Father's Day Weekend...

We just got home from our weekend in Birmingham. It was Father's Day weekend and Rich wanted to be with all of his girls...he hadn't seen the new house since the move-in...Claire wanted to see us.  It was an easy decision :)

Heading out on Friday for dinner...

Saturday 9:00am...first stop the downtown Farmer's Market

Claire "borrowed" Chelsea's wild sunglasses

Nicole and Claire check out the blueberries

Rich took this sign to heart...he had a sausage biscuit, a cinnamon roll, and a coffee popsicle...

The tomatoes were beautiful AND they tasted like tomatoes...so we had to get some!

Time to go but we were loaded down with peaches, blueberries, tomatoes,

 corn on  the cob, and a basil and spearmint plant.  Next stop the Botanical Gardens to check out the rose garden and play a little hide and seek!

Pop and Claire brave the water sculpture...

Why don't my roses look this good????

Fathers and daughters...

                             

GiGi and Claire...the green girls!

Now for hide and seek...

While Claire and Katelyn take a romp through the gardens

 Nicole and David decide to stroll...

After a busy morning it is time for lunch...and a nap!!

Fun with Claire before church on Sunday...

When it is time to go and she says..."I go to your house to see Gabby..."

I just want to say "Let's go!!

London 2012 Olympics...100 days til the fun begins!

Can you believe that there are only 100 days until the Summer Olympics begin?...did you even realize?? I like the spirit of the Olympics...the athletes who have trained and competed for an opportunity to represent their country on a world stage...the pageantry...and of course the games themselves!

In 1992 the games were held in Barcelona...I was very pregnant with Katelyn and the four of us had escaped Panama City and were staying at a condo in San Destin for a long weekend.  Chelsea was not yet two, and Nicole was ten!  We spent most of our time by the pool and in front of the television watching America's basketball "Dream Team" dazzle the world!  

We decided we wanted to experience the Olympics first hand and so three years later we joined the "pool" for tickets to the games in Atlanta.  We got tickets to the equestrian, badminton, and basketball events which we split up between the Dodd clan!!  We stayed about an hour and a half north of Atlanta in Hidden Hollow Resort...and that was an adventure in itself!!  Imagine us with 6 kids...5 under the age of 6!!  Oiyyyy...

Nicole was the perfect age (14) to be inspired and though she couldn't cash in on any great athletic ability, she was a very successful pin collector!  Most pin dealers in Centennial Park were sooo nice and accommodating and helped her out when she was buying and "trading" pins! 

By the end of our Olympic adventure, Nicole had collected 55 pins...(and when she gets into that new house with all of the great storage...the pin collection along with the wedding dress and various other things will make the journey up interstate 65 to their new home)!!

Getting back to the 92 Olympics, you might wonder if we were anywhere near Centennial Park when the pipe bomb, set off by Eric Rudolph, exploded...Rich and Dave had gone to a basketball game that night and were actually in Centennial Park around midnight waiting in the long line for one of the buses to take them to the satellite parking.  The rest of us were out in the mountains at the "resort" battling field mice in the bunk room...we had no idea!  The one upside to that situation was that many people packed up and went home.  We packed up and moved to a HOTEL closer to the city...we were still so naive about terrorism at that time...and besides we had tickets to see riveting badminton matches and horses jumping fences...what memories... Now we proudly cheer on the home team from the comfort of our home :) 

I am curious if anyone out there is an Olympic fan?  Do you like the ceremonies?  Do you have a favorite sport or athlete that you follow?  Do you enjoy the special interest stories that the NBC team digs up?  Are you excited about the addition of Women's Boxing???  Check out London Summer Olympics 2012 – Intro just for fun!!  Meanwhile, I will go do my 5 miles...and get my smoothie...I am training for old age!!

Stay tuned as this is the first post in my series...London 2012!!

A Day at the Zoo...

On Claire's last day of her "Spring Break" Pop and I took her to Zoo World to see the animals.  She is still too young to understand what we mean when we say we are going to the zoo!  But she loves animals so off we went! 

There were lots and lots of monkeys including this rather interesting guy who had only one tooth...Claire wasn't too impressed!

 Tigers and lions, however, are a different story (thank you Lion King)!!

                   She liked the giraffe and enjoyed feeding it with Pop...we didn't get a picture, but I actually fed it the traditional way...food in outstretched hand

                                              
        Pop bought her a "lion king" but she wanted to ride the real one and wasn't too happy about leaving without accomplishing her goal!!

 No worries...we were pretty certain that the park would distract her! All the slides and bridges did the trick!

That evening we went over to the Old Florida Fish House  for dinner.
Claire is the typical girl...must put her "lipstick" on!

                           A wonderful end to a wonderful week :)

On Saturday morning Nicole, David, and Claire headed back to Birmingham and so ends our official spring break 2012...before I know it Chelsea and Katelyn will be home for summer!!

Five For Friday

 

Friday...time for some weekend fun and Five For Friday...

1) I have been RElearning the game of chess.  Rich and I set up the board last weekend and after reviewing the rules we played a couple of games in which he did nothing drastic (like checkmate within 4 moves)....Of course as we continue to play he lets me make the move and then instructs...I am missing a lot of obvious moves at this point!! 

2) St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner so we are "puttin on the green"...

We have been going to our dear friends the Delaneys for St. Patrick's dinner for well over a decade now.  As the girls have grown and all gone off to college we have become very laid back about it all...sometime during the month of March when the largest group can gather we have our traditional dinner of Corned Beef (and potatoes and or cabbage) and Soda Bread.  This is an acquired taste kind of menu but we all love it (except Pam...but she cooks it anyway :)

This year the dinner is tomorrow night so Megan, Chelsea, and Katelyn will be able to come as well as Rich's mom and dad!  I am doing dessert this year and have chosen something special I found on Pinterest...more about that in the next post...but it it will incorporate chocolate and mint! 

This particular shade of green is not a color everyone has hanging in the closet to wear, so I jumped on these sweet little green shamrock earrings at the Brighton store over in Destin Commons last month. They had 4 pairs left so we will be covered for dinner tomorrow night and I will send Nicole her pair...no pinches for us ;)!!

3) While I am on this Irish jig...here is a book recommendation for all of you that love a series, a family saga, history, and a good love story...

In the first book we meet the villagers of Ballynockanor including

the lovely widow Kate Donovan Garrity and the stranger in town named Joseph...

I loved this series...maybe it is time to read it again??!!

4) Finally, finally after almost a year of talking about and looking for it...I have found my new "office"...it is on its way and will look beautiful in the sun room and will be used daily for years and years to come! 

this is a picture of it in the Wisteria catalog

 

 5) This weekend ushers in Daylight Savings Time...that means the clock SPRINGS forward an hour...which typically means a lot of people are late for church on Sunday morning! It seems like this clock has already sprung loose!!

I hope you enjoy your weekend whatever it may bring!!