General update/ photo drop

Oh my gosh, how long has it been since I did one of these?!?!  

About 6 weeks. I seem to be writing more on topics than general ramblings.  Better change that quick smart.  Try and keep up, while I bombard you with photos of our lives.  I apologize if I repeat myself in any way shape or form.

So a couple weekends ago we went to Lake Conastee Nature Park.  We have been to Conastee Park before, they have loads of play equipment and plenty of baseball pitches.  This is the other side of the Lake.  It is more of a bird watching / nature reserve place.  It was a beautiful day, and we had lots of fun walking / running on the paths.  They form part of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which they are constantly updating and maintaining here in Greenville.

This is an adorable picture of two of my favorite people. They both look so happy here.  Notice the garden furniture is out?  It is finally getting warm here.  Although it is rainy today, it is still 76 degrees......

We recently took a trip to Helen in Georgia.  You can read more about that here.

Th boys had a great time hunting for eggs on Easter Sunday.  Even if they were in their pajamas still

Sebastian was more inclined to eat what he found straight away, rather than hunt for more.....

I have been doing a shed load of baking.  We have stopped buying bread, as it just wasn't very nice.  I am now making a loaf a day to keep up with what we all eat.  At least this way we know the majority of what goes into our food.

I am also making a batch of about 40 cookies each week.  I found an awesome recipe on the choc chip pack from Costco.  A slight tweak on the time and temperature, and they make awesome snacks.  Not sure I have bought any packs of cookies or biscuits for about 6 weeks.  I am also making my own rice crispie treats, with decorations, which the boys love.  Next up is fruit jelly snacks.  I have tried one recipe, but they end up as jelly blocks, rather that gummy sweets.  Again, a slight tweak on the ingredients will probably do it, but we have to eat what we have first!

Isaacs behavior had been better for 6 weeks.  Until yesterday.  Funny, he started eating a certain snack type yogurt over the weekend, after not having it for six weeks.  We introduce it, and boom, email home about behavior.  Think we will be knocking them on the head for good.

Do you like my painting?  I went out on a Friday night with some ladies form a local Facebook group to Corks and Colours at Southern Galleries in Simpsonville.  It was a bring your own bottle painting evening.  It was great. I am really pleased with my picture!

Cocktail Friday is still going strong.  Don't forget to check back here every friday to see what concoctions we have been drinking recently!

This is a screen shot of a photo I pasted on Instagram.  See those likes???  They are all Monster Jam drivers!!!!!  If only they could know how truly OBSESSED Sebastian is with monster jam. We have a few recorded, and that is all he wants to watch.  He plays with the monster trucks when he is not watching them.  He thinks he is a monster truck and uses the sofa as his course.... 

This is my friend Amber.  She is another Zumba instructor.  We recently got together and choreographed 'Chica Practica'.  You can check it out here on her YouTube Chanel.

Check out the flower on my strawberry plant!  I got these in the ground too late last year to fruit, though they did send off tones of runners.  I have so many flowers this year it is ridiculous.  There are load of little strawberries coming along.  Yaaaaayyyyyy!!!  Think I will do a full post on my veggies patch soon, it is certainly coming along.

And in case you missed it, Oliver had the titanium plates laced in his ear recently.  You can read more about it here.

I did my Zumba Gold training this weekend.  It was awesome.  Ali the trainer was really good, I had a lot of fun, and learnt a few more rhythms.  

                                          

I am so enjoying my Zumba at the moment, and am looking out for a subbing opportunity very soon.  I am leading a song at a Zumbathon this weekend.  It is a charity event for the Make a Wish SC, so if you are in the area, please come along

Thats all for now! 

Helen, Georgia

We wanted so badly to go away over Easter weekend, but alas, we left it too late for anywhere decent that we wanted to go.  Seeing as Oliver was still recuperating, and I was getting my sugars level on my insulin pump (more on that next time), we decided to try and do some day trips.

I had heard about Helen in Georgia.  Many of my friends had been there, and people had advised going to see it so on Good Friday we took a drive up.  It is about 100 miles from here, and took about 2 hours.

The thing that makes Helen such a must see is its styling.  In 1969 the town was failing as a logging town, so they  zoned all the buildings to become replicas of a Bavarian alpine town.  Even the chain stores that are in the town are in buildings that you would expect to find in the Alps, not north east Georgia!

Weird?

We parked up (good bye $5) and had a little walk around.  Most of the shops were typically aimed at tourists with your fudge place, old time photography and souvenir shops.  Very similar to Gaitlinburg.

We had lunch at the Castle Inn.  It may have been 11.30, but I had a beer.  Paul was more sensible with a soda, the same as the boys.  Paul ordered a German special wurst, I had a club sandwich.  Isaac and Sebastian had grilled cheese sandwiches, and Oliver had a burger.  The food wasn't great.  The service wasn't good either.  It really was a well oiled tourist restaurant.  The staff were constantly observing you, as soon as you were finished and paid, the table was clear.  It was more like a processing plant than a restaurant.  It wasn't even that busy!  Maybe they expected to get busy later in the day.  We were not very impressed.

We went for a walk around the town.  It was all very picturesque.

We headed up to the local park, so the boys couldhave a play.  Hooray, somewhere where you were not trying to be sold something or having to part with your money in one way, shape or form.  The kids enjoyed it too!

We headed back to the car. By now it was only about 1pm.  I had seen that there was a State Park nearby and a waterfall nearby, so we decided to head there.  To get to Anna Ruby Falls you had to drive through Unicoi State Park.  Very beautiful. Especially on a warm spring day.

We had to pay $3 each per person over 16 to enter the Anna Ruby Falls area, as it is run by the Cradle of Forestry in America (not an organization I had heard of!) And not the state parks.  This was a very reasonable price.  We parked, and headed up towards the falls.  There were quite a few people around, and they allow dogs.

This was one of the first signs we saw.....

We made it to the falls.

They are beautiful. 

They are twin falls, where two different streams join at the bottom of the falls to just one creek, Smith Creek.  This then leads into Smith Lake, the centerpiece of Unicoi State Park.  It was so pretty there, and nice and cool by the falls.  As we were descending back down, you  could notice the rise in temperature as you moved away from the falls itself.

And this delightful sign, reminding you that you are in the Deep South......

As we drove back to Helen, the boys mentioned that they had spotted a mini golf course on the way through.  I had seen more than one, but thought it best to keep my mouth shut.

That was the next stop.  With mini golf, the boys play while Paul and I spectate/ referee.  We were stuck behind another family, so Paul and I ended up potting a couple of balls.  Guess who got a hole in one?  ME!!!!  I really am not keen on mini golf, so this was a complete surprise.

Seb always gets a little confused when we get to the 18th hole, and the ball disappears forever.....We don't keep score, but I think we are near to playing a little bit more seriously.....

That will be interesting.........