Extra for the 4th

Liz took lots of great pictures from yesterday's parade too.  Here are my very favorites.

I love this candid picture of Lily.  Such a sweetheart.

The parade is about to start, and Mia can't wait. 

 Lily is watching too, trying to figure out what's coming.

 Mia was so excited to wave to all the parade participants.

 We're all happy to celebrate America!

Fun Morning with Mia

I couldn't wait for this morning to get here!  Lily was going to The Little Gym for their morning summer camp (she LOVES it), so I decided to take the morning off from work (I love being my own boss) so I could hang out with Mia.  I don't get enough one-on-one time with this precious little girl.  She has such an amazing personality; she is smart and funny, and I love being with her.  However, it's usually all of us together, so I don't get much individual time with her.  I saw that we were going to have beautiful weather this morning, so I decided to take her to someplace completely new for her: the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  We were there about 2.5 hours, and we had a blast.  Here are several pictures from our morning.

At the front entrance fountain.  I was very glad to have a few spare coins on me for Mia to throw in.  She loves doing that.

 A chipmunk ran across our path as we walked towards the children's area.  Mia was fascinated and watched him for several minutes.  She kept running back and forth on the path to keep up with him.  She would squeal with delight when she saw him.

 She liked sitting here because the water would slightly spray her every so often.

 "Mommy look at his mouth!"

 As I researched the Gardens beforehand, I saw they had a little splash pool area for kids, so I packed her bathing suit.  She loved it.  We probably spent 30-40 minutes here.  There was one other little girl who was also 2.5, so they played nicely together.  The fountains were just the right height for her to run through.  She ran in circles over and over again, giving me high fives and waving to me as she would run past.  She was laughing and smiling so big; it was tons of fun for me to watch.

 Mia stood like this multiple times because she would laugh as she would say the water felt funny on her bum.

 You could push a button on the wall to make the sunflowers sprinkle water down too; she thought that was pretty cool.

 After drying off, we headed out to explore more of the Gardens.  Mia declared this frog was reading The Bible to his baby frog.

 She enjoyed walking into Peter Rabbit's Cove.

 She always likes putting her face through these little cutouts.  This is a rabbit eating a carrot.

 Such a happy girl!

 She ran through Peter Rabbit's fence hole probably 15 times.  She thought it was awesome!

 Mia is a very hygienic girl.  She wants to brush her teeth and wash her hands multiple times a day.  She thought it was hilarious that this cow was holding a toothbrush.

 A little unsure of being behind the waterfall.

 Checking out the view from the tree house.

 Glowie (formerly know as "Glo" but now known as "Glowie" per Mia) came out just before lunch as she was wearing down a little bit.  I love this Dale Chihuly fountain.  Mia actually wanted a picture with it.

 After the above picture was taken, we relaxed in wooden swings in the shade for a few minutes, and then we stopped in the cafe to have lunch.  We shared a spinach and fruit salad with a basil vinaigrette dressing.  Mia loves fruit, so she was content with all the delicious strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, blackberries and raspberries though she did take a few small pieces of spinach and dip them in the dressing.  She kept saying "I like salad!"  She didn't really like the Gorgonzola on top, but it was easy to brush that aside for her.  I love this girl's taste in food!  After lunch we did part of the canopy walk which has lots of paths high in the air through trees and flowers.  It was very shaded too which was nice.  Mia enjoyed walking through and pointing to different objects like birds, statues and waterfalls.  We finally ended up at this beautiful waterfall area where a nice lady offered to take our picture for us.

