Five month old news

 

Oh dear, I just noticed I have a draft page from January!  Oops!!  I have no clue why I gathered this assortment of photos and stuck them in the "draft", but I'm sure I originally had a very clever way of weaving all these photos together.  It eludes me five months later.  So let's just look at sweet Niki!!  She is so precious - look at her with Zoe, how they are best friends and never tire of one another.

Then we have Michael, whose team won a tournament, probably in January.  Michael was named MVP of the tournament and got to keep the team plaque as a result.  He looks so tall, eh?  Must be the George Sprague genes (I never tire of saying that).

Finally, we have Elizabeth, who had invited her two closest friends to go to the mall for a couple of hours to walk around, with me as the chauffeur (and person who was instructed to stay very far behind them when at the mall - and also not to speak while driving the girls to and from Lexington).  I was more than happy to oblige, although I did lose a few years of my life when I lost the three at the mall - those Brahmin purses were just so tempting to look at and then when I turned around, the girls were just gone.  I admit this happened twice, so I clearly didn't learn my lesson, but it all worked out in the end, and Elizabeth thought it gave her additional ammunition for her perpetual plea for a phone.

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A little work, a little play

Elizabeth represented Finland this past week during her school's Parade of Nations event, which involves a poster presentation to her class and an evening event for all students and parents.  Although it was in the 80s outside in Georgetown, she was true to her country's weather and wore her winter garb for a couple of hours while explaining Finland's habitat, pasttimes, and geography.  She worked hard on her project for several weeks and her effort paid off: After she gave her class presentation, her teacher e-mailed me, telling me how proud she was of Elizabeth's spectacular work ...400/400 points!

Meanwhile, Michael's basketball career is over for the season and he's back with his soccer team.  Today the 4 of us (sans puppies) traveled to Indiana to watch him play.  Apparently soccer is like riding a bike and you never forget how to do it; you'd never know this was his first game in 8 months.  He played most of the game, which ended in a 3-3 tie.  (Lame officials.)   The first photo reminds me of the "Airplane" game that kindergarteners play! 

What the hail

My kids loved the book "Wacky Wednesday" (do you remember it?) and it sure was a bizarre one this past week.  Hail arrived out of nowhere, destroying all plants, tulips, and pansies in sight.  Elizabeth and Michael thought it was absolutely delightful, and Elizabeth took pictures through the open door (imagine freeeeeeeeeeezing cold temperatures coming in through a wiiiiide-open door) for your viewing pleasure.




On another note, UK is in the championship game of the NCAA tournament!  In 27 hours, they will be the reigning team!!  Go UK! 

Day off for everyone

Spurred by Laura's e-mail asking for an update and the fact that I am tired of transferring "Make blog entry" on my list of things to do week after week after week, I am writing this post instead of grading papers about - ironically enough - procrastination. 

As we know, basketball is a big deal in Kentucky.  The high school Sweet Sixteen tournament is a huge deal in Kentucky.  Scott County (Georgetown) traditionally has a fairly good team (this year Scott County lost in the finals to a private school out of Louisville.)  Apparently so many Scott County teachers - and students - would skip the Friday of the tournament in order to watch the games that the School Board decided to make that Friday a professional development day for the teachers.  That way the teachers and students could go to the games without having to pay for substitute teachers or having low attendance rates for that day.  Crazy but true.  And don't get me started on how most people don't want a second desperately-needed high school in Scott County because then the athletes would be split up across the 2 schools and we'd no longer be a sports powerhouse - oh no!  Who cares about the 38-student classrooms, at least we have some shiny trophies!

