We had a great lowkey Easter at home. Hayley said she figured she was too old for an Easter basket but she’ll never be took old in my book.
Then we headed to the beach with my Mom, Stepdad and Aunt Cathie. It really was a wonderful trip. we got a fantastic beach house and just relaxed! Hayley spend an afternoon as an aquarium assistant down at the NC Aquarium, helping with feeding.
To round out our welcome to spring, we hit the UNC spring football game, a post-game party called The Bash and then back to campus for the 35th anniversary show of the Clef Hangers. We had our neighbors with us and for most of the day, the two kids Hayley babysits. Long but great day!
Hayley with Mason and one of the kids she babysits Alex:
Hayley with Coach Fedora at The Bash:
The Clef Hangers – 35 years of gorgeous acapella music!
Hayley and her friend Kiah went to the Justin Bieber concert in Greensboro. My dad got her tickets for Christmas. It was funny, my first concerts without parents were at that same Greensboro Coliseum (Prince on the Purple Rain tour, Police on the Synchronicity tour). My dad sat out there waiting and this time, I did the same – he even waited with me. I just had no urge to see that show – Bieber is fun but the hours of screaming for him, Cody Simpson and Carly Rae Jepsen (aka Call Me Maybe) were too much for me to contemplate.
They had great seats – lower level 10th row from the floor
Girls there.
View from their seats (they didn’t take this)
I love these videos because you can hear screaming like a crazy person, lol.
We had low-key New Years but we always do. Between the holiday and football, it’s definitely a time to relax and enjoy friends. This year we had a murder mystery at the house for Hayley and her friends who were sleeping over again this year. We’d never done one of those murder mystery kits, thank goodness for a patient group of teens and some goofy adults – oh and a box of silly stuff to wear especially mustaches. But everyone was a good sport and it was a fun way to pass a lot of the evening.
For her 14th birthday, Hayley decided to have our dear friend Graham Morrison shoot she and her friends hanging out. Our regular stylist Michelle did Hayley’s hair that morning then an amazing makeup artist, Kitschkween aka Marissa Rhoades came over and got the girls ready. The results were fantastic.
After they had cake, pizza and watched movies until the wee hours of the sleepover.
The cake turned out awesome – Once in a Blue Moon designed a Graffiti Cake:
We had a birthday lunch and then birthday pie later on as well – we do love to drag out her birthday and make a big deal of it!
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In 2008 I posted about how funny I thought Leslie Hall was. She’d been an internet sensation with her hysterical Gem Sweaters Museum. CNN, Wired and others did stories on her fantastic band, Leslie & the Lys and their videos. (Now the humor of Leslie reaches even further that she’s regularly on the popular kids show Yo Gabba Gabba.)
A year later I happened to notice the band was playing in Chapel Hill and of course Hayley and I had to see that show. Not only did we catch the show, we got to meet Leslie afterwards. When they swung through in 2010, managed to visit with the band a bit before and after the show. I emailed with them every so often and Leslie even called Hayley on her 13th birthday.
This year, the band was back on tour again with opening acts Pennyhawk and Ramona & the Swimsuits. Since NC was about midway on their tour, they sent seven boxes of extra supplies to our house to resupply them. We loaded it all up in the jeep as lots of vegan goodies for the band and headed for their show. We hung out with them for about an hour before the show, helped unpack “merch”, Hayley got on stage to help with sound check and shared makeup with the band. They even hooked us up with tshirts. It was like we were roadies!
They knew we weren’t going to stay for the whole show since it was a school night so after the opening acts but before they went on, they got us from the audience and we took photos up in the dressing rooms. Then they brought Hayley up to dance on stage for a song. Both were unbelievably nice gestures.
Such a fun night!
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Friday night was the opening night of Twilight Breaking Dawn part I so I took Hayley and a bunch of her friends.
Then Saturday was the last home bout of the year for the Carolina Roller Girls so we headed out to roller derby and brought Mason along with us.
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Hayley had riding on Sunday so I snapped some pics of her at the barn. Some of you know, a few months ago we made the tough decision to switch stables and disciplines (from Saddlebred to English hunter/jumper). She’s now riding at Chadale Farms and we are all thrilled with the change, especially Hayley. She’s having a lot of fun and recently started going over really low cross rails so she’s on her way to jumping!
(Sidenote: I had my camera in the car because IC photographer extraordinaire Jim Hawkins called me with some tips for shooting in the Dean Dome because Hayley will be on PRESS ROW Tuesday night SHOOTING the UNC men’s basketball game!)
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What a Halloween scene! The highlight was hitting the insane haunted house in Snow Camp, the Original Hollywood Horror Show. As most of you know, we are horror nuts and love to be scared. So we made the hour drive to be scared out of our minds in the best haunted house around. It was well worth the drive! The bonus of the night was the site was a shoot for a vampire movie earlier in the week and some of the actors hung around – including Michael Welch (Mike Newton in Twilight!!) and Johnny Pacar (Damon in Make it or Break it and Jackson in Flight 29 Down). OMG – an actor from Twilight (he’s the local guy from town who asks Bella out early on and stays her friend) and Johnny Pacar… Hayley has loved both of his tv shows. Johnny hugged her and she swore she wouldn’t wash it for weeks.
The guys were hysterical hams before the haunted house
and great with Hayley
What a messy Halloween – it rained when we went pumpkin picking and rained all Halloween. Didn’t stop the girls from going out for candy of course. Hayley’s friend Mia came over again and Mason went with them on their candy run.
Picking pumpkins
Tired post-trick or treating
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This year, the band was back on tour again with opening acts 
