The Kentucky Derby is celebrated all over, usually consisting of a singular great bash on the first Saturday in May. In Louisville, however, Derby is the culmination of Fest-a-Ville, two weeks of events celebrating Derby season. It is a major holiday here – all the schools are actually closed on Oaks Day (the Friday before Derby).
Alexandra’s pre-school really gets into Derby – I loved seeing all of the Derby-themed art projects coming home from school each day! They held a Derby parade the Thursday before the big race, and it was the CUTEST.THING.EVER.
Each of the kids was given the task of designing their own hat which was supposed to fit their personality.
I made Alexandra’s hat – it was pink (OF COURSE) with pink and purple flowers and feathers. Here she is with Owen and Joshua.
The parade begins! The kindergarteners were first – they got to make their own Derby “float” and there were many cute ones to be seen.
I loved this little girl’s rose float and her cute fascinator.
My Little Pony does the Derby!
This one was a hoot – very patriotic little boy!
A hat made out newspapers.
And now here comes Alexandra’s class, the 3’s! They each had their own “horse” which they named and a jockey silk bearing their name, number and the name of their horse. Alexandra chose Ally, which is also the name she gave the pet rock they made a couple of months ago. Do you think someone is hinting at a future nickname???
Someone was being a little camera shy….
…and refused to have her picture taken!
The hat was large for a 3 year old but SO fun – I definitely am keeping my day job, it’s tough to make a Derby hat!
Sweet Bea and her horse “Patricia”.
My sweet girl!
Alexandra and her good friend, Mary Jane.
Side view of the hat.
Alexandra and Anne Miriam.
Ryan and I were both so happy we could attend the parade!
Hey ya’ll – it’s a couple of weeks late, but I wanted to share our most recent venture out to Churchill Downs for the Running of the Roses, aka Kentucky Derby 138. We seem to have the rare knack of going to Derby and/or the Oaks (the big race by the fillies the day prior to the Derby) every other year. I’m beginning to think that this is not a true coincidence, because honey, going to the Derby is a very fun but also very exhausting adventure and I think we need the in-between years to save up our energy and finances for the following year! You might recall our last trip to the Derby as I posted about here and here.
As any good Southern girl (particularly Kentucky girl) knows, the most important decision to be made regarding one’s Derby outfit is THE HAT. In this case, I picked out a really cute, BRIGHT yellow Eva Franco dress with an accordion pleated skirt that I just loved – because of the neon color of the dress, I decided to go with a black hat with yellow accents (and just a bit of pink). I went to my standby, Dee's, with my dress in hand and picked out the hat form and all of the trim, and within 24 hours, I had a beautiful hat in hand.
Oh, and Alexandra picked up a little fascinator, too. We start them out young around here.
On Derby morning, Ryan and I met up with several other couples and grabbed a couple of pictures (while my hair was still curled, pre-humidity)….
and then headed to the Historic Homes Foundation Annual Derby Breakfast at the Farmington Estate that was hosted by Garden & Gun.
We had gorgeous weather for the event and it was a treat to see everyone decked out in their Derby finery. It didn’t hurt that the mimosas were free-flowing and the food was completely scrumptious.
If you can believe it, the above picture was a CAKE – isn’t it incredible!
There was food as far as the eye could see, a true Southerner brunch.
I feel like such a glutton showing you my plate, but I am also proud to note that only in the South would pimiento cheese and biscuits and gravy make their way onto the breakfast menu.
We really enjoyed our time at the breakfast and yours truly was asked to have her photograph (really, they only wanted a picture of the hat) taken for Garden & Gun!
After the breakfast, we headed out to Churchill Downs and joined what could only be described as the sea of humanity that was awaiting to enter the grounds. Only at Derby can you see a very affluent couple dressed to the nines walking in only a few steps away from a redneck with no shirt on and cut off jean shorts, sombrero on head, making his way toward the infield.
It was a great day but it was the hottest Derby I can recall in some time, around 90 degrees. That might not sound too bad but then you throw in the hat and you are talking MISERABLE HEAT. It was so hot that my iPhone lens even fogged up!
I do have to share a close up of the tie Ryan wore – it’s a Vineyard Vines tie with a really fun mint julep motif.
