Foxfield 2019

In catching up on events from last spring, how could I have nearly forgotten about Foxfield?!

This year, we had absolutely lovely weather. We were due after so many terrible years, weather-wise, out of the past 6 or so! Either ridiculously cool and rainy, or WAY too hot. This year was juust right.

I managed to corral almost all of the kids together for a photo before leaving for the event (Rosie was being stubborn and didn't want to come out). Aren't they all so cute in their hats? And also ever so slightly old fashioned and creepy?

I seriously loved Henry's old man cardigan and hat this year. Since it's so hard to get him to dress up EVER, this made me so happy.

 

So then, Foxfield! Horses! Food! Drinks! Much fun in the sun!

We Old Ladies, getting our annual photo. Sadly Beta couldn't make it this year, but she was with us in spirit!

And then Old Ladies with our brood! There's a lot more of them than their used to be, and they are a heck of a lot bigger. Zabby is taller than me!

And the obligatory family photo, of course! Unfortunately this was the best one, and it does have the bus behind us, but in all the others someone had their eyes closed or was making a dumb face, so, bus photo it is!

This year, as happens every few years, Foxfield was on Evan's birthday! So he got an extra special Foxfield cake.

 

As always, a lovely day with our friends made even easier for us by living here in C'ville now, and getting to go home after! Next year will be WAY more fun when we can host all of our friends at our house (they rented a house, as see in the top photos). We can't wait!

Cinderella: On Stage

In my previous post I shared photos of Natalie and her friends backstage at Cinderella; this post are my favorite photos I took of her on stage during the dress rehearsal.

Leaping elves and fairies!

Now is when the elves warn Cinderella that midnight is approaching...

And at the end of the ballet, I captured these more close-up shots of my girl. Her placement on stage was perfect! (I was trying to stay out of the way as I took my shots)

What a beautiful finale to a beautiful show!

Backstage at Cinderella

Natalie's first big performance with Charlottesville Ballet was in March 2019. She had auditioned for a role in January, and got one of the 40 spots that over 70 girls auditioned for! We were so proud of her, especially for being new to the school.

They performed Cinderella, which was choreographed by the head of the Southwest Ballet Company (including using his costumes and some of his male dancers for a few roles). The girls worked very hard for 3 months, as did the company members, and then gave two performances in Charlottesville and two the following weekend in Lynchburg. I volunteered backstage both weekends, which let me get a lot of fun backstage photos of the girls!

The Charlottesville performance was at the Paramount Theater on the Downtown Mall. We had about 24 girls plus a couple of parents wedged into this small dressing room for the show, but they did great!

They were excited by the mirrors lining the room in which they could get ready.

 

One of the coolest things at the Paramount is that through the backstage hallways, people who have taken part in performances have signed the walls. It's so cool to walk through and experience! Even cooler, is at only 11 years old, Natalie's name is now there!

 

In escorting them to/from the stage, I was able to grab a couple of photos with my phone from the sidelines.

 

You'll see Natalie appear in the video below with her fairy friend in blue.

Like I said, the following weekend we headed down to Lynchburg for two performances there. Natalie and I stayed in a lovely hotel on Friday night, after dress rehearsal, and had plenty of time on Saturday morning before we had to arrive at the theater to go for a nice walk! There's a beautiful walking path over the river, and it turns out there was a St Patrick's Day 5K that we inadvertently took part in.

I have a lot of photos from Lynchburg that I took from the sidelines but they didn't all come out that well; this is a collage of the 3 I took that I liked the most.

I did take a bunch of photos with my actual camera during dress rehearsal in Charlottesville; I have gotten those edited and will next post my favorite stage photos of my girl!

A spring day in Albemarle/Nelson

On a lovely spring weekend day, I wanted to have a family day in our new area: get out, enjoy the spring weather, and show the kids how lovely their new home is, after the gray of winter was finally gone! So, we hit up 3 places in Albemarle and Nelson Counties. First up: Chiles Peach Orchard, who was having a day of spring fun with wagon rides...

Baby chicks - these were actually turkey chicks!

And treats to enjoy, including cider from Bold Rock Cider, which spurred our journey out to Nelson County. Our ultimate goal was to hit the actual cidery, but we wanted to have some lunch first. So, we stopped on our way at Blue Mountain Brewery, which has a gorgeous outdoor eating area and is only about 3 miles from the house I grew up in! This place definitely did not exist when I lived there.

The kids enjoyed the food, and were even more excited by the games. Nothing like corn hole to burn off some post-lunch energy!

We then headed down Rte 151 to Bold Rock, where we all enjoyed some cider. In addition to the alcoholic cider they serve, they also have non alcoholic which the kids really enjoyed! We took our drinks out back towards the river.

And then, after getting back...we all crashed out after a long, but fun, day :)

A second (smaller) winter snow

After our large snow storm in December, we had a smaller one in January that only kept us in for a day or so, and luckily it hit over the weekend so it didn't impact life too much! On Saturday morning, Natalie and I took a walk, trying to beat the snow before it started. We walked from the Downtown Mall to the Corner and back, and definitely saw some snow flurries along the way!

 

By the time we arrived home, the snow was definitely coming down, so we hunkered down for the rest of the day.

Sunday dawned cold, sunny, and covered in snow!

We weren't super snowed in, as it wasn't enough for that, but it was enough to let the kids sled again.

And enjoy another session in the hot tub to warm up afterwards!

Now that it's spring, we are enjoying our house even more - I like snow, but our neighborhood is so lovely now that it's in bloom, and I don't mind the warmer weather!

A December snowstorm in Charlottesville

On the day before Natalie's birthday, we got hit with quite the snow storm! Unfortunately for Natalie, that meant that her birthday party had to be cancelled (since no one could drive anywhere), but we managed to still make it fun for her (more on that in the next post).

It did mean that we had a very gray snowy Sunday together as a family! It really was a perfect snow storm - light weight, fluffy, and deep enough to have a lot of fun in. I think in total we got about 10" of snow; definitely the most we had seen in a couple of years.

The kids, Lucy, and I bundled up and headed out for some fun, even though it was still snowing. Can't stay inside all day!

One of Natalie's friends (who was supposed to come to her birthday party) was able to come over to play for a while, so at least she didn't totally lose that time with her friends!

Oh yeah, I did manage to drag Evan out in it for at least a little while :)

And we discovered just how much fun our yard is for sledding - just as much fun as we thought it would be!

Lucy loves the snow (no surprise there!), although I will say those giant snow balls that adhered to her fur were NOT fun to take off. But I couldn't keep her locked up inside, knowing how much she loved playing in it.