FREEDOM WEEK 2019

Due to Tropical Storm Barry, we nixed our plans to go down to Natchez after dropping the kids at camp and instead came back up to town and headed to our favorite establishments for the afternoon: Cottonwood for beer and darts, then 10 South for an early dinner.

We had a quiet week at home, getting chores done and enjoying the peace and quiet, then planned a fun adventure for Friday afternoon/evening before picking up the kids on Saturday morning. We started with lunch at the Old Country Store in Lorman, Mississippi (Hwy 61 South, on the way to Natchez) after working a half day, then checked into a hotel and enjoyed an evening on the town in Natchez, visiting the brewery and our favorite restaurant, and getting a lot of steps walking the downtown streets. 

The unassuming exterior of The Old Country Store yielded arguably the best fried chicken we've ever had! We met Mr. D while we were dining, as he sung happy birthday to a nearby table. We'd heard about this place years ago and never made the trip (it's a long drive for lunch), and are so glad we finally had time and an excuse to stop by. Our advice? Just don't go unless you're HUNGRY! It's a southern buffet of comfort foods and you are expected to eat your fill. Mr. D will tell you that if you leave his restaurant hungry, it's not his fault!

Slice of the Mighty Mississippi (view from our room)

Natchez Brewing was all decked out in purple and gold (clearly celebrating a game of some sort)

We walked down to Magnolia Bluffs Casino (for fun, not to gamble), then back up along the elevated riverwalk (due to flooding over the usual route), and eventually all the way to The Camp, where we parked ourselves for a couple hours of appetizers, beer, and dinner, before walking all the way back up the hill and over to our hotel.

(We had to add to the chalkboard again, just like last year!)

WHILE THE KIDS ARE AWAY...

...the parents will play!

We went straight from camp drop off on Sunday down to Natchez for an afternoon/evening checking out the Natchez Brewing Company and enjoying a lengthy dinner (with appetizers, even!) at The Camp (we'd have stayed for dessert too, if we'd had any room left...) After dinner we walked along the river (letting our food and beers settle) and attempted to take some fun photos, but it was too sunny for selfies and Jay was too silly to stand handsomely in front of the gazebo (in the below photo he's literally saying "This is me! In front of a gazebo! This is ridiculous!")

We had a very quiet and fun "Freedom Week", spending most nights at home (and all days at work - it was not vacation). We did go out to Cottonwood one night with some friends, then had an early dinner at 10 South on Friday night to celebrate. We did much better this year about not worrying over the kids while they were gone, but we did miss them a lot. It was a nice change of pace and we'll definitely be looking forward to camp week again next year. Maybe we'll even save up enough leave to take a day off and go on a bigger adventure while they're away...

10 SOUTH SOLO

What do you do with yourselves when the kids are dropped at camp and it's only 4:30pm, with 3 kid-free nights looming ahead? You go to an early dinner (10 South wasn't crowded with Miss Mississippi Pageant folks yet since we were there during happy hour) and tuck in for the night even before their usual bedtime...

 It was storming down at camp again...

We did not make it out of 10 South before the downpour traveled up to the 'Burg...

BREWS AND HUES

We made last minute reservations for Martin's first Brews and Hues event, secured our favorite babysitter, and snuck out for a couple hours of date night fun!

 Jay was taking notes on his brews (there were 6 total) and making guesses as to which art piece represented each beer. (He was right, and I was mostly right!)

 John talks about beers 4-6 before handing it over to the artists.

 Emily and Lisa pose with art pieces as their likeness to the beers they represented were discussed.

We're not big art fans, but we are big beer fans, so we enjoyed this event. And our dinner. And a quiet evening out without the kids (who didn't miss us at all because they had their favorite Miss Elizabeth over to entertain them).

CORA'S FIRST NUTCRACKER BALLET

I haven't seen the Nutcracker since I was a kid, and I knew my budding ballerina would love the dancing and the costumes, so when my friend Wendy asked us a couple months ago if we wanted to go as a group, I jumped on it. I'm so glad we went - the show was wonderfully done! The costumes were incredible and I thought all the dancers were very talented. Cora loved it all, especially the Gumdrop Fairy and her pastel rainbow tutu, and the Spanish soloist and her red, sparkly tutu - Cora saw her come on stage and immediately told me "Oh, I would look BEAUTIFUL in that one!", which led to a short discussion of practice and training, and how long many of these ballerinas have likely been dancing to get to this point. She was not deterred, and watched intently until the last 10 minutes or so (when she started to get tired). The Sugar Plum Fairy and Russian soloist sorta stole the show for me, but I really did enjoy it all and was so impressed with the choreography (even the little dancers were right on cue). Cora got to wear a very pretty blue, sparkly dress (and matching sparkly tights) that her Gramma brought her last month, and we enjoyed a girls afternoon and evening out with Christina and Lauren (and later, dinner with Al and Will too)!

