The Swanky Southern Yankee: Henry's Birthday Extravaganza

Saturday we drove to Atlanta for Henry's birthday extravaganza. Yes, David's was last weekend. No, we were not great planners in 2004 . . .

Henry's actual birthday is next week, but Katie and I will likely still be in the hospital. I didn't want Henry to miss out on something special for his birthday because of Katie's surgery, so we went a little early. He picked the Legoland Discovery Center in Atlanta.

I'll be honest . . . I didn't love it. I thought there would be more to do. It's not about me though, and the kids had a great time.

This miniland of Atlanta was my favorite part. It was a whole room full of Atlanta, made of Legos.

There was a 4-D movie, which was cute. It was probably 20 minutes long and sprays you with water, blows air on you, and it snows. The kids loved it.

It was Katie's first "movie" experience, and she was great!

There was one ride there, which everyone enjoyed. I'm not sure what it didn't have that I was expecting, but I thought it would be more significant.

The play area was everyone's favorite part. . . We could go to a McDonald's play area for free and get the same reaction. This swinging ball section was a disaster. It wasn't attended by an employee, so there was absolutely no order to how kids rode on it, which caused a lot of fighting. Also, the kids weren't paying attention and would walk right in front of the thing while it was sliding down. There were children of all ages - babies up to probably 11 in there at one time. Well hello. An 11 year old knocking down a baby who cannot even walk is not a good situation. And the two employees who were working in the section seemed to hate children. Not a great combination!

We spent a lot of time in this building area building race cars and then racing them on ramps. There weren't nearly enough wheels for everyone. . . or maybe that was because there were about 15 adults building things so the children didn't have enough parts. Uh, hey, 40 year old guy? Why don't you come back on the adult only night?

All in all, the kids had a great time and Chris and I hated the place. Then, of course, you have to leave through the Lego store. Brilliant. Take tired children through a freaking Lego store on their way out when they've been over stimulated for three hours and don't want to leave in the first place. I let everyone get a keychain. They all had fantastic behavior and listening while we were there, and they loved it. They wanted to go back that night. I would have required six bottles of wine for that, and I feel like that may be frowned upon.

The best part about Legoland? It's in a mall. I had a gift certificate to Belk that I got at Christmas, so I picked up some necklaces on our way out.

You know I love a fun necklace!

Next, Henry's request was to eat at Cracker Barrel.

My children will almost lick their plates clean at Cracker Barrel, so we happily said yes.

Our hotel was our next stop. And, note to self, when the Final Four is in Atlanta the same weekend you're going to be there, don't wait until the day before your trip to book a hotel. . .

Our hotel was fine, it was just not in Atlanta. We had to stay a little outside of the city because there were no hotels ~~that weren't $500 a night~~ available. I quickly came to the realization that our family is not one of those families who could live in an adorable little tiny 200 square foot house.

This was Jack's favorite part of the room . . . and his hair was already dry. He was constantly climbing on the bathroom sink and drying his hair. Or sitting in the chair and "reading the Bible" because that's apparently what he likes to do when he's "on vacation".

When we woke up Sunday morning, I asked Henry what he wanted to do. I offered the zoo, the aquarium, a science museum, pretty much anything he wanted. His choice? "Go home please." Homebody Henry is not a joke folks!

I got this on the way. It will be my last one. I didn't drink any caffeine for six months. Then I had one coffee, and it was an immediate slide back into the land of caffeine. No more!