Kari has had the opportunity to participate in a couple of fun weekly activities at school this month. Splash Day is something Miss Vicki created to make the hot weather a little more bearable. Unfortunately, the day Grandma was there to help out and take pictures it was a little chilly, but the kids still had a ton of fun.
Kari's and her classmates ready for Splash Day
Kari and her buddy, Mati
Kari is also enjoying some additional physical activity when Miss Dorrie and the Gym Bus arrives. This is literally a refurbished purple bus that travels around town to different schools and daycares providing introductory tumbling lessons. This week they're working on sommersaults and I'm guessing she'll have it down by the next lesson.
Warming up
Lastly, the Union puts on an outdoor summer concert series every Wednesday in July. Sort of like a very informal Ravinia, you can bring your own picnic or eat some yummy food from Pappy's Sweet Shop. Yesterday's concert was fabulous and we were able to enjoy the evening with many of our neighbors.
Well, mid August is rapidly approaching and none too soon. Holly has reached a new level of uncomfortable recently but is somehow marching on. I'll give her tons of credit because doing this with a little one needing a ton of attention is a lot more difficult than Round 1.
We've spent a lot of time lately trying to convey to Kari exactly what is happening here in August and her responsibilities. The hope and goal is that Kari will comprehend in some way all that is about to change, and for the most part, we're both confident she'll adapt just fine.
Mom and Kari went to Prophetstown State Park today for a picnic and to feed the horses, a new favorite of Kari's. She's become quite a little thought machine and now is able to relay what she's thinking. She tells us when to "put your seatbelt on, daddy", "daddy's eating a cookie, mommy" or "cleaning the corn off to eat, daddy?". She also rattled off numbers 1-11 in order without any requests... and then back to 8-11 and 8-11 again before she's confused even herself.
I recently returned from a quick work trip to Austin and College Station Texas where it was 101 degrees. Wow. We've had visits galore of late from Grandma, Grammy Pammy, Gran and Beep Beep, Pam... just about all that Hotel Keckler can handle :)
One random addition to this post: Upon dining at one of the finest restaurants I've ever been to during my May guy's trip to Las Vegas, I decided to write a follow up email to the manager. The 5-star Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesar's Palace was unforgettable. I sent an email to the general info address and somehow it ended up in PARIS, FRANCE at the chef's home restaurant.
Anyway, the manager there was so impressed with what I wrote she shared it with Chef Savoy himself. Apparently he felt it necessary to write a quick letter back to me that went like this...
Hope you're all doing well and if you have any new email addresses we need to know of before sending out the announcement of Keckler number 2, please let us know at kecklerfam@gmail.com.
A compilation of what we've been doing since July 4th: Ready for church.
The lions DID roar when Kari walked by.
Fireworks at The Elks with our good tailgating friend, Julie.
A quick trip to the beach.
The little tourists.
Kari and Nolan's first sleepover. This didn't last more than 15 minutes.
We've also enjoyed visits from all three sets of grandparents within the last two weeks. Pictures should be coming soon. Holly's friend Pam from Pharmacy school will be here on Sunday. We'll be celebrating her passing of the boards. Yeah!!
Again, thanks to Parents Magazine for this great little craft Kari and I were able to create together. We'll be handing these out to her teachers on Monday.
This coming week her school will be celebrating the upcoming holiday with various activities. They will wrap up the week with a picnic on Thursday and parents are invited. At this point, both Kevin and I plan to be at the picnic.
Kari enjoyed her stay with Gran and Beep Beep last week and did very well for two nights away from home. Amy and Jason and the girls were in the Midwest to see family and gave us a chance to get Keira, Audra and Kari together for some quality cousin time. I think we are all seeing the value of getting the girls together a couple times a year so that they can continue to grow and bond together. They had a fabulous time together, as did Gran and Beep Beep.
Kari and Audra enjoying a wagon ride.
Keira and Kari enjoying some time together.
Other than that, we've been trying hard to stay cool with 90+ degree temps in Central Indiana. We've been taking late afternoon trips to the pool to cool off. Kari continues to develop her swimming skills by going under water and starting to kick legs and paddle with her arms at the same time. She initially showed interest in going off the 1 meter diving board but quickly changed her mind when she got to the edge. No worries, we've got all summer to build up her courage.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll post a picture of a small art project Kari and I have been working on in anticipation of July 4th. Stay tuned!
This weekend marked the third biennium Witherspoon reunion at lovely Pokegon State Park. We had our largest turnout this year, only missing Mark and Uncle Max, which meant our group reached a whopping 28 people. Some family members hadn't seen each other in as long as 14 years, so it was a reunion well-spent. Cousin Dr. Scott's former life as a cruise director showed through as he had activities and crafts planned for the kids both days and ended it with a luau bash. Kari had a fabulous time with her second? cousins (or perhaps cousins twice removed??)
Saying goodnight to my cousins Jane, Margaret, Janelle and Amanda. Margaret, Janelle, Kari, Avery, Maxwell, Amanda, Jane, Sybill
We also had a chance to stop in and have lunch with Great Grandpa in Fort Wayne.
