It took a week to recover!

I got home from my trip to Savannah a week ago yesterday. It took all week to recover! This is what one of my azalea bushes looked like when I returned......I almost missed it!

The trip was great fun. These are my friends Kathy and Glenda with me. We had lots of fun together, but we also met many nice people on the bus.

Our itinerary after leaving Baton Rouge included a stop in Foley, AL, to eat at a Lambert's (the home of the "throwed" roll) and a stay that night in Valdosta, GA. We visited Jekyll Island, St Simon's Island and then arrived in Savannah where we stayed for 2 nights. I love Savannah because of the grand, moss-draped oaks, and the "squares" or parks at the intersections of many of the streets. Many of them feature fountains.

We ate at Paula Deen's restaurant on my birthday. We stopped in Beaufort, SC, on our way to Charleston. It was also a very historical city....Kathy, Glenda and I took a boat ride out to Fort Sumpter, which is on an island. After Charleston, we started back west to LaGrange, GA, driving through Augusta where the Masters Golf Tournement was being played. I had no idea so many people go to that.....the number of cars parked in every yard, field, and parking lot was unbelievable. A couple of circles around the course revealed very brief glimpses here and there into the course with only one slight view of a green. It is a very pretty area, though. On our very last day we toured Callaway Gardens near LaGrange, and ate in a quaint restaurant in Warm Springs. There were many places we visited that I would go back to.

We returned home fat and happy....and exhausted. I didn't have much time to rest because Jake and Christie had delayed Emmie's birthday party until my return....so we were having it here on the 17th. I had volunteered to make the cake and was anxious to get started.

I bought a Cinderella Barbie Doll and with much instruction and advise from Ashie and Sammie's other grandmother (Thanks Ethel) I got this little cake made!
I actually left the doll dressed and just wrapped the bottom half very well in saran wrap and stuck her into the cake before frosting it. I think she turned out really cute!

Emmie LOVES Cinderella these days. Do you recognize this little costume from last Halloween? She INSISTED that she wear it to her party because it was a princess party! We had a pink castle jumping thing (what do you call those things??). I didn't get a picture of it, but trust me, it was enjoyed much!

Since Emmie and I share the same birthday....and since Ron had not been with me on my birthday, he wanted ME to have a cake as well. Can you believe that he actually stuck 60 candles in an 8-inch cake? I did not believe they could get them all lit, but George and Jake were determined....and they succeeded! Heather had a funny picture of me trying to get a big enough breath to blow out all of the candles...but she took it on her iPhone and I don't have a copy of it.


Ron got invited to go to north Mississippi and go fishing with his nephew for a couple of days. He left Sunday afternoon and will be back tomorrow night or Wednesday. This morning, this is what I woke up to.


Ugh.

Before Ron left we bought a trap in order to catch some of the raccoons that have been mirauding his strawberry patch and coming into the carport to eat the cat food. They have sprung the trap a couple of times without going into it...but we did catch a medium size critter. We took him to a wooded area 10 miles from town and let him go. I never saw a raccoon run so fast! If you look closely at this picture, you will see that this little coon is resting in the trap with his/her head in the little dish I had filled with cat food.

Anyway...we keep trying to catch the pesky coons. After 4 nights of setting the trap it is "Raccoons - 3, Us - 1"

Stay Tuned!