It was a little after noon at this point, and I could see Mia was getting pretty tired, so we headed on home.  She stayed awake on the ride though because we were having fun talking, singing along to the radio (though she often wondered where Daddy's "iPot" with her songs were) and waving out the window.  As we were leaving I said "Thank you so much for coming to the gardens with me Mia.  I had a lot of fun."  She replied "You're welcome Mommy" in her sweet little voice.  This was truly a great morning, and it makes me really look forward to my next Mommy-Daughter Date with Mia!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to you!  We had a great time celebrating America's birthday, and I hope you did too.  We are so proud and thankful to be Americans, so we love getting to celebrate and thank those who make this country great.  Liz and I took the girls to a parade in Marietta today.  It was pretty hot outside, but we had a fun time.  When I told Lily last night that we were going to a parade in the morning, she got so excited.  We talked about what kind of things we might see there (bands, floats, etc), and she couldn't wait.  I told Mia about the parade this morning over breakfast; her little face immediately lit up, and she said "We see Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Goofy!"  She was remembering the many parades we saw at Disney World back in November.  I explained that we wouldn't see them, but we would see lots of other fun things.  She looked a little confused and said "we go to Disney World?" so again I had to say, no, that wasn't where we were going, but it would be a lot of fun.  I could see the skepticism on her face.  After breakfast, we all got ready to head out.

The girls were very excited when Liz gave them each a flag.  The three of them had decorated our windows and kitchen area to get the girls excited about the 4th, so we borrowed these flags from those decorations.  They were ready to go!

 We scouted out a great spot to watch the parade.  The girls were able to sit up high and see the parade coming down the street.  There was very little shade around though, so we warmed up quickly.  Luckily, Liz thought to bring water and snacks to keep us all hydrated and happy!

 The three Hooks girls.

 Lily doing an impersonation of the Statue of Liberty.

 The parade is about to start.

 The Marietta chapter of The Lions Club came about 5 minutes before the rest of the parade handing out American flags to everyone watching.  The girls were thrilled to get more flags, and they have played with them all afternoon.  They also loved waving to the lion as he rode by.

 The flag bearers led the parade holding an American flag, Georgia flag and City of Marietta flag.  They were followed by a military band which we all enjoyed hearing.

 We all enjoyed seeing several of the old firetrucks come out.  Both girls were thrilled when a fireman walked over and gave them each high fives.  A big thank you to all of our public servants!  This old ladder truck is carrying a sign that says "September 11, 2001 - September 11, 2011.  We will never forget."

 This was the statue we sat by.  It depicts a woman holding on to an American flag and waiting on her loved ones to return home.  It is new since last July 4, so the Marietta Mayor, Chief of Police Department and the Chief of Fire Department all walked up and put flowers in front of it.  The parade also had many current soldiers and veterans marching.  It brought tears to my eyes as everyone applauded for them as they walked by.  So many give so much for our country that there truly isn't a way to say thank you.  As several Vietnam veterans walked by, Lily asked "Why is everyone clapping?"  I could only say "it's to say thank you for all they have done for us."  Thank you to all our military members. 

 Well, Mia, this is as close to Minnie Mouse as we can get right now.  A bunch of clowns came by at one point, and both girls were excited to see a Minnie Mouse puppet with one of them, especially when Minnie blew kisses to them.

There were many small town pageant queens of all ages riding in cars too.  It cracked me up because the girls would wave so big to them and say "There's a princess!"  As one of the girls passed by, her dress was sitting in just the right way to prompt Lily to say "There's a mermaid princess!" to which Mia replied "That's no Ariel Lil!"  Lily finally concluded that they weren't really princesses, but they were just pretend princesses with tiaras on.

We headed out once the parade was over.  Both girls were sweaty (it was really hot outside), hungry (it was lunchtime) and tired (they had both woken up just before 6).  So, we headed to Chick-fil-a to eat and cool down.  After lunch, we went home and the girls helped me make cupcakes.  Please keep in mind, I can follow a recipe very well and make some yummy food, but I thought I would take a chance on a variation and make patriotic cupcakes.  So I made the batter, divided it between the girls and Lily made red cupcakes while Mia made blue ones.  The food coloring wasn't quite right though so they leaned a little more towards bright blue and pink, but hey, we tried right?  After nap time, we frosted them with white frosting and then put cool firecracker picks in that Liz found.  They turned out pretty cute and they taste delicious even if the color is a little off!  Before trying them out though, Lily had the idea to sing Happy Birthday to America, so I grabbed the video camera and recorded that.  This is the link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3DMCWVpfBo&feature=youtu.be) if you want to watch them sing.