Tomorrow we head down to Indy for an outdoor concert with some friends. Kari will be spending the next two days at Gran and Beep Beep's house. It will also be an especially special time as we are looking forward to a quick visit with Aunt Amy, Uncle Jason, Keira and Audra on Thursday who are in the Midwest this week for a wedding.
Kari: Where's Daddy? Mom: Daddy's at work. Kari: "Why?" Mom: He's bringin' home the bacon. Kari: "Why?" And on, and on, and on.... until Kevin and I burst out laughing yesterday after dinner as we were not expecting this to come out of Kari's mouth:
Dad: Kari, what does Daddy do? Kari: "Uhm, homing the bacon!"
Clearly, phrases are beginning to stick, which means we are entering upon a very funny yet potentially dangerous stage of Kari's vocabulary development.
We had a beautiful Sunday and decided to spend it with some good friends and also just happen to have kids the same age as Kari. Charlie, Nolan and Kari enjoyed yet another water balloon "fight" this evening. It's hardly fair to call it a fight as they are mostly thrilled to just watch the balloons burst in the grass. It's amazing how fast 30 some-odd minutes of water balloon prep and fill-up can go in probably less than 3 minutes with these kids. If I had been smart, I would have spent all of Kari's nap time this afternoon filling balloons. Instead, I have begun to try to stockpile uninterrupted sleep while I still can.
I think we can officially call it summer. Nolan invited Kari down for a water balloon fight this afternoon. They both had a blast trying to burst the balloons.
We also took our weekly trip out to Prophetstown State Park, a.k.a. The Farm. Thank you to Aunt Amy, Uncle Jason, Keira and Audra for the awesome Christmas gift. We are enjoying it tremendously!
Okay, I need to gush a little. I have a new love in my life, and fortunately for Kevin, he wholeheartedly approves of my new amour. For those of you in charge of laundry duty in your household, you have likely fought a losing battle with stains. I recently thought I had lost a battle after discovering a tube of Vaseline Lip Therapy in the dryer that had polka-dotted my favorite pair of maternity pants. When my traditional tricks didn't work I suddenly remembered my dear childhood next door neighbor's response to stains, "Just throw it in the BIZ bucket." And so I did and now I'm a convert. I still use my OxyClean, but for the über tough jobs, I'll be reaching for my box of BIZ. Thanks, Mrs. Nelson.
On another note, Kevin and Kari spent the day up in The Region with Grammy Pammy and Dale, serving as an excellent half-way point for everyone. Kari couldn't stop talking about her Grammy Pammy and was extremely well-behaved all day. Reportedly, she tore through her Red Robin cheeseburger, so we may have a slowly developing meat eater after all. Meanwhile, Natalie, Pam (from Pharmacy school) and I were busy touring around the state on our so-called Farm Day. We were able to visit some fabulous family farms, local markets and organic farms. Probably the highlights of the day were visiting Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville, Stream Cliff Herb Farm in Comiskey and eating dinner at Zydeco's in Mooresville. Who'd have thought little Mooresville, Indiana would have such a fantastic cajun and creole restaurant?
On Sunday we were invited by one of Kevin's co-workers to spend the day up at Lake Freeman. The weather was absolutely perfect for spending time in the water. As we suspected, however, Kari wasn't too keen on lake water. Despite having the security of wearing a lifejacket, the murky water and muddy/sandy bottom was just not to her liking. She spent the majority of the day playing with the water on her own terms- in buckets and watering cans. Lunch was delicious as Kevin brought the main dish-baby back ribs- for everyone to feast on. While lunch was otherwise pretty uneventful, Kari managed to find yet another food to go with her kep-pup: strawberries. At this point we were glad we had left the camera at home. Yuck!
We've just wrapped up a wonderful week with Grandma and Grandpa visiting from Glen Ellyn. As you can see there was plenty of quality time spent together:
Not even broccoli could lure her away from the slide
A big thanks to Grandpa for all his hard work assembling the swingset. Don't ever believe the instructions when it boasts "2 people 6-8 hours to assemble." 43 pages of instructions and 20-some odd man hours later and the project was complete! We know Kari will get miles of use (and we'll get miles of pictures) throughout the years.
Kevin and I each spent some time away from home this weekend; he in Las Vegas with a buddy from work for an annual guys' trip (yes, we were out there less than five weeks ago), and I was in Cincinnati for the wedding of a dear college friend.
Oh, and I found out that I passed my glucose tolerance test. I celebrated that evening with a big ole' chocolate milkshake.
Kari's and her classmates ready for Splash Day
Kari and her buddy, Mati 
Warming up
Lastly, the Union puts on an outdoor summer concert series every Wednesday in July. Sort of like a very informal Ravinia, you can bring your own picnic or eat some yummy food from Pappy's Sweet Shop. Yesterday's concert was fabulous and we were able to enjoy the evening with many of our neighbors.
Kari and Nolan
Kari and Meghan
