July 4th Fun and Happy 1st Birthday Blog!

Happy Birthday Blog!!!! One year ago, on July 4th, this blog was started and we're still going strong. Here's to another year...

This year we headed to Atlanta for the holiday weekend. It was one of Grammi and Fafa's last weekends living in downtown Atlanta, as they are moving to Lake Oconee in just a couple weeks. We'll be so glad to have them 1 1/2 hours closer to us very soon!

We got to Atlanta Friday afternoon and spent most of the rest of the day down at the pool. A friend of mine from high school, Mandy, and her girls, Katie, Sarah and Maggie came and hung out with us too. Piper's confidence in the pool continues and she had so much fun playing with everyone. Piper and Maggie both had a hard time with each other's names, however, "Hyper" and "Saggie" really had a good time together.


Friday night, Ger and I got to have a "date night", which was wonderful. Those are few and far between these days, and much appreciated! That night when Piper picked out her books before bed, she noticed a few books on side table, and settled on the Neiman Marcus catalog and a book about Toronto. Go figure.

Boone opted for a little snuggle time with Fafa. Not sure who enjoyed it more??

We put up some tall stools in front of the bed Piper slept in to keep her from falling out. We got a good giggle when I woke up Saturday morning and found her backwards sleeping on top of the stools set up next to her bed. Not sure how she managed that while asleep, but pretty impressive.

Saturday morning, we enjoyed watching a good portion of the 60,000+ people who ran the Peachtree Road Race walk past Grammi and Fafa's building on their way to the starting line. We opted for people watching in our pj's with coffee on the balcony in lieu of a 10k!

More July 4th Fun

After breakfast on Saturday, we headed out to the Georgia Acquarium. Piper had her first ride on MARTA.
Our first stop inside the acquarium, was a giant stuffed clownfish that looked just like "Cleo the Clownfish" in one of Piper's favorite books. She was so excited to get to touch it and get her picture with it.

Piper loved seeing all the fish, sharks, etc up close.

After the acquarium, we headed over the Centennial Park and Piper enjoyed playing in the fountains.

After all our adventures and a belly full of ice cream, Piper slept the whole way back!

Boone enjoyed a leisurely day with Grammi and Fafa and soaked up all the one-on-one time!

We hit the pool again, once we got back to Grammi and Fafa's.

Later that night, we got to see some spectacular firework from the top of Grammi and Fafa's building, which is right across the street from Lenox mall. We were glad to be high above the 350,000 people who came to watch from the mall parking lot.

And before we left, I took one last picture, a last shot with Grammi and Fafa at The Villa. Next time we visit, we'll head to Lake Oconee!

Yeah, it's Friday...now where's my paci! Aaaahhh, got it.

The evolution of a cry.

We were so excited the other day, when upon watering the fruit trees, realized we had our first plum! Weren't expecting anything for at least another season or two, but pleasantly surprised by our first fruit. Our little miss did the honors and gave the fruit a taste...it passed with flying colors and she promptly asked for more.

I also recently discovered a new setting on my camera, which takes pictures really fast (I think it's a sports setting). I happened to be testing it out and was able to capture a quick decline, after the happy tasting of the plum. I can't remember what the reason for it was, but even in tears, she's still just about the sweetest thing around! (Note: not sure why this is underlined and can't fingure out how to turn it off!)

For DanDaddy and FaFa

Sorry it's taken so long to get these posted. Lesson learned, next time you want to email out videos of the kiddies, keep the length of the video much, much shorter! So without further delay, DanDaddy and FaFa here are your Father's Day videos. Hope you enjoy!

Father's Day

Father's Day this year was a great family adventure. We ventured out to Goodale State Park, which we found out is only about 20 minutes from our house. We had our first hike as a family of four, with 2 backpacks, enjoyed a picnic and the wonderful scenery. Ger, you are such a wonderful father, Pip and Boone are so fortunate to be able to call you Daddy.

Piper improvised with her one-piece outfit after a few overly-juicy blackberries resulted in a large quantity of blackberry juice down the front of her outfit. The result of her handy work is what is in the picture above.

Bunnies, Buddies and Bare Bottoms

We can officially say that the BUNNIES that live on our property have had a most fruitful winter/spring. We have gone from seeing them very rarely (last year), to seeing at least 5 or so each morning and evening. Here's a couple caught on camera.

Here's the only indoor one we've seen this year-what a cutie!

While they have thus far been a welcome neighbor, our relationship with them has been tested as of late, since they have officially invaded our garden! In addition, they are feasting on our newly planted grass. Our beautiful cantelope have been destroyed and a certain member of our house has declared war! Oh, did I forget to mention in the title of this post that there has also been a REDNECK SIGHTING recently as well?

Note: For those that are horrified by the actions implied by this photo, I assure you that we believe very strongly in buying locally and are working hard to become as self-sustaining as we can be. That being said, we have added rabbit to our list of items that can be hunted/gathered from our own land! My husband is working to "stock the freezer" to make his first rabbit stew.

Just an early morning hang out session with three BUDDIES!

Sometimes when you are swimming in your pool, you get overcome with the strongest urge to take your bathing suit off and take your BARE BOTTOMED self hunting for fresh herbs.