Old friends, new friends

I need to start this post by clarifying that in no way, shape or form are the friends I am referencing "old"; that just refers to the fact we've known each other for awhile. Okay, got that out of the way.
Last night I had a fun evening out with my friend, Liz. She is joining the AMOA Board of Advisors group with which I am involved and I am so excited she will be on it! She's going to be a great addition and is already thinking of great ideas. We went to the welcome meeting, then went on a quick tour of the exhibition of Salgado's photos and Damian Priour's Texas Chair Project, which is awesome. I say this not only because I know and love Damian, and not only because my dad has a piece in the exhibition. It is awesome because it is such a cool concept and really just took off. Damian is a sculptor (state sculptor of Texas, yo) who loves and collects chairs. He had the idea to create 88 small chair sculptures out of his preferred medium, limestone and glass. He then boxed up these chairs and sent them to Texas artists who admired and respected. The caveat was also a request: to keep the chair he sent them, he asked for them to send them their own artistic interpretation of a chair, and it had to fit into the original box (this aspect some artists, um, stretched). AMOA agreed they would do an exhibit if 50 chairs came back. Well, 80 chairs were returned and are currently on exhibit! It is fascinating to seee how different artists interpreted the chair in many different media: sculpture, paintings, photography, video, even sawdust. I know I am kind of going on about it, but I cannot recommend it highly enough. Such fun!
So after the exhibit tour, Liz and I hit SoCo for some impromptu shopping (I proudly knocked a few more names on the Christmas list, whew!) and yummy dinner at South Congress Cafe. It was wonderful to relax, have a lovely meal and great girl talk. Such a fun evening!
This morning, my friend Becca came over with her precious kiddos for a playdate. We hadn't seen each other since the UT ADPi days! It was great to catch up, as much as her daughter Emmylou and Reese would allow us to. They really played together well, but they are 2 after all. Actually, 2 and a half, which I am learning is an important distinction.
Here are the sweet girls snacking on muffins.

More snacking.

Emmylou pushing R around on the bike.

Miller, being cute, sweet and never even making a peep. What a good baby!

Under the crib antics. I can't be sure what they were, as I was not really invited or allowed in.

You know, just hanging out, biking and phoning.

Posing, or at least the best I got, next to Miller.

Goodbye hugs! Reese was so excited to make a new friend.

She called me in the front room: "Mom, come here! I'm looking for Emmylou. Emmy-loooooooooou, where are yooooooooou?"

Come back and play anytime, y'all! (Also, Becca, did you notice I got the link thing to work?? I must have been doing it wrong. Thanks for the explanation, I am now officially coming to you with my blogging questions!)