Bonding...

Happy Monday everyone!

So, how was your weekend?

I must admit, I spent most of my Saturday sulking. I'll "woman up" and just tell you, I was sad that I wasn't able to join Mister M and Jayla at Six Flags. I'm no sissy...so I'm just keeping it real, LOL. Had this not been Jayla's first time going to Six Flags, it wouldn't have been such a big deal. But I want to be involved and/or witness all of her childhood FIRSTS. However, I did come to the realization that she spends just about every day with me. And I DO get to go on her school fieldtrips and stuff like that. So I got over it.

I hope I don't sound selfish. I just felt like I was missing out on something fun with her. But it sounds like Jayla and her daddy had a great day of bonding (that's Jayla's new word these days...bonding), lol. Mister M. doesn't get to spend as much one-on-one time with our little girl as I do. So I was happy for them.

When they were about to leave, Jayla said, "Well mom, me and dad are about to go. So you and Trae can have some, uh, momma/dog bonding time!" Well, gee THANKS!!! Somehow, that didn't help how I was feeling :-).

Anyway, it was a nice, quiet day. I took my MIL to the grocery store (2 of 'em), I took a nap (tried to anyway), and I did a little scrapbooking. So the day wasn't a total sulk fest :-).

Here's a fun picture that Mister M purchased at the park.

This is, of course, Mister M. and Jayla. And also his/our nephew, Derron and his 2 daughters, Madesan and Haidyn.
Isn't this a fun picture? They were on the Log Jamboree ride. Not sure how Jayla wound up in the front...where she can get SOAKING wet. Hmm, guess I just answered my own question, huh? :-) Kinda looks like daddy is enjoying it too, doesn't it?

I love pictures like this. Mister M. did a great job getting this shot. Jayla is holding her cousin, Madesan's hand. She and Madesan share a birthday and are exactly one year apart. And Haidyn, the cutie in the yellow, just turned 6 in June.

How bout a picture with some Super Hero's? Aren't they supposed to be saving the planet or something? :-)

Oh, guess what? My LITTLE 6 year old rode this THREE times!!! I couldn't believe it. Everytime we see a roller coaster on TV or something, she always talks about how scary they are. And how she'd NEVER ride one. Yeah, whatever! :-).

When they got home that evening, Daddy came in carrying Jayla. The girl was EXHAUSTED! (so was daddy) He was also carrying a GIANT Bugs Bunny bouncing ball...you know the kind you sit on and hop around? Some lady just gave that to Jayla because she thought she was cute, lol. And daddy was also carrying a cute stuffed killer whale (like the one my nephew is carrying in the picture above, of the girls walking). I hear Jayla won that playing some game.

Anyway, that's about it for Jayla's first trip to Six Flags. Maybe next time mommy will get to tag along :-).

Lastly, I have to show you guys one more thing. At our house, you KNOW that summer break is almost over and school is about to start. How, you ask? Well, it's time for to relax the ole hair. I got mine done last week. And today, I did Jayla's. She HATES when it's time to do her hair. But she simply LOVES it once it's done. Check her out...
She looks like such a big girl! I'm glad to say that it didn't take as long today. I guess she's getting use to the whole process. And due to her being such a good "client", I used the flat iron and the curling iron and gave her a cute "little/big girl" style. She's a mess! All she keeps saying is, "I LOOOVVE it!!"

Alright my friends, that's a wrap for me today. I'm on a scrapbooking roll these days (more on that later).

Oh wait...I just thought of something funny I forgot to tell you. Last night, after Jayla went to bed, Mister M. went into Jayla's room to turn her radio down. He stood at the foot of her bed and just looked at here for a moment. He was thinking that she was pretending to be asleep. Come to find out, he was right :-). She opened her eyes and said, "Dad, I wish I had a Sleep Number bed!" WHAT? Where did THAT come from? LOL Then, she proceeds to grab the old Palm Pilot that I gave her, off her nightstand. She pretends to press in some numbers, saying that she was putting in her Sleep Number code.

Gotta love the kids imagination.

Ya'll have a great week!

And the winner is....

Good morning everyone!

Have you guys had a good week? Ours has been pretty busy...but fun nonetheless.

Well let's see, what did we do this week that was so fun?

