Recitals

Hannah and Lily both had dance recitals this past weekend.  It took me forever to get this post together because I took way too many pictures before, during and after the recitals and had such a hard time choosing which were my favorite.  Little girls and tutus are just too precious!

Lily was a flower fairy dancing in a magic garden with her friends.  Her class did a short dance on their own and then got together with the other classes for a final encore performance. Lily had so much fun tiptoeing and twirling her way across the stage and afterwards Hannah presented her with some flowers to celebrate her very first recital.

Hannah's recital was two days later and was held at the Alabama Theater just like last year.  This year she was a beautiful white horse for her part of the program and she leaped and twirled so gracefully on stage.

This mama, who grew up with ballet as such an important part of life, is so proud that, at least for now, both of my girls are growing in their love of dance.

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A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Hosted by soulemama.

Cowgirl

Over the past year Hannah has told me on more than one occasion that she wanted to ride a horse. She finally got her chance this past weekend at a friend's birthday party.  We left Birmingham Sunday afternoon for the countryside of Wilsonville, Alabama and Cameron Oaks Farm.  The farm and equestrian facility at Cameron Oaks were so nice but it was the stable that left me completely amazed.  The wood on the horse stalls and the brick pavers on the floor were beautiful and I have to say if it wasn't for the hay and not so lovely smells all around I would not mind living there myself.  My little cowgirl had so much fun and is now trying to plot how to fit a horse of her own in our backyard.

It's been awhile!

It has been quite some time since I have sat in this chair and typed out the happenings of our life.  I have so much to tell, so many things that I want to remember from the past eight months that I want to share in this space.  I am hoping to get to all of that but for now I thought I would begin with the present, sharing some work and some fun from this past weekend.

I have spent the past couple of months working with my friend Eileen, who also happens to be the director of my favorite art festival, the Magic City Art Connection.  Together with another good friend, Alice, we put together a small art exhibit for the festival in honor of a new sponsor BBVA Compass that came on board this year with MCAC.  BBVA Compass is the official bank and sponsor of the National Basketball Association (the NBA) and together they launched an effort this year to sponsor art events and fine art festivals. I don't know about you but when I think art I don't neccessarily think basketball.  Nevertheless, we put together a project called “Magic Ball".   The idea was to create a visual link between the basic idea and form of the basketball and the inventive mind of the artist.  I thought what came together was great.  

The exhibit was juried and a winner chosen.  This is the winning piece and included a real basketball that actually rotated. It was painted black and inserted with 2400 glass beads.  It was then mounted above a pair of hands molded from the artist's husband and set on a brake disc.   Wow!

Here are several other great pieces from the exhibit....

I had the cutest assistant with me while we set everything up before the weekend began...

Lily was completely enthralled with the water fountain that was right across from us.  She also made a new friend, Patrick Ewing Jr., son of none other than NBA superstar Patrick Ewing.  PE Jr. played in the NBA like his dad and also inherited he height.  He was one of the jurors for the exhibition (meaning he helped choose the winner) and he was super nice and so sweet to Lily.

I did not have to work the entire weekend and was able to take some time to join Matt, Hannah and Lily for some art creatin' time over at The Imagination Festival, aka the kids area.  I think that Lily could sit and paint for hours.  She loves to run the brush through the colors and swirl colors together to see what she can create.

Hannah loves to paint too but was more interested in spending time with the building materials creating a house out of cardboard tubing, netting and some pink stuff. She is her father's child when it comes to her love of building and so together Matt and Hannah layered the materials to make this...

So much fun and so much creativity all made for a great art festival weekend that always just seems to fly by.

Ok folks I am off to begin my day.  I have had so many posts "typed out" in my head over the past months that it is nice to actually have one complete.  Have a happy Wednesday!

To the beach

Well my friends summer is almost over and not only was it a break from school but I also took an unintentional break from this space.  We had a very full and fun summer and the reality of it soon coming to an end is making me a little sad.  I am back ready to recap our summer adventures and share the excitement and great big huge wee bit of anxiety that I am feeling over kindergarten starting for Hannah on Wednesday.  I am working on a post with some summer highlights but in the mean time I thought I would share some pictures from our recent trip to the beach...it was slightly too eventful as you will see.

The first few days at the beach were full of family and typical beach fun.  As we usually do in the summer, we shared a beach house with Mom, Bekah and Rachel and several of my mother's sisters and their families stayed in houses close by.  Hannah and Lily played with their cousins pretty much from sun up to sun down.

They spent lots of time digging in the sand, splashing in the waves, and just exploring the beach.

Then (cue the screeching record) a few days after we arrived we had a little accident...

Hannah fell on the porch of our beach house and we ended up at the local emergency room getting our worst fears confirmed...she had a broken arm.  They put a splint put on her arm and told us to have a cast put on when we got back to Birmingham.  Hannah perked up once she heard that you can choose the color of your cast and bright pink was an option.  Thankfully we did not have to cut our trip short but we did have to get a little creative with what we could do since playing in the ocean was out.  My sweet Hannah was such a good sport about it and did not let a broken arm ruin her fun.  She flew kites, scoured seaweed for little sea creatures, and even shook hands with a dolphin.

It was not a perfect trip but we made the most of our time at the beach, broken arm and all.