Countdown to Suzy's Big Day

The biggest event of Memorial Day weekend was the bridal shower for John's sister Suzy. It has been super cute to hear Callie talk about how Suzy and Brian are getting married in Colorado. So the event was a great way to show Callie all the bells and whistles that go along with a wedding. Callie enjoyed being in the middle of it all, and especially enjoyed any chance she had to share the limelight with the star of the show, bride-to-be Aunt Suzy.



The actual event was held at the Balestracci residence, a home normally infested with boys. But fortunately, John had arranged for all the guys to spend the afternoon at a pool party across town. So while they made themselves scarce, the ladies showered Suzy with food, gifts, and laughter.


Two of those in attendance were Alison Skonieczny Zanardi and Melanie Skonieczny Loeber. They are sisters, by the way, and not just two women who have eerily similar middle names. It was great to catch up with both of them. The focus of our conversations were pregnancy, since Melanie is now officially 12 weeks, and when we could eat, since Mel and Sarah were trying to battle first trimester nausea. It will be fun to expand the Skonieczny-Bowes clans by two this winter.


it was also wonderful to see John's cousin Emily and Aunt Debbie, pictured here with Katie. They drove down from Vermont for the event and we will also get a chance to see them in Colorado at the wedding. Emily is going to be in attendance with her boyfriend Eli, and we have already given her fair warning that he should be prepared for a proper grilling by, among others, Chris and Sarah. While they are gentle and kind about it, Chris and Sarah have a way of learning a lot about you in a short period of time.


Also making the drive to Guilford for the event were John's Aunt Pat and cousin Barbara. It was great to have them there since we don't get to see them often enough. Barb looked especially radiant on that day...wink-wink, hi Barb! (We have to give a shout out to someone we know reads the blog besides our parents!) On a serious note, it was great to get a chance to talk and hopefully the future will provide more opportunities to hang out. For instance, perhaps Ryan would like to take a look at the University of Kentucky. Rumor has it we have some good sports teams - basketball, football, baseball. We're just throwing some ideas out there.


Finally, we have a picture of the original Bowes girls. Don't they look fantastic. Unfortunately we don't have a photo from a few decades ago to compare. But trust us, they have only gotten cuter.



Katie, Taffy, and Suzy's friend Heather put on a fabulous shower and truly got us revved for the celebration to come. We are looking forward to Colorado in less than two weeks. The countdown is on for Suzy and Brian's big day!!! Don't worry, we may take a few pictures to share.

May Travels

May was a tough month for us. As we shared with you a few posts ago, the Halloran family left Lexington and headed for Salt Lake City. The good news is that they are doing great in SLC. The bad news is that they weren't the only ones leaving Lexington. At the end of the month our friends Neil and Karen packed their bags and headed for New York. Like the Hallorans, this move was because of an awesome opportunity that they couldn't pass up.

Fortunately, we had the chance to spend a weekend with Neil and Karen before they departed. We rented a cabin at Jenny Wiley State Park and got in some good old fashioned nature and relaxation time. Pictured below is part of the nature encounter - ducks aplenty.



Okay, so there are no ducks in the picture above. But we were feeding the ducks. Callie enjoyed it, once John a.k.a. Captain Caution, allowed her to walk past the large hissing drake. That's a male duck, by the way. Don't feel bad - we had to google it. This was yet another example of Sarah and John's contrasting parenting styles, because Sarah thought she might be able to tame that bad boy by riding him across the lake.


Despite the parental craziness, Callie was willing to pose with one of the signs that confirms there were actually ducks on the premises. One wonders if her willingness to pose for such pictures will diminish or increase as the years go by. We are having to bribe her more often to obtain pictures like these. (If you look closer at the picture you will see a fine pair of legs behind the sign - but you don't see the candy held behind the sign)


One of the best parts of the weekend was taking an easy hike on the lakeside trail while Neil a.k.a. The Tree Man, pointed out the variety of plant life and gave us juicy tidbits about the age, diversity, and lushness of the forest around us. At the end of the hike, we weren't sure whether to tip him, prepare for a quiz, or just get dinner ready. As you can see, we have to work on Callie's ability to stay awake in class. This behavior would not fly in Neil or John's classroom.


