Trying out another brewery “Vanish” in Lucketts, Va with the Russos. This place was great! It was huge…lots of indoor areas, outdoor areas, music, a playground, food, beer; and most of all pure joy and fun was had by all, big and small.
Tag Archives: friends
Mother’s Day 2018
I woke to breakfast in bed.
Followed by presents from the girls and Justin including a homemade card or poem from each girl.
Followed by an afternoon at Stone Tower Winery….where we ran into the Hansens and had a great time. The girls had a great time playing with one another and capturing the afternoon.
Followed by a quick stop at Grandma Adele’s.
And then a delicious dinner at home.
I even had six hours to myself between Saturday and Sunday and treated myself to a mani, pedi, a solo shopping visit to Whole Foods, and a morning in the house by myself to do lunch/dinner prep for the next day and get a solid hour long workout in.
And the girls were really well behaved and friendly with one another….which was probably the biggest highlight of Mother’s Day. I’m so fortunate these girls made me a mama. And while some days they can drive me crazy, I simply love and adore them.
Post High School: 20 YEARS!
20 years! That’s how long it has been since I graduated high school. It’s truly so hard to believe. Yes, a lot has happened since the days of walking the halls at James Madison High School, but the memories remain so vivid and near, that it makes it that much more difficult to comprehend that my time spent there ended 20 years ago. I remember as a kid my parents and grandparents would talk about how fast life passes you by and the words really didn’t resinate with me until a few years ago…until after I had kids and it was then that we both seemed to get older by the minute! My high school experience was great and I’m fortunate to still be great friends with a handful of my closest high school friends. While the miles between us has kept us from seeing each other as frequently as I wish, the truth is for twenty years we have remained friends seeing one another at least once a year, sometimes even a few times a year or more! My high school friends went to the reunion making my decision to go a no brainer (oh yeah and that fact that I still live in the town that I grew up in with the venue being 10 minutes from my house helped). The night before the reunion Katie O’Brien had people over at her house just like old times…except this time we were all legal and drinking wine instead of Coors Light:). Of the 350 students in our class, only about 45 alumni attended. While I was a little disappointed at first that the numbers weren’t higher especially considering a lot of folks are still local, it turned out that the smaller numbers allowed for more conversations with the folks that were there, some of whom I am certain I wouldn’t have talked with had the attendee list been much larger. The reunion itself was a great time…I really had a blast and still had a smile when I walked into work on Monday.
The Calm After the Storm
This was the second year in a row that we gathered at the Farmer’s Vienna house the Saturday before Easter. Allison and Sarah were there along with Jamie and Pete and their two kids. Their older sister was there along with her husband and two kids. And Lauren and Alan were there along with their two boys. Eleven kids in all. The kids had a great time playing with one another, hunting for Easter eggs, and of course eating Easter candy! Both Justin and I had a blast too. It was just good wholesome fun…great times catching up with friends and lots of laughs, and kids who are friendly with one another and who can now truly entertain themselves! SO much FUN!!!
Celebrations, Observations, and More Celebrations!
Celebrating Mila’s 28th Birthday Mexican style!
Observing Harper’s ballet class during observation week. She is so cute to watch, but she easily gets distracted and forgets to do the steps at times. She also doesn’t like when another student gets too close and invades her personal space!
Watching Emerson perform her kindergarten school play “Over In the Jungle”, which by far exceeded any and every expectation I had. The students, costumes, set, music….was ALL AMAZING! Seriously, I was beyond impressed. And once again, I had to hold back from tearing up.
Observing Avery and Emerson’s ballet and tap class during observation week.
Celebrating Papa’s 67th birthday Italian style!
Celebrating meeting baby Elinor, Becca’s 4 month old daughter!
(Four kids looks good on us, doesn’t it) 🙂
Celebrating Harrison’s 2nd Birthday!
Celebrating a beautiful afternoon at Quattro Gumba Brewery with the Russos!
Celebrating the first night of Passover at my parents!
And all this before we even make a dent into the second week of April!
Quattro Gumba
Quattro Gumba…or should I say Seis Gumba? It has been WAY too long since the Maddy and McMillan kids got together….sadly over a year! About a month ago, we decided on a date with the destination being either a winery or a brewery. We couldn’t have picked a better day to start off spring. After two weekends of cold weather, the weather was finally warm. With the sky being overcast, we didn’t need to worry about sunglasses or sunscreen! The brewery and winery were packed. We stayed for over four hours and the time flew bye! It was great to catch up with Robyn and Ryan and the kids had a great time playing with one another. We need to get this crew together more often!!
Quattro Gumba
Saturday afternoon we headed to Quatrro Gumba Winery and Brewery where we met the Russo’s. We enjoyed good beer and pizza. The kids had fun running around and playing with one another. Allison and I even snuck away for a half hour for a wine tasting. Jamie and Justin held down the fort with the five kids and apparently many onlookers thought they were a couple:). We tried to get a good picture of the five kids….while I took 15 pictures, not a single one were they all looking in the same direction. They were still cute though because they represent kids being kids. (Notice Owen and Emerson’s hands):)
Sandbridge Saturday
We went to Sandbridge Saturday for the night to visit with Stacey and Cooper, their two little girls and some of their other friends. The drive was LONG and our time actually hanging out was short. But it was good to see Stacy and Coop and the girls had a great time playing with one another. Avery and Harper took to the other kids right away and had a great time playing with one another in the house. Emerson was content to hang out with the adults for much of the evening until some of the kids went for a night time walk on the beach with glow sticks and looked for crabs.
In the morning, the girls awoke early and quickly put on their bathing suits. Emerson had a great time building a kiddie pool. And Avery who was reluctant to go to the beach due to her fear of the ocean and the smell of the dead fish, ended up playing on the shoreline in the water and loved it! I was originally going to only post the one picture of all three girls, but Justin got some really great shots of the girls in the five minutes he had the camera out.
