Happy Days of Spring

Callie played in her second soccer season this spring, and we are happy to report that while there were still a few times she needed to be prodded to join in the fun, she showed signs of improvement overall.  In fact, there were several times that she actively went after the ball and didn't simply avoid any and all contact.  This is certainly been a parenting struggle.  We don't want to push her into anything, and she says she wants to be there.  But Callie is dealing with two parents who find it difficult to understand not wanting to be out on the field and in the game. All three of us are working on it.  Reese, on the other hand, seems to enjoy the games just fine.  This could be because of the numerous snacks she consumes in the course of the hour we are at the fields.

The four girls pictured below have come to adore each other over the past couple of years.  And if we are lucky, they will continue to have fun together for many years to come.  

 

 

 

Any time Libby and Lucy come to visit their grandparents, Callie and Reese want to run out the door so they can be a part of the visit too.  And Libby and Lucy are just as excited to see them.  It's quite cute to see all the running back and forth between the two houses when the Gipe girls are in town.

 

Lucy and Reese are about ten months apart in age, but it is very possible that they are even closer in spirit.  All the adults involved in their lives agree that the two of them may raise a ruckus or two as they get older.  But they look so sweet, you may say.  And it is true, they are both very sweet.  But the presence of sweetness does not mean the absence of a little (or a lot) of spice.

   

In the meantime, as spring began to arrive and flowers bloomed, we turned around and noticed that Callie is growing up in some seriously big ways.  It's kind of crazy, but it really seems to be happening at a rapid pace.  This is not only a physical transformation, but a mental one as well.  She is more comfortable in taking on challenges she once shied away from and is excited to show us all the things she can do on her own.  As the picture here shows, tree climbing is only one of many things she has taken a liking to.

 

 

Reese is also growing by leaps and bounds and becoming quite a little girl.  Although she loves to follow in her sister's footsteps, she is developing a very clear personality of her own.  At this particular moment in time, this involves putting on the Tinkerbell dress almost every evening when she gets home from daycare.  This has also allowed her to demonstrate her fierce independence, because she does the whole thing herself and does not want anyone helping her get ready.

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.

Reese's Two Year Evaluation

Reese Harper certainly has grown over the past year, and so we have a lot to talk about for her second year evaluation.  Although she is still petite, she packs quite a punch.  Back in December at her annual doctor's appointment she came in at 33 1/4 inches, which was 40th percentile.  Her weight was 23lbs 4oz, for a consistent 5th percentile.  That is quite surprising since she is an eating machine.  A small frame that contains a whole lot of energy and personality.

Reese is a talker.  Sometimes we don't know exactly what she is saying, but she always has a lot of information to share.  She also is extremely expressive, so if she can't get her idea across in words she will definitely deliver the message through facial expressions.  Some of the most impressive facial expressions come at moments of great frustration, or when she is cooperating but still wants to let you know that the cooperation is occurring under protest.  We have also enjoyed the conversations that Callie and Reese have had well before Reese truly spoke words.  Now, there interactions have only become more interesting the more Reese can directly communicate.

From early on Reese has been clear about her desires to control her fashion statements.  Unlike Callie, who would put on any clothing laid out for her, Reese has a strong opinion and her opinion is that she should always wear dresses.  It's amazing that such a small child has such a powerful will.  The great thing is that those dresses are perfect for highlighting the scabs that she constantly has on her knees these days.  Reese lives life at full speed, and sometimes that speed gets her until trouble.  As her current teacher at daycare, Miss Cheri, has reported on the daily note, "Reese fell and scraped her knee, AGAIN."  Fortunately, Reese is very good at dusting herself off and rejoining the fray.  You would think that this indicate that she is not very coordinated.  However, she is very coordinated.  The problem is that she firmly believes she can keep up with her sister and the other big kids.  Very often she's correct.

This year Reese learned her ABCs and enjoys reciting them, and also has fun singing a variety of the basic songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Row Row, or the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Unfortunately she has not begun to identify her colors with any accuracy.  At this point you ask her what color an item is and her go to answer is "Blue?"  She's not right too often, in other words.  But she continues to charm at daycare, and loves to wave goodbye to anyone and everyone each afternoon as she leaves.  And everyone knows who she is.

