Sesame Street Live!!!

Two posts in as many days …. something must be wrong!

One of the perks of my job is some pretty nice tickets at Phillips that we get to take advantage of for all types of events.  On of the least popular (and therefore easiest to get tickets for) are the kiddo shows.  We took Emmy Cate to her first live show a couple of weeks ago – Sesame Street Live: Elmo’s Superheroes.

I don’t have the best pics, and not very many, but she really liked the show and was enamored with it for about the first half.  The second half wasn’t quite as captivating and she was ready to go before it was over.

We did get an overpriced Elmo toy before the show started….

… and an even WAY more overpriced Elmo balloon during intermission (seriously, who pays $10 for a helium balloon.  Oh yeah …. we do).

This was the best pic we got during the show …

Up next month …. Disney Princesses on Ice!!

Stone Mountain

Since I never seem to be able to get my act together and post timely, I’m going to make this one short and sweet.  I’m about 3 behind …

A few weeks ago, Mamaw and Papaw came into town to visit and we decided a visit to Stone Mountain was in order to satisfy Papaw’s curiosity.  See, the last time he visited the park, the carving was only halway complete! 

We first took the gondola up to the top of the mountain (maybe next time we can hike, but with a 2 year old, fake knee, and fake hip, we decided to take the easy way out!).  I think this picture looks more like they are crossing the Sahara desert than a mountaintop!

After heading back down the mountain, we walked to take in more of the attractions and stopped to look at the carving depicting our good ole Confederate war heroes: Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson.  Pictures don’t really capture it but it’s 400 feet off the ground and about 10 stories high by 20 stories wide!

We headed to eat lunch, pet animals and check out the kids activities.  Let’s just say we barely had time to see half of the stuff.  It is a pretty nice park for kids, even EC’s age.  They had a huge indoor playground bouncehouse area, a short 4D Yogi Bear movie, a petting zoo, the gondola ride, a boatride on the lake, and a train ride around the mountain.  But take my word for it – SKIP the train ride!!  It was very boring and long!  Emmy Cate did learn a cute rendition of “All Aboard”, yelling and cupping her hands on her mouth.  But DO NOT ride the train!! 

They also had stuff for adults and older kids like a ropes course and paddleboats and so on.  I’m sure this won’t be our last trip!

Weekend in the Mountains!

A couple of weeks ago, we rode tripped with DeDe and Pro to the North Carolina mountains to the town of Cashiers.  We stayed at a great house affiliated with the High Hampton Inn.  We checked out the view from the Inn when we arrived to check in.  What gorgeous scenery!  Emmy Cate got her first taste of the mountains and the cool temps.  It was 97 when we left Atlanta, and 65 when we arrived and it was only 3pm!!

View from the High Hampton Inn, the lake and the 8th hole in the distance.

We headed to the house and it was a great rental.  It had a very large covered porch where we hung out most of the time, with a view of the golf course below and mountains as far as you could see.  It poured rain the first afternoon we were there into the evening, but we enjoyed hanging on the deck with a glass of milk wine.

Some pics from around the High Hampton Inn.  There is a mini ropes course playground, a regular playground, a fishing hole, golf course, a tiny petting zoo, and a small “beach” on the lake, which we dipped our toes in but never went swimming.

We drove up to Highlands and went to see “Dry Falls” which is anything but!  It is a gorgeous waterfall that you can walk behind.  Due to all of the natural springs and the spraying rushing water, you get a little wet!  

 

We had a great trip and were sad to come home to scorching temps again!!  EC still talks about the waterfall over a week later!

Happy Birthday Macy & Makayla!!

Happy Birthday to my two sweet neices!!  They turned 2 last week and we headed up to NC for the weekend for their party.  Although it was a short trip (we got in late Friday night and left Sunday morning), we had fun celebrating with the girls.   

They had a mini pool party so the girls all donned their suits and shades and got in some soaking time before the rain came!  It got really humid and ended up raining, which meant that EC’s hair was a crazy, curly mess!!

Emmy Cate met some new friends and hung out with some friends that she hadn’t seen since M&M’s party since last year!  This is actually a really crazy “it’s such a small world” story.  The little girl driving the car below is Taylor, who is the daughter of a friend of mine from elementary school!  My friend Abby grew up in Germantown, went to UT, moved to NC, met my sister-in-law and they became great friends.  What a crazy coincidence that now we all have two year olds and we see them at least once a year in NC! 

Taylor was the first brave 2 year old party guest to get a handle on driving the jeep.  There were many stops and starts, and a few run-ins with chairs, tables, bushes and cars!!  EC couldn’t resist and got in on the action too, but at 2 mph, she still couldn’t keep it under control and went barreling into me and the trash cans!  I’m thinking this might be a Christmas present idea; maybe she can get a hang of it then??!!

I had to include this picture of her swinging at Mamaw and Papaw’s house, she LOVED the swing and would not get out.  She also had fun getting dirty in the garden picking tomatoes, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

Happy Birthday Macy & Makayla!!!

Georgia Aquarium

A couple of weeks ago, DeDe came in town to help with Emmy Cate’s transition to her new 2 year old class at school.  While she was visiting, we took Emmy Cate to her first trip (DeDe’s too!) to the Georgia Aquarium.  If you haven’t been, this is a must see.  It is awesome.  Emmy Cate was totally overwhelmed with all of the sights and sounds, and different animals and sea creatures.  She learned plenty of new words – sharks, eels, albino alligators, stingrays, shrimp!  She talked for days about seeing the “fishies”!!

   

There are plenty of places to touch and “pet” creatures like stingrays, baby sharks, shrimp, crabs, and live coral and starfish.  EC wasn’t quite up to that task yet.  She would touch the water and that was enough for her.  She didn’t get on board with reaching an arm all the way into the water to touch something funky.  Quite frankly, I don’t blame her!!