Passover 2013

Passover is one of my very favorite celebrations of the year...every single thing about it is perfectly lovely.  The food, the drink, the beautiful table setting, and most importantly, of course, the friends and family.

Evie and Keith

The house concert we hosted with Evie Ladin and Keith Terry was by far the most interesting, unique, and unexpected of all the house concerts I've ever seen.


Brian and I have been fans of Evie's for years.  We love the all-female old-time band that she played banjo for, and have listened to them for a long time.  On a whim, I emailed Evie about a year ago (or more) to see if they'd come play for us.

Over the course of a few emails, we agreed to host Evie and her husband Keith Terry as a duo show.

Evie's background is in Appalachian old-time music, and buck dancing.  Keith comes from a more jazz-based and body percussion background.


And the show that the two of them put on, and the combination of their unique backgrounds, is truly something to behold.  I think my face hurt by the end of the night from smiling so much.

This is how they started the show!


And then this happened....

Oh, and they were just the loveliest people.  I had no idea what we were in for with this show, and I was just so, so pleased with every single thing about the night.

I continue to be amazed and full of gratitude for the opportunities that we have to meet these musicians from around the country and call them friends moving forward.

The Railsplitters

Here we are, mere days away from our last house concert of this season, and I have yet to blog about the first of the season, which happened all the way back in March!  Well, life has certainly been busy since then....

But it has still been one of the best seasons yet!  What a great time we had with The Railsplitters.  Sometimes we book bands for a house concert without ever having seen them live.  Sometimes I have a lot of anxiety about that...it's a bit of a gamble.  BUT...I had no worries about this show...I just knew it would be great, and that our concert attendees would absolutely love it.

And they  did!  There was so much admiration, love, and energy in the room during this house concert.  The Railsplitters are a relatively new band, but it's like they are MEANT to be playing together.  I can tell how much fun they are having on stage together, and how much love they have for the music they are making.

The house was packed, and there were a lot of new faces in attendance, which is always nice.

And a killer pick ensued afterward...which is always such a great way to finish a house concert night.

I cannot wait to see how things develop for this band....they have so much potential!  They're on their way to releasing their first album, they're booking more shows all the time, and they're getting more attention locally all the time.  So thankful that we had them play as part of our series...before they're too big for our little living room!

This Is F*in Awesome!

In one day, for $43, I got the following at the Thrift Shop down the road....

• three sweaters (2 Ann Taylor and 1 Banana Republic)
• two blouses
• one dress
• one pair Gap jeans
• one pair corduroy pants
• one blazer

Yeah buddy!

Makes me feel as awesome as Macklemore...

FOUR!

I

 

I can't believe my baby girl is four years old!  

In true Peterson style, we celebrated for most of the month of February.  When we asked Sadie earlier in the year what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she wanted to stay in a hotel...so we did that!  It very nicely coincided with a local bluegrass festival, held in a hotel, where all our friends and pickin' buddies, and their families, would be hanging out for the weekend.  Perfect!

These people are jamming in the elevator at 10:00 p.m.  This happens at the Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival, and it's awesome...

The following week, on Sadie's actual birthday, she got to choose where she wanted to go for dinner and where we would have ice cream afterward.  And she asked that we dress up for the occasion.  Fancy Nancy style...

We started the following weekend with a party for a few of Sadie's girlfriends at the Denver Puppet Theater.  It was so fun to watch the kiddos together. 

 

And ended the party with a full-on -birthday-girl-meltdown of epic proportions.  Classic...

 
The next day brought us a HUGE snowstorm, but we soldiered on with Sadie's family birthday party at home.  Complete with a mama-made ladybug/princess chocolate cake, birthday balloons, and lots of love.  

Sadie, you truly are the most precious thing in my life.  You light up my days, and constantly make me laugh.  You're proving yourself to be smart and kind and interesting.  Every year that I've known you, I've come to love you even more and every day I relish watching you grow, learn more about the world and your place in it, and figure out who you are.  Happy birthday to my sweet princess.