Six Flags Over Georgia

October 20, 2008 By 3 Comments

A couple weekend ago we took Miss J and Mr. Z to Six Flags Over Georgia. It was our and their first time there. Fortunately, Mr. Rojo’s friend has a season pass so he was able to get us the discount tickets. We met them up at McD nearby to grap lunch and carpooled to the park. It helped to save the parking fee which costs $15.

Once we got there, the kids quickly took out the map to check out where they wanted to go. But we already knew where we would end up. Our main purpose to go there was to check out the new Thomas Town. So we started head toward the back of the park for Thomas Town. It was during the Halloween weeks so it was nice and spooky to see all the decoration with bones and skeletons. A quick detour to the kiddie free-fall ride was in order. I think Mr. Z wasn’t sure at first. I was worried that he would cry. But.. Nope.. He was a dare devil and giggled about it the whole time.

Once we got to Thomas Town, I had to say I was quite disappointed. I was glad we didn’t have to pay for the full price to get in. I would be really upset. It was just a big playground with Thomas Theme and a small train ride. I mean that’s it!!! So here is my warning to all parents with Thomas obsession kids, don’t waste your money there. Six Flags is for bigger kids or even adult. Thomas Town isn’t worth it if you want to bring your little kids there. However, we managed to spend a good hour there just for them to run around and ride on the train. I guess for them it was enough with a train ride with Thomas. I still couldn’t get the Thomas theme song out of my head.

Surprisingly, Mr. Z loved the go-karts race which was right next to Thomas. He was too young to drive by himself of course. But he could ride with Mr. Rojo. Man.. He hung on to his dear life during the race. :) After Thomas and go-karts, we started to walk around the park with no particular plan. Mr. Rojo did get on the Ninja ride with his friend. I was too chicken to go on any ride. hehe.. Then we went to the Dodge City Bumper cars. It was a downer for Mr. Z as he was only a couple inches too short to ride. I felt so bad for him.. He was crying and very upset.

So we looked for some other kid friendly rides for him. We headed to the Riverview Carousel. There we found the perfect ride for them, the Hanson Cars. It was so neat for them as they could ride the car by themselves. I think it was one of their favorite ride. Mr. Z and Miss J still talked about it from time to time. Then we went to the Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster. The ride would be a fun ride if we didn’t have to wait in line for almost an hour for a 45 seconds ride. I had to admit.. I could barely handle this ride. I think I scream as loud or louder than Miss J. hehe.. We noticed that there seemed to be busier than this morning. You would think that as the day passed, it would be less people. But I guess since it was the Halloween weeks and some people just came for the night time it made it busier.

Now it was dinner break. We dined at DeeJay’s Diner. Nothing food couldn’t cure. After a full tummy, we headed to the Railroad station for a nice, relaxing train ride. This was a great way to get to see the park without using your energy. It was getting dark and I knew that we would probably need to wrap up soon. We headed to the USA Games Area and played some games. Mr. Rojo won a basket ball! Before we headed out, we stopped by for the Dipping Dots for the kids and I was so looking forward to the Funnel Cake. But I wasn’t going to wait in line for another hour for a funnel cake. I guess I will just have to find it somewhere else.

At the end of the day, I asked Miss J what was her favorite part. She loved the Hanson Car because she got to drive it herself. As for Mr. Z, he loved the go-karts. Guess he has the need for speed. Farewell Six Flags, we probably won’t see you anytime soon until they both are at least 52″ tall. :)
Filed Under: Activities, Day/Weekend Trips, Family, Travel in North America Tagged With: , , ,

Fair, Festival and Ferris Wheel

October 12, 2008 By 2 Comments

A couple weekends ago we headed out to soon to be our annual activity for Fall, the Cumming Country Fair and Festivals. It was a great small town fair. We headed out late on Sunday evening. I don’t like heat so I purposely chose to go after the sunset. Well, what happened next show how competent as a parent we are!

