Technically, 2-year-old Peanut belongs to Adam Hensley’s mom, Keri, but it’s Adam who has a special bond with the bird. Since the family found the sun conure on Craigslist last summer, the 15-year-old has taken it upon himself to help care for him. They get along so well that, “Whenever Adam comes home from school, […]
The best thing about summer? A quick (or not so quick) dip in the pool to cool off. Here are a few of the area’s best offerings, where the water’s cold and the splashes come free. Pools Smith Aquatic & Fitness Center 1000-A Cherry Ave., 970-3072 The biggest and baddest of public pools in the area, 27,000-square-foot Smith […]
A few years ago, Dave Berzonsky and Estela Knott, who run Blue Ridge Music Together, added a yurt to their backyard with dreams of opening a preschool. And they did—for a couple years while their girls, Luna and Mareana, were little, they used it as a homeschool cooperative. These days, the yurt has morphed into […]
You may have never seen the Morrison family before, but if you live in Belmont, you’ve likely heard them. The quartet—John, Emily and their two daughters, 12-year-old Eliza and 10-year-old Anne Marie—often sets up their family band on their front porch across from Belmont Park, which, as it turns out, is a great advertisement for […]
It’s late at night, and 17-year-old Saunder Boyle was supposed to be home three hours ago. But her parents aren’t worried. She isn’t out partying with friends; she’s making a movie. “My parents get the whole long-hour shooting days,” says Boyle, a rising senior at Tandem Friends School. “Things invariably go three hours late. I […]
Christine Eichler’s fondest childhood memories are of running around with all the sheep, horses and rabbits at her grandparents’ animal farm in New Jersey. “It was like the SPCA of the county,” she said with a laugh, recalling how her grandparents happily took in farm animals that needed homes. “That was always my happy place, […]
We love swim team and beach trips and even the occasional lazy day at home just as much as the next person, but it can be all too easy to let your kids’ brains go into hibernation mode during the summer months. Luckily for kids (and parents) in the area, schools and organizations in Charlottesville […]
Like a lot of us in this town, James Pierce ended up in Charlottesville by accident. Shortly after graduating from William & Mary in 1996, he had a stack of 12 job applications in the backseat of his car. All but three of them flew out the sunroof never to be seen again; one of […]
Children’s birthday parties typically offer a bird’s-eye view of the broad spectrum of human temperaments. You’ll likely see socially bold kids, vying to be first in line for the piñata; socially comfortable yet milder-mannered kids, who prefer to exuberantly observe the piñata mayhem; and socially reticent children, who hang way back and mutely shake their […]
Less than 30 percent of Virginia’s adolescent girls were vaccinated for human papillomavirus (HPV) last year, despite the fact that the Commonwealth was one of the first to pass legislation mandating the vaccine for sixth grade girls. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) wants to know why vaccination rates for HPV—the most common sexually transmitted disease […]