Cheekwood Art Camp - Guest Post by Nana

Nana took Addie and Landon to Art Camp at Cheekwood June 6-10. Here is her recap of the week! Thanks, Nana, for writing about it and even more for taking them. They had a blast!!!

We are members of Cheekwood so we take our grandchildren there as much as we can. I received notification about the Summer Art Programs at the end of 2010. John Michael & Nathaniel had attended art camp as children and given Addie’s artistic abilities, I knew I wanted to take both Addie and Landon. The classes are highly prized and fill up fast. I was traveling on Saturday, January 22 on the sign up day and was frantically trying to get online, email and call to be sure we got a space. That afternoon the Camp Director left me a message that we were signed up. I WAS SO EXCITED!!! WE WERE GOING TO ART CAMP!

June 6 rolls around and John Michael brings Addie and Landon to our house. They were very excited. I was too. Landon & I were enrolled in the 2-4 yr Guardian & Child ARTStart – Summer Sampler from 9:00-11:00. Addie was enrolled in the 5-6 yr Mixed Media Madness from 9:00-12:00 then in Summer Sampler from 1:00-4:00. The “plan” was for Landon and I to hangout and wait for Addie, then have a picnic and Addie would go back for her afternoon session. Landon & I were to be flexible and hang out in the gardens or go to the office. The weather was beautiful and clear but HOT – 95+ degrees every day.

Miss Adrian was our teacher and we learned about lines the first day. We colored, pasted and painted. Landon enjoyed it. Addie’s morning teacher was Miss Aimee and she worked in water colors and made a nice painting. I packed a picnic lunch for us on Monday and Landon and I played with leaves and made airplanes to pass the time until Addie was out (note to self bring more to do tomorrow). After Addie went back to her class, Landon and I went to the office because the gardens are closed on Monday. We came back to pick Addie up and she did an amazing painting in Miss Rachel’s class (Miss Aimee’s non-identical twin sister). Addie was explaining that you can “fill the page with color” which she did. I think that was an AH-HA moment for her.

Tuesday we painted with large sweeping strokes. Mostly Landon was interested in eating all his snacks – that boy can pack it away! Addie brought home more watercolor paintings. A lot of the things she did had different things to add each day. She always came out of every class beaming! Landon and I picked up chicken strips at Publix and came back for another picnic. The locusts were still out so Addie basically sat in my lap, scared of the bugs. Landon and I spent the afternoon in the gardens visiting the bullfrogs and dragonflies in the pond and the train exhibit. We met up with Addie’s class at the trains also. Cindy Jo’s husband, John, is one of the train engineers at the exhibit. He let Landon hold Thomas The Train and wear one of the engineer’s hats! All the classes had outdoor time all week to visit the museum, the gardens, the trains and to gather items for class. While Landon and I enjoyed it, it was WAY too hot. We spent the rest of the afternoons that week at the office.

Wednesday, Landon and I worked with texture and made some clay tablets. Lunch, requested hot dogs from home, was eaten outside at the picnic table close to the building where there weren’t many locusts. After the first day, Nana knew to bring books, markers and paper to pass the time until it was time to go back to class. That girl NEVER got tired of drawing. Matter of fact, she drew at our house in the mornings until we left and drew in the car to and from class.

Thursday, Landon and I glazed our clay tablets and did resist printing. He enjoyed rolling the paint on the plexiglass. Addie continued to work on her projects to bring home at the end of the week. She always had a little something to show for her day though. We met Daddy and PaPa for lunch at the Sportsman’s Grill at the Hwy 70-100 split. It was nice to be in the air conditioning. It was cute, they both wanted to sit next to PaPa so he sat in between them.

Friday was hat day. We worked on small projects, as we were to clear everything out for the week. Landon and I made a mobile out of sticks and leaves he colored. Addie requested McDonald’s for lunch so Landon & I went out to pick it up. I was surprised when she said she wanted to have a picnic. We did and the locusts were not as bad. Addie brought some neat projects she made, a painted turtle made out of a bowl and an interesting sculpture head. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a self-portrait or not.

All in all it was a good week and I was thrilled to get to spend so much time with my grandchildren. What a treasure! A few weeks later, I asked them if they enjoyed Art Camp. Addie beamed saying yes and she would love to go back next year. I asked Landon if he wanted to go back and he resoundingly said “NOOOO” - not just NO but NOOOO! Oh well, we’ll find something else special to do with him. It was still a great experience.

