2008 Halloween Parade

Ask and you shall receive.

As many of you know, Savannah asked to be a duck for Halloween and a duck she was. A super cute good sport duck at that! While most of her neighborhood girlfriends doted their Disney princess and other girly-type costumes, Savannah bucked the trend with her oversized yellow and white feathered one-piece duck costume. Despite her uber cuteness, some of her friends were a bit scared of this 3 foot tall duck.

Getting ready for the parade, we were a little nervous since Savannah kept saying, "no duck". However, let the girl wear her pink ballet slipper house shoes and she goes with the flow.

(click on the picture to see it bigger)


Nana and Savannah...


Finally...I get both Sophie and Savannah to look at the camera and where does Nana decide to look?

A picture to make you smile

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. --

Mother Teresa

It's Sunday afternoon in the Fall, do you know where your daughter is?

Just about every Sunday all year long, I play tennis. During football season, Stephen has taken this as an opportunity to teach Savannah a thing or two...

Jammed-packed weekend

What a weekend...and Monday and Tuesday. I've had a really hard time getting the blogger to accept my photos the last 3 nights!

Saturday started off with a photography class field trip to Piedmont Park. Savannah came as a model with Daddy as chaperone. She faked us all out in the first 5 minutes of shooting...she was totally posing for the other photographers before we even got started. Unfortunately, once we pulled out reflectors, ladders and larger lenses, she decided modeling was not her gig.


After a few hours at the park and of course lunch at The Varsity, we headed home to prep the new mini-van for a dual-family road trip to Burt's Farm with our neighbors. Savannah and Sophie were both so excited to ride in the car together that it took a while before they both fell asleep and caught at least a few zzzz's before the festivities.

Savannah played peek-a-boo...


Savannah also rode the hayride...no great pictures here (too dark and bumpy).

The sea of pumpkins...


Savannah picked out a couple "Savannah-sized" pumpkins (last year's came from Uncle Wade's home grown pumpkins in Kentucky!)...


The girls played "bongos" on the pumpkins and then chased each other through the maze of gigantic pumpkins...


I really liked the corn...


Savannah zonked out soon after dinner and after a small case of delirium when we got home, she settled right in and slept until 7:15 Sunday morning!

However, there was no rest for the weary as we were scheduled to meet Crystal for our first session of family photographs. We had a great time and Savannah was definitely a sport (I think she was just so happy it wasn't Mommy chasing her with the camera and that I had time (and arms) to give all my attention to her!). Crystal has already teased us with a preview...please check out her blog to see a sneak preview (ccjamesphotography). Crystal is so talented and inspires me to get better at this photography "stuff"!

Finally, I had (at least I thought I had) a tennis match Sunday afternoon. I've got to get better at checking the answering machine at home! If I had, I would have found out at 11:00 am that I had been benched this week (despite mine and my partner's win last week)...and I would not have driven the 1/2 hour to Powder Springs. Oh well, the weather was nice and I got to enjoy being a spectator for once :-)

Stone Mountain Park

Today we journeyed to Stone Mountain Park. We started with a Sky Bucket ride to the top of the mountain. In all my 30+ years in Atlanta, I've ridden the sky bucket at Stone Mountain twice...the first time was about 3 years ago when Stephen was hosting an associate from one of our Indian offices. Second time was today. Anyone who knows me knows I FEAR the sky bucket...whether at Six Flags, Busch Gardens, doesn't matter. But riding to the top of the mountain is the most frightening experience for me. I was crouched low and closed my eyes, while my fearless 2-year old giggled and played with daddy the whole way up. I definitely prefer the 1.3 mile walk up!


Once we ascended, we walked around the top of the mountain for a little bit. Savannah was AMAZED at the plethora of rocks at the top. Who knew pebbles at the top of a huge piece of granite could be so amusing???



How big is this rock? "Soooooo big!"


Family photo!


After we safely made it back down to planet Earth, we headed for the train. Savannah has only been on the train at Zoo Atlanta (booorrrrrring!) and at the Jacksonville Zoo (maybe a step above Zoo Atlanta, but that's about it). She was very excited to ride a "real" train. Here are a few pictures, but it's very difficult to take pictures on a moving, rickety choo-choo (so rickety, in fact, they actually have a rule "No pregnant women". I sucked it in and boarded, but realized by the end why they have that rule!

"Mommy, no matter how many times you tell me to look at the horsies, I cannot see any horsies!!!"

Daddy and Savannah riding the train.

"Choo-choo!"

"It's loud."

Getting sleepy.


After the train ride, Savannah decided to take off her shirt. We still have no clue why. This was a first for us.


After our exciting morning, we topped off our Saturday with our friend and neighbor's 4th birthday party. Savannah had a great time playing with her friends, swinging and doing tumbles with Sophie.

Playroom Grand Opening

Last night was the Grand Unveiling of Savannah's new playroom. Stephen wins the Best Daddy Award this week. He has given up his office space not once, but twice for our kiddos. He was first booted from the office in 2006 when we turned it into Savannah's nursery. He re-built camp in the formal living room. And now, 2 years later, he has given up this space to make way for a brand new playroom. Stephen worked so hard on this playroom...12 total coats of paint (that's 6 coats of magnetic, 2 coats of chalkboard, 2 coats of blue sky and 2 coats on the chair rail. He also hung the chair rail, installed the floor, put together 2 bookshelves, stenciled both Savannah's and Gage's names on the wall and added more fun stencils around their names. He also "made" the fun magnets for the creativity wall.






So last night we invited Sophie and her mommy and daddy over for dinner and to break in the new playroom. Here are the girls enjoying some reading/singing/dress-up time in the playroom. This is Sophie singing her ABC's and Savannah pipes in every now and then...



That's Savannah sticking her finger in my lens and asking, "what's this?"

John Popper, eat your heart out

Savannah's harmonica debut. She's been trying for a year to make the harmonica make noise. Up until this weekend, she puts the instrument to her mouth and hums the tune. Stephen finally learned the trick...tell her to blow on it like it's hot...and whalah! She's a natural, well, maybe not :)



And here are a few from today. Stephen and I have been busy preparing for Baby Gage. The first step is moving the playroom to the living room so that we can move Savannah to her "big girl" room and then finally free up the nursery for an overhaul. Today Stephen started painting the playroom, and in Savannah's 2-year way insisted, "I do it" and so we painted....






On our way up to bed, Savannah spotted Shadow lounging on the steps...so she wanted to do it just like Shadow.