On Monday, Jayla started a 4 day long cheerleading camp. She's been looking forward to this since school ended back in May! The camp was only 2 hours long each day and held at a nearby highschool, which happens to be right up the street from the school she attends. Needless to say, she was a little nervous but excited all the same.

To make a long story short, the camp was merely just to teach the girls (ages 4 up to 8th grade), a few cheers/chants, a little dance routine and how to jump. Well, being that Jayla is a soccer player...this was gonna be interesting, LOL. The girl has super strong legs and is very fast. So again, it was gonna be interesting to see what she'd do with THIS sport.

Jayla was in a group of about fifteen 5 & 6 year olds. And on Tuesday, the instructors, who are cheerleaders at the high school, chose 4 or 5 girls to "represent" the group as the best jumpers. Well, Jayla was chosen. How cool is that? So of course, she practiced as often as she could...which reminds me, we need to get the ceiling fixed in the dining room, LOL. They taught the girls about 3 or 4 jumps, all of which Jayla did pretty well. Being that she's only 6, she was a little uncoordinated, but had some pretty good height.

ANYWAY...on Wednesday night, they had a jump off. And the senior cheerleaders were the judges. Jayla, along with 4 other little 6 year olds were called to the floor while the other 200+ girls looked on. And here's what happened... (Jayla is contestant #2, in the red skirt)

(NOTE: Please excuse this "amateur" video :-), especially the last few seconds. I didn't even know my camera could take videos let alone that it was still on, hee hee)

Like I said, she's been doing pretty well practicing her jumps. But these were her best jumps by far.

After this, the winner of the 5 year olds had to jump against the winner of the 6 year olds. And here's what happened...

NEEDLESS to say, we were very excited for our little Jaylabear.

She was so cute doing the cheers and dances. Check her out, "shaking what her momma gave her"...HAHAHA

Being that last night was the big HOORAH for the camp, Jayla asked daddy to come and watch her. He was very impressed with his little girl. But not so much with how loud 200 screaming girls can be, LOL (but not too loud) :-). All of the girls were given nice T-shirts and a certificate for participating. Jayla made a few new friends and is looking forward to doing the camp again next year.

So, let's see...other than the cheerleading camp, Jayla also went to a birthday party down at our neighborhood pool, we went to the FREE movie yesterday...along with half of the state of Georgia, to see Horton Hears a Who. Ya know, sitting in the VERY front row at the movie theatre is NO FUN! That screen is HUGE! Thank God I don't have Vertigo! lol Oh, and I FINALLY got my hair done this week too. I now look human again, hee hee.

I hadn't planned on posting a flower today, considering the overload from last week. So maybe I'll do a "pop up" flower post later in the week.

Ya'll got any big plans for the weekend? Jayla doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna have a special day with daddy and her cousins tomorrow. They are going to Six Flags! I'm gonna send the camera with Mister M., so hopefully he won't forget to use it :-D. Not sure what I'm gonna do with MYSELF tomorrow...but I'll think of something.

I hope ya'll have a great weekend!!! Toodles!

Are ya ready for some FLOWERS???

...spoken to the tune of the infamous Monday Night Football song :-D!

(NOTE: a photo overload will follow this short introduction)

SO...my people...what's been happenin?? I'm not gonna do much talking to you today as this post PROMISES to be chock FULL of floral beautifulness!! Why, you ask? Yesterday, Jayla, my MIL and myself went on an excursion to The Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Talk about facinating! I have lived in Georgia since...uhh, lemme think; since 1973. And until yesterday, July 17, 2008, I have never been to the gardens.

I just don't even know where to begin. However, I will say that I think I started a new love affair with my camera. I still want to get a new one. But yesterday, the ole Kodak EasyShare Z740 made me proud, lol. I've come to the conclusion that I take better pictures of subjects that don't breathe. I mean seriously...I tend to miss that perfect shot/pose 90% of the time. Talk about frustrating.

But yesterday, I had to give myself a pat on the back.

And now, without further ado, your special edition of the Friday Flower Fix. I present to you, the amazing beauty of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens....ENJOY!!

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These first 9 shots :-), were taken before we even got to the main entrance. They were all along the walkway from the parking lot.

Please excuse this interruption. Jayla wanted me to let everyone know that this is the cactus that "attacked" her :-). It had NOTHING to do with the fact that she reached out and GRABBED it...nothing at all! :-) lol
The following shots were taken on the way to and in the Childrens Garden.