Landon and Uncle John at the trains

Nana and her babies!

It really was...

the "happiest place on earth." For the week at least :)

We got back from Disney World (two weeks ago) and had SO MUCH FUN! It was my first time to go (I love the reaction I get whenever I tell people that :)) and it exceeded my very high expectations.

We left Saturday morning around 8 a.m. To say I was dreading the car ride would be the understatement of the year :) (Airfare for four just wasn't in the budget due to the last-minute-ness of our trip.) We were set up with a new DVD player for the car - one that has screens for each headrest - and John Michael and I had discussed not turning them on until it was necessary. After all, we survived car trips as kids without them, right? We had a movie going before we were on the interstate :) Ha!

The kids were absolutely WONDERFUL in the car. Landon had one meltdown (again, this was before we had left town and let us know it was "time" for DVDs :)) and after that, they were angels. We stopped at an awesome rest stop (seriously) just past Chattanooga and got the kids popsicles and that just about made their day. We then stopped for lunch a little before Atlanta and let the kids run off some energy. I will say that if I didn't adore Chick-Fil-A before this trip, this would've really sealed the deal. LOVE that place :)

We kept on with our trip and Landon took a good nap. This thrilled Addie as she got to choose two movies in a row - ha! Once he woke up, we took an ice cream break at a Dairy Queen, and then headed on to our stop for the night in Valdosta. Our "BFF"s, the D'Amicos, had already arrived at the hotel and so we met up with them for dinner. We took the kids to a park and let them get out (nearly) 8 hours worth of stored-up energy, and then headed back to the hotel room to get some rest before completing our journey Sunday morning.

First, I have to say that my little chatterbox Landon was so stinking cute when we were trying to get him to fall asleep. He kept asking us all if we were still awake and talking to us about our day and how we were going to see Mickey. If I hadn't been giggling so much, he probably would've had an easier time going to bed. Hindsight. :)

So we got up Sunday morning and headed on our way - only four hours left to get to Orlando. The trip went fine - the kids were just completely tired of being in the car. We got to the rental house and their energy came right back! We searched vrbo.com to find a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a swimming pool that was about 10-15 minutes away from the parks. It was a great deal and it was nice to have the option to cook and also be able to wash clothes. The kids loved having the swimming pool right there, too. The one bummer is that the hot tub wasn't able to be used. That would've been reeeeally nice after some of our long days walking miles and miles at Disney!

Anyway, after a rough time getting the kids settled on Sunday night (and by kids, I mean the ones 5 years old and under and myself - I was soooo excited), our Disney week was officially underway!

Monday morning, we got to the park super early. We had planned on getting to the park (Magic Kingdom) right when it opened, which we thought was 8 a.m. After a few stumbles in the plan, we arrived at 8:30. I was a little disappointed, because I had heard about the "rope drop" that happens upon opening. Well, turns out the park didn't open until 9 a.m., so we were there with plenty of time to spare! We were thankful for our lolly-gagging kids and the wrong turns we had taken, after all, as waiting to get into the park for an HOUR would've really pushed everyone over the edge :)

Us waiting with our "1st Visit" buttons!

The rope drop was quite cute. All the characters came in on the train and they sang and danced for a few minutes. Then, they opened up the park, and we were off!

We rode all the good "little" rides (Dumbo, Peter Pan, It's a Small World - which I admittedly LOVED - Toy Story), watched Philharmagic (awesome!!!!), watched one of the shows at the castle (can't remember the name) and watched a parade (can't remember the name of that one, either :)). But the highlight of our day was when we went to see the princesses at the Town Square Theatre. Addie was excited, but I must say that Landon was ECSTATIC! It was absolutely precious to see both of their faces when we walked into the room with Cinderella, Belle and Aurora. And I must say that the actresses were absolutely wonderful. They were so kind and didn't rush the kids at all. And they talked to them like adults, which surprised me (I guess I admit that I expected "kiddie talk" or something :)). I may have been a little giddy myself, and I was never a "princess" girl growing up!

