Alabama + Graffiti

Last Saturday, I got a good little mom and Sheff date to the zoo.  It was perfect – we got there right when it opened, and with rain in the forecast, there was hardly anyone there.  It was so pretty too, since they had put out all the decorations for Glow Wild.  We stayed for a good two hours, before we grabbed some Chick-fil-a for lunch and went home to watch football.  Which is literally what we did all day.  When the AU game came on, our neighbors came over to join us.  It was a good time as always, and it was so awesome to see Caddy coaching on the sidelines.

Sunday, we potentially had a full day of baseball.  If Sheff’s team won their first game, then it was onto another game.  Luckily, for them, they ended up winning the first game, and the second game too and became Spain Park Southern League Fall Ball Champs.  I really loved his coach this season, and am hoping for Sheff to return to his team in the spring.  After the game, we hurried downtown to catch the Squadron in their season home opener.  They lost, but it was still a really fun time.  We stayed until the end, and Sheff found the perfect spot to be able to high five all the players on their way in the tunnel.

I started the week with the privilege of volunteering with other co-workers at First Light Women & Children’s Center in downtown Birmingham.  It was incredibly rewarding, and I hope to be able to do more volunteering soon.  Sheff also got to meet the author of Let’s Eat Snails at school, and she autographed his book.  He looks so darn cute in that pic!  Tuesday was Sheff’s Thanksgiving lunch at school – I was lucky enough to be able to come and celebrate it with him.  And the food was actually really good!  That night after we were done with work, he headed to vote.  We took our election day picture as a family as we’ve done since we’ve had Sheff.

Unfortunately, there’s no rest for the wicked, so we’ve got another jam-packed weekend coming up.  Luckily with no sports, though, and I’ll take that small win!

The Jameses have been busy these past few weeks – but hey, we never pass up the possibility to do something fun.  And we’ve had a lot of fun these past few weeks for sure!

It all started with the week before Halloween at school which was Red Ribbon week – where they have all sorts of dress-up days and it culminates at the end of the week with the Fun Run.  Luckily, I was able to attend to see Sheff and the whole second grade run, and we did get some cute pictures with the neighborhood kids on their walk to school that week.  Sheff did great during the Fun Run – he got the most laps in second grade!  For lunch that day, B and I got to try Slutty Vegan over in Woodlawn.  It was pretty good, and we even stumbled upon a thrift shop down there where B got some records.

That night, we took advantage of an opportunity for Sheff to wear his costume, and we hit up the Hoover Public Library for their Double Double Toil and Trouble event.  And they did such a great job!  They had sections for Harry Potter, Salem and stuff for the younger kids.  They had a sorting hat – Sheff got sorted into Ravenclaw after the hat detected he was smart – a really fun photo booth where the kids could dress up and get their pics taken and then get the photo strip afterward – they made Rememberalls, got butterbeer Chex Mix and fun little plastic wands.  In the downstairs part of the library, it was decorated for Salem, which meant Hocus Pocus fun!  Sheff met the Sanderson Sisters – got a picture with the black flame candle and made a Sarah bookmark.

The next day we went over to a friend’s to watch the AU game while B did the Tour de Brewers bike ride downtown.  We had snacks, watched AU lose and then came back to the house to get ready for our neighbor’s party.  I really wish I had more pictures of the actual food spread and the decorations, because they were just amazing.  We all got into our costumes (me a fox, B and DJ soccer refs, Catherine was David from Schitt’s Creek, B’s co-workers were Ghostbusters who matched Sheff who was also one, and Z was a zombie cheerleader), and headed over for food and fun. It was a great time, and glad we got to spend some extra time with our neighbor friends.

We got to take it easy on Sunday, because it rained and Sheff’s baseball game got postponed.  So we lounged around the house watching football.  I made French toast with brioche bread, and that is a total game changer.  It was so good.  Then Sheff and I started a dog diamond painting (thanks Nadine for the rec on those!) – we had dinner and all climbed into bed pretty early.

Halloween was that Monday – and the kids at school had to dress up as book characters.  Sheff picked Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter.  I’ve started picking up the illustrated Harry Potter books for Sheff and I to read.  I love sharing that love of Harry Potter with him.  We did trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, which was great!  We ran into two SMES teachers and a TON of his classmates.  He came home with a huge haul – it was a blast.  That Tuesday, we had an impromptu chili and drinks night at our house with a few of our neighbors.  It was so fun to chill around the kitchen table and just hang out – hoping to do that a lot more in the future!  Then on Wednesday we headed to the Dia de los Muertos festival down at Sloss Furnace.  This was the first year it was held down there, and it was just…..different.  It felt like a taco fest with

some ofrendas scattered in.  The ofrendas were beautiful as always, but it just had a different feel to it.  Also instead of waiting in line for an hour for tacos, we headed over to Back Forty for burgers, beers and World Series baseball to end the night.

