Atlanta Children's Museum

Time to finally catch up, since Blogger is letting me post again!  Looks like it was a fluke.  Or a scam that didn't work out well for them.  :)

In NOVEMBER (a long long time ago...) we finally went to the Children's Museum downtown.  Most people have said it's too overpriced, but that going to the free day isn't worth it either (it's too packed).  A friend found a deal online for half priced tickets, so we finally went.  I have to say I agree:  it's DEFINITELY not worth the full price.  It's not nearly as impressive as Chicago's, or a few other cities we've gone to;  but it's very "neat" and clean and nice.  Just small.  My own kids were getting bored after a couple of hours, when usually a Children's Museum is something I have to claw them away from after the full 8 hour day. 

 

 

Painting the white wall.  Probably my favorite thing.  This would be awesome to have outdoors in our yard or on our deck.  Just a thick white plastic over a white painted wall/board, and let the kids paint away!  When you're ready to clean it, just run some water over it (they had a big jug they poured out) and squeegie it all clean.  Repeat. 

Hunter playing dress up!  Fireman.

Tiny kids' section: magnetic fishing.  There was much more of course, but I realized the pics aren't that great.  Afterwards:

Centennial Park was right across the street, so we let loose to RUN and look at the Christmas decorations that were being put up.

 

They wrestled all over the "Leaves" sculpture, but ultimately just love each other.

Merry Christmas!

 

(This is mostly just a test post, to see if Blogger is letting people post again, who they'd told were full).  :)

I'm Full!

Oh my, my blog is FULL!

 

I didn't even know that was possible.  But Blogger says I'm out of space.  I can't add any more posts.  I don't want to delete my old years, and don't really want to print it off, sooooo.... hmmm...  what do I do?  Start kindtfamily2.blogspot.com?

 

Any other ideas?  :)

Halloween Fun!

Captain America and Spiderman can conquer all evil!

 

Hunter with his best buddy, T.  The T-Rex.  Of course.

Enjoying the trunk-or-treat at the church!  This was a great game idea (they spin the circle, and the kids have to throw a ball through it to earn their candy)!

 

Halloween DAY we had a fun Halloween dinner with the Feustels who were in town visiting, then took the boys trick or treating in a neighborhood by the church that some friends live in.  We had cheeseburgers on the grill, where I cut jack-o-lantern faces into the cheese slices.  I'm bummed I forgot to take a picture of that!

 

"Candy Corn" style fruit salad (pineapple, mandarin oranges, fresh whipped cream)

Monster fingers!  White chocolate dyed green with an almond sliver, on a pretzel rod.

Graveyard dirt cake with cookie tombstones and gummy worms.



 

 

Trick or treating!  Hunter was so independent.  And polite.  He had a great time!

 

Notre Dame Trip!

We were brave and made the 12 hour drive up to Notre Dame for the weekend!  They were playing BYU for the first time in years, and we'd been talking with friends about going to that game since Joe was ATTENDING Notre Dame (over 3.5 years ago).  We're so glad it worked out that Joe's little sister, Kelsey, and her husband and two kiddos actually LIVE there in Mishawaka now!  So we had a fantastic family visit, having Joe's parents and baby brother come down from Wisconsin as well.

 

Here's Sawyer, cousin Jared (3) and Hunter after finishing their rainy tour of Notre Dame campus.

 

What to do on a rainy afternoon in South Bend?  Go to the Healthworks Children's Museum:

 





 

 

 

Game Day!  The day started giving us a bit of sun around noon, so the cold wasn't too unbearable.  Here we are in front of the library (with "touchdown Jesus"):

 Joe's dad, Chris, with baby brother Peter (15):

 

Inside the Basilica on campus:

 

 

Bagpipe band playing on campus (probably my favorite part.  More than the game):

 

See the name of the entrance gate?  A certain little boy's middle name was because of that.

 

Start of the game: Cloudy & cold, with seats WAY up high in the visitors (BYU) section:

 

Our super cute friends, Ya Hui & John, from our ward here in Atlanta.  They flew up to this game, too, and we had tickets together.  I was too busy talking to Ya Hui to notice much of the game...  :)

 

Notre Dame wins!  17-14.

Goodnight stadium!

 

Tiger Cub!

Having a hard time believing it!!!  He's a SCOUT!

He just finished his first popcorn fundraiser, and he was amazing!  He knocked on the doors, spoke very professionally, and made more sales himself than the ENTIRE PACK did last year!  Joe says: "If someone answered the door, I knew he had a sale."

Zoo Atlanta

October in Georgia is absolutely gorgeous.  It's the time to wear your t-shirts outside without sweating like crazy, and without worrying about coats yet.  The leaves are just starting to change color.  It's the time to seriously enjoy the outdoors!  So we spent the day at the zoo.  :)

 

New friends Maggie and Holton:

 

Rhino, giraffes, zebras, ostriches:

 

One of my favorite unique parts of Zoo Atlanta: the parakeet area.  There are probably a hundred bright parakeets in a small (netted) outdoor area.  You can purchase bird seed crusted on a popsicle stick to feed them.  Taller people just reach up into the tree branches where most of the birds are perched, but the little guys hold it down low and wait for the birds to come to them. :)  Hunter and I each had parakeets hop up on our sticks we held.  It was awesome.  :)

Soccer Dude

Sawyer is a champ this year!  He's the high scorer every game.  He has a serious gift for getting the ball away from everyone else (lots of fancy footwork). 

