Today there was actually a chill in the air enough that would justify putting my daughter in long sleeves and a corduroy jumper.  Madison actually got this dress last year from her Mama June and PaPa Q (aka PaPa Jack) but since she is a peanut she was just too small for it, but it finally fits and she looked oh so cute.  Too top it off we went to Moe's for lunch and Madison insisted that we eat inside so we conceded, Daddy fell prey to the giant crocodile tears.  She ate all her lunch with minimal coercion, even asked to go potty and really went, and shared her cookie with Mommy and Daddy.  Moe's had this balloonist guy making balloon animals for all the kids and Madison got this cute pink poodle we will see how long he survives.

‎
Read more!

 

Thanks Ms Tori and Lily for sharing those Tinkerbell cupcakes, they sure were yummy.  Good thing that shirt was white, I had to bleach it between the cupcakes and the watermelon.  We sure had fun with you guys.

‎
Read more!

Today Madison and I visited the UF Museum of Natural History again for the the Butterfly Festival.  Madison loves the Butterfly Rainforest but I must say it was quite crowded and we might have been better off just going on a regular day.  But Madison loved the extra crafts that they had for the kids.  Here are some pictures of Madison in her butterfly mask and wings.  She did have antennae but we couldn't find them for the photos. 

 

Her little eyes were too close together for the mask that was obviously designed for a bigger kid.

Sporting her yellow wings.

Wings and arms ready to fly.

‎
Read more!

 

Well we did finally get the Tahoe back on Thursday despite the hassle I am going through with the service department. 

Madison told Chris that we had to get a different car because the race car was too hard for her to step in.  Yeah race car, I promise I wasn't do anything different in the Caddy but she seemed to think it looked a little a NASCAR ride.  So here are some pictures of our diva all set and ready to go in the race car as we happily drove to return it.

‎
Read more!

Audrey is a friend of Madison's from church and we invited Audrey and her mom Cindy over for some play time.  Madison and Audrey had a great time together and I was able to snap a picture of the princesses in the dress up clothes.

"Thanks Grammy and Grandpa we are putting these to good use."

 

 

 

‎
Read more!

Thank you Lord for keeping us Safe!

Yes I know you can't really tell but that is the Tahoe on the back of a tow truck in front of our house.

 

So I was making great time, I had already called Chris to put in my drive thru dinner order when I got too excited and got off one exit too early.  When all of a sudden we hear this horrible grinding noise and the vehicle comes to a rough stop.  I no longer had "drive"  I knew to try the "1st" gear on my automatic vehicle from previous experience with my first car the white Grand AM.  So I put it in 1st and was able to "drive" over to the Conoco gas station.  Chris left the drive thru lane where he was about to place our order and came to meet me in Alachua where we discussed our options with On Star and the GM Roadside Assistance people.  We decided to not wait 2 hours for a tow truck and take the back road the 15 miles to our house all using the 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear of my now stick shift vehicle.  Stick shifts are not my friends, I have back luck with them.  Madison kept say Mommy/Daddy we have a serious problem and oh yes we did.  Well the tow truck then came to our house to get the Tahoe and take it to the dealer which I still haven't heard back from on the status of my vehicle or my loaner.  Madison and I can't go anywhere because we are stranded and Chris' work truck won't fit us all or Madison's car seat.  Plus yuck who would want to ride in that dirty dusty thing anyway, cement dust everywhere.

We thank the good Lord for keeping us safe so glad it happened so close to home not in Georgia or while I was driving out on the highway.

‎
Read more!

Saturday morning Madison and I left for a spur of the moment trip to Atlanta to meet up with my brother Tre and his family.  They were there vacationing and for my brother to see his favorite football team the Chicago Bears.  Madison and I arrived around 12:30 and we checked into our hotel room at the Wyndham Garden in Downtown Atlanta.  That was my first time to stay downtown in Atlanta and I was quite impressed with the size of the downtown area as well as the cool restaurants and fun things to do.  We decided to head off to the New World of Coke.  I had seen that several of our Birmingham friends has posted pictures of the museum and it looked like a fun place to visit with the kids.  We parked in the Coke garage and headed over to buy our tickets.  Then Tre saw the metal detectors and realized he still had his pocket knife, funny I am quite familiar with that scenario, so he and Michael ran back to put the knife in their Tahoe.  So we let the kids play around in the great open grass area.

Noah showing his arm strength, look at those muscles.

Chloe and Madison playing in the grass.

After making it through the security line and we waited in the lobby to be let into the Coca-Cola Loft where we saw lots of great Coke antiques.

Then we headed into the Happiness Factory Theater to see one of the cutest animations I have seen in a long time on the magic that goes into every bottle of Coca-Cola.  It was just another happy day in the Happiness Factory, the fantasy world that lives deep inside a Coca-Cola vending machine. The Chinoinks were busily dispensing Coke, the Cappers were capping and the Kissy Puppies were spreading love around the factory.  I think they were my favorite characters.  I did think it was kind of cute how they chilled the Cokes with ground up snowmen.

Check out this clip http://fwatheater.com/?videoId=264 and this

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/coca_cola_the_happiness_factory/  to see the Happiness Factory commercial, the Mockumentary, and Happiness Factory-The Movie they are great.

 

Here are the kids with a Kissy Puppy in The Hub. 

In The Hub we also had a group picture made with the Coca Cola Polar Bear, which Madison was quite terrified of, but I don't have a copy of that photo yet though.

The cool aluminum bottles of Coke.

We walked though the Bottle Works, visited Taste It and viewed the 4-D movie In Search of the Secret Formula.  Madison didn't care for the moving seats or effects in the movie but the rest of us thought it was really fun.  Watch out for the little button at the back of the seat. 

Madison loved all the drinks I would let her try.  She kept trying to get her own refills.

Michael getting his souvenir bottle of Coke.

Before we left we walked around the Coca-Cola store and looked at the recycled T-shirts and bags, fun novelty items, and my favorite the scratch and sniff T-shirts.  Hmm is that grape I smell, yeah its my Fanta T-shirt wanna sniff my chest.  Seriously who wears a scratch and sniff T-shirt.    Don't worry if grape isn't your favor they had Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Orange Fanta and a few others for those that want to smell like their favorite beverage.

After leaving the New World of Coke we headed back to the Hotel for the kids to play in the pool which we found out wasn't heated and was quite chilly.  So we let them in the hot tub for a little while but it wasn't the hot I checked.  Promise.

 

After the pool we headed up the the room to get cleaned up for dinner.  We headed over to the Varsity for dinner but we failed to think about the crowd which would gather after the Georgia Tech football game so needless to say it was crazy in there.  So no photos of the dinner fun.

After dinner we drove around for a little while looking for souvenirs and headed back to rest.  Madison played her new Dora dominoes with Noah and they had a great time.  When we had all the fun we could stand we invited Chloe over to sleep with us in our room.  So Madison had her first cousin sleep over.

The next morning we got up and headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then Christina dropped Tre off for the Bears game.  When Christina got back we headed off in search of the Atlanta Underground Mall which I must say is not as nice as it was uhhh 20 plus years ago.  It was really run down and got a lot of homeless people hanging out, it was sad to see the needed people and that the mall had not really been kept up.

Once back from the mall Madison and I headed back to Gainesville but not before one last group photo of the cousins.

Madison and I had a great time with the Tre, Christina, Michael, Chloe and Noah.  Thanks for the invite guys!

 

 

 

‎
Read more!