That about wraps up a crazy event-filled two weeks.  It didn’t slow down from here either – I’ll return with the stuff from this past weekend and week soon!

 

A couple weekends ago, we took a very quick trip over to Helen, GA.  We love Helen, and it is so pretty in the fall.  We may try to find new adventures in new cities in the coming years, but Helen really is a fun time.

We drove up on a Friday after work, making a pit stop in a town north of Atlanta for dinner, and then into Helen.  The cabin we’ve stayed in for the past two times is in the middle of the woods (bear warnings and the such), but it is perfect for just us three.  We got to the cabin, immediately into our bathing suits and into the hot tub.  It was a nice chilly fall night – it was a nice way to end the day.

Saturday we got up and headed over to some hiking trails.  The one we picked was a good ten miles round trip, so we just went until we decided to turn back.  It was so beautiful – even with Sheffield worrying about bears every three minutes.  After that trail, we went over to Anna Ruby Falls – a paved path that leads up to a gorgeous waterfall.  We’d done it before, but Sheff was pretty small, and he requested to see a waterfall.  It’s less than a mile round trip, so a really easy hike for everyone.  We really lucked out and got some great weather for this trip, too.

After our hiking, we went into downtown Helen.  We walked through the city looking for some lunch, and settled on a really nice place that had gigantic Oktoberfest beers and live music.  We put our names on the list for lunch and just sat outside for a bit enjoying the atmosphere.  Our lunch was really good – and afterward, we walked down the main street, doing some shopping and getting amazing fudge.  We decided that we weren’t going to try to dinner out that night, so we went to their tiny little grocery store and picked up a few things to munch on back at the cabin.  On our way back, we stopped at our favorite winery, Habersham for a bottle of wine.  We had a sparkling red wine, and it was so good.  After, we went back to the cabin, made dinner, played about six rounds of Sheff’s new game, made a fire, got in the hot tub and all went to bed, tired.

We had to get up fairly early Sunday morning to make it back in time for Sheff’s baseball game.  Sheff hit a home run, and his team had a comeback win to secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.  Unfortunately they were rained out this past weekend, so we’ll try again this upcoming one.

It was a nice little getaway that gave us a lot of good memories.  We’re on the lookout for somewhere new to try next year, so if you’ve got any good suggestions, lay them on me.  Hope you have an amazing week!

I told y’all not to get used to the regular posting – I just can’t get my stuff together in a timely manner these days.  And oy, did you see all those grammar and spelling errors in those last posts?  I totally did, but have zero plans to go back and fix them.  Lifestyles of the lazy, amiright?

A couple Fridays ago, as is tradition, we went to the Greek Food Festival.  B and I have gone every year since we’ve been together (14 years and counting!), and have added Sheff into the mix.  It was wonderful as usual, and we left full and happy.  Afterwards, we headed over to the arena to watch a pregame matchup between the Hawks and the Pelicans.  Family divided on this front:  I had my Hawks gear on, while Sheff and B repped the Pels.  Unfortunately for me, the Hawks dropped this one, but was still super cool to see Trae Young.

Saturday, we had a few people over to watch the AU vs Ole Miss game.  Catherine came and the kids had a very Halloweeny day:  matching PJs, decorating haunted houses and carving pumpkins.  We had a TON of food, and it was so awesome to have beverages, watch football and do all of the Halloween things with friends.  Love the amazing friendship between Sheff and Zoe – it’s the absolute best.

On Sunday, we had baseball, of course.  The kids got handed their first loss, but Sheffield got to try out being catcher for a bit, and he loved it.  The coach told B that once they start moving up that if they haven’t already played catcher, they will never get to.  The coach does a good job of switching it up, so everyone gets a chance.  Sheff has been so consistent with his hitting this season, and his fielding has improved tremendously.  I love watching him improve season over season, and as long as he continues to love it and have fun, we’ll keep him in it.  But also, how cute is he in the catcher’s gear??  All the heart eyes.

It was quite the busy week last week and it bled over into the weekend.  Will **hopefully** be back later this week to get it all caught up.  Until then, hope you’ve had an amazing start to the week!

It’s been fun pretending to be someone who has their stuff together this week, but it wraps up today with the last recap from our trip.  So here goes!

