ATL

After Miller got his medicine in him we thought he was going to bounce back so quickly.  We took him shopping and out for lunch on Saturday and he did great.  We got their Halloween costumes at Old Navy and Oh! MY! Gosh! they are cute, but they are going to roast wearing them in the Bahamas. 
Sunday we thought he was all better until we were in a TJ Maxx and he threw up all over the picture frames.  He still hasn’t figured out how to warn anyone what is coming.  Bless his heart!  And the poor workers at TJ Maxx who had to clean up his puke.  Again, it was not bad, just a little OJ. Am I justifying?  Just a little!
Monday my friend, Annette, and her children decided we were going to rent a car and head to downtown ATL.  We hit the Georgia Aquarium and it was every bit as good as everyone said it would be!  My camera didn’t act right, but here are my photos….
Aaron and Rebecca were lifesavers on our trip!
 
These fish swim by in a HUGE school right as you walk in.  It almost looks fake.

The moving sidewalk was perfect!  Walking and looking can be dangerous!  For me, that is.
 
This saw shark was swimming right overhead!

This guy ( I think it’s a grouper) was right beside us.  Huge doesn’t describe him.

Here he is beside Annette.


Jackson was so excited to see  a whale shark!

There were 4 whale shark in this part of the aquarium.
 
This grouper was a different one from before.

I know it is blurry, but look at the size of that thing!

The dolphins before the show.
 
Beluga whales!

A seahorse swimming.

The penguin exhibit was terrific.  They got to climb through a tunnel and see the penguins from a neat perspective.

Then they got to pop up through the holes and see penguins eye to eye.

This penguin was friendly.

A wall of tropical fish

Then my camera battery died! 
So I pulled out my iphone!  That’s right there’s more!  Next up Coke world. 
Oh and I need to maybe do a post about the boyS starting school!

While Hurricanes Blow…

Since before we moved here I knew if there was going to be a hurricane that Allen would be staying and that the boys and I would be evacuated.  That knowledge in no way prepared me for actually leaving me as a Category 3 and possibly 4 storm approached our island home.  Packing our clothes and such for the trip was the easy part.  After that was done I had to bring in or secure everything from outside. Then I had to move all our things from our living room upstairs and cover it with plastic.  Sounds easy, right?  Notsomuch. 
I was fortunate that my friend sent her teenagers over to help me. 
Wednesday, the morning of our evacuation Miller woke up at 5 a.m. and told me his ear had a boo-boo.  Not ideal for flying, but we gave him drops and ibuprofen and hoped for the best.  Literally about 20 minutes before the airport closed, we flew out of Nassau and headed for Atlanta.   I’m not going to lie, it was tough, knowing that my husband was going to be here in the midst of such a terrible storm.  I could go on and on about my anxieties but since you probably have other things to do today, I’ll just say that the list was LONG!  Of course the boys did fantastic.

We arrived safely and were put up in a Marriott Residence Inn.  It was really nice and fortunately my friend and her teenagers (her husband chose to stay behind and help) were right upstairs from us.
The first night and next day we were pretty anxious, we were waiting to hear how our husbands were doing.  They did a decent job of keeping us appraised of the goings on there in Nassau.  Fortunately the storm moved further east and our island didn’t suffer a direct hit.  Our house had some water damage and a few things banged around from flying debris, but all in all not too bad.
Once our husbands were out of the woods, so to speak, we could get ready to enjoy our vacation in Georgia. My wonderful sister, Michele,  drove down to ATL on Thursday after work to help me with the boys.  She was supposed to begin her 10 day vacation in Nassau on Friday, but that wasn’t happening!  
Friday morning we woke up and were ready to start having fun, but Miller had other ideas.  That morning he vomited at breakfast.  I was pretty sure his ears were to blame since brown goo was coming out of his ears.  Despite being on the ear drops for 3 days he was still not any better.  I know you are amazed at my powers of observation, but that boy has such a high threshold for pain, I don’t always know when he isn’t well. 
Off we went to an urgent care clinic.  One glance by the Doctor there and he said we needed to see an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor quickly.  Amazingly he personally made some calls and got us an appointment for that afternoon.
The Ear, Nose and Throat doctor had some of the worst bedside manner I’ve ever seen, but he did explain that the drops we were using weren’t even getting to his ears since there was  so much goo in there.  Good point.  So he told me how to clean them out and gave me some different drops to use.  Poor baby was so sick that day!  I was so fortunate that my sister was there to drive me and that my friend and he teenagers could take care of Jackson.
As soon as we got the medicine in him he was so much better, so we decided to go out for a Mexican dinner.  He ate chips  like he hadn’t eaten in days! Because he hadn’t!  Then we left and all the chips came right back up.  In terms of vomit, it was a pretty nice one.  Just like masa flour!  I realize saying that it was a nice throw up is like saying we had a nice time at Chuck E Cheese, but it wasn’t too bad!
Then we got in the car and went back to the hotel, and my sister points at me and busts out laughing.  I went out like this. 

To Dinner.  The End.

Part 2 coming soon!

Shark Attack Party

This year we held a joint party for the boys again.  There are times when it is a little inconvenient having their birthdays only 3 days apart, but it sure does come in handy when it comes to having a birthday party!

The theme this year was sharks.  It was held at our neighborhood pool, which has a nice covered area.  In the beginning we sure did need that shade.  It was H-O-T!

Here are some photos of the decorations.

Tables with beach towels as tablecloths and gummy shark kabobs for centerpieces.

 

 

Jackson asked that the menu consist of “Doritos and Capri Suns”.  We rounded his very specific menu out with hot dogs. 

No, my children don’t eat hot dogs, why do you ask?

The sweets table

This was the year I tried my hand at making shaped sugar cookies.  Since lots of these were consumed, I guess they were good!

 

Gummy sharks.

 

Cupcakes with “tall icing”…also requested by the birthday boy.

Speaking of the birthday boys, here they come!

Jackson made a beeline for the Doritos.

Miller headed straight to the gummy shark kabobs.  That boy had about 20 of them—kabobs, not sharks.  I’m not exaggerating! 20 at a minimum!

As our cute guests arrived, there was a lot of sugar consumed!

  

Boys of this age are hard to photograph!  Wait, all boys are hard to photograph!

   

See, girls are much easier!

  

We had 2 big buckets of sand where they dug for real shark’s teeth.  Jackson says that was his favorite part!

 

Each child got a shark fin to wear, some children may still be wearing theirs right now, but I’m not naming any names!

  

We had a shark piñata that was so much easier to crack than last year’s!

Loot!

 

We sang Happy Birthday to both boys!

 

Then it was back in the pool to wash off all that sticky sugar!

Jackson trying to talk his dad to swim with him.

 

Miller is noticeably absent from most of the pictures.  He was in the pool most of the time.  I had hired one of his favorite teens to help me that day and he only wanted to swim with her!

All our adorable guests went home with a water bottle.

Now we have another 11 months to plan for next year’s bash!  Jackson has already decided on the theme.