Filed under: The Buffington Southern Experience | Tags: Donuts, Explorium Of Lexington, Lexington Kentucky, Monkey Joe's, Old Chicago, Pizza, Spalding's Bakery
Now that we’ve settled back into our normal routines and the chaotic move is behind us, we’ve started to explore Lexington. We are finding it very convenient that we have so many shops, restaurants and family-friendly places to visit within just minutes of our home. Here are a few of our “likes” so far.
We visited here for dinner last Thursday, and all of us really enjoyed it. The pizza was very fresh, not overdone and the service was of course very southern. Rydan enjoyed his own kid-sized pizza topped with sauage and devoured the entire thing. Lily loved her pizza so much that she refused to part with it, and continued nibbling on it in the car.
Even though Pennsylvania has Monkey Joe’s, there wasn’t a location convenient to our home, so this was our first time visiting in Lexington. What a fun time! We stopped by Monkey Joe’s after our pizza dinner. Rydan immediately took off and began jumping around on the oversized inflatable bounce obstacle courses and play centers. Lily loved going down the slide on Mommy’s lap, as well as having such a big open floor to run around and play. As we were getting ready to leave, Rydan said “I wanna come back here tomorrow. This place is awesome.” We may need to look into the frequent visitor plan.
This sweet-smelling shop is filled with people just as sweet. Recommended by one of our Pennsylvania friends, it reminded me of my frequent visits with my mom to Mitchell’s Bakery when I was a little girl. Hopeful that Spalding’s would give me the same opportunity to now take my own kids for a tasty baked donut, Lily and I paid a visit on Friday morning. We were warmly greeted by a kind man behind the counter who filled a bag for us with a half dozen donuts – two glazed, two apple fritters and two creme-filled. Just before leaving, a very sweet elderly lady stopped us and began talking to Lily. When I told her that this was our first visit to Spalding’s, she immediately invited us back to thekitchen and introduced us to some of the bakers, which included her granddaughter and baby grandson, who was relaxed in his carrier. ”He likes to watch the mixer,” she told us, as the little guy gazed up at us with big blue eyes. Once again, I felt overwhelmed with such genuine kindness from people who really seem to care about making me feel welcome. As for the donuts themselves, they were a big hit at home.
Enjoying their Spalding's donuts.
This was our Saturday morning activity, conveniently located just 15 minutes from our home. Filled with all sorts of fun, hands-on educational activities for kids, Rydan and Lily had a great time exploring all of the discovery zones. It was perfect for Rydan’s creative mind and offered Lily an engaging enviroment where she could do what she does best… be curious. Located in the heart of Downtown Lexington, this gave us an opportunity to check out things to see and do on future weekends.
So as you can see, we’ve been busy! Expect more posts like this one coming soon as we continue to explore our new town. You’ll notice that I’ve added a new catagory on the bottom right entitled “The Buffington Southern Experience” (inspired by the “Holland Creason West Coast Experience”). Here you’ll find all of our posts about Lexington.
Also provided by my best friend on the West Coast is a quote that really puts our relocation to Kentucky into perspective. I think about this statement daily, because it motivates me to keep climbing that staircase and exploring everything that comes along with each step.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Filed under: Things To Do/Places To See | Tags: Christmas, Family Activity, Gingerbread House, Winter
It’s our first gingerbread house in Lexington! Once again, Santa left a ”candy house,” as Rydan calls them, underneath our tree on Christmas morning. This is one of the first things we do together as a family at the beginning of every year. It’s a fun project after the Christmas chaos has passed, and it doesn’t require any batteries!
Lily's favorite part was sticking her finger into the icing, and then into Daddy's mouth.
Okay, so it may not be the best-looking one we’ve ever made, thanks to our little Miss Lily, but we laughed more making this one than any others we’ve done in the past.
Filed under: The Buffington Southern Experience | Tags: Kentucky, Lexington, Lexington Public Library, Moving, New Home, New School, Skype
We made it! Our journey to Kentucky began on January 4, 2012 at 3:30am and ended at 1:30pm. It included two stops for gas, a stop for breakfast and a stop for lunch. Before we knew it, we had arrived at our new home. Rydan rode along with Daddy and two plants, while Lily rode with Mommy, Louie and two more plants. It was a safe trip for everyone, and both Rydan and Lily did fantastic in dealing with such a long time in the car.
