Friday, October 25, 2013

Birthday, Part II.

This has been the BUSIEST week ever. EVER. Saturday was James' birthday party. Sunday we loaded up bright and early and headed to Atlanta for a trip to the Georgia Aquarium (see more below). Monday we had James' class party at school. Tuesday we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch with school (rained out!), James had his four-year well-check and got shots, and the big boys went to a livestock sale (welcome to life in agribusiness!) so Will and I went to dinner with some of my teaching friends. Wednesday we DID go to the pumpkin patch with school and we had church. Yesterday we had a break - nothing except James at school - and Will decided to cry 2 hours and 40 minutes of the 3 hours James was gone. It was awesome. Today the boys had school and I subbed in Will's room and they are going tonight to Grandmama and Granddaddy's so we can celebrate a friend's birthday. WHEW. I am worn slap out.

Back to the aquarium. We woke up bright and early Sunday morning to hit the road to Atlanta. We left town around 7:45 and arrived just after 11AM (it's a bit of a haul for a day trip and I think we forgot that since we've moved - two hours was nothing!). 



We went straight to the dolphin show but they don't allow pictures so there's nothing from that. I do have to say, though, that I wasn't all that impressed. I really, really like old school dolphin shows (thanks to Marineland circa 1992) and this was WAY over-the-top. It was a show about a man who'd lost his ship to a sea monster and the only way it could be saved was for the dolphins to rescue him. I just wanted him to stop singing and bring in all the dolphins. I've heard lots of people say they LOVED it, but I didn't enjoy it at all. 








{Please note how they're riding. James wanted to be in the baby part and Will liked the standing part. Of course.}













We spent about 3 hours at the aquarium (you could totally spend TWICE that) and headed to Atlantic Station for lunch at CPK with Papa and YaYa to celebrate James' birthday (it was his ACTUAL birthday) and my birthday (which is next Wednesday. I'll be 29. *wink*).






Pumpkin cheesecake for my birthday dessert. SERIOUSLY could have eaten every bite and would love more right now.

After lunch YaYa and the boys rode the Spooky Express (they played a birthday song for James and he talked about it all day long!).


James walked all over Atlantic Station in that Jake getup. Not embarrassed a bit. He had all kinds of people ask if he was the REAL Jake. One lady stopped and talked to him forever and when she found out it was his birthday she gave him a dollar. So sweet!

Then we watched the street magician. If you're ever over that way see if you can find him. He was AWESOME.

He had this stuffed animal thing that looked like it was alive that drew us in to begin with.

He called on Laura for another trick (illusion?). He asked her to think of a friend who was over 30. She wrote down the friend's name and age on a piece of paper, tore it up, put it in an envelope, and put the envelope in her purse. He held up a piece of paper (the one below) and asked her to point to her friend's age. It wasn't on the grid so he wrote 63 above it. If you do the math, each row and column adds up to 63. You can also add the diagonals and the four in the middle and get 63. Then he lifted up a flap at the top of the paper and her name - Duane - was written across the top. We could NOT figure out how he'd done it. 


Soon it was time to head home after a long day. We left around 5:15 and headed to the outlet mall (unsuccessful there) and then drove to our house to pick up a few things and then continued the trip home. Both boys were CHAMPS and aside from a few meltdowns, they were great after a LONNNNG day. So much fun!


2 comments:

Lauren said...

We didnt like the dolphin show either...weird to me! Love his Jake get up and glad it was fun! Wore me out just reading it all! P.S. Did you know CPK is my fave?? I get take out almost 75% of the time I am in Atl....that or Taziki's or Zoe's Kitchen to feed my fat girl fix!

berryman said...

I saw the killer whale show at sea world and thought the same thing! Why are they telling some crazy story???? Just lets see the creatures!!

ps-I hate magic tricks because I KNOW there is a way they do it...they just make me mad....

loves the updates!!