After we parked, we found out that Miss J didn’t have her shoes on. I mean.. we trust her to be able to take care of herself to a certain extent. I haven’t dressed her since she entered Kindergarten. I don’t have to tell her to wear her shoes way before that.. Is it because of the excitement that she forgot her shoes? We will never know. But what would you do at that point. For us, Mr. Rojo had become her personal stroller. He carried her almost the whole trip. I said almost because at certain point we just let her walk barefeet. If you went to the fair and saw a girl with no shoes, that’s probably her!

We got to walk right to the fair without paying for any admission fees since it was about an hour before closing. This was perfect for us. I don’t know how much we will spend if we stayed more than an hour. The rides there were the same as last year. Mr. Z’s favorite was the worm roller coaster. This year I guess Miss J felt like she is bigger. She didn’t get on that ride with him. After Mr. Z first ride we walked around a bit just to check out everything. We didn’t do the petting zoo. I wasn’t gonna let Miss J go in there without shoes.

We stopped for a game for Miss J and Mr. Z to pop the balloon. They were very kid-friendly because eventhough they didn’t pop any ballon when they threw the dart, the gentleman there gave them a big stick to pop the balloon. They each got a small toy to bring home. After that, Mr. Rojo and Miss J got on the Ferris Wheel. Mr. Z was too short to get on the ride. Plus if we all go, we would use up all our tickets!! No one warns me that it can be very expensive at this fair. Each ride costed at least $3 each. That can add up pretty fast!

After a couple more rides, we took a little break. We sat down and watched the Xtreme Power sculptor. A bag of cotton candy did the trick to settle them down. By that time, the Sun already set so it was our signal to head home. I didn’t get to have my funnel cake though.. Bummer. Maybe next year!
Filed Under: Activities, Day/Weekend Trips, Family

My First 5K Walk…

September 27, 2008 By 2 Comments

I did it!!! I completed my first 5K Walk. It was amazing! As I mentioned before that I signed up for the 5K Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk. On Thursday, we headed to downtown Atlanta for our walk. My company is amazing. Not only they sponsored the employees by paying for the registration fee if we signed up before the deadline but they provided buses to downtown.

We headed down there around 3:45pm. The race was set to begin at 7pm. Once we got there, we got some snack and water and started checking out other tents. There were so many tents and so many people. It was very exciting. We walked around and tried to judge who had the best t-shirt. My top three will be Chick-Fil-A, ING, and Buck consultant. Then we walked to the sponsor tents to check out the freebies. I got a bag full of sample and goodies. I think my legs were tired already and we hadn’t started the race yet!

Then we found our gold mine. A tent with free massage! We went ahead and waited in line. For about 30-35 mins we got our turn in the massage chair.. Oh.. Just what I need before the race started. After that, we went to take our team photo. Well, don’t expect to see me in the picture. I was a little speck there in the back and I don’t think anyone can see me there. Our company has over 300 people participated. So it was a good turn out.

At around 6:30pm we slowly moved to the walker starting line.. Oh..Mine.. They were a lot of people so needless to say we were almost all the way to the back. Note to self, next year I will get there earlier to be in the front. After the National Anthem, the race started. But we were standing still for a while before we got moving. By the time we turned on the main route, the first runner was heading back to the finish line! Amazing!! These guys ran 3.1 miles in like 12-15 minutes! I saw one lady who was up there with guys. I think she probably finished in the top 10. You go girl!!!

I walked with one of my co-worker and we did jog a little trying to take advantage of downhill. It wasn’t so bad walking. There were a lot of people so I think I actually walked more than 3.1 miles if you factored in the zig zag I had to do to get pass people on the course. By the time, we got to the finish line it was already dark. I don’t know my official time yet. But I think it should be less than 50 minutes. hehe..

