Stone Mountain Christmas 2008

My lovely weekend

Yes, I know it was 27 degrees at times, but my weekend was wonderful because my very best friend, Lesley and her little boy, Giovanni, came in town for 3 days.  We packed a lot into those three days!

First, I took off work on Friday and we went to The Flying Biscuit, my very favorite breakfast spot. I had my favorite- eggs on top of love cakes (black bean corn cakes) smothered in tomatillo sauce, sour cream and feta cheese, with a side of grits and flying biscuits with cranberry apple butter of course.

Lesley had her first fried green tomatoes, which were covered with goat cheese-yum!  G had oatmeal pancakes which had a very strange texture from the oatmeal, but were totally addicting!

Here is G in the restaurant.

Then, we headed over to Perimeter mall.  I haven’t been there in ages- it is so nice.  I was pretty peeved that they don’t have a Hollister.  I mean, really.  Who the heck doesn’t have a Hollister??  That was the main reason for me going to the mall- Christmas presents of Hollister t-shirts (on sale of course) for Jake.  But, finding my new favorite store, Anthropologie, made it all worth while.  I’ve decided that if I ever win the lottery, I’m just going to buy the whole store. 

After that, we head home to take the kids to their birthday dinner- Japanese steakhouse, of course.  Bailey turned 9 on the 13th and Jake turned 12 on Monday.  The kids had fun with the warm hand towels.

…about Dave’s head…I’ll just leave you with “stupid human trick” and you can use your own imagination…

This was Giovanni’s first time at a hibachi and I was kind of concerned.  I shouldn’t have been- he had a blast! This was the look on his face the whole night.

Our hibachi chef was quite funny.  He even posed for me!

I also had the best drink I’ve ever had.  Seriously.  You know how much I love lychees.  They are absolutely my favorite thing.  My favorite fruit, my favorite drink (which I can only find at the Asian market),  my favorite candy (again- Asian market only) my favorite flavor of all time.  Well, new to America is Soho Lychee Liquor.  Yee haw! They made a drink there with it and it was just lychee yumminess.  Next time I go, I’m making them give me the recipe. Here is the loveliness which is my new favorite beverage.

After that, we headed over to my mom and dad’s house to drop Jake off to spend the night.  They brought out their bin of ooooold McDonald’s toys and we all had fun. I think Lesley and I had more fun than the kids!

The next day we headed out to Stone Mountain Christmas.  Lesley just couldn’t get over how amazing Stone Mountain was!

It is pretty darn cool!

Here are my goofballs.

This would have been a cool Christmas card, had Jake not made a silly face.

After walking around the Christmas village for a little bit, we decide to go up the mountain on one of these.

Jake keeps telling me he doesn’t want to go up and can’t understand why he can’t just wait in the car.  LOL  By the time we get in line, he is hysterical- he is sobbing, hitting me and calling me an idiot.  Um, yeah.  My response?  Suck it up, be a man, you.are.going.on.the.skytram.  Here he is halfway up the mountain.

We made it to the top!

There is nothing like a sunset on top of a mountain!

Jake LOVED running around the top- it looks like the surface of the moon.

So, we’re ready to ride down and somehow, Jake talks Lesley into hiking down with him while Bailey and I take G town on the Skytram. Great idea, right?  Sure, the hike wasn’t bad.  But, the fact that it took them around the other side of the park and they had to walk miles back to the Christmas Village was just not in the plans.  So, an hour later, with wobbly legs, they finally find us!

And then my camera dies…

If you have kids and you haven’t gone to Stone Mountain Christmas yet, I recommend it.  The village is adorable, the Christmas Train ride was great, unfortunately we didn’t get to see the 4-D Polar Express, but we’ll get that next time.  The best part was the Snow Angel show at the end- fireworks, snow (soap suds) falling from the sky and a real flying Snow Angel- she was actually flying above us- held up by wires.  It was very cool!

The next day, they went home and I cried, as always.

Girls trip to Florida

I’m finally back to blogging, after a wonderful week in Florida visiting Lesley & Giovanni.  Here are some of the highlights from the trip.

Here is Bailey on her first flight.

Giovanni missed Bailey!  He wouldn’t let her hand go on the drive home.

The next morning, we quickly got in the pool.  Man, do I miss having a pool.

Imagine our surprise when Giovanni points to the corner of the screen and yells, Iguana!  Yep, an iguana has decided to spend it’s days in the screened in pool.

You know me and spiders.  I am facinated by them.  I was so happy to see what we, as kids, called crab spiders. Tell me these aren’t cool.

Then, we headed to the beach.

 

That night, we went to the local Elks lodge to play BINGO.  I said to our table, “I just need an I-19.” Within a few seconds the caller said, “I-19″ and our table errupted in screams! Here I am with my winning ticket and my $50.

The next evening we took the kids to Clematis by Night, a really cool thing they do on Clematis St. in West Palm Beach.  There is a live band, food vendors and fountains.

That night, I hear all this noise in the kitchen- I thought it was Lesley.  Nope, it was Howie, the dog getting into trouble.  Yep, that’s a garbage can lid around his neck.

