Family Photos

For the first time since Reese was born we finally got around to having family pictures taken.  If truth be told, we tried this about three years ago when Reese had just turned one, but Callie wanted nothing to do with it.  So this time around we bribed both of the girls with candy and silly string, bought a couple of cute dresses, and headed out to the UK Arboretum.  We had high hopes but it was a cold and grey day, so we didn't know how things would turn out.

The goal of the photo shoot was to get at a minimum, one family photo for our Christmas card and potentially something we could hang up in our house. The photography we hired for the job was named Tracy, and she turned out to be great. The girls warmed up to her quickly and she had a lot of good ideas. Fortunately, the Arboretum also has a lot of great options for backgrounds and general scenery. Callie has been having to appease her parents for the past seven years to take pictures and she did a great job.  On the other hand, Reese was giving it her best shot to ensure she would get the promised treats in the end.

This did not end up as our Christmas card photo, but it was definitely in the running.  Although it was fall the Arboretum was still displaying a variety of colors that made some of the spots look like spring.  Here we did our best to appear to be your average Lexington family caught strolling through the garden on a fall day.  Some of us did a better job than others of looking casual.

This is one of Sarah's favorite photos, John caught between his two girls.  Callie and Reese also enjoyed getting the chance to stand up on the bench and be taller than their Dad for a change.

As we alluded to earlier, Reese did her best to cooperate so that she could have fun with the silly string and eat some candy when all the photos were done.  However, she has some work to do before her photo smile looks as natural as her true impish grin.  Still, this is a pretty cute picture of her.  It's always amazing when we can capture an image of her standing still.

So after about 50 minutes of posing and smiling, it was time to reward the girls for their efforts.  Out came the silly string and the game was on.  For better or worse John was the chosen target for most of the string, but he didn't mind too much.  The bigger issue was having to pick up the silly string off the ground so that we did not conclude our photo shoot with littering.

The first missing tooth

Callie's birthday happened to be only the first indication that she was growing older.  The second big indicator appeared at the very end of that weekend.  After months of wiggling and after weeks of nagging by her parents about it, Callie finally managed to put aside her fears and allowed her mother to give a little tug and remove her first baby tooth.  Although there were immediate tears they were quickly followed by squeals of joy.  The emotions that a lost tooth can evoke are quite amazing.  She was so incredibly proud of it and we were struck by the fact that she is getting older every single day.

There were several things that needed to happen once the tooth popped out. The first was to send a text to her teacher Ms. Wood to tell her to be ready to sing the tooth song on Monday morning in class.  The second was to write a note to the tooth fairy to include with her tooth.  Callie was very particular and wanted to ensure that the tooth fairy left her tooth.  We are happy to report that the tooth fairy obliged and even left Callie $2 and a note of her own.  Callie was thrilled to receive the correspondence and cannot wait to lose another tooth or two.

Callie's 7th Birthday

This year Callie decided that she wanted to have a birthday party with her friends to celebrate turning 7.  However, we also needed to do our traditional birthday dinner with the Chrismans, which this year included an ice cream pie because she was going to get the homemade treat treatment from Sarah at the kids' party.  Reese was just as excited as Callie about the whole evening.

Among the gifts Callie received was this purple bike helmet from her parents.  The helmet was intended to indicate that a bicycle was also part of the package, but we will need to go to the store with her to get it.  Unfortunately the stars have not yet aligned and instead of getting a bike in the fall she will be hitting the road with a new set of wheels when spring arrives.  Fortunately, she has shown a great deal of maturity in dealing with the enforced delayed gratification from her parents.

The day of the kid's party finally arrived and Sarah was ready to display her fine work.  The theme of the party was cats and dogs, and instead of presents Callie asked her friends to bring donations to the animal shelter.  The decor also included pictures made by Callie and Ella of cats and dogs and you can see that we even made dog cupcakes and puppy chow mix as giveaways.

It was a very chilly day, in fact the coldest day of the fall at that point so it was a good thing that we had a ton of activities planned. We had set a schedule that gave all the girls little time to sit around and feel the cold air. It started with a relay race that included hula hooping, a toy dog toss, and a whole lot of running. We had three teams to represent the three general origin of the friends in attendance - Team Cassidy, Team Almost Home, and Team First Presbyterian. It was great though, because all of the girls interacted and seemed to have a good time.

The next activity on the agenda was a photo scavenger hunt throughout Ecton Park.  Each team had twelve pictures that they had to identify and locate within the park and then they had to take a picture with all the members of the team in it at that location.  It was great to see the girls running all over the park, laughing and being creative.  We had to limit ourselves for this post, but this picture gives you a sense of how it all went.  And yes, Reese did the whole thing because, as usual, she sees Callie's friends as her friends too.