All in all, it was a great experience and now I think I got the running bug. I will train myself harder and plan for 5K run next year. Actually, we plan to sign up for another 5K run this November. Stay tune…

Filed Under: Activities

13 Fall Activities I love to do

September 25, 2008 By 10 Comments

Fall is here. I love Fall season. The weather is cooler. The leaves change color. It’s time to get out my sweater and light jacket. There are so many things to do during Fall.. Here they are.

1) Pumpkin patch farm – I love taking the kids to the pumpkin patch farm and pick out their own pumpkins.

2) Corn maze – Another fun fall activity we did a couple years ago. I would love to do it again.

3) Six Flags Over Georgia – We want to take Mr. Z to see the new Thomas World in Six Flags. I don’t like to go to the amusement park during Summer. It’s way too hot for me. Right now, it’s perfect weather to be out and about.

4) Mini-vacation to Destin – It might seem weird to go to the beach in Fall. But from what I heard, October is a great time to go to Destin. The weather is cool enough to enjoy more outside in the Sun and warm enough to enjoy the beach. The crowds are gone so we don’t have to fight with long line in restaurant or traffic.

5) Camping in the backyard – Yeah.. we are not that adventurous yet to camp in the campground. So for now, I will take my backyard as a baby step for Mr. Rojo.

6) A trip to a cabin in Gatlinburg – Our first cabin trip to Helen was so memorable that even now Mr. Z is still talking about it. So I would love to take them to another cabin trip in Gatlinburg. Maybe we might even hike the trail in the Smokey Mountain Park.. who know?

7) Amicalola Fall – A day trip to the fall will be a nice change for this Fall. I’m sure we will get to see beautiful colorful fall up there in the mountain.

8) Sawnee Mountain Park – This brand new park is so close but yet we haven’t been there. Time to get off from our couch and do some fun stuffs there.

9) Cumming Country Fair & Festival – A small town fair that big enough for us. The kids loved it last year. We will go back again this year.

10) Visit Cabbage Patch Hospital – Because it’s so close and we just have to go there.

11) Biltmore Estate – A visit during Nov will allow us to see the Christmas decoration. I can’t wait.

12) Apple picking – We don’t have that many apple orchards for us to go picking. So I’m still up in the air on this one. The one we went last year, I wasn’t too impressed.

13) Halloween Trick-Or-Treat – I don’t know what they want to be this year yet. I’m not much into fancy dress or costumes. But I just love walking around the neighborhood with them.

Filed Under: Activities, Family

Circus Circus…

September 22, 2008 By 7 Comments

This past weekend we took the monkeys to see the Ringling Bros Circus. Thanks to Koala Brains for sending me the discount code. I wasn’t sure if we will go but I figured Miss J and Mr. Z have never been to the circus before. This will be a great experience for them.

After we picked up our will-call ticket, we headed inside the Arena. As typical for any types of show, there were a lot of toys and souvenirs for sale. I had to say that I was so proud of ourselves. We typcially had to buy one or two sourvenirs. But this time, we didn’t! Well, I guess with the price tag of $15 and up, I couldn’t swallow buying them.
We got there about an hour before showtime to check our All Access Pre-show. It was such a fun experience for them to get to see the performers up-close and personal. They got to try out the circus outfit, watched the performers by the ring side or even participated in some of the performance. They enjoyed it so much that I think if we took them home then they would be satisfied. hehe.. Time to get back to our seats for the real show. We practially got the whole row to ourselves. It was a short row with only 5 seats and we bought 4 out of those 5 seats. Sweet! The location wasn’t so bad either. It was closer than I thought considering it was the cheapest ticket (with discount).
Once the show started, the kids were so mesmorized by the show. They didn’t even move once. The clown was very funny and entertaining. I’m amazed by how he could communicate and made us laugh even without saying anything. I also loved the guy on the bike.. This guy sure knew how to work his bike. It’s amazing things he can do with his bike. Especially, when he rode the tiniest bike.. I think it’s smaller than any toy bike!
After the show, I asked what they like the most. Miss J loves the acrobat on the rope. She was amazing and strong. Imagine climbing the rope without anything else. I loved when she swinged up there.. I was scared for her! Mr. Z loves the group of gymnasts at the end. They did do pretty wonderful twist and jump. For me, I loved the two acrobats on the swing wheels. Oh.. He was amazing to jump on the moving wheel on the outside. Almost gave me the heart attack!
All in all, we had a great time that night. It was fun for kids and they truly enjoyed the show. Now, I have to give you a fair warning that you might see some animal activists there. I will let your own view be the judge on that.
Filed Under: Activities, Family

