Superheroes

Amity and friends have been studying/being superheroes at school these past few weeks. Here's a glimpse.

St. Patrick's Day

Wes and Z (and the rest of BRIMS) performing at Fellini's for St. Patrick's Day.

Planting Trees

Tu B'shevat (the Jewish holiday known to preschoolers as "birthday of the trees") falls a little too early for tree planting here in VA. We therefore celebrated a bit belatedly by planting an apricot (replacing the one we lost a year ago) and a pear (a new fruit tree for us). Thanks to Z's buddy Vic for helping out and getting muddy with us.

Maymont Forever

Z and I had a relaxing staycation Spring Break as the rest of the family was in school. We all took a day trip to Richmond, which of course included a trip to Maymont. We periodically measure their wingspan, and it's definitely getting longer...

Homage to Terry

Sad news today with the death of Terry Pratchett. But of course, "No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away..." Read on, Z.

Welcome, Zelda!

After an unprecedentedly long period of non-dog ownership (coinciding with a period of having 2 small kiddos, one of whom has just started really sleeping through the night), we decided it was time to add a canine member to the family. While originally leaning towards a Doodle puppy of some sort (lab/golden-poodle mix was top of my list), we ended up opting instead for a rescue dog. Not finding any super local ones that fit the bill, we went online and found our pup via "internet dating" (for dogs). She hails from Tennessee, where they have no shelters but instead provide foster homes for the multitudes of strays in the area.
Despite what the white in her muzzle (and it is white, not grey!) might otherwise imply, she's about 8 months old. She's absolutely the sweetest, most patient, tolerant, and wonderfully chill dog. We clearly won the dog lottery with this one. She's a keeper! Many, many more photos to follow...

Roller Girls

One of the awesome things the city of C'ville does is free roller skating. That's right! Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, you can get your skate on for free! They even supply the skates. And the bad music. Really, it's everything you could hope for. Okay, maybe there should be some cheesy lights...? The above pictures document kiddos having fun on wheels. What you don't see is how much fun said kiddos' moms were having skating around in circles and gossiping. Like a bunch of junior high schoolers. Guest photo credit to the awesome Peggy.

Happy New Year!

As has become our tradition, we went for a New Year's Day hike in Shenandoah National Park. We're hip with the times, yo, so here's our selfie to prove it.

Peter and the Wolf

Aunties Evie and Sophie took Zara and Amity to see Peter and the Wolf at BAM. It was awesome. Aunties are awesome.

Happy Chanukah!

Happy First Night of Chanukah! We had our own little Chanukah miracle tonight. Despite planning to make latkes, we didn't have enough high-temperature oil on hand. We did have olive oil, which everyone knows burns if you get it too hot, like, hot enough for latkes. But, miracle of miracles, I was able to cook our latkes in olive oil anyway. It took a LONG time over medium heat, but they came out pretty tasty in the end, and it was completely worth it. But next year? I'm going to make sure we have the right oil in the house!