Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler

We spent a lovely couple of days in New Orleans during our spring break.  As I was planning out this trip, I was asked several times why we chose New Orleans as our destination.  There are several reasons for this choice: 1) It's far away enough to justify "traveling" there, but not so far that we'd have to spend a lot of time getting there  2) We've never been there before  3) Staying there is not terribly expensive  4) It was listed as a "top 10 city for families" by Family Vacation Critic and is listed as one of the "500 places to take your kids before they grow up"  and finally  5) Olivia has been asking to go to New Orleans for nearly two years now (thank you, Tiana).  Our vacation was a Monday-Friday vacation with Monday and Friday being our "travel" days.  The other three days were spent exploring the city. Even though our vacation was family friendly, we do have some of the same stories that the typical N'awlins revelers have.  We walked down Bourbon Street, someone in our family took their shirt off in the French Quarter, and someone else ended up puking on the side of the road in the French Quarter.  As you will see, though, our stories are not nearly as exciting (?) as they sound.

Our hotel was located in the lower garden district.  This was a nice area of town.  The hotel room was cool because it had a spiral staircase that led up to a loft.  The kids liked that they got to sleep upstairs in their own little area.  Another good feature of the hotel was that it was located one block away from the St. Charles Streetcar stop.  We purchased 3-day passes for the city transportation system on our first morning in NOLA and used streetcars and buses to get around for the duration of our trip.  I really like riding on the streetcars because you don't see these in many places.  They are also very convenient.

One of our must-see stops was the St. Louis Cathedral.  Naturally, Olivia knew the historical importance of this building.  This is where Prince Naveen of Maldonia exchanged wedding vows (again) with Princess Tiana.  Olivia is an expert in all things Princess and the Frog and was excited to see things that are in the movie.

Another interesting thing that we did was to take a carriage ride around the French Quarter.  Olivia was asked to sit up front and help drive the carriage. She liked this special attention.  We did this on our first day in the city and it was a good introduction to the layout and history of the area.

New Orleans is full of excellent food.  One of the things on our "to do" list was to have beignets at Cafe du Monde.  We beat the crowds one morning and enjoyed this delicious (but messy) treat.  The food is definitely one of the distinctive things about New Orleans.   Brian loves cajun and creole cooking, so he was in culinary heaven all week long.

So here is a picture of our walk down Bourbon Street.  We didn't want to chance walking down this infamous street at night, so we walked down during the day.  To be more precise, we took our stroll in the early morning.  Whatever reputation this street has at night time, I will have you know that it is extremely tame at 9 a.m. We were almost the only people up and about.  I did see many many bars, but they were all closed.  Yep, this is our Bourbon street story.  I told you it wasn't exciting.









And here's our puking / taking shirt off story....  One of the things that I absolutely wanted to do was to see the jazz band play at Preservation Hall.  They play three shows a night- at 8, 9, and 10.  Our first attempt to see the show was on Tuesday night.  We got in line at 7:30 to try and get into the 8 o'clock show.  When eight o'clock arrived we waited to get in only to find that we were six people away from being let in (the show sold out).  The guy at the door said that we would be in the front if we wanted to wait for the nine o'clock show.  The kids seemed to be in decent spirits, so we decided to wait it out.  We stood there for another hour.  Finally, nine o'clock arrived, the previous show let out.  We were near the front of the line and were excited because we were going to have great seats.  Brian picked Olivia up because she was feeling tired when all of a sudden she threw up all over him.  This totally came out of the blue.  She had not felt bad all day.  Naturally we were not going to go into the show after this.  Owen started crying right there in the middle of the street because he really wanted to go in.  Brian's shirt took a lot of damage, so I ducked into a gift shop to buy him a new one (which he changed into right there in the middle of the sidewalk).  It was so weird that this happened because Olivia was fine after this- no trouble from her for the rest of the week.

Not to be deterred, we returned to Preservation Hall on our last night to try and see the show.  This time we were successful.  We got in, but we had to stand.  Preservation Hall is a no-frills joint.  There is a room with six chairs for the musicians, a few benches for the audience, and a little bit of room to stand.  Brian and I ended up holding the kids for the entire set so that they could see.  They were heavy and the room was crowded- but it was totally worth dealing with all that to see the show.  The band was so good.  This was probably my favorite experience of all in New Orleans.

At this point you may think that I am done talking about N'awlins.  Well, I'm not.  I'm probably going to do a few more posts about the trip.  Right now, though, I am going to attach a short video clip of a jazz band playing in Jackson Square.  They were pretty good so I gave Olivia a dollar to put in their hat.  Well, Owen saw me do that and wanted to put a dollar in, too.  Brian gave him a dollar and this video shows what happened.  I call this video "Owen changes his mind".

Easter

We had a great Easter this year.  It's already such a great day, but it was made better by the beautiful weather this year.  The kids woke up early-ish to find that the Easter Bunny had come during the night and had brought them candy, a movie, and new Skylanders figures.  That sneaky bunny also hid the eggs that the kids had dyed the day before.  He really hid them hard this year- it took the kids a good 20-30 minutes to find them all.

After the morning festivities, everyone got dressed in their Sunday finest for Sunday school and church.  We had a great time celebrating the good news with our church family.  Following the service, we had our yearly portraits made by the cross in front of the church.  This cross is decorated with ivy and fresh flowers on Easter each year.   