13 Things We Need for Soccer

September 11, 2008 By 15 Comments

We recently signed Mr. Z up for the soccer. This will be his second year playing soccer. But it will be his first year playing with the real league. I think calling it a league is a loose term. How much can you do with a 4 years old. Anyway, I have 13 things that we need for his soccer game.

1. Soccer shoes

2. Shin Guard

3. Socks

4. Soccer ball

5. Team jersey

6. Sunscreen

7. Water bottle

8. Lawn chairs with umbrella

9. Snacks

10. More snacks

11. Camera

12. Games for sibling

13. Juice or Capri Sun after the game
Filed Under: Activities, Family

The Next Shawn Johnson… Or Not!

August 22, 2008 By 3 Comments

Miss J started her first Gymnastic class on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure if she will enjoy this activity. You see… Miss J is notorious for changing her mind and commitment every 2 hours. I know she is still a kid but I want to instill the idea of responsibility and commitment to her. So we want to make sure that if we sign her up she will finish her class.

I want her to involve in just one sport activity during the school year. So picking the right one is very important. We have tried several sports throughout the year.. Ballet (Can we call it sport? Ok..Maybe activity..), Soccer (which she hardly made it through the season), and Swimming. This year we decided on Gymnastic because I’m so sick of her climbing and flipping on the sofa. I figure at least I will have her in the safer environment to channel her energy and need to flip and jump.

What a perfect timing that the Olympic is on right now. I taped a few Gymnastic events mainly Women All-Around for Miss J to see. I was thinking.. she will get inspired and fire up about doing gymnastic.. Boy!! Was I wrong! She was scare to death. She didn’t want to go to Gymnastic anymore because she didn’t want to jump and fall. It took a good few talks to calm her down and reassure her that they will have the padding for her and the beam won’t be as high. Whew!!! Note to self.. Maybe next time I should choose the event like Floor exercise for her to see instead of Balance beam. :)

Well, how did she do her first day? She LOVES it! She asks to go back every week. Mission accomplished!! I don’t know if she will be the next Shawn Johnson or not but I know that for now she enjoys the activity. That’s what important to me.

Filed Under: Activities, Family

Freebie: Museum Day

August 13, 2008 By 1 Comment

Thanks to Sarah @ Fiddledeedee about this upcoming free admission to nationwide museum.

The Smithsonian Free Museum day is coming up on Saturday – September 27, 2008. So mark your calendar and download your free admission card here. There are hundred of museums participated nationwide. Check out your local museums and plan your fun free family day with your kids.

I know I will.. I plan to take them to the Center for Puppetry Arts this year. We went to the High Museum last year. It will be fun! I can’t wait.

Filed Under: Activities, Family, Saving, Travel in North America

I Walked, I Ran and I Walked

August 6, 2008 By 1 Comment

Yesterday was the first time since a really really long time that I sweat and had my heart rate pumped up.. Since I signed up with the Run/Walk event, I figured I need some training before the real event. After all, I don’t want to get left behind in downtown Atlanta at 8pm. Mr. Rojo has been running in our neighborhood for quite sometimes. He has all the distance down. So based on his information if I walk 4 and a half loop, it will be approximately 3.1 miles the same distance for the 5K Walk/Run.