The train from Liverpool to London is about 3 hours, so there was much reading to be done on this trip.  The train pulled into Euston station around 1130-ish, and we got a cab to the hotel.  Again, super lucky that the room was ready so early.  I was just happy to be done lugging that suitcase around everywhere.  We were finally at a place longer than 24 hours, so we were able to get settled in.  It was Friday by now, and it was the day we had dogeared as our touristy day.  We were less than half a mile from the Tube station, so it was very easy for us to get around everywhere we needed to go.  Our first stop took us over to Buckingham Palace, where we had just missed the changing of the guard, but it was still really fun to see.  After that we walked over toward Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  By this time, we were super hungry, so we walked around trying to find a place that wasn’t super crowded.  We ended up finding a really amazing pub that was so homey and so good.  B got the biggest piece of fish in the world, and I got a burger that was delicious.  And since we were so close, we walked on over to Trafalgar Square.

Being sufficiently happy, we took the Tube over to Tower Bridge.  You know, the bridge.  We spent a good amount of time in that area snapping photos, and we even got to have a glass of wine by the river.  After that, B found a bookstore for me so I could look for a copy of a book I was wanting – but wanted the UK’s cover of the book.  I found it, and then we headed for the Tube back to the hotel . By this time in the day, we had walked over ten miles, and we were exhausted.  We ordered pizza from a pub nearby and watched Derry Girls in bed.  We were both really happy to slow down for a minute.

The next morning, we slept in until about 830, which is completely unheard of for both of us, but we woke up feeling completely refreshed.  We got dressed and hopped on the Tube to head toward Kensington Palace.  We popped into a little local coffee shop and had a chai and split an almond croissant.  That thing was so delicious.  Then we headed over to Kensington Palace for our reservation for tea at the Pavilion.  This was one of the things that I really wanted to do, and it was incredible.  All of the food was sooo good, and the tea was amazing.  I was absolutely in heaven, and it was worth every pretty penny.

After tea, we rushed back to the hotel to get changed for the Chelsea soccer match.  It took us quite a bit of time to get there, and there were a ton of people.  That stadium was packed full, but it was really cool to see a soccer game played where soccer is a huge deal.  Chelsea ended up winning 3-0, so that was also super cool.  After we finally made our way to a Tube station, we headed back into the city and found a Packers bar.  We had a few drinks with alllll of the other Packers fan, and then went in search of dinner.  We found a really delicious taco place that had bomb ass margaritas, and we were pretty happy with it.  After making our way back toward the hotel, we made a pit stop at the pub we got the pizza from for a night cap.

The next morning was Packers game day!!  I was so glad that we decided to get up early and head down that way.  There was a ton of fun stuff to do close to the stadium, so we took it all in.  We went into the pro-shop to get some London Packers game souvenirs and gifts.  Then we got a beer at a nearby pub that was completely full of mostly Packer fans.  There were sporadic “Go Pack Go” cheers almost everywhere we went.  Bennett had made a lunch reservation at a cute little pub called The Antwerp Arms.  It was about three blocks from Tottenham stadium nestled into a cute little neighborhood.  We didn’t want to get into the stadium super early, so we got some lunch and enjoyed a few beers.  Once we got into the stadium, it was already really close to game time, so it ended up being perfectly timed.  There were a lot of Packer fans in that stadium, and it was really cool to see how many were not American – they were from all over.  Unfortunately the Pack couldn’t pull out the win, but it was still a super cool experience.

It took a long time to get back to our hotel area, and we walked down the main street and found an amazing little restaurant that served just what we needed for dinner.  It had definitely been a super long day, and was going to be another long day on Monday getting home, so we opted for an early bedtime. We got up pretty early to get to the airport – the whole trip from our hotel took about an hour.  It didn’t take very long to get through security even though the line was super long.  We found some food and beverages, boarded the plane, and nine hours later we landed in Atlanta.  I have to say that as someone who is not the biggest fan of flying, that both flights were pretty enjoyable, and they both got in early at the destination.  It took us a minute to get through customs, and to board the shuttle back to domestic terminals, and then of course our two hour drive back to Birmingham.  We were so excited to see our spoot, so the trip didn’t seem so long.  It was sooooo good to get to hug him and love on him.  It was a long week not getting to kiss that little face.

Again, we are very thankful for grandparents (two sets!) that took on the task of watching Sheffield for a week.  Without them, that trip definitely wouldn’t have been able to happen.  We had a really awesome week filled with a ton of memory making.  I can’t wait to be able to take Sheff when he’s older.

We have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, filled with football, baseball and Halloweeny things.  I hope y’all have had a great week and a great weekend as well!