Drive "throo" zoo

I have heard this animal safari is great. You can feed animals as you drive through. I was alittle nervous taking my car through, but I looked up visitor reviews and very few had anything bad to say. We gave it a shot.

This is the first guy to visit us. Horns. Don't like those horns. So, we fed him and moved on.

Who came up to us next? Yes, another horned beast. Argh! Enough with the horns!! 

Gage was a little unnerved by these horny beasts. I was too. We moved on. 

You have got to be kidding me. Look who is next...another giant horned beast!

He slobbered all over my car. Gage looks happy here but he was really nervous.

Oh hello sweet little deer. We liked this little hornless guy and soent a while feeding him...

Until this beast came our way...horns!! 

Next up...camels. Oh yeah. We are excited!! But wait..there's a horned beast near them.

Mr Horns moved out of the way and we had a blast feeding the camel.

Oh yeah...gage liked this guy!

But then...mr horns busted his way in between the camels and our car and was getting very aggressive trying to get our food. Moving on...

Oh man. Shaggy had the biggest horns yet!!!  We made sure to throw the food far from the car but he ended up slobbering all over our car too.

Next up - ostrich or emu? He was hungry. He looked like he was going to peck my eyes out. He was freaking me out. I had to keep the windows closed and hope he moved on fast. His buddy was standing in the middle of the road. I couldn't get away sat enough.

And that was it. We fed lots if deer and sheep type things. The zebra would not come near us. My car made it through unharmed - I think- I need to inspect it after I clean all the slobber off it. It was fun...but next trip we need to take a junky car through!!!!

Hellen Keller's home

Next stop - Hellen Keller's childhood home, Ivy Glenn. Gage not excited --can you tell?  Savannah was literally skipping around she was so excited.

Small museum if her books, belongings, etc.

 

We were talking about how blind people "see" faces by toucing them. Savannah was giving it a shot here.

Helen and Annie Sullivan's bedroom

The cottage where Hellen was born 

The family's cook's house.

Beautiful. Southern. We feel lucky to have visited a piece is history that most people don't get a chance to.

rockets

Adam had to travel for work for a few days, so I decided to take the kids on an adventure in northern alabama. First stop...us space & rocket museum. Huntsville is called "rocket city" - it's where many if the us rockets are produced..as well as the Apollo project.

This is a manned jet pack..to fly around space!

The space shuttle landing simulator told Gage (after he crashed the shuttle a few times) that he had tried hard, but he "had gone where no man had gone before" and it was time to let someone else have a turn.

Space shuttle. Wow!

Rocket. Wow!!!

Some nasa guys were doing hands on experiments with the kids. Here they were learning about Bernoulli's principle and the kids actually made the pin going balls fly out of the paper cups!

Getting a feel for just how tight the quarters were for astronauts in the space capsules!

Apollo!

It was a very cool visit..and we had a "blast" ;-)

barnyard

Spring break has arrived, so I am planning lots of little adventures so we don't just sit around the house.  Today it was the Barnyard.  We brought Vicky, Faye, & Panos (our Greek friends) who have never experienced anything like this in Athens!!  My camera died shortly after getting there, but we did get a few shots :-)

 We never know what babies they will have -- -this time it was lambs, ducks, chicks, bunnies and...rats?! Rats..that's a new one!!  They loved holding them all, but sorry...my phone died so we have no pictures! We checked all the chicken coops for eggs (and yes we found quite a few), found the peacocks roosting in the barn, fed the baby goat Chili with a bottle. Chili is a nutcase. Chili is a small goat with a big personality.  In fact, Miss Kami had to put Chili in "time out" a few times while we were there.  They also fed the pigs, horses, donkeys, minature cows, sheep, goats, geese, etc with grain. 

Miss Kami (the owner) was nice enough to snap a photo of us getting on the hayride!  They started hayrides this fall when they added a pumpkin patch.  Since recently adding another 10 acres to the farm, they now have them all year. So, we took a nice ride through the fields past some horses, llamas, etc. to end up at their new pony riding ring.

 

 

This is Trigger. He is a miniature horse who is SO good with the kids.  Here's Gage taking a ride.