After dinner, I set out to walk.. I must confess that I don’t like walking. I just want to get it done fast. I can’t stand just walk there. I’m so tempted to run and I did.. Oh! Boy! How out of shape I am. After one block of jogging, I need to come back to reality that I wasn’t ready for the jogging/running scene yet. So walking I did.. I didn’t make it to 4 and a half loops but I did 3 loops. And that was approximately 2 miles. Not bad for the first day.. I must say..

It was such a good feeling to exercise. I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. Check back often to see when I will hit my 3.1 miles goal. Who know maybe after 51 days I might be able to run instead of walk!

Filed Under: Activities

5K Run/Walk, Me?

August 5, 2008 By 1 Comment

When Mr. Rojo told me that our company will sponsor the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk Event, I thought it was a really good idea for *HIM* to do it. I didn’t think I could do it. But after much consideration.. for a whooping 5 minutes, I decided that of course I can do it.. Well, it’s only 5K which equals to 5,000 metres or 3.10685 miles.. Ok now it seems to be very long.

The program is desinged to promote health and fitness among Metro-Atlanta companies and their employees while raising funds for the Atlanta Braves Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta. I consider myself a pretty fit person. Eventhough I haven’t been to the gym since.. ehh forever.

The Run/Walk will be on September 25 in downtown Atlanta area. We will start from Turner Field and loop back. Well, I have about 52 days to get myself ready. Time to get off my lazy butt (can I say that here.. oh well, I just did) and get active.

Filed Under: Activities

Blueberries in Bloom

July 29, 2008 By 5 Comments

Ah.. July is almost over and it’s almost the end of the Blueberries season. I have been checking out various pick-your-own farm from pickyourown.org. This is a great website with list of farms that have pick-your-own fruits and vegetable. The site is updated regularly. So check them out for your own picking pleasure.

Mr. Z is a blueberries lover. He can eat the whole quart in one sitting if I don’t stop him. Funny thing is he loves to eat the frozen blueberries more than the fresh one. So picking our own blueberries and then freeze it will be a perfect thing to do.
So we had decided to go berries picking this past Friday. We had to take the car to the shop in the area near the Berry Patch farm. We left early and dropped the car off at the dealership, a quick breakfast in Chick-Fil-A and we were ready to rock and roll. The farm wasn’t too far from the dealership. We got there right around 8:30am. It was the overcast day so it was perfect. Not too hot for the indoor family like us.

The owner gave us the quick instruction and warned us about some of the poison ivy in the field. Hmmm.. poinson ivy? No one told me that there will be poison ivy. We just need to be more careful when we picked.

The ground was still wet from the morning dew. So it wasn’t very enticing for Mr. Z and Miss J.. They didn’t want to get their feet wet. Kids! There were plenty of blueberries for us to start picking and eating. Since they don’t spray their trees with pesticide, they said it’s safe to eat off the tree.. Yum yum… I have learned a few things about blueberries. For one, it’s not as easy as strawberries picking that we did a couple months ago. This is hard work people!! No wonder it costs so much for such a small container in the grocery store. The tree has sharp branch and you can’t really use any machine to pick it. You have to pick it one by one by hand… Imagine that!

We spent a couple hours there picking. Well, mostly Mr. Rojo did the picking. We ended up with over 2 lbs for the whole pick and the best part was it only costed us less than $5. Afterward, we let the kids play at the swingset they have setup near the entrance of the farm. It was a really nice day. When we left, there were a lot more people rolling in. So if you plan blueberries picking, I suggest plan to go there early. Otherwise, there might not be any berries left for you to pick.

Filed Under: Activities, Family

Building Houses with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity

July 21, 2008 By 4 Comments

This past Saturday Mr. Rojo and I were childless. We left the monkeys with the grandparents while we were out building the Habitat for Humanity house. This is our 2nd year volunteering with the Habitat through our company. It was such a great experience. Last year we helped built a home for a single mom with 2 children. This year we helped built one of the first townhouse in Atlanta. Typically, Habitat built mainly single family home in the Atlanta area. But as we all know the rising cost of land, it has become more expensive to find more afforadable land. So this year the Habitat starts a new project to build townhouse. I am so glad to be a part of this great project.

