community

Lafayette RiverFest

The abundance of festivals like this one popping up every weekend in Norfolk isn't helping our initial plan of selling our house and moving to a neighboring city.

Lafayette RiverFest / Bike Norfolk

I'm torn. Will moving to a stronger public school district make for a better child when this is the community I want him to grow up in?

There is a city council election tomorrow and a big topic is improving the public schools. I don't think Norfolk will ever be able to improve the system until Norfolk's citizens stop relying on the private institutions. The majority of our neighborhood children attend private, but that just isn't in the cards for us.

But I digress...

I love this community. How can you beat...

 homemade seagull mascots, 

wiener dogs on parade, 

awesome free children's activities like making fish prints (these guys were rubber!), 

stringing pasta to make beautiful necklaces, 

seeing your pals at every event, 

listening to music and licking superman ice cream, 

and laughing until you burst?

I know I can't. It's pretty ideal.

Considering I just painted our new bathroom door a brilliant shade of bright coral, I might be self-sabotaging our plan. We'll see...

pancake of the week: preparation

**UPDATED: Don't forget to check pancakeoftheweek.com for more pancake inspiration.**

The pancakes are going to get their own blog...

...which will include tips on making your own special pancakes without the aid of food coloring.

But first things first - working on graphics, which are taking entirely too long. I made enough pancakes to feed an army last weekend, so the "pancake of the week" will have to wait until next week.  If you're wondering, I chose to dispense the letters correctly and reflect in photoshop so my letterforms would be more precise. 

a pictorial history of the last three weeks

Someone might be a wee bit obsessed with Peter Pan.

Everyday I hear, "let's pretend to be the Darling Family," which is a shame since my British accent is atrocious. And someone now really wants to go to London. I wonder why...

Speaking of...have you seen the 1953 Disney movie lately? It really paints women in a bad light, not to mention the poor Indian (or should I say Native American?) tribe. But the violence is laughable compared to the real book, which I started reading Avery a few months ago. Who knew there was so much blood in Peter Pan? And that Tinkerbell, well, she's really quite wicked.

Chincoteague is so different in the off season. Like a ghost town, really. 

The weather makes the trails surrounding the light house tolerable, as later in the season the mosquitos begin to swarm and will eat you alive.

Someone is learning to write. And won't take off his Peter Pan shirt (which I made for him by shredding the edges of his green t-shirt).

Progress has been made in the mudroom/bathroom renovation. The floors have since been completed. STRIPES!

And I normally never discuss work, but here are a few glimpses from a shoot last week. One of our locations was at a dairy farm outside of Charlottesville. 

It was one of those times when I have to pinch myself and ask how it is I'm getting paid to do this job.

pancake of the week: easter basket

Nutella, cheddar cheese, strawberry jam, pancake batter drizzled on griddle to create basket weave effect.

**UPDATED: Don't forget to check pancakeoftheweek.com for more pancake inspiration.**

happy easter

Withholding the tradition established last year, the Easter Bunny left a trail of eggs starting on the front porch, winding through the tall grass, and leading to an overflowing basket hidden behind an azalea in the backyard.

\

Hope you all had a splendid holiday, too.