Upon our arrival, we took a peek at our new rental home, which we had only seen pictures of, and met our new landlord. We were very pleased with the home and actually let Louie spend the night there alone so that he could get some sleep after his long car ride while adjusting to the new location. The rest of us spent the night at a hotel while the moving trucks continued on their trip to Lexington with all of our belongings.
The next morning we drove back to our new home to find the moving trucks had already arrived and begun to unload. Mommy, Rydan and Lily drove to Rydan’s new school, Athens-Chilesburg Elementary, to register Rydan for school. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the school was only a 2 minute drive from our home. After picking up some paperwork and chatting with the very friendly school secretary, we headed back home to help unpack.
It was a very long day of unloading, sorting through boxes and trying to find homes for all of our belongings, but by 8pm that night everything was off of the truck and inside our house. We also had our cable and Internet hooked up, which was the part of our relocation that Rydan was most looking forward to. One of the first things he asked me when I informed him that we would be moving was, “Will I have cable in my new bedroom?” Since he didn’t have cable in his Elizabethtown bedroom, this was a big deal for him. As I type this paragraph (Friday evening), he is plopped on his Phillies bean bag chair in front of his television watching WWE Smackdown.
Overall, the move went fairly well, minus a few glitches with the moving company. Somehow they managed to lose the parts needed to put Rydan’s bunk bed together, and they also broke Lily’s crib. Ryan was able to fix Rydan’s bed himself after the movers left. As for Lily’s crib, the movers decided to go buy her a new crib. This would have been okay if they asked us for our opinion on the type of crib or color wood, but instead they went to Walmart and chose a rather cheap looking crib in a wood that is about ten shades darker than her furniture. I was a little frustrated over the crib situation, but still thankful that Lily had somewhere to sleep. And since she’ll need a toddler bed eventually anyway, I suppose it’s not that big of a deal.
As for our neighborhood itself, it didn’t take long for us to experience our first taste of Southern hospitality. Within two days, we had three of our neighbors come to our door to say hello and welcome us. The first – an expecting mother and her son, the second – a mother and her two sons, and the third – a father and his son, who brought us homemade chocolate chip cookies. We were so blown away by such kindness, and it really made us feel good to know that we have such friendly, caring neighbors. Rydan really lucked out too, because there are so many boys his age.
Today, Ryan is off to his first day at Hinkle Contracting, and Rydan is off to his first day at his new school. I think we are all anxious to get back to our normal routines and say goodbye to the relocation process. So this morning we wished Daddy good luck on his first day, and then Lily and I drove Rydan to school so that he could meet his teacher. I’ve been very impressed with Athens-Chilesburg Elementary so far, and this morning was no different. Upon walking into the office, we were greeted by warm smiles and welcoming words. The office ladies were expecting us and knew exactly who we were as we entered the building. We were escorted to Rydan’s new classroom, where we were once again so kindly welcomed by his new teacher, Mrs. Brock. My first impression of her was that she is very sweet, very patient, very enthusiastic, and her students adore her. She showed Rydan to his desk, and he immediately began working on his morning math worksheet. Mrs. Brock told me how excited all of the students, especially the boys, have been about Rydan’s arrival. Rydan had a big smile on his face when I left, which eased my concerns and made me feel more comfortable about leaving him. Now it’s back to the “Lily and Mommy Show,” and I’m finding myself breathing a big sigh of relief. Lexington has truly welcomed us with open arms, and it feels great.
Tomorrow, Lily and I will be going to our first baby storytime at the library, and picking up our new library card. The Lexington Public Library system is very impressive. There are six library locations throughout Lexington, and each one has a calendar full of all types of fun events. The location we’ll be visiting most often is conveniently just three miles from our home, and very close to the Joseph Beth Bookstore that I mentioned in last week’s post.
To our family and friends, we miss you already! But, please know that we are safe, happy and looking forward to exploring Lexington and meeting new friends. We’ve really been enjoying Skype, so if you don’t already have us on your contact list, be sure to add us! Lily is particularly amusing when she skypes.
I know a lot of you are anxious to see photos of our new home and neighborhood. We’ve spent the past four days trying to unpack and get settled, so hopefully by next week’s post we’ll have some pictures to share with all of you. Stay tuned!