The day started early at 8am. The site was in the downtown area so for us we had to leave at around 6:30am. There was a paving project on I-75/I-85 that closed 4 left lane.. so we avoided the traffic by going on the local street thanks to our faithful Magellen. We got there right at 8am. Our company and a few other companies worked together on these townhomes. They also provided breakfast, snacks and lunch. After a quick breakfast, we met up with the home leaders who were there to facilitate and assign tasks to all the volunteers.

Before we started, they gave us the safety drill and the background on each of the homeowner. One of the main thing that a lot of people might have the misconception about the Habitat is that the house is free. But it’s NOT. Homeowner, not only has to go through strict background check and financial check, they also have to put in sweat equity of 250 hours with the Habitat. The homeowner is paying for the mortgage themselves. The house is NOT free. However, the price is more affordable due to the help from volunteers to help lower the cost of labor which typically accounts for more than 60% of the home price.

This week was week 6 in the building phase. Each home typically takes about 7 weeks from start to finish. So most of our tasks this day were painting inside and outside, putting up the shingles on the roof and touch up on the porch. Mr. Rojo who afraids of height actually volunteered for the roofing task. And I was so proud of him since he did it! I was working on various painting tasks mostly outside touch up. It was hot. I was in pain after the long hot summer day outside. But there is this sense of accomplishment knowing that what I did today makes a difference in a family life. We will sign up again next year. We are addicted. It’s very addictive doing the work with the Habitat. It was a great Saturday!
So how was your weekend?
Filed Under: Activities

Movie, Moonlight and Starry Night

July 17, 2008 By 5 Comments
What could have been more fun than to watch a movie under the moonlight and the stars. We did just that last Saturday. In our town, we had an annual North Georgia Film Fest which is a part of Georgia Movies in a Park series that was sponsored by Northside Forsyth Hospital. It was an outdoor family-friendly movie festival over a course of 3 days in Cumming. Each night was featuring a free movie on a huge 70 foot Airscreen inflatable movie screen. Along with various pre-movie activities like Clown Circus show, face painting, inflatables jumping slides and moonwalk. There were also various vendors on-site selling drinks, ice cream and hot dogs.. It was a really fun family night.

I have heard about this since last year. We didn’t make it last year. This year one of the movie was ‘Horton Hears a Who!’. We haven’t seen this movie so I thought it would be a great family outing. Plus it was on the Saturday night. Perfect!!

The pre-movie activities started at 7pm and the movie started at dusk. I *was* planning to get there by 7-ish.. But as typical, we didn’t make it there till 8:30pm. It was a little humid in the evening so I thought in hindsight it was good that we didn’t go there too early. Or we might have packed up and left before the movie even started. After getting the kids in their PJs and packed up our car, we got to the park. The parking lot was almost full. I packed a lot of candies, popcorn, snack and drinks. But I forgot the most important thing – Insect Repellent. So after we settled down, I went to get the kids their Slushee.. and then headed out to the drugstore to pick up Off!.

I got back just right in time for the movie to get started. The weather was so perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, not humid.. with breeze throughout the night. We enjoyed our popcorn, drinks and movie under the moonlight. What a perfect Summer night! Before we knew it, the movie was ended and it was time to head home. I was expected that Mr. Z would fall asleep as soon as the movie started. But he wasn’t. He stayed up and watched the whole movie. And after the movie, there was also a Guitar Hero competition. It seemed like a fun night for the teens to hang out as well.

It was a fun fun night. We will make this our annual summer activity. Maybe next year we will make it to pre-movie activities. Also note to self, don’t need to bring the whole pantry of snacks with me.
Filed Under: Activities, Family
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