Spring Break, Part II

The reason my spring break plans fell through is because my parents who were going to go see ended up coming down to Birmingham, AL so my dad could work for Farmers Insurance.  Since they were there Jon and I figured what better time to have a date night!  We took the boys up and dropped them off at the motor home. It is always an adventure driving between Montgomery and Birmingham...1. people in the South consider the left lane, just another lane, its not the fast lane or the passing lane, just a lane.  This makes me cuss like a trucker, and gives me serious road rage:) 2.  If there is an accident or construction on the road a Southerner must know what it going on, this in turn backs up traffic for miles just so we can be well aware of the crew painting lines on the road!  By the time we arrived, and my kids had started fighting in the backseat...I was ready to dump them at the stop light and make a run for it!

Birmingham is a really nice little city, it has great shopping, restaurants, and lots of things to keep you busy.  We stayed at the Hotel Highland at the Five Points South.   It is a historic hotel, and was remodeled a few years ago.  We really enjoyed our stay and had a great time getting away!  Apologies for the pictures, they were all taken on my phone and some were off because of the lighting but looked way worse when the flash was used!

The best part about getting away from you children for the evening....ok, maybe the 2nd best thing;) is having a great meal without little people eating off of your plate, or taking someone to the restroom every ten minutes! In the Five Points South area, we chose Chez FonFon, it has been featured in Southern Living magazine a few times and is a Chef Frank Stitts restaurant.  Just a great restaurant, very busy on a weekend and they don't take reservations.  Their signature drink is the "Orange Thing", it was awesome....after one I could not feel the left side of my face:)  They offered lots of imported beer and the hubby chose an Old Speckled Hen.  Their wine choices were endless!

I snapped this shot of the bread, and on the right is the dessert!  A tasty chocolate mousse, desserts change nightly so you never know what you are in store for.

The meal was really a treat and so delicious.  The hubby ordered a Hamburger FonFon with comte and pommes frites, I ordered the Steak frites with pommes frites...it came with a small salad and was absolutely delightful! I did not realize that I put the bread picture in here twice, sorry about that:)

The next day we actually got back to pick up the boys fairly early....Andy really did not want to leave, this is what he did for most of the trip home because he missed grandma! and if you cannot tell...those are tears, good grief!

 Thanks for stopping by to take a look:)

Spring Break

The family and I took a super quick trip down to Orlando over spring break....we went because being the Harry Potter geek that I am, I wanted to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  We actually had different plans for spring break, and when those fell through we decided on a Wednesday to go out of town on a Sunday.  Remember, and I know all of my readers are smart enough to know this but in Orlando.....Plan early, the earlier the better!!!!  Since we did not have that luxury we did luck out finding a room, considering MS, AL, GA, & KY were all on spring break.  The hubby went through Priceline and we got a great deal at Wyndham Orlando resort, $79 a night...so truly no complaints!  If you have ever been to Orlando, you know that you spend no time in the room anyway, and if you are in the room you are to exhausted to notice that they somehow all look alike!  The grounds of the Wyndham were beautiful and the pools were awesome and heated.

Before we left out for FL, I went and purchased our tickets from ITR(military speak for cheap tickets).  Universal Studios in Orlando has two parks, we purchased one day tickets for each park...so no hopping around.  Honestly, they could have combined both parks because I think they could both be done in one day.  We visited the Islands of Adventure first where the Harry Potter was located.

One of the best things that Universal offers is their express pass, if you stay in a universal resort they sometimes offer this as a perk to their guests.  It is probably worth the extra that you pay for the "average" room at their resort because for a one day, one park express pass for two adults it was $134....even this squirrel was laughing at the thought of paying this:) but if you want to ride, and that is what I came to do...suck it up and pay the price....so worth it!!!!  Keep in mind there are several rides in both parks that the express pass will not work....Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is one of those rides.  The wait time never went below an hour and a half, my boys didn't want to wait, so it was the one ride we didn't go on. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, WOW...if Harry Potter was real, this is exactly what it would look like!  They really did a great job...if you go just remember to bring your patience and a big huge bag of money:) Also, the excitement has not declined...it is just as popular now as it was this summer and it draws the crowd.  Even with all this excitement Universal does not seem to have it together.  You MUST go and wait in a line...well sort of a line, in that line you get a ticket with a time on it to come back.  Get there early!!!! and by early I mean get in line when the park opens and sprint to the ticket line!...no really, I am not kidding!  Come back with your ticket...and they will let you in at the entrance to Harry Potter.  Lose the ticket and you are out of luck....and the entrance times go quick.  Seriously....the earlier the better.

