Spring is all about new beginnings, but March 2021 brought some very important dates in our household. On March 3, Reese along with her classmates returned to Cassidy Elementary School to be in-person for the first time since March 15, 2020. Callie returned to Morton Middle School to be in person on March 15, which meant it was exactly one year since she had attended classes in that building. Based on our typical operations it is kind of stunning that we don't have multiple pictures, or any pictures, of the occasion. It's probably because Sarah was still fully ensconced in her home office and John was managing a hybrid schedule of his own so survival mode was in full swing. But the girls were excited to go back to school, had no problems complying with the mask mandates, and you could honestly see a positive change in their mental wellbeing in a matter of days.
School was not the only thing that shifted gears. With the onset of March, the Bowes family hit the road in earnest for soccer. Callie had been great patient and only got back on the field when she was fully healed. But once she was back, she was back and playing as much as possible. Of course, with both girls playing it also meant that we had to divide and conquer on many weekends. This picture of Callie was taken at a tournament in Ohio, where Callie continued to play well and showed that her fall soccer campaign wasn't a fluke.
Meanwhile, a few hours west, Reese and John were at a tournament outside of St. Louis. We were fortunate to have some time between games to do a little sight-seeing. Here we see Reese and her teammate Emerson taking their Junior Ranger oath at the Gateway Arch National Park. We weren't able to go up in the arch itself, but we had a good time at the museum. And the soccer tournament was fun as well, where Reese got to play teams from Colorado, Missouri, and Illinois. This was one of many soccer tournaments that involved travel, including another that took us to Atlanta.
April produced a significant milestone with Ella Abraham's 18th birthday. There are a variety of ways to celebrate such an occasion, but she had to register to vote herself, so we just bought her some lottery tickets. At least one of the tickets was a small winner, so it wasn't an empty gesture.
Eighteen candles is a lot of fire on one cake, but Ella deserves it all. We can't say enough about this girl and all that she means to our family. We have watched her grow into an incredible young woman and we couldn't ask for a better role model for our girls.
Of course this is just the first of many milestones for Ella this spring as she gears up for her high school graduation. She has been accepted to Willamette University in Oregon where she will also play soccer. We are already planning our first visit.
One of the great things that has come out of Callie's soccer team is her friendship with one of her teammates, Ella Sewell. Ella's family has a houseboat they keep on Lake Cumberland and Callie was super excited to get an invitation to spend a weekend on the water. As you can see in the picture, the two girls got a little bit of fishing in. Between her love for country music and her trips to "the lake," Callie is truly showing that she is Kentucky born and bred.
And while Callie traveled to the lake with Ella, Reese made a trip to the farm with her own friend named Ella. Yes, we have a lot of Ellas in our life.
Ella Hughes, among other wonderful traits, is an animal loving soul who happens to have a few new baby cows. Reese was beside herself with the idea of getting to bottle feed them. She obviously wanted to dress the part of a good farmhand, so out came her boots. Not sure the romper fit in, but she went with it.
These two have known each other since kindergarten and are quite a pair. You never quite know what they are going to get up to, but they are going to have fun doing it. In this case they did a great job taking care of the cows. Reese can't wait to get asked to help out with the cows again.
Right through the end of May and into June the girls played their respective hearts out on the soccer field. Reese's LFC White team played in some tough tournaments, went undefeated in their league, and then lost in the championship game of the state tournament. It was a great season for this group of girls, and Reese will be playing with them again next year.
Callie's spring was a bit of a whirlwind following her recovery from surgery. She played on her LFC Blue team and kept scoring goals. Her team, pictured below, was a great crew. This photo is after a hard fought game in the pouring rain.
Because of her stellar performance in both the fall and spring she was also asked at various points to play for the LFC White team and the LFC Red team. She was honored to be asked and we were proud because it was a reflection of all the work she had done in the past year. At the end of the season she even got to play with the Red team in the President's Cup, which is the state tournament. They ended up winning the tournament which meant they advanced to Regionals. Unfortunately, Callie's parents hadn't predicted this future and so our family vacation began while the Red team played their games. The good news is that Callie made the Red team for the 2021-2022 year, so she couldn't be more excited for what's to come.
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