T a blogger?

Not so fast......I have fought the "blogging" thing for a long time, I'm not a writer, I'm a shooter. After a lot of prodding from E, here goes. Plus, I figured, I couldn't have Bill Langston keep showing me up with the videos of his boy Carter (which he does a very good job of, by the way). I am, after all, a professional videographer/ editor, and if I can give everyone further evidence that V is the cutest kid ever, so be it.

So here is a little clip I put together last night while E and V are Washington DC. I shot this one day after I got back from a shoot. Virginia was excited to see me so I took my little HDV camera out and started chasing her around the yard. Good times. 

(sorry the compression quality is so bad, apparently blogspot wont take anything over 100 MB)

HELP NC Theatre!

NC Theatre has been entered in a social media contest for all that we have done on our blog, facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. The winner will receive $3,000! All you have to do is go to http://thejenzabarfoundationblog.com/ and post a comment under the North Carolina Theatre submission.

Right now there are NINE other non-profits in the running. The one who is in the lead has a little over 100 votes...so this is easily attainable! The deadline is April 29th, so if you have a few minutes, please vote for us!!

Please pass this information along to all of your family, friends, etc. ASAP!!!! Vote for NCT!

Ladies and gentlemen...

May I introduce you to Cherry Cola?

Auburnin' Hot is so 2008. Cherry Cola is the new black. Wish I hadn't had to learn the hard way.

Hot Tamale

I've been dying my hair since about age 19 (secret is out!)...over the course of all those years I have learned that the hair dye makers always discontinue whatever color I like after about 6 months to a year. Usually, I can find a similar shade, no problem.

Every now and then I make a bad call. Hot tamale was a bad call.

The alluring box:

The actual results are Ronald McDonald-like and completely awful. Tres called it "Red, as in, really the color red. Not like a redhead. Just red"

Needless to say, I have a hair appointment with a professional at 2:30 tomorrow. Ugh, at least I work at a theatre. People are used to seeing strange things there.

Best party ever

It is funny when you realize you keep befriending the same kind of person over and over. I tend to make friends with women that are crafty, who actually enjoy planning events and are capable of juggling lots of projects without breaking into a sweat (unlike me, where these activities result in loud sobs). Paizhe, April, Stephanie...you know who you are with your perfectly designed bedrooms and hand-made Christmas cards/quilts/curtains!

At any rate, I love and admire these women and my newest impressive friend is Erin, who is mom to Zane (age 3) and tiny Kai (who is less than 6 months old). I met her husband, Peyote, at the park in the neighborhood- he is a freelance photographer and so I befriended him for T almost 2 years ago now.

So Erin (& husband Peyote, who I am sure deserves credit for some of it, but let's be real, we know who planned the party) threw this incredible dinosaur 3rd birthday party last Saturday. I got V all dolled up in her prettiest skull dress and off we went to Powell Drive Park!

We got there and I stupidly assumed there would be some park time and maybe some dinosaur themed snacks...was I wrong. Erin had no fewer than 5 activity stations- a handmade volcano for Pete's sake!- a sand and water table with fossils and dinosaur "eggs" that turned into spongey dinosaurs, a cave complete with flashlights for exploring, an activity table with dinosaur pictures to color and dinosaur stained glass...need I say more? There are at least 3 other things I am not naming that were also cool (not including all the educational signage she created) It was very well planned and AWESOME! V barely came out of the cave the whole time but I was quite impressed with the whole thing.

Here are the cakes THAT ERIN MADE! This picture doesn't do justice to how cool they looked in person.

She also had on hand dinosaur cupcakes (regular or vegan), tiny pb&j sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, fruit, veggies, juice boxes and even dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets which V did not eat but actually tempted me slightly (they were just so darn cute)!

This is Zane.

This is V hugging Zane.

There were probably 20 kids there of all ages and tons of adults...it was organized chaos and I couldn't stop marveling the whole time at how much work it must have been. I caught Erin in a moment of what I kind of hoped was stress (it just isn't natural to be able to do this so easily) but no, she was just as relaxed as can be and was only dreading clean up duty.

Erin gave out little dinosaur pinching toys (see picture, I can't think of a better way to describe it) and V dragged hers on the sidewalk the whole way home, resulting in some worn down horns which had to be repaired with 2 Diego band-aids at home. She was so worn out she slept for 2 1/2 hours when we got home...with the dinosaur of course.

Now that's a party!

Best buds

After a long week it was great to have a Friday late afternoon playdate with V's buddy Reagan and her Mom Shae. I have to mention (because I have still not let go of the disappointment of being 10 days overdue) that Shae was due AFTER me, but gave birth almost 2 weeks before me. Jerk. :) Other than that, Shae is pretty awesome and Reagan could not be sweeter (calling me "emiwee" melted my heart).

These 2 have been buds from the beginning. Here's a picture of them at about 9 months.

