The one thing that always bugged me growing up was that we really didn't make a big deal about holidays. My mother asked if we wanted our presents wrapped. Mother's Day and Father's Day went by without much thought. And, now, we don't have a lot of extended family to celebrate with, so holidays don't seem to have the same weight of tradition I would like them to have. I have really been trying to change our approach to holidays, make them a big deal and to take a real sense of celebration. Some holidays go better than others, but I am trying.
For Father's Day, we went to church and then went to see Up! (highly, highly recommend by the way...don't m
iss this movie). That evening, I tried to make a nice dinner and serve it on our china. Didn't pull out all of the stops, but tried to do more than our usual meal. Happy Father's Day, Damon. You are a fabulous dad!The weekend, other than that, was fairly uneventful. Damon and Jackson got home from church camp on Thursday, they were still tired, and there was still the dirty, stinky camp laundry to deal with. We just puttered around on Saturday.
This week, we are getting ready for Reid's birthday party on Saturday. I ordered her the SpongeBob Squarepants cake she wanted and Monday I went in search of party favors. I, like many mothers across America, hate goody bags. They usually have candy and plastic junk that I ended up trashing. I was hunting for something different and thanks to my loyal friend Hobby Lobby, all of the kids are getting a t-dyed t-shirt and flip flops for a grand total of $2.25 per kid. Rock n Roll! The t-dye is one that you wrinkle the shirt and spray it on. I am going to decorate the flip flops with Spongebob stickers and stamp around the edge "Flipping for Reid's Fourth" on one shoe and "Thanks for coming" on the other shoe. Is that not stinkin' cute!
Today, I worked some and then started looking through all of our Atlanta options. We leave a week from Friday and sort of have an idea of what we are going to do. For sure, we are going to the Georgia Aquarium, Coca Cola World (Jackson speculated that the gift shop is a large refrigerator room), CNN, Martin Luther King's birthdplace, and the Underground. I also found another option today - http://www.stonemountainpark.com/ - kind of looks like a Silver Dollar City type thing. Other options are Six Flags and Whitewater. Jackson is angling for WhiteWater. Looking at the weather, it actually looks like it is going to be 10 degrees cooler in Atlanta than it is here in HOtlahoma.
Tonight is test night for Reid's swimming lessons. We are thinking she may pass Lionfish and go on to Dolphin. The only skill she lacked last session was her backstroke and she has that down now. We shall see. Not a big deal if she doesn't. We are skipping the next session, since we are going to be on vacation for half of it. She will have a two week session the end of July and then off until fall. She wants to play soccer in the fall and also wants to try dance. So, we may take a swimming lesson break to let her try her feet at some other activities.
Stone Mountain is the name of the place I was trying to think of and couldn't....40 year old brain! I went to the actual mountain where they have the carvings and it was really cool, but I'm sure the kids would enjoy a theme park type place more. It will be a fun trip!
ReplyDeleteWe are just getting into all the child activities and learning the system! Price will finish his lessons tomorrow and hopefully will pass so he can go on in the July session. I can just see little Reid as a dancer! It all sounds like fun until I think about having to go to the practices, games, etc. No wonder my parents didn't let us do anything!
Thanks for posting...I knew you had to be up to something!!
Way to make the rest of us look bad on the party favors...over achiever!! Good ideas though!!