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!

Kid Photographers: At UVA

Back in the spring, we took a family excursion to UVA to walk Lucy. Not unusual for us anymore, right? But this time was a bit different in that part of the reason we chose to walk there was because the kids both wanted to take some photos and we knew it would be a great place for them to find fun things to photograph.

Henry used my slightly fancy point-and-shoot camera. I believe it was set to auto, and it has a pretty good auto adjustment in terms of ISO and focus. I sat down with him after putting them all on my computer, and he picked out a few of his favorites for me to share here.

MY favorite photo of Henry's wasn't one of his favorites, but I'm sharing it anyway. I am really impressed with how STRAIGHT the lines are in this photo! I didn't edit it at all. Nice job kid!

Natalie was shooting with my Canon Rebel, which she's used once or twice before. It has a non-kit lens attached to it currently which lets her do some good zoom, and it does take better photos than the kit lens (better glass). Here are her favorites that she chose after looking through everything.

My favorite photo of hers was also from when she shot through the tree branches. A good photographer knows sometimes you have to climb into a tree to get the shot you want! I just love these colors and patterns.

Since this class, Natalie has taken a photography summer camp and is now saving up to buy my Rebel camera from me - I'm giving her a great deal :) She even set up a photo studio in her bedroom yesterday and took some photos. I love that she's enjoying this as a hobby!

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 :)

Halloween 2018

We finally broke away from princesses and Star Wars for Halloween last year! Natalie got it in her head a couple of months earlier that she wanted to dress as a "dark fairy" - I had no idea how to do that, but a quick search on Amazon showed me that indeed there are "dark fairy" costumes for kids! I stress that "for kids" part as some of the costumes were definitely not age appropriate.

After reading the first 4 books, Henry was excited to go as Harry Potter - that's quite the easy costume to find!

The fun part about these costumes was that I got to do some makeup on them both. Henry's was simple obviously - we used his existing scar but turned it into a lightening bolt. I had fun playing around with face makeup for Natalie; ultimately we settled on a spiderweb-inspired design that we were both really happy with.

Natalie still likes for her and I to do costumes together, so last minute I pulled together a costume for myself using all items I already had - she was a dark fairy, so I was a light fairy!

 

We were out trick or treating for quite a while, venturing further through the neighborhood than we'd done previously. As we walked around, we ran into a group of 5th grade girls trick or treating together and joined up with them for a bit. It was great that Natalie got to do this with some friends for the last time in Leesburg!

New headshots

One of the other dance parents approached me last fall, thanked me for all of the photography that I had done for the studio, and offered to take head shots for me, if I was interested! She and her husband have a photography business, Firefly Studio, and I was happy to take them up on their offer. I headed out to their home in western Loudoun on a gorgeous October day for some outdoor and indoor photos.

We had absolutely gorgeous golden hour light - the colors in the trees and the light on my newly bright hair came out so great!

 

Seriously loving that bright pink color in my hair...I might have to do something like that again soon...

They had me bring my camera so we could take some photos with it as well, for me to use for my photography business.

 

(If you've "liked" my FB photography page, then you've see the photo on the left, as it's my current profile pic!)

 

Then, we went into their home studio (I had some serious equipment envy!) where I changed and we took more "business" shots. However, I don't really love how I look in this more formal, indoor setting, so I don't have as many favorites from those. The one on the left is my favorite of all of them, and is my current LinkedIn profile pic. I also like the last one, although I'm not totally sure what I'd use it for. Still, a nice photo of me I think!

Our going away party

I've been missing my Leesburg friends quite a bit lately; I know this is normal when you have a big move, but having that knowledge doesn't make the loneliness go away! It goes up and down; some days I'm busy and doing great, and other days I really miss everyone that had been such a part of my life over the past 10 years. I'm trying to focus on positives: we have met some new people, I'm reconnecting with some old friends, Evan and I have had a lot of time together (so we talk even more!), and we've had a lot of family time just the 4 of us. These are all good things...but none of that replaces the ladies that I no longer get to see every week! 

So, because I've been feeling sentimental, here are photos from the going away party that our dance friends threw for us in September. This was actually before we had even officially sold our house, but once we had the date set we couldn't change it as too many people were involved!

Our friends booked a pavilion at Franklin Park, and unfortunately it was a cold rainy day...but we had a nice time anyway! Well, as nice of a time as you can when saying goodbye. The girls were adorable together - I love these two photos of them taking a photo of themselves! I got the first one, and another mom got the second one, at the same time from a different angle. Then the girls were nice enough to pose for me.

This photo kills me. Natalie's friends were all going to miss her so much...and she definitely misses them.

Henry's buddy Garrett was there too - these two are so darn cute together, and Henry's asking now when he will see G again! We are hopefully going to get G and his sister down here for a sleepover before too long.

The dads braved the weather to grill for us; here are a couple of them with Evan. Beer and meat help to make the weather less dreary!

Then, at the end of the party, they surprised me with a birthday cake as my bday was only a couple of weeks away. So nice to be able to celebrate with friends!

Of course, once again, we failed to get a pick of all of us awesome ladies together. Thank you to all of you who were there (Lisa, Danielle, Stephanie, Jennifer, Debbie, Cheryl, Lydia, Leah - I hope I didn't forget anyone!). I miss you all!