We will definitely miss Neil and Karen and hope that we see them soon in the future. Of course, that may be difficult as Karen will be spending the next year doing research in Israel while Neil spends several months studying the forests of Mongolia. And no, we are not making any of that up. You thought we traveled alot. At least we stay on the same continent.

Speaking of travel, the last weekend of May brought us to Connecticut for a number of events. The first order of business was John's 15th Yale reunion. Callie spent most of the weekend with Nana Banana, Sport, Suzy, Chris, Katie, Michael, and Brendan, while we lived it up in New Haven. John walked around and caught up with classmates he hadn't seen for years, while Sarah scoped out the members of her favorite reunion class, the men of '45W. Those are the guys who initially enrolled with the class of '45 and then went to fight in WWII. Though they graduated later they are designated '45W. They were celebrating their 65th and were looking good!

In any case, Callie did come into the city to hang out with us for a couple of hours on Saturday. She ran around with the other kids and took part in the little festival Yale put together. They are just trying to recruit early. Personally, John thinks she looks pretty good in the Yale hat she has on below. Although to be fair, she would probably look just as cute in a UC-Santa Barbara hat.



It pains me (John) to say that another picture that could have gone in this spot just didn't make the cut. But for the record, we do have a couple of pictures of John and Callie at the front door of the Master's House of Jonathan Edwards College. With any luck, and over Sarah's registered protest, this will be the front door to our house. Yes, Sarah is shaking her head as I type this.


The last picture for this post finds Nana Banana, Brendan, and Callie posing with the man of the hour, Michael. He had just finished playing his trombone and marching with the Adams Middle School Band in Guilford's Memorial Day parade. Everyone agreed that his band was far better than the high school band. It is also important to note that we intended to have pictures of Michael marching and playing. However, due to John's fine camera work, we ended up with multiple shots of a fine young boy named Tony Penza. He does play the trombone, but is not Michael. Such is life.

Of course there was one more very big reason for our trip. But that deserves a post all its own.

Call a Timeout! We Need a New Defense!

That's right folks, the time has come for us to shift to a man-to-man defense on the homefront. And for our non sport-loving friends and family, we are excited to announce that Team Bowes is expanding. Our official due date is December 6, 2010. Last week we went to the doctor to make sure that everything was looking good and that we are on track for another healthy baby. At this point the baby is ten weeks old so we have thirty weeks to go.





It is amazing how it doesn't feel real until you get the opportunity to see a little blob on a fuzzy screen and hear a heartbeat. The little one has been dubbed, Peanut, and Callie is slowly starting to understand that Baby Peanut will eventually join our family. However, she tells us that she also has a Baby Peanut in her belly. It frightens John and makes Sarah giggle. All in all we are doing well and are super excited about having another child in our family. Fortunately we have managed to forget most of the sleep deprived elements of Callie's infancy, so we are still able to look forward with anticipation to December. Let the games begin!

The RV Comes to Town

At the beginning of April, Ron and Teri Lucas began a magical adventure. They left Rancho Murietta in northern California with a spring in their step and a gleam in their eye. Their mission - to arrive in Utica, NY for a wedding on May 22. In that six week span they planned on taking their RV to some of the wonderful places across this great nation and experiencing all that the United States has to offer....things like tornadoes, floods, April snowstorms in the Rockies, etc.

We were lucky to have a chance to see them shortly after they avoided floating down the Ohio River because of flash floods in Paducah, Kentucky. What is remarkable is that after all they had experienced the spring and the gleam were still there.

