Halloween 2008

It was a weird Halloween here this year. I was at a Women of Faith conference in Greensboro with my friend Jennifer (we also visited with Ellen in Winston-Salem--we had a great time!), and Cal and Bailey were gone on a school field trip to Pittsburgh.  So it was just Syd, AJ and Mark back at home. Syd went out with her friends (the cat and skeleton) in a different part of the neighborhood, Pop took AJ out with her friends Kate and Ali, and Mark handed out the candy. The two pirates are Kate's friends Stephanie and Katie.

Sydney & Rachel and Reba & Kelly

I don't know how they decide which shows are coming to town and when, but we've known about the Kelly Clarkson concert for about 6 months it seems. Sydney didn't know she was going until just two weeks before, so I guess that made the waiting easier. She took the camera with her and took tons of pictures. Rachel took Syd to Chili's for dinner first. Once they arrived, they had to buy matching Kelly t-shirts. Kelly and Reba sang all of their songs together or at least as back up for one another. Both Rachel and Syd report that it was a great show.

Chris and Erica's Wedding

The big day for Chris and Erica finally arrived.  They managed to pick a Saturday in October with no home football game for UVA - nice job!  We headed to the Oxon Hill Manor in Oxon Hill, MD for an outdoor wedding at 11:30am. It was rainy and blustery the whole way there, and it was a bit windy for the ceremony, but the rain held off.  The minute they were pronounced husband and wife and disappeared down the aisle, the skies opened!  But it was time to go in anyway, so it all worked out perfectly.  We ate and danced and had lots of fun and then drove back home - all in the same day!  Did I mention that they looked beautiful?  See for yourself.

Halloween Dance

The second dance of the year is the Halloween Dance, sponsored by the student group, Youth Leadership Initiative. Calvin and Bailey are both members of the YLI and have enjoyed it very much. The Halloween Dance is one of the most popular dances of the year because it is at night (6:30-9pm) rather than right after school.
It makes for a long day for the YLI kids who left home at 7:30 am (for an 8:00 YLI meeting), were in class til 4, stayed for dance setup/pizza 4:00-6:30, went to and worked at the dance 6:30-9, and then stayed for cleanup 9-9:30. That's a 14-hour day when they finally get back home. 

Round Hill Farm

Several years ago when the kids were in pre-school, they all (in turn) took a field trip to Round Hill Farm. They had many fond memories of the hay rides, hay maze, corn maze, petting zoo, etc. Somebody suggested we should go again on a day when there was no school. Monday October 20 was a teacher work day in Albemarle County, so we invited just a few of our closest friends and ended up with a nice little group of fifty-two! (12 adults, 38 kids, 2 infants). The farm is about an hour away, not too far from Culpeper. We packed a picnic lunch and got there just before 11. The weather was nearly perfect and we had an even better time than anticipated. It was almost 4 when we returned home.

UVA vs. North Carolina

Today was a perfect day for a football game... and that's what we got.  In the final minutes, UVA tied it up, put the game into overtime and won 16-13!  We brought friends Emma and Natalie with us, and it was Natalie's first football game ever!

Sydney's Birthday

It's double digits for Syd!  10 years old today, and she chose Golden Corral to celebrate.  She received the tiny fridge she had been eyeballing at Limited Too for months plus way too many WebKinz from Skyler.  What was her big gift?  Two tickets for the Kelly Clarkson concert!  Rachel is going to take her, so it will be a special night for the two of them.

UVA vs. East Carolina

Another home game!  This time vs. East Carolina. Mark took Sydney and AJ and some of their friends while Cal went to his first "teenage" birthday party and Bailey and I went to her soccer game. Busy day!

Ella's baptism

Today was baby Ella's baptism. It went beautifully, and Ella never even really complained. She's had some separation issues recently, so I thought for sure she'd object when Father David took her to strut down the aisle and show her off. Apparently you can take her from her parents if showing her off is your plan! We were able to join Ella and her family for a celebratory brunch afterward, so we had lots of photo opportunities.

Girls at the UVA/Maryland Game

For the Maryland game, Bailey and I went with five of her friends . . . Grace, Julia, Julia, Summer and Ana . . . Doug and Emily stopped by before the game, with Emily's brother, Bill . . . their pyramid was not as tall as ours . . .

AJ was gone to a birthday party, Tara stayed home to retrieve AJ afterwards, Cal stayed home (probably because we had just been blown out at Duke), Sydney stayed home because Tara did.  They all missed a great game, as we crushed the Terps, 31-0!