Varsity Swimming

STAB hosted its first Varsity meet this year. Wes and I timed, so I didn't get any of my own pics, but the school took some nice ones. May I present, Zara rockin' butterfly and freestyle.

Bells

The theme of Amity's fourth grade winter performance was bells. There was also dancing. Who knew STAB had a set of hand bells? Apparently they were out to good use for the first time in a long time. Amity and her buddies deeply enjoyed wearing the white gloves and ringing!

Dreams do come true

As a wee kiddo, Zara was OBSESSED with Pegasus, UVA Health System's helicopter. She loved to watch it take off and land, and would wave to it (her? I think she said Pegasus was a her) when we saw her fly overhead. She'd even talk to Pegasus, like "good morning Pegasus, do you like my overalls?" It was ADORBS. So of course she was Pegasus for Halloween, as well.

And then, during her Sports and Emergency Medicine Intensive at school this year, she took a field trip to see Pegasus. I think some of the shine is off it at this point, but still, it's nice to know that in this case, a dream deferred still has a happy ending. (No raisins in the sun here.)

Trophy Kid

I had no idea Amity was so motivated by hardware, but apparently she was determined to earn this shiny trophy in a martial arts competition at chug (kinda like a club/elective) at Hebrew School. She was sore for DAYS after, reminded me of what I looked liked after running a marathon, so I could tell she really put her all into it. This kiddo is impressive.

Hamilton!

We had a pretty delicious dinner at Kuba Kuba beforehand, and then we all went to see Hamilton in RVA. It was incredible as expected, and yet somehow, even better?!

Potter's Cider Grand Opening

BRIMS helped Potter's Cider celebrate their grand opening in their new, beautiful, much closer to town space. It was the event of the season with cars lined up for a literal mile to get in. It was quite a time!

Fall Orchestra and Choir Concert

Zara's in high school now, and for once the fact that she avidly participates in both orchestra and choir did not work against us. That's right, there was a joint Orchestra/Choir concert, so we all were able to attend a single event wherein Zara played violin in a long black dress and then sang in an entirely different outfit about 5 minutes later. Props to the orchestra (and Debbie Lyle) and concert choir (and Will Nichols) on a concert well done, just 2 months into the school year.

(and photo credit to one of the school's photographers, likely Rachel)

XC

Cross Country has never been Zara's favorite sport, but I think she's enjoyed her past 3 years on the team. This fall is probably the end of the road (so to speak) but I hope she'll occasionally deign to run with slowpokes like me. The plus side is that Z wants to go back to playing rec soccer in the fall, which I think will be fun, and from a purely bureaucratic perspective, she's well on her way to her required 4 trimesters of sports in her first 2 years of high school. We were very proud of her for trying something new back in 7th grade, and for sticking with it for 3 years. To close this chapter, here's a cute picture of the entire XC team, because they are very LARGE. Not the kiddos themselves, per se, but the number of kiddos on the team is great.

Back to School: 4th and 9th Grades

After 3 fabulous weeks at Camp Hidden Meadows in the beautiful wilds of West Virginia, the kiddos returned refreshed (though not rested, particularly) for another school year. Z starts 9th grade (how'd my baby get to be in high school?!?!?) and A starts 4th grade (how'd my actual baby get to be the überkid of the lower schoo??). Here's to a fantatsic year full of smiles and blue steel.

King's Dominion

For Zara's 14th birthday party, we spent the day at King's Dominion. Amity rode the Dominator, which is an impressive 3rd roller coaster ever. Zara rode *everything* pretty much, though in the grand tradition of her parents, has declared wooden roller coasters (particularly the newly re-branded "Racer 75") to not be her jam.

We missed out on a few rides, though, so there will need to be a repeat journey in our not too distant future. There's a few more rides I'd like to go on, personally, but I have to say this day greatly exceeded my expectations because Amity seems to love roller coasters and is quite the daredevil, and no one was in tears by the end of the day (at least until we left the park). I rode the log flume with the three cool cats pictured here doing the "Charlie's Angels," and that was incredibly fun. It was, however, topped by all 5 of us riding Whitewater Canyon together, screaming our faces off (who is driving car? BEAR is driving car!), and the discovery of Z's deep seated fear of animatronics.

I think Z would identify riding Intimidator 305 as one of her favorite things, or possibly the straight drop waterslide. A's favorite thing is that Zara's friend BG also likes wooden coasters, so the two of them got some QT on a Racer 75 repeat adventure. As for me, I deeply enjoyed chillaxin' on the 300ft high swings.