Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Atlanta Zoo

Sophie, Abbie, Brodie, and Bradley with the pandas behind

all the kids posing by the gorilla statues

our only good family shot on the trip-Thanks Kathy!

Abbie liked the turtles a lot-she was reaching in and petting them. I guess she wore the perfect shirt that day!

On Saturday, we got up bright and early, stopped to pick up some breakfast and headed to the zoo. We met up with Kathy and Trent Burnett and their boys there. Matt and Kathy attended Harding together. It was the first time that we had seen them in years!  We had only seen each other's kids in pictures so it was wonderful to meet their boys in person.  They are really cute!  Our kids got along well.  Sophie and Abbie were both fascinated with the gorillas and Abbie liked the monkeys too.  We enjoyed being able to see the baby panda as well.   That afternoon, Abbie and Paula both took naps! 

Monday, May 02, 2011

American Girl Madness

Sophie in front of the American girl store



Sophie with her new doll, Molly, (L) and her other doll on right.

Sophie after dinner with Molly.

On Friday night, Matt had made reservations for us to eat at the American Girl bistro. Sophie was really excited! Neither one of our girls took a nap that day though we tried. The previous night had been a late one as we drove into Atlanta and then we had visited the aquarium the next morning. Anyway, we were all looking forward to special evening. We got there in plenty of time. Paula and Sophie looked around the store while Matt tried to keep up with Abbie who love the Bitty babies there and the strollers. Sophie immediately wanted us to grab a huge box containing one of the Molly dolls so that we could lug it through the store but I held her off for a little bit. We looked at the doll clothes, etc. She could barely contain herself but I knew they wouldn't be selling out of the doll anytime soon. Anyway, as it got closer to the time of our reservation, we made our selections and purchased Sophie's doll, alongwith a couple of outfits for her. Then, in the meantime, we tried to get the girls to go to the bathroom. Anyway, we could tell that Abbie needed to go but she refused to go with either of us.

We sit down to dinner and start ordering, etc. By the way, it is so cute, because they bring little chairs that your dolls can sit in at the table. All of a sudden, Abbie says that she needs to go to the potty and I can tell that she really has to go. I go around the table to get her and when I pick her up, she immediately starts wetting on the floor. She starts saying very loudly, "I already went pee pee." or something. I get out of there as soon as I can because I'm horrified but I know I have clothes that she can change into. I take her into the bathroom and she refuses to try to go. We go back into the restaurant and she spills Matt's water everywhere. Okay, this is getting more and more embarrassing. They have to keep coming and cleaning up our messes. We get our food and I'm thinking, "Okay, what else could possibly go wrong. We've embarrassed ourselves enough." A couple of minutes go by and then Abbie jumps up and says, "I need to go pee pee." I said, "you do?" She gets upset and says something about she already went. Now I am horrified. I check and sure enough, she's already wet through her 2nd outfit. Matt and I had to figure out a plan quickly because all I had left was a clean pull-up. I tell Matt that one of us is going to have to buy Abbie the cheapest little girl's outfit from the American Girl store that she can wear home. I go in the bathroom and come out to find Sophie waiting with a girl's pajama set that Matt had bought. By this point, I am feeling embarrassed but I'm just determined to try to get through this meal for Sophie and leave. Oh, my goodness! It was awful! A bunch of people had their daughters dressed up so cute for dinner with 2-3 dolls per child. I didn't really want to draw attention to the fact that Abbie is now wearing satiny pajama shorts and a tank top that her Daddy bought her but then they came out with a cookie for Sophie and start singing, "Happy Birthday". After that, I take Abbie to the car and have Matt get the check. I guess all that we can say is that we survived. I think it's good that it will probably be a few years before we step foot in that store again.

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More of the Aquarium

Sophie loved this dolphin statue outside the aquarium.

Our girls would not stand together for a regular picture outside the aquarium. They kept moving and getting into strange poses. Here's one outtake.

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Georgia Aquarium

big hug

I sense an orange theme going on here!

me and Sophie with some beautiful tropical fish

Sophie & Matt

This year, we decided to do something different for Sophie's birthday. We headed to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon for a long weekend. One of the main reasons we headed to Atlanta was to visit the American Girl doll store and let Sophie pick out her own doll for her birthday. They also have a bistro there where you can eat with your doll. However, on Friday, we were able to visit the Georgia Aquarium during the morning. It was very crowded though! Abbie was very fascinated when she saw someone in a scuba suit cleaning the glass in one of the tanks. Sophie loved one particular type of shark. They also have dolphins now so we were excited about seeing them.
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Easter photos

Sophie and Abbie with their matching dolls

I love this one of Abbie!

our family


We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year but it was busy. The weather was pretty nice. As I mentioned before, we celebrated with most of Paula's family on Saturday night, as well as celebrating Sophie & Nana's birthdays. On Sunday morning, we ended up going to church with Nana and Paw-paw. The girls were so excited to have their dolls dress up to match them! After church, we had lunch at Mitzi and Beth Riley's home, Uncle Matt's mom and sister. Paw-paw, Nana, Aunt Martha, and Uncle Matt were there as well. The weather looked a little ominous at times but the possible storms moved on to other areas. We had a delicious homemade lunch followed by an Easter egg hunt that afternoon. Everyone enjoyed hanging out for a bit.
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Nana's birthday


Paw-paw and Nana by our front door the night of our family party

Aunt Martha had found some great decorations for a 60th birthday including this sign, some confetti and plates/napkins. My mom didn't want a big deal made out of her 60th birthday. Oh, well! We didn't make too big of a deal of it but my feeling is you've gotta celebrate birthdays, especially the big ones. It should be a fun time to get together with those you love and it's a great excuse for a party so why not celebrate when you have a birthday?!
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Early Birthday Celebrations

Sophie's Toy Story cake

Sophie with her new diary

the Waggoner side of the family (minus Skyler who had just left)

us with my mom's side of the family

Over Easter weekend, we had a big family party for Nana and Sophie to celebrate an early 60th birthday for my mom and Sophie's 6th birthday. We invited both my mom and dad's families who live in town. There were about 20 of us total. I put a lot of time into getting ready for this big event-cleaning and cooking, etc. Thankfully though, I asked family members to help bring food so it didn't all fall on my shoulders. The weather turned out to be great, the food was wonderful and we all had a good time. Everyone was sweet to remember both Nana and Sophie's birthdays. We celebrated early this year because we knew that we would be out of town on the actual weekend of their birthdays. We had 2 birthday cakes because Sophie really wanted a Toy Story cake. I wanted my mom to have a nice cake that didn't have a childish theme. I wish that I had taken more pictures that night but there was a lot going on!
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