This is very evident in the picture below. We try to make sure that Callie has a good understanding of who her immediate family is, and Teri has made it even easier by making an I-spy quilt with pictures of all those family members. And we were happy to see that our efforts paid off, as it took only two minutes or less for Callie to warm up to both Ron and Teri. She even spent a full day with them just hanging out and being spoiled while the parents were at work.



What's also great about Ron and Teri is their willingness to check out anything and everything. The picture above is taken at the Thoroughbred Horse Park in downtown Lexington, a park we have driven by countless times in the past four years but never visited. It's very cool.


That Saturday we all got the opportunity to stop by Mayfest, the downtown crafts fair that kicks off a summer of art festivals and other celebrations around here. Here we see Teri trying to pass on some of her handiness by showing Callie how to make her own bracelet. These are the types of skills that the whole Kentucky Bowes clan would benefit from. Callie also enjoyed a moon bounce and some kettle corn. It was a fun day that ended with a campfire beside the RV at the Kentucky Horse Park.


To make things easier for all involved, Great Uncle Ron and Great Aunt Teri have been given the names of GU (pronounced gee-you) and GA (pronounced gee-ya). It was cute listening to Callie call them by their new names. And while we still hold out hope that they might stop by Lexington on their way back to California, rumor has it they are taking a more northern route. So anyone reading this blog who lives along the I-90 corridor might want to look out for some crazy weather in late May and early June.

The Multiple Joys of Spring

I know it is hard to imagine, but a lot has happened in the past month or so. But we have to start with something that had its origins in Callie's second birthday. Now Callie has received quite a few packages in the mail in her two and a half years on this earth, but no package has journeyed so far as the one pictured below. Sarah's cousin Haley had to send this particular package three different times from California due to address mix-ups, misunderstandings with the UPS folks, and other assorted issues.

Despite all of the troubles, we are happy to report that the four horses and their beautiful barn made it to Lexington in time for the Derby and are one of Callie's favorite toys.



Thanks again to Haley, Ryan, and Skyler for such a thoughtful gift. You can never have enough horses in this neck of the woods. Speaking of woods, our next little episode involves a dead tree and a friendly neighbor.

In the three years we have lived in our house there has been a tree in the backyard that has bothered the two of us immensely. It was dead when we moved in and somehow managed to look deader every year. John, aka Captain Caution, was wary about dealing with it because it nestled against the power line leading to the house. But one sunny day our neighbor Marcus informed us that was hogwash, brought over his axe, and went to town.



Fortunately for all involved, Marcus is handy with an axe and has good aim. In a matter of minutes the tree was down, hacked up into smaller pieces, and stuck into our yard bin. It is amazing how the elimination of one dead tree can brighten a whole backyard. And with that task accomplished perhaps we will get around to fixing the screen door that is still torn from the efforts of the previous owner's dog.


Next we have a picture of Team Bowes on the morning of the Heart Walk, a 5k walk to raise awareness and money for the American Heart Association. It may not be the best picture of us, but it proves to our generous supporters that we did in fact show up and walk.



Our heartfelt (get it) thanks go to all of you who responded generously to Sarah's email and donated money in support of Team Bowes. You will be happy to know that we raised $575 for the cause. We hope to do more events like this in the future, especially as Callie gets older and has a better understanding of what we are doing.


This spring Callie has discovered what some might call, the joy of dance. Many times she insists that her parents sit on the floor and "Watch me dance!" Her particular influences and styles are somewhat undefined. Sarah thinks it's the Bowes genes. But take a look and you decide.



And for those of you wondering, she is dancing to the Grateful Dead. But she has been known to get her boogie on to just about anything. Like her parents, she has an eclectic taste in music.


Unfortunately, we have to end this post on what is truly a sad note. As of this past Tuesday, the Halloran family are no longer residents of Lexington. They have set off on a new adventure in the state of Utah. Fiona got an opportunity she couldn't pass up and while we already miss them tremendously we know that they are excited and happy about what lies ahead. Of course, Callie has asked about Iain every day since they have left, and it is going to be a difficult adjustment not having her best friend around. But Utah isn't that far away and who knows when we'll feel the need to go skiing in Park City.

