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.

Growing Up

It seems like every time we turn around one of the girls has grown an inch or learned how to do something new.  They are both getting old far too quickly.  And we have the numbers to prove it.

So let us clear up something first.  Our records are not as consistent as we would like them to be.  For instance, annual check-ups should come right around a child's birthday.  Well, at this point Callie has her annual check-up about five months after her birthday.  For Reese, it is just a couple of months behind.  Now, the good thing is that the girls have been so darn healthy that the only time we get to see Dr. Warner is for the annual check-up.  But it also means that we now have a tough time figuring out how much growing they have done in a full year.

So Callie's six-year numbers that include the four months after her sixth birthday, are as follows.  She was 47 inches and in the 75th percentile.  And her weight of a whopping 42.5 lbs put her in the 25th percentile.  Reese's three year plus two month numbers are 37 1/4 inches tall, in the 55th percentile.  Her weight of 26.5 lbs placed her in the 10th percentile.  Believe it or not, this was actually a percentile increase for her in weight over her two year check-up.  And as Dr. Warner says, both Callie and Reese are growing like Bowes girls grow.

Taking the girls together for their annual check-ups was efficient as well as helpful since Callie stepped into her big sister mode and really supported Reese throughout the process.  When the appointment was over each girl received a Chick-Fil-A certificate of bravery which didn't sit unused for long. To honor their good behavior they cashed in those certificates for a meal at Chick-Fil-A that night.

Reese especially loves the idea that she is constantly growing.  We try to push down on her head, but she just pops right back up and proclaims "I'm getting taller!"  Based on their numbers we thought it would be fun to take a picture of all four us standing one behind the other because from Reese to Callie to Sarah to John there is now about a one foot difference at each step.  It would have made a great picture but Reese refused to cooperate.  So this is what you get.

Callie also enjoys the idea that she is getting taller and older. And she really enjoys the idea of almost as being as tall as her mom. We shall see how things play out over the next couple of years, but as of February 2014 she only had about 15 inches to go. The race is on!

But for all the physical growth, there is also some mental and emotional growth that still needs to happen.  We present you with Exhibit A for Callie Alexis Bowes.  She received a "reteach" from Mrs. Bradley one day because she had shut her friend Garrett into his locker at school.  Yes, our sweet Callie closed the locker door on poor Garrett, who is a very sweet kid with a huge smile.  The truth of the event only came to light through some persistent questioning from John over the course of a car ride.  Callie was not ready at first to admit that she knew Garrett was in the locker when she closed it on him.  However, she finally came clean.  Later, when Sarah reexamined her, she fessed up quicker.  Sarah reinforced the importance of telling the truth and told Callie she was glad that Callie had been honest with her.  Callie said, "Yeah, when I talked to Dad about it we had to talk for a long, long time."  Then Sarah made her write an apology to Garrett and fortunately for all of us she had the right idea of taking a picture of the assembled evidence for future purposes like this.  The best part of this story is the following weekend when we ran into Garrett and his mom at the playground where Sarah had to apologize on behalf of the Bowes family for Callie's actions.  Thankfully, neither Garrett nor his mom were upset about it, and we quickly were able to laugh about the whole thing.  So Callie learned that telling the truth is important.  And we learned that Callie might be able to hold her own against the boys.

Surviving the Cold 2014

Now, we know we have family in Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Alaska who might laugh at Kentucky's idea of cold. And yes, it is true that of our 13 total snow days over the winter, probably two of them would have qualified as snow days elsewhere.  But seriously, it was a very cold and long winter here!  Trust us.  Fortunately, we were able to keep ourselves occupied.

The University of Kentucky gymnastics team always gives us a reason to look forward to January. Every year since we have been in Lexington we have gone to a couple of meets, but the first home meet is Excite Night, and that is something you don't want to miss.  We in fact have started a tradition of grabbing dinner with the Abrahams and then spending the evening critiquing the new squad.  We are happy to report that the team looked impressive even though the budget for Excite Night festivities appeared to have been slashed.

After two years of tagging along with her sister to dance class, Reese would no longer be denied her own spot on the dance floor.  In fact, her strong personality persevered and she managed to undermine her parent's wonderful plan for only one night of dance class.  Instead of submitting to this master plan where she would have class and then Callie would have class on the same night, Reese had her own idea of what needed to happen.