Pretty cute, right?

They have played with their parade flags all afternoon.  They have been marching all around the house making their own parades and waving them everywhere.  At one point, I put the Cedermont Kids DVD called "Songs of America" on, and they just marched in a circle around the rug, singing along to the songs and waving their flags.  At the end of each song, they would point the flag at the tv and say "Happy Birthday American!" (not America, but American).  I asked each of them before bed time if they had a good time celebrating America's birthday, and each gave me a resounding "Yes!"  Happy 4th of July!

What Do You Need?

As the many Beatles fans in our family can tell you...All You Need Is Love.  Even Mia agrees!

Blueberry Picking

I often get ideas in my head on things I want to do that will be good for family fun and memories.  Sometimes I actually follow through on those ideas and make them happen.  For instance, our family went to an apple orchard last fall because I thought it would fun for the whole family, and it was great (see that blog entry here).  We all loved it.  So recently, I got it in my head that I wanted to go pick summer fruits.  By the time I thought of it, all strawberry farms were closed so I decided on blueberries.  I found a website (http://www.pickyourown.org/ if you're interested) that lets you find local places to pick your own fruits and veggies.  A little research time on that site, and I found what I thought was a little farm in Hiram which is about 30 minutes away from our home.  So this morning, Bama and I took the girls (Ryan is in Alaska right now) out to go blueberry picking.  I'll be honest, in my head was a picture of a quaint little farm; basically a smaller scale of the apple orchard we visited.  I was wrong.  We arrived at a family's home about 10:00; it was in the middle of a country neighborhood, but it wasn't a farm for sure.  There was a poster board on the front porch (along with their own honey that they were selling) with instructions on how to pick, pay for and freeze blueberries.  There was another car there with a couple of individuals which made us feel a little better, but we were a little unsure of ourselves.  We decided to just go with it and start picking!  Turns out, even though it wasn't exactly what I was imagining (it's a LOT hotter now than last October in the North GA mountains), it was a fun time.  I'm really glad we went, and we now have a half-gallon of blueberries frozen.  Please let me know if you have any great recipes calling for blueberries; I'm searching!

They had three rows of blueberry bushes in their front yard.

 Mia was excited to pick and show off the blueberries.  She enjoyed eating them too.  The poster board sign said they do not use any kind of pesticides on their blueberries, so they were safe to eat right then; we couldn't resist trying a few.

 Lily enjoyed being in charge of the collection bucket as she picked.

 Liz showing off a handful of freshly picked berries.

 Just a picture to prove I was there too!

 Mia searching a branch for blueberries that were actually blue.  Not all of the berries were ripe yet, but the girls did a very good job of only picking the blue ones and not the red, not ripe ones.

 Lily studied the branches to get the right ones.

 Poor Mia was so hot after awhile.  She found a nice little shady spot to sit and pick.

Cleaning off a bush.

 Examining their loot.

 Having fun!

 Filling up the bucket.

 Mia got a lift from Bama to reach the berries a little higher up.

 By the end, Mia was picking the little yellow flowers instead of berries.

A quick picture before measuring and paying for the berries (you can see we're standing in front of their house).  Lily seemed pretty excited, and Mia couldn't wait to dig in and eat them up.

Overall, this was a fun little excursion that I'm glad we took.  More family memories made, and that's what I was after!  We continued our fun after this by stopping by the Dollar Tree (a favorite of the girls) where we picked up more 4th of July decorations; they can't wait for America's birthday!  Then we had lunch at "the Tokyo restaurant" as the girls call it.  We love going to hibachi restaurants!  It was delicious as always, and the girls did really well watching the chef and eating a good lunch.  They both did really well with their kid-friendly chopsticks too; I was impressed!  This was a fun way to start a nice long weekend!