EJM: Extraverted, Joyful, Magnificent

Elizabeth is 12.  12!  That age seems mature and wise to me.  Unlike the girls in the photo on the left!!!  :)  We told E she could invite a "few friends for an overnight" or a "lot of friends for an afternoon party" - something went wrong in the semantics of it all, because somehow she ended up with a "lot of friends for an overnight."  She decorated lovely invitations - all purple and pink.  She designed her own cake and told the baker at Kroger exactly how to construct it.  She received thoughtful gifts from her friends and family (thank you).

Steven and I didn't realize just how much noise 10 preteens could make - especially when you mention the name Justin Bieber.  (Insert lots of shrieking.)  Trust me, all of our neighbors were well aware that a party was in session.  There was a group walk around the neighborhood, lots of Superman ice cream, limited drama, but again, I feel compelled to mention the random screaming.  I think E had a fantastic time - as did I, because I fell asleep at 11 p.m., leaving Steven to monitor and take care of the guests throughout the night.  You can see that the girls were still quite energetic the next morning.  It really was a great party, and E deserved it.

Zoe and Niki

Zoe turned one!!!  Okay, it happened back in February, but I'm finally posting a picture - and a video (see video at very bottom) - totally worth the wait.  We celebrated by taking them to Bruster's ice cream for a doggie ice cream treat.  It was a first for Niki, but Zoe had been twice before.

I remember when we first got Zoe and wondered whether it was illegal to drive while she was in our laps.  Well, we've become bolder!  Niki can actually drive a car!  In addition, you can see that she likes to study and read - we just made it through another semester and school year!


Steven and I usually take them on a walk each evening.  Michael still plays with them every day when he gets home from school - they go nuts when they hear the bus.  

Don't forget to watch the video!!!

Mothers' Day 2012

We had multiple Mother's Day celebrations this year.  First, Mom spent the day with us and  brought us to dinner at Wilshire's, the golf course restaurant.  It's one street over from where we live, so the original plan was to walk there but you know how that goes - maybe it was a little too cool outside, maybe we were running late (that gets my vote), maybe I didn't want to walk in heels, maybe we just all wanted to be in close quarters in my vehicle together.  Regardless, the dinner was delicious! the service was excellent! (it always helps to have GC students as servers) and Carola had quite the time after drinking her Manhattan!  Shall we say giddy???  It was a good day - Mom helped Steven with the bird feeder and pulled all the dead parts off our pansies.  Steven and Mom spent a lot of time talking about her impending new car purchase.  Loved the day.

The next day we had dinner with Steven's mom and his family in Frankfort.  We ate at Johnny Carino's, an Italian restaurant.  It was a fun and funny get together as usual (David had lots of opinionated advice for Elizabeth, who mentioned she wanted a tattoo - or 3 - when she turned 18; I don't think she'll bring that up again.).  I was bummed Matthew didn't go, because I have been looking forward to talking about his first year at GC with him.  I run into him maybe once a month, although I do leave surprise desserts (and sometimes even healthy snacks) for him when I can.  After dinner, Elizabeth suggested dessert at the nearby ice cream parlor, so we all headed there.  Another good day.

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.