And what needed to happen, as far as Reese was concerned, is that she needed to have Miss Lauren, the same teacher who has so gently guided Callie to dance success over the past two and a half years. All other teachers were sub-par to Miss Lauren, and therefore we schlepped our way to the dance studio twice a week. However, Callie took advantage of this situation and wiggled her way into becoming Miss Lauren's assistant teacher in Reese's class. Fortunately, Reese didn't mind sharing.

As we said, there were lots of snow days this winter.  And as it so happened, every single one happened to fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, which meant they were days of the week John was on duty.  A Tuesday/Thursday teaching schedule sounded so nice at first.  But he and the girls did have some fun outside, at least during those precious moments they were able to shake off their California heritage and embrace the snow like a good New Englander should.

Although their endeavors into the great outdoors did not always last long on those cold, snowy days, Callie and Reese managed to make the most of their time outside.  Snow angels were a must, of course, and Callie made sure Reese knew exactly how to do it right.  And at times they even found the time to help their dad shovel the driveway a little bit.

There was enough snow at times that we were able to make a small (very small) sledding hill in our backyard.  The girls had a great time on the slope, a ride that lasted all of 2 seconds tops.  This trip also involved very little effort on their part even as it served as a great workout for John.  He had to shovel the snow from the driveway, make it into the pile, lift the girls onto the sled at the top of the mound, and then push them down.  However, it did the trick and got them thirsty for bigger hills.

Fortunately for us, a bigger hill is right around the corner.  A very popular sledding spot is the hill at the Shriner's hospital, and we joined quite a few other folks for an afternoon of fun.  Callie loved every minute of it and wanted to go as fast as possible on the little saucer sleds we have.  However, she had no interest in going by herself, which made it a tight fit on the sleds.

Reese, on the other hand, was surprisingly more apprehensive about the whole experience.  And as you can see from her nose in this picture, she was also a tad cold, which did not help out her mood.  She went for a couple of rides and then was ready to be done.  Still, we were happy to know that the girls both got in some good sledding before the winter was done.

All good snow days need to be capped with a cup of hot chocolate, of course.  This was probably their favorite part of the whole experience, especially since we added an abundance of mini-marshmallows to their drinks.  It made the cold winter day that much better.

Unfortunately the winter brought many weekends where Sarah had to work.  This meant John often had the girls to himself on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  We knew that this routine might be becoming an issue when John introduced the girls to sprinkle-covered heart doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts.  This type of behavior was something that the girls could expect from their mom, but when dad got in on the act something seemed a bit out of whack.

Another unexpected surprise for February was a visit from Andy Downing, SJ, one of John's college roommates.  Andy made the trek down from Chicago for a brief visit before he headed off to Italy where he is going to be teaching at the Gregorian University in Rome.  It was great to catch up with him and the girls, Reese in particular, loved having him around.  Andy has quite a few nieces and nephews, so he had no problem handling the craziness, including a night of mini-golf.

We will never know, but his coping mechanism could have been the knowledge that once the girls were in bed John would be pouring out some Woodford Reserve to ease the burdens of the day.  Hopefully we will one day be able to visit Andy in Italy, where he can take us around and show us all the sights.  And if all has gone well, by that point he should be fluent in Italian and can teach the girls how to count to ten in yet another language.

As you can imagine, bookstores are always a great place to hang out on cold days.  Lucky for us, Morris Book Shop is just a mile away, and it has some very cool places to sit and read.  Here Reese is sitting in one of the stacked cubes they have outfitted with pillows for all of your reading needs.  The only thing we wish for is an adult-sized version of these cubes.

Although this picture may not seem to show it, we did manage to stay sane over the course of the long cold winter we had this year. And when all was said and done, it was probably because we had these two goofballs to entertain us. They are truly funnier than we will ever let them know, and we are very lucky to be their parents.

Reese Evaluation

Reese, of course, is our next little bundle of joy in need of evaluation.  And there is quite a bit of joy in that little bundle.  There is a lot of other stuff in there too, but joy expresses itself most often, thankfully.

Reese is definitely growing.  Although she is a little more petite than her sister was at this age, there is no denying that she is no longer a toddler.  In fact, most of the time, Reese thinks that she is Callie's age and can do anything her sister can.  And often, not only is she right, but she sometimes is willing to try things her sister won't.