Before we end on a more positive note, we need to address the biggest area in need of improvement.  Reese simply refuses to go quietly into the night.  Quite frankly, she is a nightmare to put to sleep at this point.  The engine doesn't stop.  It just doesn't stop.  It starts with the kicking and screaming and refusal to brush teeth.  She chooses three books when told to pick two.  And then once the lights are out the evening becomes a giggle fest with her and Callie.  Typically the evening ends with the two being separated and Reese finally succumbing to sleep between 9:00 and 9:30pm.  This makes her especially fun and grumpy in the mornings.

But while she might not want to go to sleep, there are a lot of things that Reese truly loves.  The first one is dance.  She loves following in her sister's footsteps but she definitely has her own signature mesmerizing style.  When Reese dances, it is difficult to look away.  Reese also loves the pool, and is fearless when jumping in.  She loves ice cream and asks for it throughout the day.  She also likes to point out ice cream shops around town just in case the person driving also has a hankering.  Another thing she points out even more often are horse statues.  Needless to say, in Lexington, Kentucky we have our fair share of horse statues.  Reese is in paradise and can't get enough of the thoroughbreds.

When all is said and done, Reese has flourished during her second year and has gained the respect of her colleagues around the office. (Home, daycare, and church)  We are happy to recommend her promotion to the third year.

Callie's Five Year Evaluation (Okay, Five and a Half)

We thought last year was bad when Callie's four-year review occurred five months late.  This year it seems that we are fortunate to post it nearly eight months late.  What can we say, life has been busy.  But our goal this year is for the review to be shorter and sweeter, so let's get right to it.

Fortunately, her annual doctor's appointment was two months after her birthday, so the following stats are only six months old.  Back in early December 2012, she was 44 1/2 inches tall, a.k.a. 3 ft 8 1/2 inches.  This put her in the 82nd percentile for height, her highest since birth.  Her weight was 38 lbs, which put her in the 45th percentile.  She has shown no sign of shrinking since December, so we imagine that the current numbers are higher, but consistent with the string bean look.

Overall, Callie is a great kid.  She makes us proud by consistently using her manners and showing a great deal of care and concern for others.  It's wonderful to see such compassion from such a young soul.  Shyness is certainly still there, but slowly but surely it's getting better.  One area in desperate need  of attention is her propensity to whine at the drop of a hat.  She's also still prone to throwing fits.  Therefore we continue to focus our efforts on learning how to respond better to every day situations.  Her sense of humor is still very evident, and this year she has been very interested in trying her hand at telling jokes.

This past year Callie has also expanded her participation in extracurricular activities.  She is nearing the end of her second year of dance and is very much looking forward to the recital.  And she just finished playing her second season of soccer, which has had its shares of highs and lows.  But she definitely ended the second season much better than she started the first.  And you could not tell Reese that she was not a part of both the soccer and dance.  She had to get dressed for dance class and had to be right there for every soccer practice and game.  And Callie loved it all.  The intense love between the two remains strong.  This year, though, they certainly have had many more opportunities to play together versus Callie simply dictating Reese's life.  However, this does bring the occasional argument or fight over the simplest of things.  Hopefully, however, love will always triumph.

Perhaps one of the biggest developments however, is that Callie is currently reaching the end of her time at daycare.  She has officially made the full circle of rooms in the center and is well known to everybody.  She continues to develop her pre-K skills (like counting to 100, identifying basic sight words, and coloring like nobody's ever colored before)  but is done with nap time.  Kindergarten will be a great opportunity for Callie, and because she will be one of the older kids she should be even more ready than we could have hoped to expect.

And we'll end by trying to sum up her favorite activities of her fifth year.  She loves riding her bike, which is a hand me down from the Abrahams, and she desperately wants to ride around the block by herself.  Callie also loves to spend time in the pool, and hopefully this summer will really learn how to swim.  She has become an expert cat caretaker, and is the go to person for Lily and Lola, Sharon and Chris's cats.  She learned how to play Uno and is a bit of a card fiend with a shady shuffle and a competitive fire that means every loss nearly leads to tears.  This year also marked Callie's first haircut, that resulted in a donation of 12 inches of hair to Locks of Love.

All in all, she has demonstrated remarkable growth in her fifth year as a member of Team Bowes.  She's a solid contributor and continues to blossom into best Callie she can be.

California Trip 2 - Northern California

Our family has certainly traveled a lot.  However, the idea of traveling by car from northern California to southern California was a frightening obstacle.  The girls are far more used to long plane rides than long car rides.  Fortunately for us, the Kettleman exit on I-5 in central California arrived just in time.  