Thus, last Friday E&M didn't have school, Steven took a vacation day, and I was on Spring Break (Zoe and Niki were hanging out with no place to go as usual).  So we made it a Family Day.  Steven and I thought Family Day meant the four humans would hang out together and be a family.  Elizabeth and Michael convinced us that Family Day meant the parents chauffeur them around Lexington with one of their friends, in separate cars.  And of course separate tables at Applebee's during lunch.  So E's friend Andrea spent the night with us, and Stephen Jasper (M's best friend) came over Friday morning and the 6 of us went to Lexington (apparently puppies aren't included in Family Day).  The kids played laser tag, ate out, and ran errands (thank goodness the parents get to drive the vehicles or that last one likely wouldn't have happened).  Then E spent that night at Andrea's and attended a UK softball game Saturday, while Stephen, Steven, Michael, and I went to Frankfort to watch the GC women's basketball team in the national NAIA tournament.  The women have advanced to the Final Four - we have gone to all the tournament games and will go to the game tonight as well (do not report us to Child Services for abandoning our children, I'm sure they will have plenty of homework to do to keep them busy).  It is just so lucky that the tournament is in Frankfort, KY of all places this year.  Michael had 3 basketball games this weekend and they were undefeated Saturday after 2 games, but then lost Sunday morning so that was the end of the tournament.  I love watching him play basketball so very much.  So that's what our weekend was like and now I will start grading those papers.  Perhaps.

Christmas 2011

Our first Christmas as a family of 6 was splendid.  Lots of rest, relaxation, sleep, and laziness (Michael "I sleep until 11 a.m. each day" suggested the last one).  Mom spent three days with us, full of a 1000-piece puzzle, good food, and basic hanging out.  We also spent a day with Steven's family (Zoe and Niki were thrilled to explore all the nooks and crannies at Aunt Angie's and play with their 2 dogs). 
 Matthew survived his first semester at GC and is still smiling (thank goodness; that first semester can be so tough).  This year was the first year E and M created the Christmas village without any parental supervision (only one figure was beheaded, and I think that was actually Steven's fault).  E and M had lots of sleepovers and get-togethers with friends (read: Karyn made a lot of pancakes over the holidays).

Zoe and Niki continue to enrich our lives.  They loved being out of their crates all day long while everyone was on vacation and only ate 5 of the Christmas decorations.  Not bad for two puppies' first Christmas.  Mom has been slow to warm up to the puppies, but we were proud of her when she progressed to letting Zoe on her lap.  Unfortunately, Zoe thanked Grandma by licking Grandma's mouth, which made Grandma shriek. 

Thank you to everyone who sent the children gifts.  Michael loves the mini football helmets (especially when he beats me at the apparently-you-get-to-make-the-rules-up-as-you-go game we play) and the legos (who knew 1000 tiny seemingly random plastic pieces could form such coherent structures?).  Elizabeth will need thumb surgery within a year if she continues texting and game-playing on her new ipod touch at the same rate.  She was also excited to finally get the jewelry and bag she selected at a fair trade market on campus a couple of months ago.  It really was such a happy Christmas, although we missed being with my siblings and their families and hope that changes next year.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Left: Zoe, Harley, Niki

Right: JarJar, Zoe, Niki

After 2 years on the market, 100 Gateway Path is no longer ours. Yay!!!!!!   Happily, the same weekend we closed on the house, we also got our sweet little puppy Niki!!   Robin got her puppy JarJar (from Star Wars) the same day, so we met Jo at Robin's in northern Kentucky and had a puppy party. 

         Jake & JarJar              Cara & Niki; Elizabeth & JarJar            Vadim & JarJar

Jo brought the puppies' dad, Harley, who is also Zoe's dad.  The three puppies and their dad played and played (it seemed like a bit of roughousing to me, but apparently that's normal).  I swear Zoe remembered Harley and Jo - there was quite a bit of frenetic jumping involved by Zoe.  The puppies and Harley were so happy playing outside they didn't notice the cold like the rest of us did!  The pictures say it all (I assume the video footage says the same thing, but alas, I left the flip camera at Robin's) - how beautiful, how happy, how sweet they are.  And how lucky all of us are to have them in our lives.

Halloween

Michael was our superstar soccer player, Elizabeth was our superhero Batgirl.  They went trick-or-treating with friends in our neighborhood.  Steven and I passed out candy while sitting in the driveway (Zoe kept Steven warm, I had to rely on tea).  This was Zoe's first Halloween, and she absolutely loved all the children who pet her.  We were expecting hundreds and hundreds of kids, so we bought almost 1000 pieces of candy.  Apparently the throngs of children stop going door to door the street just before ours, as our street is slightly off the main road.  Oops.  My students are beginning to cringe when I walk into class with the Halloween bowl filled with hundreds of leftover pieces.  While many people stare at Steven in public because he is so very attractive, on Halloween people were staring at him because they were unnerved by his frightening wig (yes, that is him).