Belle, Addie and Landon discussing the "Beast" on Landon's shirt (a tiger with the words "Wild Thing" :))

We headed back to the house and ate dinner in on Monday night, and then the four of us went back to the park for the Electrical Parade and fireworks (the D'Amicos decided to call it a day, and we almost followed suit, but I'm glad we didn't!). Ah-mazing. It really was magical. Addie fell asleep right after the parade so she missed all the fireworks, but Landon was awake to watch them and he and I shared a Dole Whip (yum). He fell asleep very shortly after they were done, and rather than try to exit the park with the thousands of others, we went against the crowd and walked around for another half-hour or so. John Michael and I really enjoyed this "quiet" time! Plus, it was quite cool to see everything all lit up :)

Tuesday, we pretty much took it easy all day (swam, played hide-and-seek) and then decided to head to Downtown Disney for dinner. One of my work friends had suggested T-REX for dinner, but when I had tried to make a reservation online, I had no luck. Kris called and was told that if we arrived before 4:15 or after 8:30, we should be okay. We thought that sounded way too early (the later time wasn't even an option with the kids, of course) but decided to head down to check everything out anyway. By the time we got there, we decided to give it a shot, and got right in (at about 4:45)! With a party of 8, we were pretty excited about this! The timing actually worked great for dinner, and the restaurant was SO COOL! Dinosaurs everywhere and they had a "meteor shower" every 20 minutes. Addie wasn't the biggest fan ("It's too scary!", but Landon, Holland and Quinn LOVED it! After dinner, we went to the Lego Store where the boys all built with the Legos outside the store, and to the huge Disney store where Addie got her most prized possession, her Cinderella dress (the other parts to the outfit were obtained day by day - she had actually gotten the gloves the day before).

Wednesday, John Michael and I decided to take Addie and Landon back to Magic Kingdom to revisit the princesses, see Mickey and Minnie and check out Frontierland and Adventureland. We did "It's a Small World" again and also rode "Splash Mountain"! Addie went with John Michael and I went by myself. I think Addie was braver than I was! I no longer apparently have the thrill-seeker mentality that I used to. I spent most of my ride trying to convince myself that I would more than likely not die so I should just relax and enjoy it. Yes, I'm serious :)

Thursday was another take-it-easy day with an evening in Downtown Disney. Our dinner was terrible (not to mention overpriced!) at a place called Cap'n Jacks. However, we found a margarita stand where I got an awesome grapefruit margarita :) And the kids played in some little water fountains and had a blast. Landon kept getting squirted in the face and he found it hilarious. Within a few minutes there were about 5 or 6 people who had gathered to watch him and they were laughing hysterically. I didn't know whether to be offended or giggle with him (and I know you all know which I chose :)). They were all commenting on how stinkin' cute he is. What a little mess :) We also walked over to Pleasure Island. It looked fun! It'll definitely be somewhere we'll go back if we're ever there with babysitters!

Our last day was Friday. This was one of the two days that we had "planned" out. And I still use that word quite loosely, because if you talk to many families preparing for a Disney vacation, they have every. single. hour. planned out. Not us, and I am SO glad we didn't. No room for disappointment :) ANYWAY - we planned for Friday to be our Hollywood Studios day because it was a Star Wars Weekend, and Holland and Quinn (and all the grownups, of course) love Star Wars. I admit - it was so cool seeing all the Storm Troopers walking around. We also got to see the Star Wars parade which was AWESOME and very well done! John Michael and Addie went on the Star Wars ride but since there was a height requirement, Landon could not go. We went with Quinn and Lynn to play at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" area instead. Very cool, but Lynn and I decided it should've been called "Honey, I Lost the Kids" because it was pretty difficult to keep up with them! We also all did the Toy Story Mania ride (VERY fun!). For lunch, we did the character dining at Hollywood & Vine. Leo and June (from Little Einsteins), Handy Manny, and Special Agent Oso were there and walked around. Addie and Landon adored them. They were so excited to see them and give them hugs and get their autographs. We had hesitated doing this lunch because character dining is fairly expensive, but we were SO GLAD we did! The look of pure joy on the kids' faces made it completely worth it :) We then went to the Little Mermaid show and a Disney Junior puppet show. The kids were enthralled. Nothing like having all your favorite Disney shows all packed into one 27-minute show.

We all packed up Friday night and left Saturday morning. Like all vacations, the end was bittersweet. We had so much fun but were of course ready to get back home! We had one more stop though - we stayed Saturday night and all day Sunday (we left at about 10pm...not smart...) at our friend Nick's dad's home at Lake Martin in Alabama. It was amazing. We actually got a full day to relax and enjoy the sun and water!

We didn't get home until 2 a.m. Sunday and boy, were we exhausted. But we had so much fun! The only complaint we had was that it was HOT, but hey - nothing we could've done about that :) We can't wait to go back!

This poster summed up our trip perfectly.