 Cora surrounded by a group of adorable 4-year-old ballerinas:

 We hung around for a while outside after the show to let the girls run off some energy and check out the decorations on campus, and managed to get a close-up look at some of the costumes as the dancers came out to pose for photos with their families. Wow, were they intricate. Even more gorgeous up close than they were on stage!

 We will very likely be making this event a new tradition!

CLASSICS IN THE COURTYARD

We eat lunch together most days (perk of working in the same building and having pretty flexible work schedules), but today we got to eat on a park bench and hold hands while listening to our running buddy Maria sing at the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation's Classics in the Courtyard. The food was good, the fall breeze felt great, and Maria has a beautiful voice. We weren't able to stay for the entire show (flexible schedules or not, we can't stay out longer than an hour at lunch, including drive time), but the time we had was a wonderful start to the weekend!

HOMEWORK DATE

While Cora was at dance, James and I went to the coffee shop to tackle some overdue homework (overdue because we didn't realize weekly tasks had changed) and practice his handwriting and spelling. While he's doing very well in school in general (3s on all his reading and math exams), he scored low in handwriting and spelling last quarter. This was not a surprise to us (if you've seen his handwriting, you likely aren't surprised either, and he does better with oral spelling drills than he does with his written weekly tests), but we need to spend more time at home working with him on it (these things can't really be taught so much as "practice makes perfect"). So I bribed him with a whipped cream topped smoothie and gave him my undivided attention. There was a lot of erasing and trying again (much to his frustration, since he just wanted to finish quickly), and a lot of chair wiggling and half standing (which I happily ignored because he focuses better when he can move around a little), but he finished up with a well written (for him) "play" narrative (self-guided, but based on a story they've been reading at school), a completed vocabulary study guide (he's really good at filling in the blanks appropriately, but shockingly bad at the spelling, considering the words are written below for him to copy...), and all 3 of his "tic-tac-toe" spelling word games (he can pick any 3 activities - this time he chose to write the words alphabetically, write them each three times, and draw a picture and hide the words in it) ready to turn in on Friday. And then he got to get into costume and get ready to PLAY!

(Yes, I made him erase that first word and try again so that it would fit on the line)

ONCE UPON A FAIRYTALE 2016

When Christina and I received early bird emails about the Once Upon a Fairytale Tea for this year, we couldn't pass it up. Last year was so sweet and special (and on my birthday!) seeing Cora and little Lauren taking it all in for the first time. This year was even more fun though because my mom joined us and we had some other good friends along as well (Ashley and Hazel, and Jenny and her girls, Ava and Norah).

What an adorable lineup of princesses, am I right?!

She was sure making me smile while we waited in line to be seated, twirling that dress and chatting with her girlfriends.

(I mean seriously though, that little satisfied grin? Worth everything to my heart.)

They had a photobooth this year and Cora was not shy to be the first in line from our table...

Wand antics:

Princess poses:

(Cora let me know which princesses she wanted her photo with... she skipped Mulan, Tiana, and Prince Charming. When I asked her why she didn't want her picture with Prince Charming she said "because I'm going to dance with him". But then she was too shy to do so, even though he offered her his hand out on the dance floor...)

After the ballerinas did their performance, the girls were invited onto the dance floor to jump and shake to Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift. Cora was in heaven :-)

(That SMILE! I'm telling ya... and she made sure to show that ballerina that she had on HER ballet slippers too, because she's a realydancer, just like the big girls!)

The princesses lined up at the door for goodbye hugs:

(Just a few more twirls on her way out the door...)

After the tea, we did what girls do best - shopping! Then we went out for a delicious dinner. It was a really fun afternoon/evening and I'm so glad we had mom with us to enjoy it!

(And yes, I have lots of dancing video. Perhaps I'll post some later, but I bet you can guess what a dance floor filled with 40-50 little girls looks like - ADORABLE!)