Shop 'Til You Drop- Part 1

The travelers in front of the mini-van

This past weekend we set out for the Atlanta Gift Mart. Now, up until about 2 years ago I was a gift mart virgin, but not anymore, we have this thing figured out! We all wanted to ride together and with Ava and all the room her car seat needs, we knew we would need a bigger vehicle than any of us had. We ended up renting a mini-van. Yes, you hear right. The girls are going shopping in a Mini-van!!! I'll have to say, while I am not a mini-van mom, I can so see the advantages it has. So much room and now, everything is button operated, if you want the door open, push a button, if you want it closed, push a button- and the storage that is available seems endless- although we knew we were going to push the limits this weekend on the ride back with everything we were planning to buy. We arrived at my Aunt Robin's house right outside Atlanta about 11:00 on Saturday night. This was after a search for a birthday cake and party hats to surprise her with, which included 2 Publixs that were both closed, so we had to travel to Walmart and pick her up something. I think we ended up backtracking about 3 times...oh well...When we got to Aunt Robin's we hopped out and surprised her. Her birthday was earlier in the week and if anyone knows Aunt Robin, you know she loves a party- especially if it is for herself! I know we didn't end up heading to bed until after 1:00 that night. Ava did wonderfully- she was so excited to get out of her carseat, but I couldn't have a better child! The next morning we all got up and believe it or not- I had to wake Ava up to get ready to leave. Everyone else had already been up and ready and she was still sleeping away. I couldn't believe it. She had slept quite a bit on the ride up, but I guess we just wore her out once we got there- either that or she knew she was in for a full day of shopping so she wanted to get as much sleep as she could!

Notice the party 'tiaras'

Might I add that we had 8 girls staying in 1 house- plus Jim- poor Jim- he was going to be ready for us to leave on Tuesday.