Before the picture taking was over we did manage to get one picture of the whole crew.  It is quite amazing how tough it can be to get sixteen or so girls to look in one direction and smile.

Callie sure has been blessed to establish such great friendships with so many different girls from all of her activities.  We can only hope that this continues to be the case in the years ahead.

For example, here to the right we have Callie with Maddie, who she has pretty much known since they were both three months old.  Then there are the Preston twins, Harper and Kennedy, who, along with Landry, are all buddies from kindergarten.  They are a fun bunch who love to be goofy and typically have a lot to say.

And then we have Callie with Vivie Ann and Murphy, who are two longstanding friends from church.  We have quite a few pictures of these three girls together over the past five years or so, and it is amazing to see their friendships continue to grow even as their social schedules get more hectic.  Our hope is that this picture will be duplicated at their high school graduations.  Time will tell.

The party was certainly a success and everyone had a great time.  And Callie was able to collect quite a sizable donation of goods for the Lexington Humane Society.  We made an outing to their office the day after the party so that we didn't have bags of dog food hanging around the house.  It felt good to donate so much but we all had to admit that the place was a little loud and it did not smell like roses.

There was time for one last picture, however, and since it was fall we were able to have the girls jump in the leaves in front of the building. Reese in particular had been wanting to jump in a pile of leaves for some time, and since John wasn't going out of his way to rake the ones in our yard, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

From Elton John to Jonathan Edwards

No matter how many years we go, we still can't get enough of Picnic with the Pops. This marked our seventh year of having a great night with some great people. This year's performer mostly did the hits of Elton John with a little Billy Joel thrown in. As you can see from our outfits we decided to focus on the Elton John part of the evening.  Although we had a scare because we just missed the deadline for reserving our table we managed to make it happen and still maintained our usual spot near the front.

From the picture above you can see that we were missing one of our usual couples, Chad and Rebecca.  This picture to the right should explain why they were a little unwilling to commit to going out that night since the little one was due to arrive any day.  Lucky for us they decided to come for our traditional pre-Pops cocktail hour on the Chrisman's patio.  As the years have gone by we have come to realize it might be time to get a second table for the night.  We need to make sure there is enough room for the Muellers and the Abrahams as well as other couples we have come to know and love.

Sarah had her usual Party City splurge for all the necessary accessories for the evening. Although truth be told, the silver sequined hat John is wearing was already in the house from a previous Party City excursion. If you don't know her, that store is Sarah's weak spot, and it has been for years. At some point around 2030 we should have all the proper attire for any themed party you can think of. Until then, Party City just needs to keep stocking their shelves.

This year also marked the fourth edition of Sarah's special Pops cocktail. Much like Party City, matching the theme of the evening is key, and you can only imagine the possibilities when you are faced with matching a drink to British pop royalty. The final signature cocktail was tea-infused vodka with hints of honey, thyme, and lemon. This allowed us to start the evening with a proper English tea party before dinner.

At the end of August we also attended the home opener of the UK football team. It's never a bad thing to do this early in the season when hopes are high and the opposition is weak. Indeed, we were able to see the Cats do a job on the mighty forces of UT-Martin to begin the season 1-0. We missed going to a game last year, so it was good to check it off the list for this season.

Toward the end of September John hopped a flight up to Connecticut to attend the first ever all-year reunion for Jonathan Edwards College, the residential college he was affiliated with all four years at Yale. It more than met expectations because almost all of his roommates from college made a point of being there and he also got to see a lot of folks from other years as well. Just as important, he got the picture you see here with Bernard Lytton, the man who was Master of JE when John was in college. There are fewer people in this world cooler than Master Lytton, that's for sure. We'll leave the stories of that weekend at that.

The new Johnson

On September 17 we received the wonderful news that the Johnson family had officially added a new member to their family.  Little Emerson joined a very loving family and his two older siblings were very excited to meet him.  Of course they were not the only ones excited by the arrival of the little bundle of joy.

We had the good fortune to go over and visit not long after he came home from the hospital.  And in typical fashion, Jessica looked great and was multi-tasking to make sure everything and everyone was taken care of.  And that is impressive because now she and Seth are truly outnumbered.  We wish them all the best!

First Grade - Here Comes Callie!

So the big day finally arrived and Callie prepared to enter first grade.  She certainly was more confident and excited than the year before and it was apparent that she had laid a solid foundation, because as she arrived she saw lots of familiar faces.  Although she had a little trouble when she headed into Mrs. Woods' class instead of Mrs. Bradley's room, it did not take her too long to acclimate to her new digs.  Kindergarten was soon a thing of the past.

