President's Weekend in Atlanta

Late February, we had a chance to go to Atlanta and enjoy the long weekend in the big city. We saw Alex (Lisa's brother) and his kids, ate Dim Sum (ahhhh), checked out the world's largest aquarium, and drank hundreds of soda pop flavors at The World of Coke.

We drove up to Atlanta's Northlake area (eastern) and stayed in a Towneplace Suites. Our first night was horrible. Our neighbors were very loud and cursing, and we smelled marijuana in the hallway. We assumed they were partying until way late, so we told the front desk. They quickly moved us to another floor, and we were later told that our neighbors were loud, but the marijuana people were further down the hall. Maybe they were from Colorado... 

The most relaxing room in all of Georgia. It was so awesome to watch all those fish and manta rays and the huge whale shark swim by, and we never even had to hold our breath.

We enjoyed the various animals: belugas, seals, whales, sharks, fish, octopus, seahorses. Different adventures and 4D movies.  

We never knew that Coca-Cola originated in Atlanta, GA, and a pharmacist kept the original recipe a secret for years. It's still in a safe, somewhere and only two people know how to get into the safe to get the recipe. I'll bet the ingredients are something like: Lots of sugar, lots of black high fructose corn syrup, and water...snicker.

The safe where the secret Coca-Cola recipe lies hidden from our eyes.

After a walk about the place, learning about the history of Coke and it's impact on our culture, there was a neat room where we could sample hundreds of sodas from around the world. There was one that tasted like alcohol, and most kids spit that one out. Lisa liked the soda that had a pine-nut after-taste. Hope enjoyed the pineapple soda and the raspberry soda. Paxton liked the pineapple soda. Josiah liked sprite.  Since we don't drink a lot of soda at home we left the place really REALLY bloated. Josiah used the restroom three times while we were walking around that room.

2 birthdays for Hope

For Hope's 10th birthday, we wanted to have a simple party with her new friends and her cousins in Atlanta. We were able to invite our friends to come after her "real" birthday, so Hope just wanted a simple meal on her birthday and have party food when her friends come over.

On Hope's actual birthday, January 26, she asked for shrimp and grits. So, mom made the all out fattening buttered grits with bacon, sausage, and shrimp. Boy, was it gooooood. Very southern meal. 

Here's the happy southern girl holding her shrimp and grits. It was a shared dish. She probably would have gained 10 pounds had she eaten that entire dish.

Hope also wanted fried okra. Mom roasted them instead, and they weren't slimy at all. We really like okra and always have a bag of them in the fridge. We are southernafied!

Her birthday cake was an oreo cookie ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, because she wanted mom to make from scratch her cupcakes for her party. Good thing we only have one particular child. Josiah says we can just take him to McDonalds and give him ice cream, and he's happy.

For Hope's party on a week later, Feb 8th, she wanted blue and lavender, pinatas, candies, games, cupcakes, pizza, chips, ice cream sundae bar with toppings, but nothing can have peanuts because dear cousin is severely allergic. Good thing we did do most things from scratch so we knew if it had peanuts or not.

We couldn't find a nice enough cupcake topper, so we made them. Thanks alot, Pinterest. At least it wasn't a FAIL.

Hope helped to make a lot of the cupcake toppers. We used a lot of glitter sugar to make the blue and lavender.

Here are the cupcakes. Hope especially wanted SPICE cupcakes, with spiced cream cheese icing. Again, lots of glitter. The kids didn't want to eat the toppers because they thought they were just decor. It's actually just melted almond bark with lots of glitter sugar. For food, we had pizza, chips, veggie plate, fruit plate, sherbet punch. 

And a surprise pinata with lots of toys and candies for all the kiddos. 

Whack it hard!!

Left over pinata as a hat. The girls thought that was a hoot.

Ice Cream Sundaes and cupcakes all around. It was a nice birthday for a double digit girl. So grateful to God for putting her in our lives.

Hope's first pinewood derby race

Hope expressed interest in building her own pinewood derby car at the AWANA's in our church. She even invested some of her own money to buy the block of wood. She went home and designed a very particular car for dad to cut up.

They had a night where the kids and parents could go and cut up the wood at church. Here, dad cut up Hope's car. 

Hope sanding her car down before painting it and spraying it with acrylic, and then adding glitter or "stardust" for the little glitter girl.

The car receives its number and races with other kids. We think they put her car on the track backwards a few times, but we didn't notice as it was a madhouse.

In the end, Hope won 1st place for best design. She wasn't the fastest but it was a pretty cool car. She worked hard. 

Here's the happy winner. Pretty fancy trophy. Next year, Josiah wants to join.