 

SCORE!

 

 

I can't believe the season's almost done already!  He has a game this Saturday morning & then that's it.  He's had a great time being part of Team Elite, with Joe being his assistant coach!



4x4 Pumpkin Patch!

I don't do a LOT of the stuff I pin on Pinterest, but I do some of them. :)  These I couldn't resist doing immediately.  Some of my girlfriends got together to do wood crafts last week, and this was the project I'd brought along to work on (so I could bum Susie's chisels).  I took the instructions from this website, in case you want to do them yourself!  Home Depot will cut your 4x4 post for you into the measurements you need, so you only need to do the chiseling, painting, adding sticks, and making a pumpkin patch sign (which I also needed Susie for- her Cricut cut the letters for me so I wouldn't have to paint by hand).  :)

 

Total Cost:  under $5.

 

I had the hardest time finding wire I wanted (that didn't cost a fortune), so I used twine instead.  And a lot of extra raffia than the original picture.  I might give it a trim, actually.   I also have some thin green floral wire (only $2 at Walmart by the silk flowers) making curly-cues from the base of the stem, but they don't show up in the picture.  I might play around with the green wire a little more (maybe braid some to make it thicker first?).  Either way, I'm happy I made them!

Sum Up September!

September was a simple month, but here are some of the pics I did snap!

My friend Erin showed us a park we'd never been to over in Chamblee.  It's RIGHT up against the private airport, full of executive planes and jets and helicopters taking off and landing every few minutes, so the boys LOVE IT.  We even went back again with Hunter's friend, t: 

 

Sawyer started his FOURTH YEAR of soccer (he started at age three)!  We absolutely LOVE this sports league in Marietta called Upward Sports.  It's through the large local baptist church, and is Christian based.  Every week they memorize a scripture, and they have prayer before their games.  It's a good level of teaching and competition for his age, without the SERIOUS competition and time commitment of other leagues.

Once again, Sawyer is the star of the team.  I'm really trying not to sound like it's bragging.  He just really IS the one who does the best. ;)  The other week before a game, I was sitting on the sidelines watching the two teams warm up, with all the other parents.  I was chatting with one of the other dads and said "Is it just me, or does the entire other team look like they're made of third graders?!" (they all looked huge compared to Sawyer & his team).  His response?  "That's fine, because we've got Sawyer on our team!"  Haha :)

Hunter enjoying the game, and showing off his favorite hat:

 

Our last trip to the fountains!  This is one of our favorite free things to do in the city.  Legacy Fountain at Piedmont park is really beautiful & fun for the kiddos, always changing it's spray patterns and heights.  We took along Hunter's BFF, t:

 

A few other, non-pictured events in September:
*My poor wedding ring diamond broke!  :(  Two separate jewelers confirmed it and told me my only choices were to replace the head stone ($3,000) or have it recut, sized way down (nearly as much $$ as a new diamond anyway).  I was so sad, I cried on & off for days.  Joe bought me a really nice quality ring, thinking it'd last forever, not eight years!  Plus we're trying so hard to save up for a house, we didn't want to blow a big chunk of it on a DIAMOND right now.  We called our original jeweler out in Denver, and he was extemely compassionate about it and asked us to send it back to see if they could help us take care of it (we were hoping at a severe discount, or just replacing it with a CZ).  After he received it in the mail, he offered to cut it down (losing only.04 carats he believed), repolish it, recoat the gold, and fix a chip in the gold:  ALL for only $150!!!  It was a miracle!!!  I can't wait to get it back in the mail soon, even though I'm sad my diamond will be smaller.

 

*HAPPY NEWS:  I lost 9 pounds!  :)  I finally made myself count calories again, cutting out all treats, and severely cutting carbs.  It's so painful & I'm grumpy all the time when I do that, but it's very satisfying to have lost some weight!

Hunter Tumbling!

Hunter started an 8 week tumbling class at the local gymnastics center.  Sawyer did a few of these, where it was a good mix of boys and girls.  Poor Hunter is the only boy in his session.  Haha :)  Hopefully it won't give him a complex about his mom putting him in girl activities.

 

He's REALLY loving it, though.  He loves using all the equipment, and he's really good at everything.  Except walking backwards on the balance beam.

 

Pictures aren't great because parents have to sit way up in the balcony along the edge of the entire gymnastics area.  This is best my zoon can do from across a monstrous arena.  :)

(below): Hard to see, but he's on the hanging rings, with is back towards me.



 

(below) Hard to see, but he's jumping off the springboard onto the red mat.