We always have to get our In-N-Out fix when we are in California.  But this trip was especially exciting because Callie and Reese both demonstrated their love for the whole experience.  Callie wanted cheese but no onions and Reese, just because we know her personality, got her burger animal style.  They both demolished their meals, much to the awe of the people around us.

Finally we arrived at Grammy's house, and after a good night's sleep we jumped into the array of planned activities.  It began with a trip to the capitol building in downtown Sacramento.  We read the book Goodnight California often, so it was fitting to visit one of the many locations featured in the book.  And it's a pretty cool picture of Grammy with the girls.  We even got to walk around the building and sat in the viewing balconies of both the House and Senate chambers.  It was pretty breathtaking.  The girls just enjoyed the pulldown seats and the cool view from above the main floor.

Obviously every visit entails a lot of catching up with family, and both Reese and Callie love to hang all over their cousin Keith.  And Keith is always so good to them, it is great to see.  Because Keith is now living with Grammy, we got even more time than usual with him.  We enjoyed his culinary expertise and stylish ways.  But the all time favorite was the gallons of milk that he had purchased because he had heard that the price was going to skyrocket very soon.

Uncle Zac also made the trip to Sacramento from his new home in Benicia.  It was a packed house for a good part of our visit as a result, especially because when Zac travels so does his dog Hooch.  But we wouldn't want it any other way.

 Since this was our California family Christmas, we had several meals together and just got to hang out.  And we were able to get the whole crew together one night, as you can see in the picture below.

Grammy Gayle and the rest of the family had a great time spoiling the girls.  But we all got a few gifts and some stockings to open.

Thank goodness Grammy got the girls a new piece of luggage because they needed something to help them get their loot back to Kentucky.  You may not be able to see them in this picture, but the real gem of this gift were the little animal key chains that made high pitched sounds when you pressed a button.  Hours of amusement for the girls and head pounding pain for their parents.

You see here Reese is sporting the new PJs that Grandpa Dan got her.  Callie got a pair too, which means they each have pajamas that say, "Princesses Don't Have Bedtimes."  Of course, this picture also illustrates that Reese may have gotten more than just PJs from her Grandpa.  Those grins look eerily similar.

Although every year we try to fit in a visit to Sarah's friend Wendy and her ever growing family, many times we fall short.  Indeed, John hasn't seen Wendy and her husband since their wedding.  But this year we were going to get both families together.  Then little Emerson got sick, which meant only two Gardners, Wendy and Chase, could make it over.  It was great to catch up and we hope next time the whole crew can hang out together.


The next order of business was another big family gathering at GA and GU's house.  Once again, illness prevented the entire family getting together.  So Ryan and Skyler were not able to make an appearance.  But that didn't stop Reese, Callie, Brady, and Chase from a little cousin bonding.

This kids have only seen each other once or twice a year, but they are able to quickly pick up where they left off.

Callie and Brady found that they shared a love of silliness and making funny faces.  It took no time at all for them to pose for this picture.  But this was one of the few moments they stopped, because at other points during the day they were running around the house looking for monsters.  At least that's what we understood to be their mission.

Reese and Chase had no problems getting acquainted.  Well, at least Reese didn't have a problem.  Before you get too concerned for Chase's wellbeing, however, you should know that he more than held his own over the course of the day.  They are both tough, younger siblings, and it is possible that in Chase Reese may have met her match.  However, Chase is soon to be a middle child.  We found out on this trip that Sarah and Tyler are expecting a girl in July.  Very exciting!


One of the best parts of our trips to northern California is the time we get to spend with Great Grandma Lucas.  She is so full of love for the girls and for life itself.

This visit Sarah also got to see her new home and was able to help Teri organize her room and put up some pictures.  Great Grandma has had such a positive attitude throughout life, and this latest transition has not changed that approach.  It's great to see.

Although we didn't get to see Skyler and Ryan, we did get to see Haley, and she was able to secure some snuggle time with Callie and Reese.  You may not be able to tell from this picture, but Haley at this point was about 7 weeks away from her due date.  She was beaming and obviously could not wait to greet her second little girl.

Zac's girlfriend Zane was also able to make the trip, and it was great to see her again.  You can see both Callie and Reese have benefited from Zac's relationship - just check out the fancy outfits they got for Christmas from Zac and Zane.



Zane was also generous enough to handle the camera for a final group photo before we all went our separate ways.  We are a pretty good looking crew, that's for sure.

All in all, it was a jam packed visit.  But it certainly kicked 2013 off to a great start!