Getting Out of The House

Well, there's only 8 more days left until Christmas and I'm now starting to feel like things are under control! Rich was sick this weekend so he stayed in bed for most of the weekend. Poor guy had a horrible sore throat and awful cough!

After a boring day at home on Saturday, the boys and I went to the Botanic Gardens with a friend on Sunday. It was not a very nice day outside -- it rained all afternoon -- but we were lucky enough to get there in the morning before the rain! We did get caught in it a bit on the way to the car, but we'd done what we wanted to do!

Before hand, we took the boys to Dunkin' Donuts. Sam enjoyed his. Can you tell?

The "Big Boys" rode in the back and played with their Pokemon Cards. Of course you can see traces of donuts on their faces too...

Here the boys are standing outside a fountain that was turned off. I just blogged about going to the Botanic Gardens last month. I think I mentioned there how the Gardens have turned off all their fountains to conserve water during the current drought we have here in Georgia. That's why the fountain is turned off.

We rode the train... again...

We only rode it once because the line was really long... and while we were waiting in line it began to sprinkle ever so lightly. They will not run the train in the rain (that sounds like a Dr. Seuss book...) or even if it's sprinkling. Luckily, the sprinkles were short lived and we got to ride. I think there would have been at least one very upset three year old if we didn't get to ride it!

After the train ride, we went to the Children's Garden. This place is wonderful! All sorts of interactive displays and fun things for the kids. Josh and the other two played "explore" with my friend Sherry (the "other mother") running after them. Sam wanted to go all over the place and I followed him around. His favorite part was the Vegetable Garden. Here he measured himself
against plants,

rode a cow...

And rocked on the front porch:

This is an actual conversation with Sam we had while here.

Sam: This is my house Mommy!

Me: It is? I like it!

Sam: Yes, I have cows in my back yard.

Me: You do? Cows?

Sam: Yes, cows and chickens.

Me: Well that's cool. Should we feed them?

Sam: Yes! (Then he hands me some pretend food and we go out back to the "animals")

Me: Should I feed the duck or the sheep?

Sam: No Mommy, they are already eating! (and they were -- they had their heads down in the dirt). Let's feed the chicken some eggs...

Hmmm... Something tells me a chicken would not want to eat an egg. But I'm no farmer, what do I know?

After Sam and I played in his house we went to find the others. They were giving a performance at the Ampitheatre.

I never did figure out what the play was about, but I know it had something to do with Pokemon.

Of course.

And on our way out, we even managed to run into Santa again! This time it was a "Garden Variety" Santa.

And *phew* Sam asked for the "Big GeoTrax" again!

And that was the most fun we had over the weekend! I'm glad Rich is on the mend because it's one thing to tell the boys they can't play with Daddy when he's working, but it's much harder to tell them that when he's sick!