Heading into Summer

As we began to approach summer, we had some exciting events on the calendar.  One of those was John's trip to New York to hang out with friends he's had since elementary school.  He spent four days with Jason, Bill, and Tyler in upstate New York, going on hikes, drinking wine by a fire, and all in all celebrating nearly forty years of friendship.  He is a very lucky guy to have friends like these.

Who knows where these two will be in forty years, but at the moment they are fast friends.  Ella Hughes has become one of Reese's closest friends this past year, and we couldn't be happier about it.  They seem to have a lot of common interests, enjoy being around each other, and perhaps most important, Ella is not afraid to call out Reese when she is being sassy.  That is something that all good friends should do.  (Thanks, Lauren)

We have a lot of pictures of Reese from field day, because she was excited to have her Mom volunteer for the day.  Our older chid was not as outwardly excited, and therefore we have limited sightings of her and her friends enjoying this day.  Reese has a great stride, we will have to see if this leads to anything in the future.

One of the reasons Reese had such a great year in first grade was that she had a wonderful teacher.  Mrs. Sageser seemed to encourage Reese's thinking and confidence even as she nurtured Reese's kindness.  They were a very good fit for each other.  We continue to be very impressed with the Cassidy teachers.  Again, Callie also had a great year with her teacher, Mrs. Richardson.  However, there is no end of the year picture to document that. Her choice, not ours.

The school year ends and we know that the very next week will kick off summer in just the right way.  It is Music and Arts Camp week, and the arrival of Libby and Lucy Gipe.  These weeks always go by fast and are a flurry of activity, full of smiles and fun.  This year things were a little more intense because Callie also had tryouts for LFC, which meant she had to miss some of the evening festivities.

However, she still managed to be in the mix, and that included the full blown production of a play titled, "Maggie and the Loose Tooth."  A play based on true events, this play followed the life of Maggie (played by Lucy) as she dealt with the ups and downs of having a loose tooth.  Her father (played by Callie) and mother (played by Libby) managed their daughters emotional challenges.  Fortunately, Wanda the tooth fairy (played by Reese) saved the day and brought Maggie a prize for the dramatic event.  The play was fun, but intermission stole the show because the girls had prepared a full snack cart that the audience got to select from as part of the price of admission.

Of course the big show of the week came on Friday afternoon as all of the kids performed "Adam's Apple" at the culmination of Music and Arts Camp.  It was another wonderful show, and Callie is now at an age where she is doing some of the shows for the second time.  She only has one more year to be a part of the camp, because after that she will be a volunteer helping with the younger kids.  Crazy how time flies.

It is so much fun to see these four girls strengthen their friendship every time they get together.  They always have a lot of fun right from the get go and can't get enough of each other.  We need to find some more annual events to make sure they see each other more often.

A Fun Filled Spring

It sometimes happens that the girls get to go down to EKU's campus with John when they have a day off from school, and it is always a question of what will keep them busy.  On this particular day, Reese was ready to make a sign John could put outside his office door.  This is the perfect combination of a message from her elementary school and a common issue she has heard her Dad complain about a lot.  It will be up outside his office for years to come.

Reese and Callie also got into the art carts that they received for Easter in a pretty big way.  They spent hours up in their room making all sorts of crafty items and had a big idea of selling them.  So on a cold spring day Reese wheeled their carts out on the driveway and tried to lure in the customers.  She had titled her business "Reese's Creation Cart" and was selling items for $.25 to $1.50.  Business was not brisk, but it sure was cute.

Spring also meant soccer, and as crazy as it may seem, this marked the very last season for a Bowes girl to be on the Sharks.  For four years and eight seasons either Callie or Reese had worn the black #1 jersey.  The very same jersey.  And John was one of the coaches for all eight of those seasons.  It is truly the end of an impressive era, and the Sharks finished with another wonderful group of girls and parents.  What a great run.

Although the picture doesn't capture it here, this year's spring soccer season was condensed because of many weekends of bad weather.  The Fillies at one point played two games during the week to make up for lost weekends.  They had another strong season and ended up in the championship game.  Unfortunately this season they lost the final game, but it certainly was not because of a lack of effort.  We'll see what happens next year.

In April a wonderful Cirque de Soleil show was in Rupp Arena, so we bought tickets and had a family date night.  We had a wonderful dinner with fancy drinks and then headed over to see Corteo.  The girls were amazed by the acrobatics involved and each scene kept all four of us entertained and engaged.  It was a great night all around.

Happy Mother's Day!  We had the great fortune of having out of town visitors for Mother's Day weekend.  Despite the fact that she was only a few weeks past an ankle surgery, Nana Banana made the drive down to Lexington with Sport and spent the weekend going to soccer games, church, and Mother's Day brunch.  It was wonderful to have both of them in town and the girls loved spending time with their grandparents.

With everyone dressed up for Mother's Day we decided to take the opportunity for a family picture.  You can't see it well from this, but our backyard looks stunning, at least in comparison to past years.  This is not really because of anything we have done.  We are once again in the mindset of maintaining good work done by other people.  And the four of us look pretty good too.

