Pelham,Alabama

After leaving Atlanta on Chandler's birthday, we headed for Alabama to meet with Clay's friend and business partner, Antonio. Clay and Antonio met this summer during the Week of Champions and it didn't take long for them to realize they were soul mates, meant to be together as often as possible! (can I get an Amen, Gloria?)

We went to Pelham, a suburb of Birmingham, and truly enjoyed getting to know Antonio's family better.

While the men spent time working, the kids and I explored the area.
We visited Oak Mountain State park, where Chandler cried... literally cried... all the way up The Peavine Falls trail, thanks to the confidence his father has shown in my driving ability. The poor kid just knew I was going to drive us over the next curve...
We made it up and down and they all relaxed enough towards the end to enjoy the beauty of the area.
You will also see a handful of shots at football practice... where Mr. Antonio spends a lot of time helping the local middle and high school teams perfect their game:

VIEW AS SLIDESHOW

Chandler's 9th Birthday

Monday was Chandler's 9th Birthday. It felt like we had been celebrating all weekend already, but we tried to make the actual day feel special. We were due to checkout of our hotel, but before we did, I took the kids for a celebratory dip in the hotel's roof pool... it has an indoor and outdoor, and on this particular morning, the outdoor was actually warmer than the indoor (but the wind outside was another ...very cold... story)

After check out, we drove to the Blue Willow Inn, in Social Circle GA for a special lunch... yummy as usual. I brought Chandler's cake out at this time and he was truly surprised, as we had told him all along that we would probably buy him a small cake since we were traveling. We had also told him that the adventure itself was a gift, so there wouldn't be any real gifts to open, but he got a Garfield (his favorite comedian) DVD and Magic Treehouse Book set... both strategically chosen to give him car activities for the trip home.

Turns out the return trip home morphed into a 2 day layover in Alabama ( nowhere near our path home, mind you) Chandler was thrilled as he has always wanted to "see what Alabama looks like" Clay ran with that as the whole reason we were going, but really had business to tackle, so it was win-win for both Clay and Chan.
Chandler had more presents waiting on him at home- presents he didn't expect to receive- at first I thought this would lessen his birthday experience, to drive to Alabama instead of home to surprise him with these few little gifts, but getting to open them today was icing on the cake so to speak, as he absolutely adores Mr. Antonio's kids, and football, and Sweet Home Alabama...
Of his birthday, Chandler says "It was great!"

VIEW AS SLIDESHOW

Pat-A-Cake

While the boys took in a Falcons game on Sunday, I got busy constructing Chandler's birthday cake.
I had messaged a friend, Shantel of Heavenly Cakes, back home in Augusta to see if the layers would hold up if I made them in advance.. after she told me the best way to preserve them, I had the courage to take the pre-made layers with me to the hotel, along with an entire arsenal of cake decorating supplies.
I made the icing in the Ice Bucket (don't worry, I washed it thoroughly first) and mixed individual colors in the water glasses. The room's desk served as an excellent work space, though I'm not sure the hotel staff would've been thrilled to see it covered in powdered sugar.
After I assembled the layers and frosted them with a thin blue coat of icing, I rolled out fondant that I had colored blue a day or two earlier (to give it time to dry) to cover the ball shaped cake, then on fondant "continents" with icing... I had previously traced, cut out and painted them with gel color, also a day or so early, in respect of drying time...
I gave everything a final gel coloring coat and used white icing to pipe on a message. I added the toppers that would fit under the cake dome, while readying the ones too tall for just before the cake was served.
I covered the cake dome in wrapping paper so as to veil the cake in the event that Chandler saw it- though we told him all along a homemade cake wasn't possible while on the road...

Everything went more smoothly than I figured it would and Chandler was genuinely surprised not only to have a cake, but that the cake was all the things we have been talking about recently:
Travel, Maps, Food Network, favorite travel shows etc.

On the cake was a red convertible ( tipping a hat to both "Road Tasted" and Guy Fieri's Diners show) In the convertible was Paula Deen- Chan's local favorite- the Neelys, the Road Tasted couple that he had gotten tickets to see on Friday, Jeff Corwin-(the Jeff Corwin Experience) one of his favorite travel show hosts and Dave Stotts (Drive Thru History) another favorite host and Alton Brown...food scientist.

We called the cake the "BoomDeYada Birthday cake, because that song- our homeschool theme song- fits Chandler's love for exploring the world around him to a tee.

VIEW AS SLIDESHOW