  Above is the Forbidden Journey Ride, it is modeled after Hogwarts.  All of the stores from the books are represented, and you can even buy butter beer and wands!

The wait time to get into the gift shops in HP were an hour and a half....yes, folks one hour and thirty minutes for one gift shop!  Then another hour or so for butter beer, my kids don't wait that long for anything so we did not visit a gift shop or get butter beer.  Apparently in the summer it is worse than that...plus you have people passing out and puking in line from the heat:)  That was word on the street anyway, but I believe it!!!! The best kept secret was the wand cart at the end of the HP area...it was only about fifteen minutes.  Here is where the big bag of money comes in....31.90 for a wand, you did NOT read that wrong 31.90.  But when you want one as bad as your children, you pay....dearly:)

Andy loved the Dr. Seuss area of the park, it was perfect for smaller children but the rides were big enough for the almost teenager Brett!

The Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges were a favorite of kiddos, they rode it over and over!  They looked like drenched rats afterwards!


Ripsaw Falls, another water ride is another that you will get soaked on...but these people put their thinking caps on and built people dryers!  For $5 you can jump in and dry off after getting soaked:)

The next day after dragging myself out of bed we headed over to Universal Studios Park, I am fairly certain it is older,  definitely not as many rides  While we were there they were celebrating Mardi Gras, it was a theme that carried throughout the park and into the gift shops.

The rides in this park are definitely more dated.  ET and Jaws have seen better days, but still classics and we enjoyed them! Men in Black is an interactive ride and both boys thought that was the coolest.  The Revenge of the Mummy was one of my favorites but The Simpsons was the boys favorite!  A few years ago, they overhauled the Back to the Future ride and turned it into the Simpsons.

One of the best parts about going to an amusement park is the people watching you can do....had to snap a pix of this guy!

 The Universal Studios park closes at 7 p.m., and Islands of Adventure stays open till 9 p.m., the second night we got out earlier, went back to the hotel to rest up for the drive the next day.

Hope you all enjoyed this post!

Helen, GA

Over Presidents Day Weekend the family and I decided we needed to get the heck out of dodge for a few days! We decided to head up to Helen, GA for the weekend, for us it was a quick three hour drive north of Atlanta.  Helen is a cute German style town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It offers an abundance of activities year round and during their peak season the water rafting in the Chattahoochee River is a huge draw.  Within the town there is lots of gift/souvenir shops, German restaurants, and LOTS of German Beer!  The river runs through the length of the town and several restaurants sit on the bank of the river.  The views are awesome and relaxing.

The places to stay vary from hotel rooms to luxury cabins.  We chose a cabin rental company about fifteen minutes outside of Helen.  It was all that we had hoped for and more!  Almost all cabins come with hot tubs as a standard feature...and let me tell you, what an excellent feature!!!!  Cabins also had kitchens so were able to store and cook our own food...which is nice when you have children that are endless pits:)  Here are a few shots of our cabin...

 The last day of our trip we headed up to Anna Ruby Falls...it is a National Park and is a great way to spend a day.  The waterfalls are absolutely beautiful and even the boys thought they were spectacular!  The only downside according to Andy, the .5 mile walk to the top.....yes folks....I said .5, a half mile.  Oh, the whining!!!!!  Good grief!  but getting to the top was worth it...even though we were passed by old ladies on the way we enjoyed the view all the way to the top:)

At least they were smiling on the way down the trail....

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Great Bloggin' Ladies!

I have been thinking about this post for awhile now. I wanted to let you guys know about some great blogs that I have recently ran across in the past couple of months!

Tiffany over at IffyScraps has a great tutorial on her page, it is a Valentines craft and would be super cute on a scrapbook page, or baby headband!  

Over at the MagPie Cottage...they just have stuff I LOVE...period, I LOVE IT!!!!

Michelle over at Sweet Sensations has awesome recipes on her blog...check it out if you need some inspiration in the kitchen!


Ms. Tina at Oh, The places you will Go! blogs all about her adventures in Germany! It will make you want to update your passport and take off:)

At Design Intervention, so many projects!  Lots of ideas, and upholstery projects.


Of course I won't leave out a few of my tried and true favorites....the first being Kevin and Amanda, can't say enough about this blog...just the fonts alone are amazing!  The Pioneer Woman, has so much to see...photography, food, and she homeschools her children.


Hope all of you enjoy the list!  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek:)