were very much looking forward to going again this year.  What made it even better this time around, however, was that we brought some kites of our own to fly.  The girls were finally old enough to take on this challenge, and boy did we have fun.

It took us a a little while to figure out what kite-flying technique was going to work for us, but the girls led the way by teaching us to just throw the kite up in the air and give it some string.  Fortunately for all of us, it was a perfect day for flying kites.  The sun was shining and the wind was blowing.

Reese absolutely loved throwing the kite in the air, holding the string, chasing the tail when it was low enough, and just about everything involved with flying a kite.  It was fun having an activity that allowed us to be outside together and that was simple enough we could all enjoy its challenges and rewards.  You can't necessarily tell from these pictures, but there were also dozens of other kites up in the air all around us.  It was really cool to see and be a part of it.

Callie loved being able to take control of her kite all by herself and not having to rely on her parents.  She did a great job of getting her kite up in the air and keeping it there.  The whole day was a pleasant surprise and we were glad that we had packed a lunch so that we could spend more time at the park.  At this point we were pretty sure we had put the winter behind us.