I forgot one!

Joe and I ran in the Catch the Leprechaun 5K, which is a fundraiser for Pattison's Academy, and we both PR'd. I am really not that fast, but Joe did it in 20:22. He is so fast! I think he smoked the leprechaun (they do have really short legs, unfortunate disadvantage and they get really distracted looking for rainbows).

March Highlights so far...

We went to the Charleston Food and Wine festival. Great, great event that gets put on each year in the spring. They have lunches, wine events, demonstrations, a culinary village, dinners, breakfasts, and much more.

This year we went to The Rarebit for brunch. Of course I turned my nose up at the menu first, (there was cow tongue on it!), and of course, as usual it was an amazing meal. They pared it with some cocktail that they use their own freshly squeezed juice and their homemade sodawater. So good.

Then we went to Pinot Envy, Uncorked! with some friends. It is a wine tasting for, you guessed it Pinot Noir, and it was at the William Aiken House  downtown. It was very good, there was a cute wine guy from Chile that had good wine and a great accent, I loved listening to him talk. We went to dinner afterward which also was very good and lots of fun. Needless to say I haven't touched red wine since.

That weekend Anna went to a vocal camp with one of her friends at Charleston School of the Arts, where they learned the songs from the move Frozen and did a performance at the end. She had a ton of fun.

We went to Miami to sail for a few days in the Lightning fleet's southern circuit. It was windy! I think for all three days we sailed it pretty much was a steady wind of 18-20 mph. We learned a lot and got some great heavy air practice in, and for once we were really fast downwind. The chute went "pop" and we took off! We did a couple of breakdowns, as Captain Ron from the movie Captain Ron says, "if anything is going to happen it, it's going to happen out there." We busted a jib track, literally pulled the everything including the washes through the deck, and we broke our boom vang in the last race. Oh, well, at least we know what was on the way out and it will be fixed for the summer regattas.

My mom took Anna for her peace project to a farm that grows food for organizations such as Lowcountry Food Bank, Crisis Ministries, etc. I think they had a pretty good time.

That's it so far! But we are up for a pretty busy spring!

February Highlights

Trying to catch up to date with what we have been doing....

Mom and Uncle John at the beach

In February, my Uncle John (John Garabedian), his daughter Amy, and Amy's daughter Jackie, went on a road trip and stopped in Charleston for a couple of nights. It was great to see them and we are glad they decided to get in the car and head south.

We went to a fundraiser for Anna's school which was an oyster roast at Goldbug Island. It was fun and great oyster roast weather. The only challenges we had were that the bidding was done online and Joe's phone died toward the end because of the battery drain and we had these really competitive, annoying parents, who outbid us on the one auction item we really want. Not only did they outbid on that, but they also bought a bunch of other things, which really ticked me off. Is it so hard to let some other people win? Just wait until next year......I have a plan.......I will not lose.......we will be armed with at least two phones......

Anna had a sleepover at her school. She had so much fun! The theme was Charlotte's web and they watched the movie and played games. I went to help set up, that really annoying parent who beat me out of the auction item I wanted was there being bossy. I would like to tie her up in Charlotte's web.

Because I didn't have enough going on

Because I didn't have enough going on before Christmas, two holidays, two of the kids having birthdays, and guests for a month, I decided it would be a good time to paint a mural in Gracie's room, because it was going to only take a couple of hours. Well, 10+ hours later, I finished. Yes, it is Ariel in her grotto from Disney's "The Little Mermaid", Gracie has a mermaid themed room. I did have a lot of fun doing it and I think Gracie really likes it too.

Keys For Hope

Anna selling keys

Anna's January peace project was for Keys For Hope. Keys for Hope is an organization that was started by kids from Anna's school (awesome!). The kids had an idea for their own peace project, to start making and selling keys with some bling and give the profits to Crisis Ministries, Charleston's homeless shelter. Currently, Crises Ministries is building a new shelter that includes a soup kitchen, free health clinic, case management offices, education and learning center, job placement services, and a veterans dorm. Each key they make symbolizes "shelter" and gives hope for a better future for Charleston's homeless men, women, and children. Great, great project to be apart of.

Anna and I spent the morning at three different stations. The first, we were outside (chilly, but fun) with our group setting up tables of keys and selling them. The second we watched a presentation put on by a couple of the kids that run Keys For Hope. They did an amazing job explaining the importance of their mission and where the project is today. The third station we got to make keys, that was so much fun. I think everyone who went could say they were pretty touched by the mission and even Anna asked to sign up to do more things with them, that is the first time she has asked to do more with a program. This peace project really made me appreciate and grateful that Anna's school places such importance on having the students reach out on a regular basis to be a part of their community and try to make it a better place for everyone, animals included!