This evaluation could best be summed up by the phrase, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Looking at her evaluation from last year, here are the things that have not changed.  She is still incredibly expressive and shows dangerous signs of future class clowndom.  She remains a nightmare at bedtime.  She loves to dance, and started her first dance class in January.  She eats a lot and constantly says that she is hungry.  And she continues to live life at full speed.  If you see her smile at you from across the room, you better get ready because she is going to run at you and jump on you.

That being said, there are some wonderful new facets to her life.  She pushes and pushes and pushes, and then when she knows you are at the breaking point she looks you square in the eye and says one of two things:  "I love you" or "I want to give you a hug."  She is dangerous and we only hope she will use her powers for good.

This has also been a big year of learning.  She can count to ten in three languages because that is one of the things we do when we brush teeth.  In fact she also knows many of the presidents since that is one of the alternate tooth brushing methods.  Reese can snap her fingers, loves the song Call Me Maybe, and can belt out Adele like nobody's business.  She has also learned numerous nursery rhymes and can "read" a book of them to you without hesitation.  Reese also loves her big sister.  Fashion continues to be something she desires full control over.  We had to do wash weekly to ensure the blue button dress could get maximum use.  John also had a hard time persuading her that tights should not be worn in 90 degree weather.

It is remarkable how strong her personality is in a very good way.  She has the ability to connect with just about anyone.  If they are at our house, and she sees that they are our friends or family, then that is all she needs to sit in someone's lap or give him/her a hug.  Loveable is a great word to describe her.  Sassy is too, but we will keep that on the down low for the next couple of years.

Callie Evaluation

Okay, so before we get started, we need to address the elephant in the room.  Or the frog, as the case may be.  It has been a long time since we posted.  Indeed, here we are approaching the end of July and we have yet to post about anything that has happened in 2014.  The good news is that there is a very good chance you will get a slew of posts over the next couple of weeks.  That means 7 months of exciting (to us) Bowes adventures in a very short period of time.  

As happens every year, however, we also need to evaluate the growth, behavior, and performance of our little bundles of joy.  We start with the biggest little bundle, pictured below.

Funny thing about the growth part.  Long story short, we won't have a real growth report until a later post because of delayed doctor's appointments.  We can report, as anyone who has seen her can attest, that she is tall and she is slenderly built, very similar to her father.

2013 was a big year for Callie as she learned a ton and officially entered kindergarten.  That meant, among other things, learning how to read, add, subtract, and a host of other great things.  Her teacher, Mrs. Bradley, was wonderful and we could not have asked for a better person to welcome Callie into her academic life.  She supported a great balance of learning and being a kid.  And it was clear in our meetings with her that she really knew Callie as we know Callie.  Mrs. Bradley told us how sweet she is and how quick she is at learning things.  But she also described Callie as "busy," in that our little girl loved to check in on what other kids were doing whenever she had a chance.  She still got her work done, but always managed to make things a bit more interesting for herself.

Callie's overall demeanor continues to blossom.  Her compassion shows up in a variety of ways, from crying over a sad cartoon to talking about how she is always nice to a girl in her class who was struggling in kindergarten.  But she is also quirky in a number of ways as well.  The picture above shows off some of her fashion sense and she enjoys opening conversations with, "Can I tell you something?"  She loves to be goofy, loves to dance, and loves being a big sister.  Her cartwheels are getting better and she is getting braver every day on the playground.

One specific story that is worth telling provides good insight into the type of person Callie is.  It is also worth telling because it makes John proud and Sarah mad.  Sarah had the two girls in the car and went through a drive through to get a Diet Coke.  Callie piped up from the back and asked, "Why are you getting a Diet Coke?  Don't we have some at home?"  Sarah quickly replied, "Yes, but I want a fountain soda with ice and a straw."  Callie responded, "We have ice and straws at home, Mom."  And to top it all off, as they approached the window, Callie reminded Sarah that she would need to turn down the radio in order to hear the person in the window.  At this point Sarah could not talk.  Somewhere else in Lexington, however, John knew that all was all right with the world.

All in all, it is safe to say that Callie is truly growing up.  And with each new achievement and development we love her more and more.