Since this year Callie wasn't going to be in the same class as Kennedy we wanted to ensure that their friendship stayed strong so we invited Kennedy, her sister Harper, and their mom Laurie out to the first Colts' night at Puccinis.  Their Dad Matt was invited too, he just couldn't make it.  The girls all had fun, even Reese who assumes that she is just one of the gang and is also in first grade.  And Harper and Kennedy are great because they are more than happy to include Reese in all of the activities which that night included many trips to the restroom and later a trip to Graeters.

One of the big activities early in the school year was the main fundraiser which this year was called the Boosterthon.  All the kids were fired up to raise money so they could get a variety of prizes.  They got pledges for each lap they would ultimately run.  Callie had a great time on the actual day of the event, and as you can see in the picture she has pretty good form.  She flew around the course and enjoyed the energy in the air.

Two new friends that Callie has made in her class this year are Lydia and Eli.  We were excited to hear that Eli was going to be in Callie's class because we know her family from church and have quickly become fond of Lydia as well.  Mrs. Wood is very good about sending us pictures every now and then to show us how Callie is doing.  We must admit that this new of communicating between parents and teachers is fabulous and brings a smile every time we get another picture.

About the fifth week of school, Callie was informed that she was going to be the Star Student of the Week the next week.  Each kid gets a turn and for a whole week they get to talk about who they are, what they like, who is in their family, and all sorts of other good things.  The very last day included a  special guest who got to read to the classroom.  In this case it was John reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book, which is a family favorite.  Callie beamed when John was in the classroom and it was fun end to a great week for her. First grade is officially flying by.

End of Summer

Although it was hard to come back from such a great vacation, one thing that Callie was excited for was a big birthday party for her friends Kennedy and Harper.  Kennedy, who is pictured here, was in Callie's kindergarten class and they got along famously.  They shared a locker and are kindred spirits in a lot of ways.  The theme of the birthday party was rock star, and it was quite a show.  They even had karaoke, which  meant all of the adults present heard their daughters sing Let It Go from Frozen countless times.  The smiles say it all here.

Another end of summer outing involved seeing a performance of Cinderella at the Lexington Children's Theater.  We had great seats which was especially nice because we knew the girl who played Cinderella's cat.  Kaitlyn is the daughter of a friend and we love seeing her perform.  Fortunately for us she is almost always in some sort of production around town.

With Callie now reading it makes going to the bookstores even more enjoyable for everyone.  And we have a great local bookstore a short walk from our house.  The Morris Book Shop has a really good children's section that includes these cool blocks that encourage kids to climb in and read.  Callie loves it and we should probably go more often.

This summer we also took the opportunity to visit a new breakfast joint in town called First Watch.  We are always trying to hunt down the perfect breakfast spot to match up with the Local Yolk from Manhattan Beach, Snug Harbor in West Los Angeles, or Pete's Egg Nest in Seattle.  It has been a fruitless search thus far, but the chase has still been fun.  Reese always likes to eat out regardless, so that makes the hunt even more worth it.

Only a couple of days before school started John was on trip to Oklahoma and the time was right to get together with the Johnsons. We decided to join them for a day of fun in Cincinnati as they prepared to pick up Seth at the airport as he returned from an eight-week trip to Russia.  Needless to say the excitement level was high for a number of reasons and we had a great day.

It had been a while since we had been to the Newport Aquarium which was good because a lot of it might seem new to the girls.  Although truth be told, Reese really remembers a lot, so it is tough to pull one over on her.  In any case, the kids had a great time checking out all of the cool exhibits and even humored their mothers by posing on the frogs.

We have at least one picture of Callie standing by this shark when she was a heck of a lot shorter than she is now.  It is kind of crazy to see how tall she has gotten.  It just sneaks up on you and you catch yourself looking at her and realizing that she is not a little kid any more.  And she knows it.  We just wish her attitude was maturing as fast as her body appears to be.

Reese was happy to show her height next to the shark.  She is always eager to point out that she is also growing.  Honestly, she wants to do anything her sister does, and the good thing is, most of the time her sister is willing to play along and appease her.  They work very well together and Callie is great about making sure Reese is involved and taken care of.

This final picture captures quite an array of personalities, that's for sure.  Right up front with the sass is Reese Harper.  Mason looks like he has his penguin in a bit of a death grip.  Vivie Ann has a sweet smile on her face and is giving the penguin a little hug.  And standing over everyone, prepared to give orders about what to do next is Callie.  The four of them do very well together, but they are certainly a funny bunch.