As I mentioned in my Lazy Days of Summer post I am trying to enjoy this summer so I decided to only take a limited number of summer sessions this year because we had a few trips planned and I wanted to slow down and enjoy this great season.   Our summer was off to a busy start – two days after my girls were done with school we boarded a plane and went down to Georgia to visit my sister and her family.    This was the first time that we spent a whole week there – and what a fun week it was!  It was a perfect combo of taking it easy and adventuring.

The girls LOVED spending time with their cousins – and they did a lot of that:

My oldest niece turned 10 and my sister (who is an amazingly talented party planner) threw her this awesome art party that the girls were thrilled to attend:

we spent time at home with the grandparents – who were in town for the party:

and hung out at the pool (seeing my parents come down a water slide was an added bonus!)

we ate donuts (Donut Theory in Alpharetta is pretty awesome!)

and made s’mores:

we jumped on trampolines and did cartwheels in isles of stores:

we went to see Cabbage Patch Kids being born (Babyland General Hospital was a lot more fun that I thought it would be!) and witnessed momma cabbage patch give birth to a cabbage patch baby:

we went to Apline Helen for some yummy german food and some old time dress up photos:

we explored a local mine and did some gold panning and gem searching:

we took lots and lots of pictures, watched all 8 Harry Potter movies, did not get much sleep and had the most amazing time!

and before we knew it it was time to say our good-byes and head back home…. what made saying good-bye easier was knowing that we would see them in New Jersey in a bit over a week!