A Little Piece of Heaven: Best.Weekend.Ever!

We had an absolutely fabulous weekend in Atlanta with friends.
Jennifer and I grew up playing soccer with Anyess, who now lives
in Atlanta with her husband and daughter, Quinn (who is 1 day
older than Samantha Jane). Camryn is 6 months older than the
other two, so they all had a wonderful time together. Jack had
a great time- all the girls are WILD, so things were never dull!
And sweet little Payton was still young enough to enjoy observing
the madness. And I use the term "madness" affectionately...
the kids had the best time together and we had no meltdowns.
Being out of town with 6 adults and 5 kiddos, that is nothing
short of amazing, but like I said, these are all great kiddos whose
parents have very similar ideas on parenting. All in all-
BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!!

On Friday night, we headed to a Braves game complete with
fireworks! I think the people sitting around us were a little
nervous when we paraded to our seats, but were pleasantly
surprised at the good behavior :) We were proud parents!

I've never seen 2 children have as much fun dancing and singing
in between the seats......

Or flick water from straws!

Lordy, what it takes to get all of them to look at the camera!!

On Saturday morning (more like afternoon since the kids were
asleep until 10:00am Atlanta time) we headed to the zoo and
had so much fun! Again, we were so impressed with the behavior!

This was grainy, but the bird (or whatever) had a mouse in his
mouth and the kids thought that was the coolest thing.

You could purchase bird seed on a stick and feed the exotic
looking birds in this area! They were beautiful and we were in
there for at least 20 minutes!

We found some crazy critters along the way and decided
we'd keep them :)

I think the giraffes were my favorite- they are just so pretty!

I couldn't zoom in enough, but one gorilla was sitting up against
the rocks behind this guy, sitting the same way, but had his arms
crossed over his chest...he was clearly pouting and Samantha Jane
asked "Is that one in time out? 'Cause that's how I sit when I am!"

Momma and baby!

Just another lazy Saturday afternoon!

Checking out the monkeys.....

Checking out the kids!

Loved the tiger! It was so....I don't even know what word to use, but
I love them! "Hungry" is one word to use because she was pacing
with a vengeance in front of that cage door!

Samantha Jane was very impressed with the orangutans' love
for hammocks!

Always time to stop and play Ring-Around-the-Rosey!

This little guy would "stalk" you. Sam and Caleb walked down
the length of the glass and it would follow. When they would stop
and look away, it would stretch up on the glass. Jack had a
staring contest with it.....it won. :)

Too cute! We were headed to the Panda exhibit, and Camryn and
Samantha Jane (who LOVE Wizard of Oz) started singing "We're
off to see the Pandas"

This really was the best way to maneuver them through the zoo!

Now that's the life!

Not too shabby, either!

Petting Zoo! Samantha Jane was a little disappointed since she
can pet and coral goats to her heart's content at Papa and
Grandmommy's house, but it was fun all the same!

We went to lunch at this "cool neighborhood joint"- it really
was neat! They had baskets of chalk and toys to entertain
the children. After lunch Anyess, Jennifer and I walked
back to the house while the dads took the kids home! We
could have walked to the game and zoo- but the walking
home would have been the struggle, so we drove everywhere.

Rest Time! We piled everyone on an air mattress in the living
room to watch a movie- nobody fell asleep, but that made for
smooth bedtimes later and plenty of time for the adults on the
back porch!

We had amazing pizza for dinner and a pull of cotton candy after!

This was getting into bed- they looked much calmer in the "resting"
picture above, I noticed! They all piled together to read stories,
then went their separate ways to sleep.

Brush, Brush, Brush!

Jennifer and her crew left as soon as they were up on Sunday,
but we stayed long enough to have brunch and then headed to
Chattanooga to celebrate Father's Day with PePaw!
This was yet another neat, outdoor, kid-friendly place!