These next 2 of Jayla were so funny. I had read on line that there was a water area for kids to play in. However, not knowing what the weather would be like, I didn't mention it to Jayla. Actually, she knew nothing about us even going to the Gardens. Once we rounded the corner into the Childrens Garden, this water play area was the first thing we saw. Jayla noticed all the other kids playing in it. She looked at me with this look of longing, saying,"Boy, they look like they're having some FUN!" So I said, "Aw man, I wish you'd brought YOUR swimsuit!" Jayla looked so sad, hee hee. Then I said, "Oh my goodness, Jayla LOOK! What's this in my bag?" Her eyes lit up when she saw I had a towel with her swimsuit wrapped in it. Guys, if ya'll could've heard the hysterical laughter that erupted from this little girl. It was priceless! So we went around the corner into the restrooms and changed her into her swimsuit. As she was changing, Jayla says to me, "Mom...you're such a tricker! I love you!!" It was hilarious and I think it goes without saying that she had a BALL!

Let's stop right here for a minute. I've got TONS more pictures to share with you. However, I'm getting a little nervous that Blogger won't let me put all of them in this one post. Therefore, I'm gonna break this up into 3 seperate posts (YES, there are that many photos,lol)

Stay tuned....

Are ya ready for some FLOWERS??? (Part 2)

...Let's continue on, shall we?

Now THIS was cool! These are honey bees making honey behind a sheet of glass. It was amazing. There's a black curtain hanging on both sides of this partition. Both sides are full of bees and full of honey. It was so cool!

This has got to be the biggest bumble bee I've ever seen!

I love this picture. You can tell Grandma loves her some Jayla! :-)

See that BullFrog? Man, they are LOUD! We didn't even see him out there until we heard the loud noise they make. Sounded like some sort of water pump :-). And once we saw him in the middle of this pond, we noticed SEVERAL others. DUH!! :-)

This was a hollowed out stone. The "instructions" next to it said to place your head in the hole and to hum or sing into it. And once you hit the right "tone", the stone would vibrate around your head. Jayla wasn't too sure about that...so she just stood there and LOOKED in the hole :-).

This flower was ENORMOUS. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was about 6 - 8 inches in diameter.

...We'll be right back, after these messages :-) (I've always wanted to say that.) Stay tuned for the last of part of our Botanical Garden tour

Are ya ready for some FLOWERS??? (Part 3)

Welcome back...let's move on, there's more to see.

Ok, is it just me or are these the biggest lilly pads on the planet? Never in my LIFE, have I seen anything like this. Man, I need to get out more! I was just awed by the size of these things. Can you imagine the frog that live on THESE pads? LOL

I think these are Quails. Well, whatever they are, they were so cute. The mother...uh, bird, would stand in the middle of the walk-way and let her babies run back and forth.


Alright, here's another first for me. I can't even describe to you how large these palm leaves are. I was standing directly under the leaf shown right above this narrative. I couldn't even get the entire thing in the screen on my camera. It was amazing!



Just plain beautiful...and so are the Orchids :-).


For the next few months at The Gardens, they are having what's called, "Sculptures in Motion". So throughout the Gardens, you will see sculptures amongst the beautiful plants and flowers. You've seen some of them in a few of my shots. The one pictured above was pretty cool. These balls were on a marble slab. And if you clapped or sang, they would start to move around. And when it became quiet...they'd stop whereever they were on the slab. It was amazing. Jayla really loved this.

This little guy, along with a few others, were found on the side of the road. So someone picked them up and "donated" them to The Gardens.


Here's another one of the sculptures in motion.


This has got to be one of my favorite shots of the day. I absolutely LOVE this picture. The Orchids that were on display are simply breathtaking. I love everything about this shot. This is the one that called for the pat on the back :-).

Isn't this cute? Mom hates having her picture taken. So I had to be sneaky. I turned around and she was smelling the flowers. I asked her if they had a smell. And as she bent back down to smell them again, I snapped the picture. Too bad it's a little blurry. But the moment was captured.

Well my friends, that's about it. Did you enjoy that? Talk about a Friday Flower Fix!! Wow, I feel like I've just walked through The Gardens again...I'm exhausted, lol.

I hope you guys have a great weekend...can't wait to hear about it. Be Inspired...I AM!!