Rachael's Pictures

Below are the pictures of Rachael taken with her doll Clara (I mentioned the portrait session in an earlier blog entry.) Yes she is still only 4 in these pictures, hard to believe when you get to the last black and white close up. I am glad she wanted to take them with her doll as it helps make her look her age - at least in some of the pictures.



Sometimes we talk with the girls about what attributes they have that we appreciate. Grace and Hannah always say that one thing that makes Rachael special is she makes us laugh all the time. Sometimes she is trying to, but sometimes she isn't. Two recent small examples: 1. We got home the other night and Rachael wanted me to carry her from the van into the house. I asked her why she thought she needed to be carried. She said that her stomach hurt and her leg was about to hurt.

2. She is reading a series of books (yes she is reading to us at bedtime now) with a little girl that has brown hair. In the book we read last night Rachael noticed that the pictures of the little girl showed her hair as darker than the other books. She told me that the little girl dyed her hair. I asked Rachael why she thought the little girl dyed her hair, was she trying to be Chinese like Grace and Hannah? Rachael looked at me funny and said without hesitation - Mom she's not Chinese, she is French!

Spring Break

Spring Break for the girls was March 31 – April 4. The busiest time of the year for my job runs from about February 1 – April 10. I can’t take a lot of time off during this period, so family vacations during Spring Break are out. The good news for the girls is they have Nana. She kept them all week and made sure they had a fun vacation. They ended up having a sleep over at Nana’s on three nights. She took them to their favorite store – Joseph Beth Booksellers and let them pick something out. She also took them to Dairy Queen one day for Blizzards. The visited the duck pond at the Lexington Cemetery (some what surprisingly one of the prettiest spots in town) on another day.

On Wednesday Nana took them to Kentucky Down Under in Horse Cave, Kentucky. This is an Australian themed animal park which includes a natural onyx cave. They spent time in a bird aviary, petting kangaroos and wallabies, milking a cow, and exploring the Kentucky Caverns. From the pictures Nana and Grace took I think they had a great time.

Grace says the bird in the background puffed up really big when Nana was ready to take the picture. Vanity in birds?

I am sure this picture was taken for the bird but I like the sign. It reads "Please do not feed fingers to the birds."

What was amazing is after a long day traveling and visiting Kentucky Down under Nana fixed dinner that night for all of us to celebrate Craig’s birthday. The girls did help make the strawberry pie for dessert but we all know who did all the work. (The second number on the pie is a 2.)

On Friday Nana attended her DAR conference in the afternoon. Papa took the afternoon off of work and took the girls to lunch at a Lexington landmark – Joe Bologna’s (affectionately called Joe B’s by Lexingtonians.) The restaurant is in an old temple with the 41 stain glass windows still in place. Since Papa returned to work about 1 ½ years ago they don’t have the same time with him that they enjoyed during his “retirement.” They savored having time with him and I appreciate his taking time off during the busy budget season.

Easter

This year Easter came early and so Eater bonnets were replaced by winter coats, rain and a small amount of snow flurries.

On Good Friday Grace and Hannah had school but Rachael did not and fortunately I had the day off of work. Craig had half a day off. Rachael had been asking to have her picture taken with her doll that she named Clara. I thought Good Friday was a great opportunity. She and I had a good morning together at home and then went out to the mall for a little shopping and photography session. She was amazingly patient and well behaved. She didn’t whine or cry once the entire day. Craig met us at Red Robin for lunch. Rachael had us to herself until we picked up the girls from school around 3:00. She was on a high for several days from having time alone with us. It was proof to me that she can be well behaved and as I suspected her sisters tend to egg her on (especially one long legged one.) I enjoyed our time alone. Craig and I work at giving each of the girls time alone with one of us but it is rare that they get the two of us with out their sisters.

Once we picked up Grace and Hannah from school we hit the road for Cincinnati. Uncle Dick came down from Dayton for Easter and Drew and Emily spent as much time as possible with us. We enjoyed Mom’s cooking all weekend and time together. The girls dyed eggs and made a mess of Mom and Dad’s house.

Despite the cold the girls suffered from cabin fever and insisted on being outside a lot. Hampa was a good sport and stayed out with them a lot. Saturday night Grace and Hannah had a sleep over at Uncle Drew and Emily’s house. They found out that the Easter Bunny hides eggs at Emily’s house. He doesn’t do that for the Kelly girls. Must be true what the book The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes says, there is more than one Easter Bunny. On Sunday we had the annual Easter egg hunt in the backyard of my parent’s next door neighbors. The girls look forward to this each year. Rachael ran out ahead of everyone so she could get the easy to find eggs. As always Grace patiently lagged behind allowing the younger girls the opportunity to find eggs first. Sometimes she finds the role of oldest sister a hard pill to swallow but most of the time it is clear that she was meant to be one.


Grace took this picture of Emily and Will. Will is wearing Emily's head band with bunny ears attached (it looks like he is really enjoying it doesn't it?!)

Ice Skating

In March Grace and Hannah were invited to a birthday party at an ice skating rink. Neither had ever been ice skating, but they were excited to go. Of the two of us, Craig assured me that I was the better skater so I went knowing Grace and Hannah would need help. I hadn’t been ice skating since college so I was hoping it was like riding a bike – once you have learned you always know. When we arrived the father of the birthday girl, a great neighbor, took Grace out on the ice with his younger daughter. I told Hannah I needed to see if I could still skate so I took one lap by my self. Although I was a little rusty I felt I would be okay so brought Hannah out with me on the second lap. Both Grace and Hannah have strong legs and are athletic so they took to skating quickly. After about an hour we took a break for presents and cake and then returned to the ice. This time our neighbor took Hannah while I took Grace. I don’t know how he did it the entire time with two girls but I can’t thank him enough. I don’t think I could have done it.

Once Grace and I had gone around a couple of times I knew she could do it by herself, I just had to convince her of this. I eventually got her to let go (a nice way to say I forced her very strong grip off of my hand) and she did very well on her own. By the end I was tired but the girls were energized by learning something new and having fun. They are anxious to go back.





Photographers disclaimer: One of the weaknesses of my camera is inside lighting such as a concert or show and as it turns out ice skating rinks. In addition it doesn't handle action well. Add the fact that I was skating while holding hands with either Grace or Hannah when I was taking these pictures and you can see that these pictures are actually good given the circumstances.

Snow!!

After 6 days of school being closed and 3 days of early dismissals due to inclement weather we finally got enough snow to play in – on a Saturday. We have had sleet, ice and some snow this winter but the true snow (about 5-6 inches) finally arrived on March 8. It was not packing snow, so not any snowmen but lots of fun for the girls.



Thankfully our back neighbors, the Rintamaas, have a hill big enough to satisfy the girls and they also have sleds they share. While the snow was still coming down the girls were out in it. They spent most of the day outside.

Hannah with Elisabeth

Our new couch was scheduled to be delivered on Saturday so Craig had to shovel the driveway – a couple of times. The good news was Craig got a new toy for Christmas that he hadn’t used yet – a power shovel. It was amazing how far that snow was blown out. I tried to take pictures and hopefully you can see the arch of snow. The couch did arrive and I love it. Of course it really makes the chairs look shabby.