Eva's 1st Swim Meet

Both kids are swimming for the University Club this summer. The first meet was great to watch! Between the two of them, they swam at least 7 races, 6 of which were first heat. Lots of fun, loooong day!

Look at that game face. She looks so serious!

This is her stroke - back stroke...







Mickey is far too fast and doesn't spend a whole lot of time out of the water for me to get any good pictures. Well, at least not when it's dark outside with my super huge lens. I'll try again at another swim meet where I have a little space + a little sun!

Kindergarten Graduation

Another milestone achieved. Eva graduated Kindergarten. Not only did she graduate Kindergarten, but she received an all around perfect report card as well as a PACK award for "K" - Keeping a Positive Attitude for the year. Her teacher, Mrs. Brann, pointed out that she always kept a smile on her face, no matter what was going on or how difficult or frustrating things they were working on happened to be. That pretty much sums up Eva - she does EVERYTHING with a smile on her face. We are extremely proud of her and I know I could learn a lot from that little positive attitude!

Eva with Mrs. Brann, her teacher, whom she absolutely adores:



Mrs. EB soaking up a little bit of Eva's sweetness:



The girlies with Miss Ward:



What do you think? She looks happy to have graduated to me!

Stella's 1st Ballet Recital

Stella's 1st ballet recital was so wonderful. She did such a phenomenal job on stage and was (and still is!) so proud of herself. The huge audience, the fact that she couldn't find us in the crowd, a new stage - all factors that could have been an issue, didn't seem to bother her at all. So proud of this little girl...

After the show...













This next photo is courtesy of Todd Olson, shooting for Amanda Olson Photography. Editing by: me



Stella and one of her best buddies, Haddie:

Hopefully this post will be followed by the video of her performance. (HINT: TODD)

My birthday weekend: Part II

Wine, Women and Horses!

We finally coordinated this day at Wakefield Barn. We won a package called Wine, Women and Horses at the Triangle Wine Experience auction 2 years ago that was generously donated by Steve Schilling and Mark Selisker of Dogwood Business Brokers and Advisors. Steve and his wife, Mary, happen to own the Wakefield Barn and were gracious enough to open it up to us for an afternoon of fun.

We started out with the wine portion of the package - a double magnum of 2000 Reserve Phelps Insignia.



Steve and Mark opened the wine...



Look how many decanters are lined up to handle that bottle!



We had a little white wine and some snacks while waiting for the red to open up.





Then we headed outdoors for a tour of the barn and to meet the horses and riders!











We also got to feed the horses a little treat for all of their hard work:







We then went back inside to cool off, continue the great conversation and to drink more fabulous wine!













After the Insignia was gone, someone opened some sparkling. Anyone who knows me knows that made me happy! There was a lot of smiling, a lot of laughter and great conversation!



awwwww

















These three ladies were the "women" portion of the Wine, Women and Horses! The two riders and Mary, the owner of Wakefield barn. What wonderful women! We had fun getting to know them :)



This one is probably my favorite picture from the day. It pretty much sums up how much fun we were having!



I was lucky that one of my best friends, Jennifer, was there AND knows how to work a camera. Or maybe I wasn't so lucky. I truly love horses, but who thought it was a good idea to ride a horse in a dress after a long afternoon of wine? Oh well, I promise I'd post the pictures anyway ;)





It almost looks like I know what I'm doing here. Don't be fooled, I almost fell off about 20 feet after this shot was taken.

Thank you, Mary, for trusting me to ride Westerly!

Overall - awesome birthday!