A Rockin' Good Sunday

Chloe and Alex had a rockin' good Sunday. The fun started before church with a brief fashion show, after which Chloe performed a short set of original numbers. After church, lunch and a nap, the fun moved outside with a swim in the pool, dinner on the patio and a frozen treat.

Memorial Day Weekend

Today was kind of hot, so we tossed the kids in the kiddie pool and grilled some T-Bones outside. Alex sits in his baby bathtub in a corner of the pool and has a great time. The tub has suction cups on the bottom that stick to the pool. He also has a T-Bar for added stability. It's great! I don't know why I didn't think of doing that when Chloe was younger. Speaking of Chloe...she's learned to crawl along the bottom of the pool while keeping her head above water. She looks like a little turtle.At the end of the day, when your face is this dirty...you know it's been a really good day!

Chloe Rides the Train

While at the zoo on Saturday, Chloe got to ride a train (one of her favorite things in the world).

AT THE ZOO

Since the beaches were so crowded today with tourists taking advantage of a 3 day weekend, we took the kids to the zoo instead. The kids got to see most of it from the comfort of their double stroller. Although, Chloe did quite of bit of walking and playing too.

Here are some of the animals they saw...

Chloe rode the train through part of the zoo only accessible via train with Joe and saw even more animals.

Although she doesn't look really happy here, I'm told she did enjoy the ride.

Here is a view from the train.
Chloe enjoyed watching the fish in the koi pond.
This one sort of speaks for itself.

Chloe loved the playground at the zoo and even made a new friend. She was a sweet little girl just a little bit older than Chloe.
Here's Alex entertaining himself with his seat buckle. He seemed to be having a great time. I hope he's always this good...
On the way home from the zoo, we had to stop and get groceries at Sam's Club. Even though Chloe is in the middle of a tantrum, I wanted to share this photo, because of the sweet expression on Alex's little face. When he purses his lips like that, I just have to laugh.

CHLOE AT 26 MONTHS & ALEX AT 9 MONTHS

The smoke from the wild fires in GA is so bad in DeFuniak Springs today that we really can't play outside without coughing...so we took a day to do portraits inside. Here are some of Chloe and Alex. There is only one of Alex, because he was fussing in the other photos.

Mama's Mini Vacation

I love being a Mom, but it can sometimes be a little stressful and really wear you out. I'm lucky to have a husband who understands this. I think Joe earned his halo this weekend when he stayed home with the kids, so that I could get some R&R. He encouraged me to get away for a long weekend and enjoy myself...so I did. I stayed Friday and Saturday night at the Allison House Inn. It is a Bed and Breakfast in Quicy, FL(see photo below). The breakfasts were so delicious, I'm embarrassed to admit I cleaned my plate each morning. The waffles were good, but the stuffed blueberry french toast was to die for.
You can see more pictures of the Inn at www.allisonhouseinn.com.I stayed in the Garden Room. It was cozy and quiet, and I actually started reading a novel. I honestly can't remember the last book I read, that wasn't a children's book.

Saturday morning I toured Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, GA (It's a pretty short drive from Quincy). The plantation's main house was featured in a past episode of America's Castles on the A&E Network. People taking the tours aren't allowed to photograph the inside of the main house, so I took this photo outside in front of the house.
The house was too wide for me to get it all in frame, so I just focused on the center portion of the house that sticks out a little further than the sides.

Here is the carriage entrance on the West side of the house. If you were standing directly in front of the house and turned your head a bit to the left...this is the part of the house you'd see.

Here is the view from the tennis court (you are looking at the back of the main house).
This is the tennis court. The ivy covering the brick walls was really beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.

This all-marble sundial stands in the garden between the pergola and the back of the house.
The turtle fountain sits on the edge of the reflecting pool under the pergola. It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but the turtle is sitting on a slab of solid marble. Each side of the reflecting pool was made of marble. There was also a lot of marble in the main house. Several of the rooms including the foyer and dining room had marble floors.

This sweet little fountain with the frog and dancing baby is located in the courtyard between the horse stable and cow shed, which look nothing like the typical horse stable or cow shed....see below.

This courtyard is used for wedding receptions and other special events. You'd never suspect the cow shed is the part of the building above that stretches from the door in the center of the photo and everything to the right of it. The horse stable is everything to the left of the center doorway. I'd say those were some pretty lucky horses and cows. I took 131 photos this past weekend and I won't bore you with them all, but I just wanted to share a few of my favorites with you. Before I end this blog entry, I need to show you just a few of the family vehicles (there were several)left behind in the carriage house and in the main house garage.
This 1960 Bentley was shipped from Great Britain to Thomasville, GA for the plantation owner.

The plantation owner had this Lincoln Continental shipped to France so that he could tour Paris in it.

You can see more photos of the plantation by visiting www.pebblehill.com

CHLOE'S NEW HAT

I took a couple of photos tonight that I just HAD to share. Chloe was "helping" me give Alex a bath tonight. After a couple of minutes, she sat down on the floor to play with her doll. I was rinsing Alex's hair when I heard, "Look at me, Mama! I got a hat!" I turned around and this is what I saw.

Chloe wearing her toilet seat as a jaunty beret!

"Little Man" thought Big Sis looked pretty funny too.

Don as Wonder Woman

Uncle Don (also known as Uncle Hairball) dressed up as Wonder Woman at this year's Relay For Life. The video speaks for itself (the buns are plastic).