And on Friday:

We had to laugh at how different the definition of "fun" on a Friday night has become. At one point it was maybe go out to dinner, see a movie, whatever. Now it goes a little something like this:

Who knew a basket could be so much fun? At least we had some wine on hand to spice up the party. We still know how to have a little bit of adult fun.

Classic Walter Shackelford

I just couldn't resist taking these pictures...

While everyone else (T's parents, T&V, my younger brother, etc) is inside chatting after church, Queenie is cooking Easter dinner and V is opening her Easter basket...where is my dad?

Well, he was cutting down a Nandina bush that had grown up inside an Azalea in the front yard, of course. In his Sunday suit, no less.

Here he is disposing of the evidence. Walter Shackelford...weed warrior!

Seriously...it doesn't get much more Shackelford than that.

As we all used to say growing up when someone spilled something or did something silly...

One, two, three....awwwww Dad!

I love you anyway!

Easter greetings

Spring has sprung

We enjoyed a beautiful Easter weekend with T's folks. We celebrated Ann's birthday one day late,

forced AC to eat vegetarian food and only watched a little TV before bedtime.

Saturday morning was lovely so the girls headed off to the Farmer's Market to buy herbs and flowers while the boys went on a bike ride at Umstead.

Ann helped V plant some flower and lettuce seeds in pots on the back porch.

What I can't show you in photos is the fact that my idea for a quick excursion to the Farmer's Market for a morning of picture-perfect planting photo moments was really a FULL morning of Farmer's Market, a bad lunch at a new Mexican restaurant (dark restaurant with no beer-not my idea of a sunny Saturday afternoon lunch) a long nap and THEN a couple of good photos. it was worth it.

Finally, what trip to Raleigh would be complete without us (selfishly)dragging our guests to the flea market?

The good news is that AC was able to score some Girl Scout cookies and a tin star for the garage. Not a wasted trip this time!

Visitor from Virginia for Virginia

My dear friend April (the woman who talked me into running those marathons a few years back!) came for a short visit over her Spring Break. V, who has been a major cling-monster for the last 2 weeks, decided she was desperately in love with April. I reminded her that April once played puppets with her and brought her a great present, so she was STOKED for her to come back. She was literally watching out the front door, reporting in to me about April's arrival. (Her car's not here yet Mama. Where's her car Mama? Is that her Mama?)

April and I got to visit a little bit, but V took up most of her time.

They shared snacks.


Played hide-and-seek.


V insisted April give her a bath (ordered me out of the bathroom).


Even when April had to go to the bathroom, V was right there waiting on her.


Needless to say, it was a fun visit for us all. Maybe next time I'll actually get to talk to April.

Big Girl News

Like potty training, we'd been trying to ignore all the signs pointing to V moving into a "big girl" bed. We'd been enjoying the luxury of still having a place to contain her at night. However, all good things must come to an end.

After a fairly recent visit from best buddy James, who slept on a mattress on the floor, V started calling her crib a "baby bed" and saying she wanted a big girl bed. She also sleeps on a mat for naptime at school so I think maybe she really was tired of being caged up. At any rate, over the weekend she kept talking about wanting a big girl bed and asking to use her new sheets that I let her pick out for her bed. So before nap time on Sunday, T switched her bed over. Look how excited she was...

She had a great nap. And slept through the night without getting up.

Bed time

Playing on the bed the next day

She has only gotten out of bed once so far- found her crying in the living room at midnight- but I can only hope that is the exception rather than a rule, at least for a little while. :)

We're baaaaaack

Hey, what's up? How are you? Sorry it has been so long since we last posted.
We missed you, we really did.

Now that we got that out of the way, what have we been up to you ask?

Well, E was doing the whole Miss Saigon thing...


...but we made some time for a quick (2 hour) Friday afternoon visit from Steph, James and Molly Coyne while they were on their way home to DC from SC. V actually had a little accident in the car she was so excited to see James playing in our driveway when she got home from school. :)

And we had a great visit with grad school friend Stacey and her super cute family including 3 month old son Gabriel. I've always had a slight crush on her husband Damien (sorry, the Trinidadian accent is just too gorgeous) but I think I am now officially in love with Gabriel. He let me hold him for what seemed like 3 hours (actual time 30 minutes or less)...while smiling and cooing and talking to me the whole time. I offered to raise him until he was 18 (can't offer to pay for college, sorry) but they loaded him up and took him back to Atlanta...sigh!

In other news, V is doing well with potty training. She does great at home...tends to get a little excited when she's at Queenie's or school and forgets the potty from time to time. All in all, I think she's doing great and I am counting down the days to total diaper disappearance!

Oh yeah, we also bought a new car. Bye bye Saturn Vue that I never liked:

Hello Honda Fit that I've lusted after for 3 years...

Between T's fancy Mac computer and E's new car we feel we've done our part to stimulate this economy.

So what have you been up to?