The girls always like to bust out games when Nana Banana and Sport are in town, and somehow Pie Face was one that made the mix this time.  They know that their grandparents are willing to do almost anything, so it made them easy targets for the game involving whip cream roulette.  And yes, Sport lost this particular battle.

Easter Bunny Unmasked

It was another themed morning put on by the Easter Bunny.  This year the theme was arts and crafts.  But little did the bunny know that this was also the year that her identity was going to be revealed.  Shortly after going through the three-leveled crafts carts, Reese turned to Sarah and said, "You're really the Easter Bunny, right?"  And just like that, Sarah had to come clean.  Reese's response was, "Ella's mom was right. Easter baskets do come from our parents."  She then said later that morning, "Are you also Santa Claus?"  This question was a step too far for her older sister, and Callie shut down that line of questioning, most likely because she just doesn't want to know the answer.  For the record, Reese was in no way devastated to learn the Easter Bunny was not real.

Once we had moved past the big reveal, we got ready for church and headed to the chapel for the Easter egg hunt.  Everyone there was in a pretty good mood, but we had to wait for all the kids to arrive so we could kick off the hunt properly.  Waiting always leads to silliness, as pictured here.

The moms didn't want the kids to think that they were the only ones who could be silly.  Or perhaps they wanted to embarrass their children, which is getting increasingly easier as the girls get older.  The fun has truly just begun in this regard.

Easter also means an annual photo of the Abraham-Bowes children.  The first one we have is from when Reese was only about four months old.  They are all just a little bit older and taller these days.  This year was extra special since the Abrahams as well as our entire wine group joined us and Chris Chrisman for Easter dinner.  Chris was flying solo because Sharon was in Florida with their daughter Sarah and Sarah's girls.

We did manage to get a family picture of the four of us as well, though we need to work on perspective.  Yes, John is the tallest member of the family but he is not quite the giant it would appear from this particular picture.

Winter Snow and Winter Travel

We had a pretty solid winter, and the girls had a number of snow days in January and February.  Luckily, they were able to find ways to pass the time.  The New York Times was kind enough to supply a kids only section in their Sunday newspaper that Callie enjoyed looking through.  It didn't take up the whole day, but it's a good way to get the day started.

On one of the snow days, Reese's friend Evelyn Grace invited her over for a playdate.  This was great in part because Evelyn Grace lives only a block away and we could walk there.  We were pretty impressed when we got this picture texted back to us and saw that Reese and Evelyn Grace had decided to pop up a hot cocoa stand.  We were told that they got a total of two customers, but the enjoyment and creativity was pretty priceless.

One of the snow days was a classic Kentucky version - enough snow to bring Lexington to a standstill but an amount that would make New Englanders laugh.  Nevertheless, there was no school and we had the opportunity to have the girls' friends Harper and Kennedy over for a few hours.  They had a good time on the very small hill John made from the snow shoveled from the driveway.  Sometimes it doesn't take much to entertain.

Then you have a snowfall like this - and this one was different for a number of reasons.  First of all, this picture was taken at 4:30am.  Why?  Because that is when Sarah was driving to the airport to fly out to Sacramento.  She was scheduled to be out in California for a week to help her mom recover from lung surgery, and although this sight was a little scary, nothing was going to stop her from getting to the airport on time.

Sarah's brother Zac had the hard part of the task - getting Gayle to the hospital, waiting through the surgery, and getting her settled in her room afterwards.  Fortunately, Grammy did amazingly well and her recovery, although difficult, didn't seem to faze her.  As you can see from this photograph, she was looking strong within the first 24 hours following the surgery.  This picture allowed Sarah to travel with a little less anxiety, that's for sure.

And it wasn't long before Grammy was outside of her house taking walks with Sarah and Cheyenne.  It was great to be able to support her through this time, but there is no doubt that she is a survivor and has amazing strength.

Christmas Home and Away

The girls couldn't wait to use their baking skills in our new kitchen, especially if it meant baking for Santa.  They are both comfortable enough around the oven that this was kid driven and kid executed.  That's the best kind of activity.

Callie and Reese were ready for Santa's arrival, and finally by the time the day ended, so was the tree.  We had managed to hide these two big boxes for a couple of weeks before Christmas.  This challenge might be difficult for most families, but for a family like ours that seems to grow boxes in our basement, they just blended in with the rest of the craziness.

Our morning traditions always start with Santa's gifts, though, and the stockings are always a big hit.  Reese likes to provide big expressions of joy, especially for items in the stocking that contain sugar.  Santa certainly knows how to hit their sweet spots.  Callie has adopted a more casual approach, but she is just as happy as Reese is about what is in that stocking.

These are the biggest gifts that the girls have ever received beside or under the tree, and they were eager to rip off the paper and find out exactly what was inside.  We did instruct them to open them together so that they both could be surprised at the same time.

They were both surprised and delighted at their bean bags, and were ready to lounge in them all day long.  They dragged them into the living room for some TV watching and up to their bedrooms for some reading.  But they couldn't lounge all day because we had been invited to Christmas dinner over at Cissy and Kenny Leatherman's house to celebrate with them.  Cissy is Chris Chrisman's sister, and we have the good fortune at this point to be considered honorary Chrismans, so we got to enjoy a wonderful meal and fantastic company to celebrate the holiday.  Unfortunately we had to leave early because we had an early flight the next morning.