We are on a roll, so more posts to follow soon!

California Girls

So this year we did spring break a little bit differently than we have in the past. Sarah and Callie headed to California to hang out with all the California aunties while John stayed in Lexington and hosted a gathering of his best friends from childhood. The post below features numerous pictures of a wonderful trip to California. Unfortunately you will not see a single picture of the boys' weekend in Lexington. However, we can assure you that a good time was had by all, and it looks like Ted, Jason, Bill, and Tyler now know why the first day of the spring meet at Keeneland is the place to be. But on to the main show.


It is appropriate to start the post with a picture of Ashlyn, the newest member of the Perrone family. She arrived in November and although it took us over four months to meet her, it was well worth the wait. She takes after her sister - she is really cute and refuses to sleep through the night. For example, the first night of our trip Lauren got up at 1am, 3am, and 5am to deal with one of her darling bundles of cuteness.



Most mornings we enjoyed a walk to downtown Manhattan Beach to grab some bagels and coffee. This is certainly a routine I could get used to. One morning Auntie D joined us not only for the morning snacks but also for the morning activity, which consisted of Callie and Kate playing in the fountain. They had no worries about wet clothes, that's for sure.



It was awesome to watch Denise enjoy her time with the girls. She also embraced spoiling them when she later presented them both with fairy costumes.


These fairy costumes were quite elaborate - wings, skirts, headdresses, and fairy wands. Needless to say, the girls loved them. They spent over an hour running through the house and posing for pictures. Callie has actually worn the fairy skirt to bed on several occasions since she has been back in Lexington.




To insure that the spoiling continued, Auntie Pi popped over with her bag full of goodies for the little ones. Her gifts included tiaras, feathery Easter purses, and all the fixings for dyeing eggs.



It was pretty entertaining to watch Denise and Alicia leading the egg dyeing and managing the energy and attitude of two crazy two-year-olds. Kate and Callie had a blast, but both ended up with colored hands for the rest of the day.


On Easter Sunday, we headed over to the Bazela-Schwartz residence for brunch and a traditional Easter egg hunt. The actual hunt occurred three to four times because it took a while for Kate and Callie to catch on. Josh was kind enough to show them how it all works. This went on innocently for quite some time. Until....



They discovered that these plastic eggs held candy goodness and the hunt took on a whole new meaning. Callie and Kate each probably ate more candy in that one morning than they have their entire lives up to that point. It was impressive to watch.




Now an Easter brunch is not an Easter brunch without hula hoops. And since we were in the presence of a master hula hooper, we had to watch him in action and learn his moves. Callie thought Josh was a riot, but I don't believe she picked up any of the skills. That may have to wait until the next trip.




We end our Easter morning extravaganza with a picture of the Perrone family all decked out for the occasion. JP and Lauren look dashing in their bunny ears and seem remarkably alert for two people who have endured another night of multiple wakings. It is still hard to believe that it was only four years ago that Sarah and the rest of the girls were dancing on the stage with the band at their wedding. I guess time flies when you are having fun.



What's a trip to California without a trip to the beach? Callie and Sarah joined Josh and Gretchen for a drive up to their favorite tidepool beach in Malibu.



We only spent an hour or so but got a good long walk in and staged a couple more Easter egg hunts in the sand. Callie and Josh couldn't get enough of the whole hide and seek aspect of it all.


Auntie Gret certainly wanted to spend some one on one time with Callie and make sure that she knows the proper names for the West Coast sea life. We need to make sure that Callie spends quality time with Gretchen every year to continue to expand her knowledge of science in general and marine life in particular.




Some of the highlights of the trip really were the various times that Sarah got to just hang out with any one of her close friends while Callie played with Kate. Or at the very least Callie and Kate played next to each other. By the fourth day we were there they both would ask for each other when they woke up and seemed to interact more comfortably.