The next day we send Giovanni to daycare and we walked around Delray Beach. Here are some pics of Bailey in front of some cool trees.

 

That night, we went to sit by the water, play in a park and eat at my favorite pub.

Here is Bay being silly with her yummy pub food.

Bailey & Giovanni had to pose in front of the funny statue in the pub.

Next was the fabulous Lion Country Safari.  It was hot, but it was fun!

First, you go on a drive through safari.  We saw all kinds of animals, from elephants, to ostriches, zebra and monkeys.  Then, you walk through a zoo like area and then a small water world.

Our favorite thing was to feed the giraffes and the birds.

Bailey also enjoyed playing with Matilda the snake at Lesley’s house.

Back to the beach it is.  There were sea turtle nests everywhere.  They were huge areas with signs posted warning you not to disturb them.  Very cool stuff.

There’s nothing like a sunset at the beach.

Our last night there, we went and had dinner at Lesley’s parents house.  First, we had to drive by the house I grew up in.  It was strange because they had made the whole left side of the lot into a nursery, so it looked so small.

Bailey’s looking for tadpoles in the pond.

Lesley, Giovanni & Annie in the pool.

We had a fabulous time!

A taste of Maine

I thought I’d share some of my favorite pictures that my mom sent me from their trip in Maine. I am so jealous!!

This is my mom’s best friend, Pirjo.

This is my mom and Pirjo being crazy!

Here is my Dad in front of Pirjo’s son, Dan’s house.  Wow.

My parents- aren’t they great?!

A little more BFF craziness!

Isn’t it great to have a BFF- one of those best friends where no matter how long it’s been, it’s so easy to pick right back up again?  Yep, I got me one of those- Lesley.  Tomorrow, I’ll be boarding a plane to visit her.  So, at the same time my mom is with her BFF, I’ll be with mine. 

A fun filled weekend

Saturday morning I picked up Lesley & Giovanni from the airport. We get there just as her flight lands, but somehow she takes the wrong train and we don’t see them for 45 minutes. Then, on the drive home, somehow I missed the exit for 75 and I ended up taking 85 north all the way to Chambodia.  We get off at Jimmy Carter and head home.  After a stop at Petco to buy a ferret leash for their kinkajou, Peeper, and a stop at Target to buy Les a dress so that she can go to a wedding with me that day, and then a stop at Publix to get food for Giovanni, we get home.  It’s after 2pm, we haven’t gotten ready and the wedding is at 3pm…in Tucker.  Needless to say, we didn’t make it to the wedding.  I’m sorry Kathy!  I can’t believe I missed your wedding.  (sob)

By the time we got home, Pete and the animals had arrived at the house.  Now, remember, Lesley and G had just flown from Orlando.  Pete drove.  We arrived at the same time.  Yikes! 

We made the day fun by going to Cagle’s Dairy Corn Maize.  We had such a blast and Giovanni ran the whole way while chanting “corn, corn, corn”.  It’s the end of the season, so the corn is rather dead, but it was still a blast.

On the way there what do we see, but 2 people riding unicycles…on the main road.  What?  Unicycles? 

 

We finished off the day with a game of scrabble. 

 Today, we went to church, which Lesley loved!  Who wouldn’t love my church?  Then, we went to the park at a local church which was a blast.  After that, we left the kids with the dads and headed out to Chili’s for a snack and a drink before going to see the movie, Across the Universe.  This is my new favorite obsession.  Oh my lord, what a fabulous movie!  The soundtrack is great too. 

I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.  I’m staying home from school to play. 

Wordless Wednesday

This is Lesley and I when we were babies.  We’ve been best friends forever! Amazing to still have someone as your best friend who you played with, potty trained with, learned to swim with, grew up with.  Lesley’s more than a friend, she’s the sister I never had.  I love you, Les!

This is Lesley and I now…we look a little mellow, but I swear that was my first drink! This was at the Hard Rock hotel and casino in Hollywood, Fl.

Memories from St. Joe’s chapel

One of the many elementary schools I went to (I went to four, I think) was Saint Joseph’s Episcopal School.  I don’t remember the priest’s name and I don’t remember much of his sermons.  My friends and I were too busy trying to figure out how to get more than a sip of that ultra strong, delicious red wine in communion.  Poor Lesley could never partake as she wasn’t of the faith!  There is one sermon that I have always remembered because I thought it ingenious.  The priest was telling us a story in which he taught his sons about fairness.  His sons wanted to split a cookie.  In the past they always fought over who would get the bigger half.  So, the priest made the rule that one of them would break the cookie and the other one would pick which half he wanted.  This ensured that the one breaking the cookie would make it as even as he could.  Of course, I have no idea what bible verse he was using or what the point of the sermon was, but I have always remembered his rule.  Until now, I’ve never had the opportunity to use it.  Lo and behold, there is one Thin Mint left and Bailey and Reece ask me to split it.  Instead, I used his rule and had one split it.  Unfortunately, Thin Mints don’t break well and it crumbled into a million pieces.  Now both girls are made at me for making them do the splitting……I have a headache and I don’t think it’s from pollen this time!