But when you have people like this waiting for you at the end of the journey, the early morning travel is worth it.  Our family has become accustomed to action packed holiday celebrations, so the girls didn't blink an eye when we continued the Christmas revelry the next day with the Bowes, Balestracci and Hannen clans.

Getting all the families together is such a joy, but there is a special place in the girls' hearts for the Colorado crew because they bring their closest aged cousin Zoey.  And the attention that Brian and Suzy give Callie and Reese is pretty special too.

And when we are all gathered at Nana Banana and Sport's place, Reese and Zoey are able to spend time serenading us with their musical (non) talents.  But perhaps what they really enjoy is playing the piano while the college graduation pictures of Katie, Suzy, and John look over them.

Reese and Zoey are a tad inseparable when they get together these days.  Callie certainly enjoys playing with Zoey, but will transition into adult conversations so as not to compete with her sister's love fest.  Cuteness abounds.

Just like two years ago we all made the pilgrimage up to Uncle Tommy and Aunt Terry's place in New York.  Tommy and Terry welcomed us with open arms, lots of food, and a drink or two.  There is no doubt that they know how to host a party.  This time around we even turned it up a notch with their Alexa that churned out some quality songs from Neil Diamond and the Bee Gees.

It was bitterly cold outside when we were there, but the love inside kept us all warm.  Corny, we know, but so very true.  We are so lucky to have Tommy and Terry in our lives and these visits are a great opportunity to get us all together.  It is also good to have the younger generation see how important our family is to us.

Speaking of people important to us, on the drive back from New York we worked in a quick visit with the McBeans in Fairfield.  This was a special visit since Jason's parents were in town from Florida, so we got to spend a little time with Carl and Cynthia as well.  For the girls, they got to hang out with Hayden making slime.  Who knew that slime had such power to bring children together?  Callie and Reese left asking us when we could visit the McBeans again, and we had the very same question.

A trip back to Madison always means a visit to RJ Julia, the best independent bookstore in the country.  This winter in New England the holidays were a bit colder than normal, but fortunately even us southerners were prepared for it, boots and all.

It is kind of amazing how this group of five grandkids have gown over the years.  Michael is in his junior year of college and Brendan is in his senior year of high school.  Zoey just started kindergarten, Reese is in first, and Callie is in fourth grade.  Time flies.  But one of the great things is how good the older boys are to their young cousins and how much the little ones adore their two older cousins. They are a good bunch all around.

During our trips to Connecticut every night consisted of some kind of family gathering.  But this year also included the Balestracci's Christmas party, which meant we got to meet and hang out with a lot of the Balestracci's friends.  It was a fun night, and the girls ran around like they owned the house.

As we have already mentioned, it was cold, and it had been cold for a while.  The good thing about that is it meant that Milano Pond was fully frozen and open for skating.  The pond is right across the street from the Skonieczny's house, so when we visited them we got to join in the fun.  But since we didn't have ice skates we had to be pulled around the ice.  Sarah was the first taker, which meant that she could have the fun and then head inside to warm up.

The rest of the Bowes crew toughed it out.  Callie went for a ride with Ella pulling and Kristen pushing.  Reese actually put on some skates and tried her skills out with Kristen's guidance.  And John stood there with Mike and watched their kids play together.  It does not get much better than that.

We rang in the new year at the Skonieczny's house, which was a lot of fun.  This picture was produced during our picture scavenger hunt where we broke into three teams and had to use our creativity with a list of action shots required.  This was loads of fun, and a great way to show the kids how awesome their parents are.  Here's to a rockin' 2018!

Science Project

Fourth grade means a lot of things, and that includes mandatory participation in the school's science fair.  Callie was unsure of what type of project to do, and after several conversations that involved pulling teeth, she landed on an experiment involving the acidity of drinks.

John and Callie got the opportunity to go to the store to purchase a wide array of beverages for the experiment.  Mrs. Fehr, the science teacher at Cassidy, truly made this as easy as possible by outlining four different phases of activities each student needed to complete.  But when it came down to it, we still needed to block out a good three hours to execute the experiment according to her outline.

Of course it is important that the student do the work for the project, so we made sure that Callie did the heavy lifting with a little guidance from her mother and a lot of patience from the entire family.  Once we got going, Callie certainly got into it, which helped.

We also decided to take lots of pictures since one of the requirements of the science fair was to put together a poster board illustrating the steps of the experiment as well as the findings.  Fortunately our newly renovated kitchen had a lot of room available for Callie's displays.

This is one example from the ten beverages Callie tested.  On the left is the red cabbage solution (aka the acid indicator), the middle cup contains lemonade, and the cup on the right shows what happens when the two were mixed.  The red color shows the relatively high acidity of the lemonade.  Although Callie did not win any medals in the science fair, she received an A on her project and learned a lot about what it takes to devise and execute an experiment, and that was the whole point of it anyway.  Good stuff all around.