Hey hey, my friends! Long time, no talk. Guess we all had some busy and fun weekends. Sounds good to me! Looking for some good reads from the weekend?

• Love ‘Em and Leave “Em
• Shrinking Carrie’s Self-Love Reflection

Let me fill you in on the rest now. After I left you on Saturday morning, Peter and I had a lot planned for the day. I showered up and packed up the kids for a long, fun day ahead. We had plans for one of our fall traditions!

We hit the road a little before lunch time and got about halfway to our destination before Makenzie had to potty. We stopped at a grocery store for a bathroom break and both felt the hunger strike. The store had a huge salad bar, so we made that work for lunch.

We made our pit stop as quick as possible to get back on our way to the North Georgia region. I love going there this time of year. Look how pretty!

After about an hour of driving, we made it to our first stop – the North Georgia Corn Maze! We normally visit a corn maze and pumpkin patch closer to home (the one we visited for Makenzie’s field trip), but discovered a Groupon deal and decided to check out this site instead.

There was hay bale jumping…

…and some silly fun…

…before finally settling in for the two main events. First up? A hay ride through the amazing scenery.

I loved this place’s hay ride. They really took you on a longer ride and you got to see a LOT more than at other ones we have visited. Family photo op!

Gotta love photos with kids! Ha!

Once the hay ride finished, we made our way through the corn maze

.

I much preferred other corn mazes. This one was small and not very well organized. I nearly killed myself tripping over the mass amounts of rogue corn all over the paths. That could just be me and my clumsy ways, though. No matter. We still had a GREAT time there.

Moral of the Story: A deal ALWAYS wins with us! And nothing compares to the free beauty of seeing this…

From there, we weren’t far off from another one of my favorite fall traditions.

Oktoberfest in Helen! Helen is a small “Alpine town” in North Georgia with a ton of cute shops, biergartens, tubing down the river (not in this cold!), horse drawn carriages, and other such fun.

After walking around the town and perusing a few shops – glassblowing is my favorite! – we stopped for an “afternoon snack”. In other words – a reason to get some beer in Helen.

We picked both the lighter and darker Oktoberfest seasonal brews to share. I’m an amber girl all the way. The light one didn’t do it for me in the least. But the darker Oktoberfest? Yes, please!

I also say “Yes, please!” to the following part of our Helen tradition.

A hunk of Peanut Butter Swirl fudge from Hansel & Gretel’s Candy Kitchen. I long for their fudge and we get some every year. It’s gone by now. Duh.

Moral of the Story: A salad bar lunch leaves plenty of room for beer and fudge later. Good thing. Very good thing.

And I can’t end the weekend without brining up a certain special part.

The night ended on a very high note. Since we were out gallivanting around town all day, we had to record the Georgia-Florida game. We watched it later on Saturday night (while eating our fudge, no less) and were quite pleased with the outcome…

which I found out thanks to Twitter (I’m looking at you Brittany! haha!) before even starting to watch. It didn’t make Georgia’s victory any less sweeter, though!

Moral of the Story: Stay away from social media if you want to be surprised of the outcome of something. And Go Dawgs!

But perhaps the biggest moral story of them all – nothing beats a weekend unplugged and spending time with my family. Hope you had a good one too!

• What would be the “moral of the story” for your weekend?
• What is one of your favorite fall traditions?

Good morning! Did you all have a fabulous weekend? I sure hope so! We had a great time around here. Although, exhausting!

I kicked off the weekend with one of my final long runs before Savannah. That means in less than TWO WEEKS I will be running my first half marathon!!!!! 

The run went really well. I did 12 uneventful miles.

Uneventful is a wonderful thing. I dressed well enough for the weather so I didn’t die of cold in the 40 degree weather (go ahead and mock me, you Northerners!). I kept a steady pace. I had no pain and didn’t battle any mental walls to finish. I just trod along until I finished and it felt fab-u-LOUS.

The only downside I had was that I think I tied my shoes too tight. The top of my right foot hurt – no stabbing pain, just tender – for the rest of the day and part of Sunday. So, odd.

Do note, however, that running 12 miles and then having to turn around right away to prep and throw a toddler birthday party is no small task. I had just enough downtime for breakfast, an ice bath, and a shower, before I had to break into party mode for the birthday girl.

 

I didn’t have too much to do because I managed to pick the perfect snacking arrangement. We had:

Flower Cheese Crackers (wheat thins with cheese cutouts using a mini flower cookie cutter and finished off with a mini pepperoni)

Fruit & Pink Dip (berry Chobani Champions yogurt with grapes + strawberries)

Princess Party Mix (random assortment of kid loves – popcorn, pretzels, and pastel colored marshmallows)

Spinach & Artichoke Dip (my mom’s special dip she offered to bring – OH. YUM!)

It turned into the perfect spread for the perfect birthday party day at the park.

The kids snacked, ran around, and fed the ducks.

Then, came time for the special cake!!! Sadly, I didn’t get a great shot of it…but it was a princess with a cake dress made to look like Belle’s on top of a cake “stage”.

Makenzie was in love. Go figure.  

All in all, it was a perfect party and I had such a great time! But, man, it wiped me out! I literally crawled into bed right after laying the kids down. Then, promptly slept for ten hours straight. Oh, how I would love to sleep ten hours every night!

• What was the most tiring thing you did this weekend? And, then…what was the most relaxing?
• What is your favorite kind of dip? Mine is my mom’s spinach & artichoke dip by far!!! I ate two very hefty servings on Saturday and wish I had more!