Jillian Turns 4!

This year for Jillian's 4th birthday adventure we took her to Atlanta for the weekend. Neither Mike nor myself have ever spent any time in Atlanta, outside of the airport of course, so we were all looking forward to exploring our new city in our new state. So, we left Matthew and William with Grammy for the weekend while we drove up to Atlanta for Jillian's water-filled birthday adventure. On the way Jillian watched Finding Nemo on the iPad...love that iPad. Our adventures brought us to the Olympic Centennial Park, in downtown Atlanta, to play in the Fountain of Rings our first night. What a cool place; the kids get to run through the fountains (in the shape of the Olympic Rings) and at 9pm they do the final fountain show where the water shoots up in time to Olympic music. That night we also watched as Atlanta Falcon football fans piled in to the stadium near the CNN headquarters. Jillian saw the big "CNN" and said "Mommy, that's your favorite show, right?" Yes, I love to watch CNN. Anyway, the next day we headed out to the Georgia Aquarium! It's only 5 years old and is the world's largest Aquarium! It is also the only Aquarium that has a Whale Shark--4 of them! They are HUGE and have beautiful spots all over them. We got to pet some sting rays and small sharks, touch some sea anemones, and see a 4D animated movie about how important it is to take care of our oceans. Jillian was pretty amazed with all the different sea creatures and even sat for a characature portrait where the artist turned her in to a mermaid. That made her day! Our next adventure involved swimming at the hotel. We swam like mermaids and we taught Jillian how to swim like a shark too. We couldn't go to Atlanta without stopping at Trader Joe's for some goodies so after loading up on yummy food to take home we bought Jillian her favorite treat--Mango Sorbet. With her sore throat, and the threat of melted sorbet on the car ride home, we allowed Jillian to have it for breakfast on our last morning. What could be better? Once we got home we celebrated with Grammy, Matthew and William by eating a Carvel Ice Cream cake with Ariel on top. Jillian had a great 4th birthday adventure!