Festival Time

On the Sunday in between all of my medical testing, I decided to take Bri to a local spring festival. My friend Kathy has a vendor booth there and I thought it would be nice if Bri and I went to support her - and have a little fun at the festival too. It figured it would also help me to try to keep my mind busy and off all my medical stuff.

Bri was ready to roll that morning...

We arrived around 11:30 and found Kathy's booth right away. Chani was there too as well as Kathy's hubby. We wanted a cute picture of the girls. They decided to give us a little grief about that first...

Now for the cute photo...

And it was such a nice surprise when my friend Suzanne and her son Matthew walked into the booth while Bri and I were there. We hadn't seen them in forever. It was great to bump into them.

Walking into the fair, Briana noticed immediately that a pig race would be happening around 12:30. 

Yep - that is prime Georgia entertainment folks - snort.

We thought it would be fun to ask Chani to accompany us to the pig race. 

Pig race selfie...

Yep - the pigs raced...

The owner explained how pigs love water and that they really are not dirty animals. They only roll in the mud to get cool because they don't have sweat glands. He had a little pool of water that the pigs were supposed to jump in and swim (you know, because they love water so much). As you will see in the following video, the minute those pigs got to the water they stopped cold. He had to convince them to get in. Not sure how much they enjoyed having to swim!

They run at 1:00...

You haven't lived until you watch pigs swim. Yeehaw. ;)

We dropped Chani back off at her mom's booth because she had to leave for a birthday party.

Bri and I grabbed something to eat for lunch and then it was time to find some inflatables for Bri to jump and slide on...

She also got in an inflatable roller on water...

I think that was her favorite part of the festival.

Around 2PM, it was just crazy crowded. Like "I don't think I can be here anymore crowded." I am not a huge lover of crowds, so it was time for us to take off.

We stopped by Miss Kathy's booth to say goodbye and Briana walked away with this adorable soccer bow...

Thanks Miss Kathy!

Spring Break Staycation - Shopping, Eating, Cirque and Lots and Lots Of Friend Time

I was actually grateful to spend the week at home with my sweet girl on spring break. We had a very busy winter break, we had made a last minute trip to Michigan and Doug was super busy with work, so it was time for me and B to just chill out at home. With my cardiologist appointment looming and me not feeling my best, planning to stay home was the perfect scenario.

I may not have felt 100% and my mind was a little overwhelmed, but I still wanted my girl to have a fun break. So that was my focus. With us staying home, it was a perfect time to catch up with friends. We were so lucky that a number of our friends decided to stay home for spring break as well.

This was what Bri looked like the Friday before spring break. Can you say excited??? ~

My girl loves her time off. She is a smart kid and does well in school, but she just doesn't like school all that much. She rather be anywhere but there. She really relishes her time off. There are a few parents who don't love how many breaks there are during the year (we are kind of on a "year round" type schedule), but it works well for my kid. She goes strong for a number of weeks and then needs to decompress. I think she performs better that way. So, I like it - it works for us.

The weekends surrounding our week off were full of down time. Just hanging out at home ~ watching TV, sleeping in, playing Minecraft, goofing off, etc.

Miss B also did some crafting - including some rock painting...

Our first night of spring break, we ate at our favorite Cuban restaurant. Who says you can't have a frozen drink on staycation? It was fruity and delicious...

Spring break!!!!

Monday, we had a mall day with Gramma. Gramma's birthday was the following day, so we celebrated with her a day early.

Bri was ready for shopping...

Justice ~ her favorite store...

A brand new Pokemon panda...

We bought Gramma a cookie for her birthday...

On Tuesday, one of Bri's school besties came over for a play date. Bri had been begging for Allison to come over forever.

I took the girls to Stevie Bs for lunch...

This is the junk loot they ended up with after playing games - heh...

I took them to the neighborhood playground to blow off some steam.

 Swinging high fives...

Blowing off steam...

School besties...

Of course, the afternoon ended with Minecraft...

Wednesday, we had another bestie come over ~ Miss Imerie...

The girls spent a lot of time duct tape crafting and making youtube videos. Minecrafting was another activity that day...

I took the girls to Zaxby's for lunch...

As I was grabbing napkins and condiments, the girls stole my phone and I discovered secretly taken and completely adorable selfies...

Another trip to the playground was in order...

It was so cute ~ they videoed their morning/afternoon together...

Thursday, we had the day open to just chill out. But that evening, we had plans to see Cirque du Soleil's Kurious.

We went out to dinner before the show. We went to Gio's Chicken Amalfitano restaurant. Best. Chicken. Dishes. Ever...

This was my chicken scarpiello...

Doug and Bri went for spaghetti with meatballs...

After a delicious meal, I couldn't believe we were walking across the street for more food at Caffe Antico. They have some of the best gelato ever. You just can't pass it up...

Finally, we headed to the blue and yellow tent for Cirque...

You know we are huge Cirque fans. We rarely miss a show...

I have to say this show was amazing. Kurious is now in my top 5 shows for Cirque. The music, costumes, everything was great. We loved it...

Even though we had a late night on Thursday, we couldn't miss a chance see Chani (another bestie - yes, B has a number of them) and Kathy on Friday. We headed over to their house so we could chat and visit...

The girls played and played. They also tortured played with adorable Domino...

We went to Mexican for lunch. After eating, the girls swapped their electronic devices...

It was quite a week. I honestly didn't intend to fill the entire week with activity, but when I found out how many friends were available to hang out that week, I just couldn't pass up the opportunities. Life gets busy and you don't always get to see one another. We wanted to take full advantage of everyone's availability.

We didn't eat the healthiest, we most definitely watched too much TV, and we played with too many electronics that week, but hey, it was vacation! Why not live it up, right?