The park was definitely their favorite destination and they spent a lot of time going down the slides and riding on froggies. I guess it should come as no surprise that a couple of two-year-olds loved the playground, especially this one that is designed specifically for toddlers.






The main reason for the timing of this particular trip to California was to celebrate Gretchen's 40th birthday. Although there was a lot of family time on this visit, the main event was for adults only at a cool wine bar in Hollywood. The evening included a fair amount of wine, appetizers, cupcakes, and adorable m&m's that had messages wishing Gret a happy birthday. A good time was had by all.




Our California trips are always way too short, but it was great to see everyone and catch up. Hopefully we'll get back to LA again soon.

Eggs and Bunnies

As Callie gets older, each season brings more fun-filled activities that were not possible the year before. And as Callie grows more aware of and excited about the world around her we all get to enjoy the little things that we have taken for granted in the past. For example, when was the last time you went down a slide at your local playground with a big smile on your face? Fortunately, we can say it was yesterday, and we had a blast! One of Callie's favorite phrases these days is "Oh my goodness!" and she truly makes us see the world in a whole new light.

This season's new fun-filled activity was, you guessed it, coloring Easter eggs. John has learned a variety of techniques from the Skonieczny family and was happy he could bring those skills to the table. Step one, boil the eggs. To be completely transparent, we must admit that we had to go online to get the instructions on how to boil eggs properly. A little embarassing, but we didn't want to lose any potential egg canvases through ignorance.



Callie was very patient throughout the boiling process, since it took longer than we had anticipated. She was also extremely helpful when it came to cooling and drying the eggs. Although at her age it is difficult to avoid being a bull in a china shop at times, she has a very attentive and delicate approach to the tasks she is given.


Here is a picture of step 2, dyeing the eggs. It took Callie a few minutes to understand the process, but she was soon eager to use all of the colors we had in front of us. And once she had mastered the dyeing process, she was deemed ready to take on a more advanced skill.




Here we see Callie using a crayon to write on the egg before placing it in the dye. This is one of the ideas John picked up over the years he spent at the kitchen table of the Skonieczny household. Now we were not as adept at using two other techniques John learned. Polishing the finished egg with wax paper didn't go so well and we chose not to introduce Callie to the highly competitive sport of egg konking. Don't worry, I bet the konking will be a part of things next year.


One of the nice things about dyeing eggs is how the finished product looks. Callie was definitely proud of all of her eggs and thought the whole activity was a lot of fun. More surprising, to John at least, is the fact that over the past week Callie has also eaten her fair share of the eggs. Who knew?




Easter also brings another important tradition - a picture of Callie with a stuffed bunny on the stairs. This has been an interesting way to track Callie's growth in terms of size and cuteness over the past couple of years. This year did not disappoint. But as you will see below, this year's photo shoot introduced another element to the mix - you'll see what we mean shortly.


Our first picture is the traditional version. For the sake of comparison, you can go and take a look at the posts from April 2009 and March 2008. Those pictures of Callie with her bunny and bunny ears from previous years give you a sense of the changes in such a relatively short period of time. She has grown so much, it is absolutely incredible. We are wondering just how old she will be when she finally refuses to pose for this photo. We are hoping for 18 but imagine it might happen a year or two sooner.

Okay, here is the twist in the tradition for this year. It all started when Grandpa Dan sent Callie a package a month or so ago. The box seemed pretty light, but it was also quite big. We opened it up and all we could see was pink fur. As soon as we pulled the gift out, Callie fell in love what appears to be a bunny that ate a basketball. Take a look below and you will see what we mean.





The above signs of Easter all occurred early this year because the three of us will not be together for Easter weekend. Sarah and Callie are heading off to be with all of Callie's California aunties while John entertains four of his closest friends by showing them all that Lexington has to offer. We are excited to see our friends since they mean so much to us and we don't get nearly enough opportunities to spend time with them.