80th Birthday Surprise!

My favorite movie of all time is It's a Wonderful Life.  It's based on the story of George Bailey who always wanted the most out of life but at the same time blessed so many people without even realizing it.  At a pivotal point in his life, he was given the gift by his guardian angel of seeing what his life would have been like had he never been born.  After seeing that gift, he realized how "rich" he really was and how so many people had been touched and blessed by his presence in their lives. 

I think about my mom when I think of that movie.  I think about how many hundreds and probably thousands of lives she has touched and blessed with her life.  She has blessed me and my family by being an awesome mom, grandma and great-grandma.  And, over the years I have witnessed how she has touched and blessed the lives of so many. 

This past Saturday I was made aware once again of how many lives she has blessed when nearly everyone Chuck and I invited came to her surprise birthday party.  It's hard to pull off a surprise on my mom because she is such a planner.  But I think Chuck and I succeeded when she walked into a room filled with grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sisters, nieces, nephews, and in-laws from near and far who came to celebrate her 80th birthday and her wonderful life that has so blessed them too.

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us.  Below is a slideshow from the event so you can enjoy it with us!  

Click HERE if you are unable to open the above video.  

After the party, the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, all went back to mama's condo where her birthday party was extended into the night.  Tafanie, Cory, Bell, Emmaline and Ruby spent the night with my mom while Crystal, Grant, Avery and Hannah spent the night with us.  

My cousin, Diane, came back to mama's condo with us that evening too which was an extra treat because we had not seen Diane in years.  With five grandchildren herself, I think Diane was accustomed to the craziness of five little girls running around and playing -- even walking around in her dress shoes!

On Sunday morning, we met at Cracker Barrel for a big breakfast before Tafanie and Crystal and their families had to head back home to Atlanta.

It was a busy but fun weekend.  It was so great to see and visit with everyone who came to celebrate mama's birthday! 

Thanks again to everyone who came to the party and celebrated with us!

Busy Week in Atlanta

After leaving Wanee, we headed north for Atlanta where we would begin our time in Atlanta with a weekend of babysitting Avery and Hannah while Crystal and Grant went to the Tennessee vs. Texas A&M game in College Station, Texas.

We began Friday morning, making muffins.  I showed them how to lick the bowl!  Such fun being a grandma!  :)

Our next event of the day was a trip to Costco!  We started with a lunch that cost less than $5 for all of us!

We from past experiences that a successful trip to Costco with two little girls begins with lunch and ends with the promise of ice cream.  We also tried to get our grocery items fairly quickly!  Chuck took Hannah and Avery around the store hugging big bears while I got our groceries.

The girls were great so they got their reward of ice cream after we were finished.

On Saturday morning, I asked them if they wanted to make chocolate chip pancakes and this was their response:

And this was our creation:

We stayed around the house most of the day playing and then making cupcakes.

And then late Saturday afternoon, I took Avery and Hannah to a birthday party for one of their friends.

This is who I came back with.  :)

We had another busy day on Sunday of church and more playing and then mommy and daddy returned home Sunday afternoon after a very fun weekend in College Station.  We all went to dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant and then Pa and MiMa went back home to Stone Mountain and rested.

On Tuesday evening, we went over to the Van Wyngardens and had a great time playing with Bell, Emmaline and Ruby.  The girls entertained us with showing us what they have learned in ballet, spinning around in circles and then watching them try to keep standing up, and then playing charades.  We were having so much fun playing charades, I forgot to take pictures!  Rrrrrr.  After the girls went to bed, we played a game of Quirkle with Cory and Tafanie.

Thursday was Avery's big day:  her 4th birthday!  She wanted to celebrate by going to Waffle House!  The manager was so nice and made it a very special birthday dinner for Avery.  Not only did she and Avery get Waffle House hats, Avery got a Waffle House pin!

The manager put money in the jukebox and let Avery pick out the songs.  The only ones she knew to pick were Frozen and Happy Birthday.  :)

Then the manager took Avery behind the counter so Avery could help her get her milk.

We had a delicious supper with all the girls having waffles and the guys having sandwiches.

And then the manager had one more surprise for Avery:  two waffles with birthday candles that she could take home and have for breakfast the next morning.

The celebrations continued after we got back to their house with opening presents that included a sleeping bag, a bike and a little sleeveless jacket that I crocheted for her.

Doesn't go very well with pink striped PJs.  :)

On Friday evening, everyone came over to the camper for a cookout of hot dogs and s'mores.  Cory, Emmaline, and Ruby really like our recliners!  :)

Avery had a small birthday party on Saturday morning that her cousins and a couple of friends came to.  They played,

Bell and Emmaline

painted gourds and bowled with pumpkins,

had snacks,

The blond and blue-eyed cousins:
Hannah and Emmaline

and then enjoyed birthday cupcakes.

Bell and Ruby pretended they were unicorns.

And Pa got them to be still for just a few minutes for a couple of pictures.

Bell took this selfie of us.

And then all the girls rode back in the VW van back to their house.  Avery and Hannah were spending Saturday night with the VW's while Crystal and Grant went to a wedding.

That's a load of precious girls!  

I think Avery had a couple of very nice days of birthday celebrations!  And we had fun too!

A New Campground and A Special Celebration

We left Atlanta early Sunday morning and noticed that the leaves were really starting to change -- particularly up on Monteagle Mountain.  It reminded us of our fun leaf-peeping travels with Ken and Bonnie last year from Canada all the way down to Florida.

We had decided to spend some extra time in Nashville in the fall this year but trying to get a campsite in Nashville for an extended period of time is becoming increasingly difficult.  We normally stay at Jellystone but they close about 75% of that campground down October 1st because of the Dancing Lights exhibit and we could not get monthly sites at either KOA or Two Rivers.  We had heard of a new campground being built on Percy Priest Lake and had visited it in the summer while it was still under construction.  When I called them a couple of weeks ago, they had one monthly site left and we took it.  

Our site is nothing special as far as views, but it is completely paved and level.  

First time Chuck has had to parallel park into a site.  Of course, he had no problem at all.

I walked around the campground after we got set up.  Part of the campground is still under construction as they are putting in more sites and are adding a pool, but most of the sites are very nice...

...and have nice views...

...even at night under a full moon.

On Monday evening, we took my mom out to dinner to celebrate her 80th birthday and had a very nice meal at Cheddars.  Because she mentioned she would like to see where we were camped, we came back to the motorhome and had a very nice evening chatting and visiting at the motorhome.  We had a beautiful sunset too.  

My mom sure doesn't look like she just turned 80!  Wouldn't you agree?  :)