'Merica!

Land of the free and home of the rednecks!! Last night I took the team out for dinner and a show...a show of the racing nature. Now, I've never been to a nascar race (nor do I ever have the desire to go to one) but this short track known as Dixie Speedway just seemed too good to pass up. It was loud, dirty, crazy, and to top it off...firecrackers!! Woo dawg! The teams had so much fun watching the races, cheering for their numbers, and eventually, playing tag in the grass between each race. This was the most exciting people watching experience and quite possibly "the best show on dirt"! I'm not sure we'll be 'racing' to go back anytime soon, but it was a blast at the time!

Fridays are for adventures

Having been an Atlanta semi-native, I have done and seen a ton of stuff the city and surrounding areas have to offer. However, I have never been tubing in Helen...until today!! The boys and I started off the day with breakfast at Thumbs Up Diner, to which, Nolan remembers it as "the place we eat next to all the dead people."  He's not half wrong as the old Roswell cemetary is right next door. This is their favorite perch while I wait on the check:

They love to sit on the wall and talk about how many people are dead in the cemetary and if they are buried 300 feet below the grass. And they always ask to go run around and holler down the graves "hello, are you dead in there yet."  Weirdos...

Then it was off to the little German town in the north Georgia mountains.  (Btw, did anyone else know that Helen is now doing Oktoberfest from Sept 11-nov 6!?! Guess they want to make sure everyone gets their shot at stale German beer with brats and sour kraut!

Helen Tubing was our choice for lazy river travel mainly because the boys wanted the pink tubes. At check in, the lady gave us our tickets and an option for 'push-off sticks' which I quickly renamed 'snake beater sticks'. It took us 2.5 hours to travel down the upper portion of the Chattahoochee river and it was a blast! The water was cool, we had nice shade and overcast skies, and lots of people watching to keep us entertained. Thankfully, the 'snake beater sticks' we're only used to push off rocks when we got stuck, but we did see a cute beaver!

Lastly, on our way home, I made the boys stop with me at Babyland General. Brings back all sorts of memories when I was a little girl with my cabbage patch dolls. I didn't have many because I wasn't too much into dolls but I did have a cool Koosa (more dog than baby doll) but none of the workers, or nurses, remembered them! It was still cute and we had fun walking around for a little while. 

Party with your pals

Today after USA clinched its position in the round of 16, FIFA World Cup style, the boys had a few buddies over to play and swim and play and play and play! Gavin, Bryce, Charlie and Zeke swam themselves completely ragged and then came home and played basketball for a while. They really  miss their friends when schools out!

Saturdays rock!

The boys started out the AM having a baseball game-turned-practice because the other team didn't have enough people. Even though they just ended up doing some fielding and batting practice, they still somehow managed to "win". Go figure. 

After my tennis and their baseball, we went to the Wing Cafe in Marietta to support my Breasta Fiesta team, raise money, and eat wings. 20% of the days proceeds goes directly to our team 'pot' for the 2-day walk in October. To our surprise, there was an 80's band playing all the good hits that we could sing along to. Yes, one of the boys favorite songs is "Livin on a Prayer" by BonJovi and they were stoked when the band played it! 

After the concert, Todd and the boys picked up Parker and came to the house. Despite the fact that it looked like it was going to storm, we still went to downtown Woodstock because they were showing a free movie in the square on a 30 foot projector screen. Even though all three of the boys have seen the movie once before, they thought it was pretty cool to be watching it ourside, oh, and eat snowcones and popcorn! Movie night!!! Of course, they brought soccer ball to kick around before the movie stared and with the World Cup going on, they quickly made friends. 

Can't...sit...still!

When there's too much free time on my hands with the boys, they tend to gravitate towards tv, iPad, and overall bickering. To battle that, I packed their Friday so full, they didn't have time to sit down. First, we went to the Cherokee Outdoor Aquatic Center (mouthful, right?). It's a small water park not too far from the house. We stayed there for 3 hours and I think I saw the boys twice. They did make me go down one of the water slides...once. I thought I was going to clear the pool via vomit at the end. It stinks getting old! 

This place was pretty cool. They had stuff to climb on, a lazy river, zero degree entry, a normal-ish pool to the right and 2 big slides. Can't beat it for location or price. We may have to come back soon!

After that, we picked up their buddy, Ryan, went on a hike at Leita Thomoson with Polly, then came home and changed and went to my friends pool so she and I could play tennis and the kids could swim. THEN, there was a bite to eat and off to their baseball game. I thought for sure they'd be worn out after the game and ready to head home. Wrong! We stayed at the baseball field and they played for another 30 minutes and then ran and ran and hit the ball and fielded and ran. Phew! Now I'm tired. Night y'all!

If you're looking for the McLure boys...

Their new address is 123 Anywhere There's a Pool! These boys have been in and out of the pool this summer at least once a day if not twice, only taking quick breaks to eat lunch. Gotta love hanging out in the water to beat the heat!

Since they were a bit water logged yesterday, we went to see Maleificent at the Movie Tavern. I'm pretty sure Nolan will have nightmares from the dragons and mythical creatures! Great...

Happy Father's Day

Oh happy day to the best dads on the block (thankfully, it's not a cell block and we didn't have to go for visitation today through bars!) Cheers to the best dad's a family could ask for. Hope your day was splendid and we love you dearly!

Oh wait, that's not them...let me try again!

Game winning boat day

21-19, that was allegedly the score of the boys baseball game yesterday. They both had some great hits and when they played pitcher and 1st base, they were a force to be reckoned with! Straight after the game, we packed our car for the lake (lightly, according to strict instructions from the first mate). The Tuttle's have a fun speed boat on Lake Lanier and we took to the water for the afternoon. When we got home, Reed was getting out of the shower and said, "wasn't that the funnest day, mom?"  So sweet!

Homework to hamburgers

Mean mommie! In the summertime, we have the boys do a list of 'chores' every week day. One (or 5) of the things on the list is to do some workbook pages. They have a math book and a reading book and they are required to read for 30 minutes on top of that. But, after they do their work and clean up, they get to do other fun stuff like play dates with buddies and lunches with their favorite mom!

Let Boat Days, Begin!

Yesterday was the first day of boat season, for the McLure's who don't even have a boat!  Our good buddies, The McIntyre's, took us out on Allatoona Lake yesterday and even though it looked like rain and scared most people off the lake, it turned out to be a perfect day for our boating pleasure! We cooked out on McIntyre Island (named appropriately by our captains), did some tubing, fishing, and loads of laughing. Thanks, McIntyre's!!

(Stay tuned for Boat Day part duex with the Tuttle's on Saturday!--and happy bday to Pete today as she turns...older than me :0))