Helping dye eggs is always so much fun!

 The finished product.















The loot.

Following the morning services, we left the church and went to Granny Buie's for lunch.  We all ate until we were stuffed.  Of course, no Easter would be complete without the annual egg hunt.  All of the kids (except Julianna who was asleep) lined up to find the eggs.  

Owen learned that you have to look high and low to find them all.

Claire found the egg with my name on it.  That is one old egg.
















Papa enjoyed taking his new scooter out for a spin.

Transplanter: The Next Generation

 I cannot tell you how many hours I spent on this old transplanter growing up.  From the time that we were very young, my siblings and I helped to plant crops (mostly tobacco) using this piece of equipment.  Our first job was following the tractor and filling in the skips in the row.  After a few years of following we graduated to riding and setting out the plants.  Daddy doesn't grow tobacco anymore, so the transplanter doesn't see the amount of action that it use to.  Last weekend, though, Daddy called and said that he wanted to plant tomatoes.  Hannah and I saw this as a chance to start training up the next generation of farm girls and boy.  Cassie was home from Atlanta, so we had plenty of experienced help as well.  It was kind of fun being out on the old transplanter again.  Cassie remarked that it was "like old times".  We used to tease Quincy and Sam about "hiding" when it was time to do work, so it was pretty funny on this day that Sam was nowhere to be found and Quincy showed up late.  They did have legitimate excuses this time, though.

 We let the kids all take turns learning how to use the  transplanter.  Here is Cassie showing Olivia how to hold the plant low so that the roots set deep into the soil.  The kids did pretty well for their first attempt.

Here's Aunt Quincy showing Owen and Claire how to fill in the skips.  This type of planting is done by hand.  

Here's the youngest trainee.  She gets an "A" for cuteness.

Olivia's Spring Field Trip

Kindergarten students at Olivia's school recently took their spring field trip.  The trip was to the house of Olivia's teacher.  The kids spent the morning participating in all sorts of outdoor activities.  They got to fish, take a hayride, go on a nature stroll, hunt eggs, and play outdoor games.  Gigi, who accompanied Olivia on her trip, reported that everyone had a great time.

Easter Activities

We've been gearing up for Easter at church- and that means lots of activities.  On Palm Sunday, the kiddos participated in the service by walking around during the opening hymn waving palm branches.  Later that evening, the children's choir gave their Easter performance- which consisted of several traditional songs (This Little Light of Mine, When the Saints Go Marching In, etc). We have been practicing these songs every morning during our drive to school, so Owen and Olivia were ready.  They did a good job.

 Later in the week, the kids participated in the church Easter egg hunt.  Since Olivia is in Kindergarten now, she got to hunt with the "big" kids.  Owen stayed in the Pre-K and under area.  The church moved the egg hunt to a Wednesday night this year, and found that this increased the turnout for the event.  There were a lot of "eggcited" kids- more than we expected.  We ended up having to do some last minute re-distributing of the goody bags, but we were happy to do so.  Having more kids than expected is a good problem to have.  Once all of the eggs were hidden, the kids were positioned in their designated areas.  We said "go", and those sweeties took off.  They didn't stop until every egg was found- and some of them kept going even after the last egg was found.  Owen and Olivia both found a decent amount of eggs and had a lot of fun doing so.  At the end of the night, all of the children were rewarded with a huge bag of goodies.

Owen is 5

 My baby is 5!  Where has the time gone?  Owen has been so excited about his birthday this year, and I believed that it was everything he hoped it would be.  His actual birthday was on a Thursday, and it was an all-around fabulous day for him.  I woke him up by singing "Happy Birthday", and made him pancakes for breakfast.  At school, his teachers wished him happy birthday and gave him a crown.  Once he got home, he found that he had presents from Brian, Olivia, and I (a new scooter and skylanders).  While he was playing with his toys, several family members called to sing to Owen.  He got so used to hearing the singing, that he said "not again" when Aunt Hannah called.  Either that or he realized how bad Hannah sings (just kidding, sis).  We decided to eat out in honor of Owen's big day, and we let him choose the restaurant.  He picked Captain Joe's (to everyone's delight).  After eating, we came home, sang to Owen, and let him blow a candle out of a cupcake.  This was an all-around great day.



On the Saturday following Owen's birthday, we gave him a small, family party at And Bounce.  This is where Olivia had had her 5th birthday, and Owen wanted his here, too.  All of the cousins had such a great time playing on the inflateables.  We all got so tickled at Julianna- who thought she was as big as the other kids.  She repeatedly climbed up and slid down the largest slide.

Here is Uncle Sam participating in his favorite pastime- chasing kids.

 When
I asked Owen what kind of party he wanted this year, he told me he wanted "dogs"- no dog in particular, just "dogs".  I gave my sister (and cake maker extraordinaire) the theme, and she really ran with it.  Hannah ended up designing and baking this cute little dog-with-a-birthday-hat cake.  It turned out so well and it was delicious. Brian gave it two thumbs up because it was a chocolate cake.




I love the video of Owen blowing out his candles.  You can just see the excitement on his face.

After cake and ice cream, it was time to open gifts.  Owen got so many nice things.  He got lots of clothes- which he desperately needed and many toys as well.  Both of my kids are really into the "Skylander" toys right now, so Owen was excited to get a skylanders lego set (which he and Olivia have already assembled).  It was definitely a great birthday.