I believe Vineyard Vines bills itself as the “Official Style of the Kentucky Derby” – seriously, even the tractors clearing the track between races was decked out in VV.
We made it through the staggering afternoon heat and my hat remained in surprisingly good shape and didn’t wilt (though the same could not be said for my rather unfortunate hair and melting makeup, yikes!!).
The sun eventually went behind the twin spires and a nice breeze started to pass through, just in time for the lovely Mary J. Blige to sing the national anthem. I don’t know if you heard it during the telecast, but I can assure you it did not serve her justice. Hearing her sing it live was absolutely incredible – despite the warm temps, I had cold chills up and down my arms when she was done.
Before we knew it, the big Derby race was upon us and we found ourselves standing once more for the singing of My Old Kentucky Home – like my mother, I tend to tear up every time I hear the song, especially while in attendance at the Derby.
In the end, it was an incredible finish and I’ll Have Another won himself glory, a garland of roses, and the love and adoration of the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky.
It was another incredible Kentucky Derby experience – here’s to our (most likely) next Derby experience in 2014!!
I’ve sat here and stared and stared at the computer screen for 5 minutes, wondering where to even begin….(after typing this, I sat another 10 minutes, at a loss as to how to start this post).
So many, many times over the past few – okay, multiple – months, I have sat down at my computer and considered doing a blog post. Most nights, life simply got in the way – one of the kids wasn’t feeling good, I was in the middle of summarizing a deposition or working on a brief, or, most commonly, I was just too darn tired. It got to be too easy to just upload pictures of current events onto Facebook, thinking that most of our family would at least be able to see pictures of the kids that way, if I wasn’t blogging.
But the truth of the matter is, I have missed blogging….A LOT.
I’ve missed the creative outlet that the blog provides. I’ve missed the interaction with those of you whom I have never had the privilege of meeting outside of the blogging world, but whom I still consider to be friends. And, most importantly, I’ve realized that over the years, this blog has served as a wonderful written treasury of the life of my little family. I’ve not been very good at keeping up baby books and I don’t scrapbook, which leaves only the blog. Poor little Grayson has not seen much airtime on here in the past 14 (yes, 14!) months of his life, and I feel completely heinous for not documenting more about his transition from newborn to babbling, chubby-legged infant to now a walking toddler.
I will admit, though, sometimes the pressure of coming up with a blog post could get to be too much and it could be intimidating. Many nights I felt like I didn’t have anything worth saying – no witty observations on current events, no stand out moments from the events of the day. I felt as if every picture I posted had to be not only taken with the DSLR, but had to have been edited in Lightroom before posting – heaven forbid I use a picture I snapped with my iPhone (those are becoming more frequent, too).
But I had an epiphany of sorts today, notably on Mother’s Day – I realized that ultimately, the reason I blog is for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing with everyone who has read (and will hopefully continue to read) my blog. But I have to accept that not every post is going to be picture-perfect. Not every day in our life will seem interesting to everyone outside our little nuclear unit. With that being said, it is so very important to document these little moments and not lose sight of them in the rush that is life.
I don’t want to forget that my sweet Alexandra calls her baby brother “Little Tucken” for some unknown reason – when asked why, she responds “because he is so sweet and precious.”
I don’t want to forget that this same sweet girl insists every night, “Mommy, just stay with me for a little bit,” after we go through our 15 step bedtime routine.
I don’t want to forget how tonight, after giving Grayson his bedtime bottle, he and I sat in the fading sunlight in his nursery and giggled at each other for no reason until we lost our breath, and then giggled some more. How this same sweet little boy’s face crinkles up into the biggest toothy grin – all for me.
Bottom line – I don’t want to let life pass me by without really savoring these little moments and recording them so, when I’m old and gray, I can remember how a silly night back in December after Grayson smeared carrots across his forehead led to the sweet picture above. Events that have transpired over the last few months of my life have made me realize the fragility of this world that we live in, and that we must consider ourselves blessed for every moment we have together.
A working mom, learning to balance the demands of my career as an attorney with friends, family,and the loves of my life - my sweet husband, my darling daughter and my adorable baby boy.
