wordless wednesday: richmond

when the evite came through a few months back for a good college friend's 40th birthday party in richmond, i knew i wanted to go.  it was a fabulous idea: whole families were invited to the U of R basketball game in the renovated robins center, and the party was to be held in one of the brand-new fancy schmancy terrace suites. 

we drove up on saturday morning for the 3:00 game, and from the get-go, it turned out to be a fantastic trip.  liam won the kids' raffle at the party, coming home with his very own rainbow loom.  richmond prevailed in what turned out to be an exciting game.  and after spending the night with our friends, susanna gained a new bestie in the form of our friends' nine-year old daughter.  a victory for all involved!

in a crazy coincidence, a friend of ours from raleigh was responsible for all the new fancy seating in the stadium.  he explained that rather than going the cheaper route of simply screenprinting the spider on the back of each chair, U of R opted for the much more expensive method of embroidering.  and you start to see how easily the renovation earned its $17 million pricetag ...

i reconnected with gobs of college friends, some of whom i hadn't seen in decades.  (from left, danielle, me, jen, dave, alison, and patrick).  ironically, the birthday boy isn't in this picture

an excerpt from the text message chain between susanna and elise.  "maybe elise and i can go to richmond together and be roommates like you and her mommy were!" susanna said.  i'm printing out the scholarship forms as we speak

four happy spider fans with full bellies, a raffle prize, new buddies, and a victory.  doesn't get any better

 oh wait!  it does get better -- we also all received a free fleece spider headband (as seen on susanna).  we'll be showing our spider pride all winter long