While we were up at the pony ride area, we met Miss Jenny, who mentioned that they have started doing horse riding lessons. Well,, Savannahs' ears perked right up. She has expressed an interest in taking riding lessons for a few years now.  Honestly, I may give in.  Savannah doesn't seem to be interested in gymnastics, dance, cheer, soccer, or anything right now. But...horseback riding, yes.  I talked with Jenny for a while, and they are treating it as an introduction -- so no big programs with traveling competitions or anything, just a simple introduction to either/both western and english riding, as well as the full tack and care of horses.  I always think back to when Savannah rode at the birthday party she went to and she seemed so - connected - to the horse. The pony --eh -- she wasn't that interested in, but the big horse...she said she felt really good up there even though he was so big.  And, it's come up over and over.  So...maybe we'll give it a go and see.  Maybe it's a good thing that Adam wants to move to a big piece of land -- are there horses in our future? I would be okay with that! :-)

Swinging

How she does this wearing cowgirl boots...I will never know!! Look how long that hair is getting!

Breakfast for dinner

Can you tell that gage loves to have breakfast for dinner?!? He helped me make a smiley face.

Fat cat

Look at how FAT Lola has gotten!! Fatty catty. This is now they sleep every night. 

Darn leprechaun

There was a lot of build up this week. Savannah was sure we would catch a leprechaun. Turns out...he turned our milk green in the fridge, left us a box of lucky charms with only shamrocks in it, and left a little limerick saying better much next year. Shucks :-(

A trap!

Now that I have finally gotten around to taking the valentines day decorations down, today, we started making st Patricks day crafts. But...we are out of green paper. Actually, we are out of construction paper. Bad mommy! So we raided daddy's printer (he loves when we do that) and got creative.  We decided to make a leprechaun trap! 

The kids had to eat a bunch if gold coin chocolates to have gold pieces to lure the leprechaun in. The idea is that he goes for the free gold...falls inside the hat through the handy trap door we made and voila...we will get to see him in the morning on st pats day.

Fernbank

I opted to keep them out of school today so we had two days in between our long drives. On the way back to AL today, we stopped in Atlanta to visit the museum if natural history.  It broke the trip up (2 hours clemson-Atlanta, 3 hours Atlanta-home). We don't get to Atlanta very often...when we do we need to take advantage of some of its fun stuff! Here savannah is sitting next to a sign that says...no sitting. Oops.

Being a Monday, we had the place to ourselves!!

I live Gage's face in this one- he really looks like a Dino!

So..after we hit the play area in the museum....we hit the road again. Savannah must have asked me 50 times during our 3 hour ride how much farther, how many more miles, how many more minutes, etc. I guess the last 3 hours was rough on her!!

It was a great weekend!!

friends :-)

Mommy met Karen long ago in San Diego. We have stayed in touch and always visit when we can. Since her hubby is in the navy they move around every few years, and I am happy to have her close by in Memphis for a year or two. They were in birmingham this weekend...so we spent the day with them - breakfast through bedtime!  

Our first stop was the civil rights institute, which savannah and I have been itching to visit. Turns out, it was a little too intense for kids. It begins with a movie, which was very moving and powerful...but featured the "n" word prominently, showed the kkk burning crosses, and a lynching. At the end of the movie, the screen lifts to open to the museum and displays the drinking fountains for whites and blacks (you know that classic photo). From there we moved through the history of civil rights. It was something to see...but all the recommendations I have heard to take kids were wrong. They were just too young.

Next up...the Vulcan statue for a little more local alabama history!!

Can you tell savannah and Aleena made friends quickly? We did the scavenger hunt (they hand out a list if things to find outside and In the museum), and rather than the elevator..we climbed the vulvan. It's marble stairs...and freezing inside! After taking in the view from the top, we went through the museum. Here are the kids sitting on a replica of his foot.

Gage did a puzzle I n the wall!

After this...we tried out Milo's hamburgers...a southern chain. Ehhh...despite it's many fans...we were not big fans. BBQ sauce on burgers...eh...the milkshakes were yummy though!  Next up....mcwane science center!  We stayed until closing!!! We were the last ones out. We didn't even have to pay for parking ;-)

Here they are in the hurricane force wind chamber

And the submarine

Before today, savannah had not seen the girls (Sierra & Aleena, ages 11 and 8) since savannah was about 2 and doesn't remember them. When we left, she was crying, and we were talking about how it's so cool the we made great new friends today. All the kids were holding hands all day...they hit it off so well. I think a trip to Memphis is in out future! It was a great day.