Downtown Adventure

Last Saturday, July 3, we had quite an adventure. The day started with finding a MARTA card on the Freedom Park trail during my morning run. I can't return the card to it's owner and decided to give it to Colin. He is actually right on the cusp of being required to pay for his MARTA rides. Of course, Colin wants to try the card out right away. So that afternoon while Bob bottled beer with a beer friend, we decided to go to the High Museum via MARTA. After we got on the train I realized that we would not make it in time before the museum closed. Modify the plan, go to Centennial Olympic park where they have a playground.

At Five Points we were waiting to transfer to the North-South line and saw that the next train was coming in 15 minutes. Well, Centennial Olympic park is less than a 15 minute walk from Five Points, so we started walking. On the walk I noticed some barricades, then I noticed a bus that was burned to a crisp! What the what??!! Did some huge accident happen downtown? Terrorists? My mind was racing and I was wondering if I should point this out to the boys (they have not noticed it yet). And where was all the activity that should surround a burned out bus? And why is there a police officer standing casually right next to it? As we approach this strange situation, a couple of girls are looking and questioning the scene as well when a guy walking past heard them and said that they are filming a movie. Duh! Makes total sense now. But for a second there I was really worried.

So off to Centennial Olympic park where we first see the fountains and lots of fences for some kind of event. But the fences are blocking our way to the playground, so instead of walking through the park, we have to walk around the park. I'm not worried. I should have been. When we get to the playground, the fences go around the playground, including it in the inaccessible area. Colin gets really, really upset. For 15 minutes we try to come up with an alternate plan, but he is too upset to want to do anything else, except go to the Children's Museum. The Children's Museum happens to be right next to the closed playground, but it's really close to closing if it hasn't closed already. Also it's one of the only places in the city that we don't have an annual pass for. Ultimately we go in the Children's Museum to see if they have a discounted rate (like free) for the last 15 minutes of the day. Nope. But we can go to the gift shop. So two grabber thingies later (just a little bit less money than the reduced museum admission) we are heading back to MARTA to go home. And what should pass us, but the burned out bus being towed away.

Figures of speech

There was an almost empty bag of pepperoni that Bob and I were eating and I said to Bob, "You want me to kill it?".

Nathan gives me the weirdest look and says, "How do you kill pepperoni?"

Then later when Bob was serving the little pizzas he made, we told Nathan that the cheese pizza had his name written all over it. He's a smart kid because he said that his name was written in invisible ink.

When I grow up ...

Nathan wants to be a fireman, and Colin wants to be an inventor.

Tomorrow

Time is a difficult concept for children. Nathan just hasn't made the connection yet. He is always asking us, "Is it tomorrow?"

No, Nathan. It's never going to be tomorrow. Of course, we don't tell him that. We just tell him that it will be tomorrow when he wakes up.

The best compliment ever

You know when you get a babysitter and come home and ask how everything went. The sitter always says "fine" or "the kids were great". But I always wonder if they always say that regardless with how the kids acted.

So back when my cousins were in town, we had tickets to see a UGA game in Athens. This required an all day babysitter for the boys from noon to late at night. I lined up one of our sitters that usually does just the night time routine.

We came home that night and were talking to her about how the day went. She was very honest with us and told us that she thought the day would be difficult. Her husband also made the comment that the day would be "birth control" for them. (They don't have children yet.) So she said, "I had so much fun with the boys; they are not birth control!"

I was so happy to hear that my children aren't birth control! I mean what a great compliment. So maybe my sitters aren't lying to me after all.

Colin's Writing

Colin is learning to read and write and is very excited about it. After he writes something, he will cut it out and tape it to his bedroom door.


This first sign lists the names of everyone in the house, including the cats! It says:
Ambrose Flowers S.
Simon Purr S.
Phoebe Fast S.
Nathan Martin S.
Colin Robert S.
Kristine Marie S.
Robert Wayne S.

Of course, Colin gave the cats middle names too.


The next sign says, "This is a invention. Date 2009. I like invention making invention and they ! are ! awesome!" I think he accidentally put an extra "invention" in the one sentence. And I explained the exclamation point to him for after "awesome". He decided to put some more in for extra emphasis.


I couldn't figure out the top of this note, but the bottom says, "I like this family". I like this note!

Scraps

This is what Colin makes when I give him my scrapbooking scraps! Impressive!