Centennial Olympic Park

While Cassie, Owen, and I were touring the World of Coke last weekend, Brian took Olivia across the street to Centennial Olympic Park so that she could play on the playground equipment. After the tour, I headed across the street to meet up with them in the park, and I could not find them. Apperently, Brian had decided to take Olivia to the Olympic fountains to play. On the way, however, Olivia had gotten sidetracked and ended up making friends with a little boy who had a soccer ball. Have I mentioned that Olivia is definitely not shy? She had so much fun kicking the ball around with this kid.

Eventually, we did get to the fountains. These fountains form the shape of the Olympic rings, and have water jets that come on and off intermittently. Olivia didn't want to get wet, so Brian and Olivia got into one of the rings when it was off. Olivia tried to run out of the ring while the jets were still down, but they suddenly came on right as she was running over them. The look on her face was priceless.

The World of Coke

After visiting the Georgia Aquarium (and a fun meal at Johnny Rockets) on our fall break trip, Owen, Cassie, and I decided to visit the new World of Coke building. I had done the tour several years ago at the old building site, but I wanted to see what the new building and tour were like. It was pretty much the same as it used to be. I actually think that I like the old building and tour better. We went through the building quickly because both Cassie and I had seen all of the memorabilia before. The one major difference that I noticed was that the new building has a larger "tasting" section. In this area of the tour, you can taste all of the Coke products from around the world. I did not try them all. I made that mistake last time. I am posting a picture of Owen and me in the tasting area. He is going after my plastic tasting cup. Perhaps in a few years I'll let him have a Coke.

The Largest Aquarium in the World

Sunday was the second day of our fall break trip to Atlanta. We got up fairly early and went to the Georgia Aquarium- which is the largest aquarium in the world. We were there about twenty minutes before the aquarium opened, which worked out well for us. Not only did we get a fantastic (and free) parking spot right beside the building, but we also got to enjoy the aquarium with a relatively small crowd.


The main attraction at the aquarium is the whale sharks. There are only six aquariums in the world that have whale sharks, and the Georgia Aquarium is the only one of those outside of Asia. There are a total of four whale sharks at the aquarium, and they can be found in the massive Ocean Voyager tank. We were lucky enough to have Cassie with us. She recommended that we visit this tank first because it tends to get crowded quickly. We are sure glad that we did! You can probably see from our pictures that there were very few people in the exhibit. The kids were able to sit in front of the tanks for as long as they wanted. Owen especially seemed to like watching the fish swim around.

Other highlights of the aquarium for us included the beluga whales, the clownfish (Nemo), and the otters. Olivia also enjoyed the "touch" exhibits and got to feel a shark, a ray, a starfish, and a shrimp. The aquarium was the best part of our entire trip, and we will definitely go back again.

Zoo Atlanta

This past weekend was my school system's fall break. Since I had several days off, Brian and I decided to take the kids to Atlanta. We did so many fun things in the few days that we were there. Our first stop was Zoo Atlanta. It was my first time visiting this zoo, and I have to say that it is my new favorite. It's not very big, but it is shady and laid out well. There is also a good selection of animals and a nice children's play area.

Olivia liked looking at all of the animals. Once again, the elephants were one of her favorites. She also had a great time at the naked mole rat exhibit because there were kid-sized tunnels leading into and out-of the naked mole rat building. She really liked crawling through those. It was easy to tell which exhibits that she liked and which she didn't. When she was ready to move on she would say "I wanna see somethin' else". I cannot count how many times I heard this phrase. It seemed like every time I turned around she was either saying "I wanna see somethin' else" or "I wanna hold it". I think that she saw everything (but fortunately she did not hold anything).

The animal that I was most anxious to see was the panda bear. I had never seen one before, and Zoo Atlanta is one of only four zoos in the U.S. that has them. The panda in this picture is a two-year old cub. A new cub was born at the end of August, but he was not on display (of course). The zoo did have a camera hooked up to the room where the new cub was, so we could see him on video. The zoo now has four bears total, two which have been born at the zoo. I actually watched a documentary about the two-year old cub on Animal Planet earlier in the year. It took a lot of work for him to even be here.

Another exhibit that Zoo Atlanta is famous for is the gorilla exhibit. The zoo has one of the largest gorilla populations of any zoo in the world. Its most famous gorilla, Willie B., passed away a little while back, but there is a statue commemorating him as well as a gorilla conservation building in his honor. Here are my little (and big) gorillas posing with the Willie B. statue.

Olivia had a great time at the zoo. Owen was too young to enjoy it, but he did like being outside in the stroller. Cassie met up with us for most of the attractions, and she was always happy to push, hold, or carry her niece and nephew. We were so tired when we left the zoo that we went directly to our hotel room and did not leave again that day. Little did we know that the zoo was only the beginning of what would be a fun-filled weekend.

Olivia's 2nd Birthday Party

Olivia has been looking forward to her birthday party for weeks. She has been talking about it to anyone who will listen- including Ms. Izzy and Ms. Tammy at daycare. All of her waiting finally ended this afternoon. Olivia had a wonderful second birthday party at her Gigi's house.






When I asked Olivia what kind of party she wanted, she told me that she wanted a "Dora" party. So, she had a Dora cake, decorations, and a Dora pinata. We were so happy to have so many friends and family attend the party. Brian's Aunt Pam and her husband, Don, from Mayo, Fl. even got to come.















Olivia, Ava, and Mallory all had a chance to whack the pinata. After two turns each, they did not even put a dent in it. My cousin Bailey stepped in to take Dora down, but Dora would not budge. Instead of busting open the pinata, the wooden stick broke in two. We ended up having to pull the strings on the pinata in order to get the candy out.

After opening her gifts (which included a table, art easel, baby stroller, DVDs, and lots of Dora toys), we took the girls on a hay ride. Unbeknownst to me, my dad had fixed up the tractor and trailer with bails of hay eariler in the day, and he drove us around the block. I am posting some hayride pictures. Unfortunately, most of the pictures that I took on the hayride didn't turn out because the tractor was shaking us so much. While on the ride, we sang songs like "Old McDonald" and looked at farm animals. All of the girls really seemed to enjoy that. It was late when the hayride ended, so everyone headed home. I am happy to say that the party was a success and that Olivia had a wonderful time.

Five Generations

This morning some of my family members and I threw a wedding shower for my cousin, Jessica. The bride-to-be received lots of nice things. Since we had so many family members together, we decided that this would be a great opportunity to take a new "5 generations" photo that included Owen. Pictured here are me, Owen, Granny Buie (standing), Granny Moore (my great-grandmother), Mama, and Olivia (you can see how thrilled she is to be having her picture made).

Granny Moore seemed to enjoy watching five of her great-great grandkids play, and she even held Owen for a while. Everyone is looking forward to getting together again in a few weeks for the wedding.

Party Time!

This past Saturday, Olivia and I attended Mallory's fifth birthday party. For those of you who don't know, Mallory is the daughter of my friend (and shopping/Bon Jovi/Disney/Olive Garden buddy), Anna. Mallory is always so nice and invites Olivia to her parties. This year, the party was held at Chick-fil-a. Olivia had such a wonderful time playing in the play area with all of the other children. This was the first party that Olivia has been to where she actually realized that there was a party going on. Here are some pictures of the birthday girl and of Olivia playing (and having a ball) on the indoor equipment.