It's no French Riviera, but...

Many of you have probably heard my complaining about the hubby being on a business trip that happened to take him to Cannes for 10 days. I vented to our Publix Apron Meals lady, Elinor from Long Island, about it, and she told me to go buy myself some really nice shoes and a new handbag to make myself feel better. And who am I to refuse her wise advice?

So...on the shopping front, there are sales galore out there right now. Lots of stores have their summer apparel on clearance plus another 40% off. And with the weather in the South, our summer lasts through October, so go buy a sparkly tank at Ann Taylor or some city shorts at the Gap and you'll still have money left over for a little fro-yo.

I'm trying to keep the kids busy aka not on my nerves so we've been to the $1 Studio Movie Grill kids movie two weeks in a row. It's pretty fun for them, since as we all know kids have no problem watching movies 100 times. Last week it was the last Shrek movie, this week is Megamind (personal fave. very quotable.) The novelty for them at SMG is that they get to press the red button for a waiter to bring us cokes and popcorn. So what if the $1 movie is really $25 in concessions? It's still a good two-hour time kill on a hot summer day.

We've been to our neighborhood pool so many times that the kids don't even take their toys home at night any more...they just collect them from the lost and found the next time they play. Still, I take a little bit of pride that Izzy's hair is getting her summer blond back and that Mia and Jackson have some wicked tan lines from all of the hours we've logged outside.

Today we went to Lake Lanier Islands Waterpark with friend Jamie and her boys. On Wednesdays through the summer, it's half price admission with a coupon from Chik-Fil-A. So for our family of four, we got in for $58 which is less than $15 per person. And we got a full day of entertainment. We arrived right at 10 when the doors opened and were able to ride all of the slides 3 or 4 times each before a line started. And I don't know if this was an unusual day, but it was not very crowded at all. We spent some time on the beach, playing a find the buried pennies game for a free dippin' dots (Wilson won) and a sand castle contest for a free Icee (Mia built a Sand Cat pictured above and won for creativity.) Though there are not as many slides as at White Water, the clientele is better. And it's closer. And cheaper. Walt Weiss' kid almost died at White Water. But anyway, it was a big day for me because I realized that all three kids are now tall enough to ride almost all of the slides. So we had a blast going down together and racing on slides and partnering on tubes. I could play again! I didn't have to splash with a baby in the lil kids area. These are fun days of being a mom, though. But please don't let Phil know that. I'm still telling him how much I'm suffering...

Summer of Run

Let me start off by saying that this summer is NOT what I'd thought it would be so far. Lazy days, sleeping in, no schedule...it's a stay-at-home mom's dream! The crowning glory of 10 months of getting up to make lunches, get everyone dressed, carpool, school functions, room mom duties, after school sports and activities- all for the bonus of a summer of fun. Except that with 8:30 swim team practice, 9:30 tennis camp, Lifetime Fitness classes at 11, cheer camp at 2 has made this summer (so far) way too busy! Next week is VBS in the afternoon so at least I have 3 hours per day of solitude again. Can't wait.

In the meantime, I've been on the run too with lots of entertainment updates to give. Two date nights last weekend (!!! What can I say? We both needed it!) and the first was drinks and dinner (Aja and Wisteria, respectively) and the second was The Hangover 2. Actually, I saw Hangover 2 and Phil saw Bridesmaids because he already saw Hangover with my dad last weekend. I did not think this to be odd...both movies started at the same time and I was already slated to see Bridesmaids with friends later in the week. But when I told my friend Jody, she thought it was hysterical that we would have a date night and see separate movies. To me, the movie experience is a personal one...I don't want to talk during the movie nor do I want anyone to talk to me. But evidently, I am in the minority and couples are supposed to see the same movies for the social aspect. Whatever.

Anyway, now having seen both Hangover 2 and Bridesmaids, I will tell you that I laughed out loud in both of them and they are both good solid comedies. Hangover followed the formula laid out in the first one (Stu's tattoo instead of tooth, cute Buddist Monk instead of baby, questionable Taiwanese stripper instead of Vegas stripper) but it was still hilarious in parts- with very quotable lines (especially from Alan) and was a great 2 hour escape.

I liked Bridesmaids better though...it was fresher. And because I'm a chick and can relate to poor Annie, who was feeling totally left behind when her childhood best friend announced she was getting married. And the humor in the competition with "new friend" Helen, who was beautiful and perfect. I crushed on the Irish cop and got my heart broken when they broke up. And most of all, I loved the scene when Maya Rudolph's character told Annie that everything was changing and she wasn't going to be 5 minutes down the street anymore. Good female friendships are so rare- and so important- and I was sitting in a theater with so many of my closest friends that I started tearing up. And I thought about some of my friends from school that I love but don't get to talk to very much because we don't live 5 miles down the street anymore. Or some of the friends I've made in New York and San Antonio- wonderful women that I would talk to everyday if we lived closer. Such is life, but I still wish I could own a private island and inhabit it with all of the people I loved.

My other review for this week is the Katy Perry California Dreams show at the Gwinnett Center. I looked for tickets months ago but didn't find any good ones so I forgot about it until last week. So I started scouting for tickets and found some below-face-value floor tickets from a broker on Craig's list. My aforementioned friend Jody came with...we both have young girls and listen to our fair share of Katy Perry. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the broker's tickets got us in the door but when we got to our seats (row P) and there were 2 girls already there, we figured the jig was up. But the usher checked and moved those girls out and voila- we were in! I regret to say that we missed the opener, Robyn, who I discovered last year when Entertainment Weekly called her the "Swedish Madonna." (Download "Dancing on my own" if you haven't heard of her...she's good pop fun.) But we got there in time to get a Katy Perry inspired cocktail (whipped cream infused vodka anyone?) and mingle.


Katy opened with "Teenage Dream" and her set was like a funky candyland with lollipops and candy cane railings. She showed a weird Alice in Wonderland meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video of her and her pet, Kitty Purry, going through the cat door to a strange world where she ultimately ended up with the cute Baker's Boy. At one point in the show she climbed on a cotton candy cloud and traveled to the middle of the arena. Jody and I were impressed with how sweet the place smelled (whether from the cotton candy or pumped in scents like cherry chapstick on "I Kissed a Girl"). She must of had 15 outfit changes- all very colorful and outrageous and adorable. Her enthusiasm totally makes up for her kind of thin voice. And I say this as the highest compliment- Katy Perry is an entertainer, not a singer. The crowd (95% female) loved her and so did we. Though she cussed a couple of times and her songs have some lewd innuendos (such as the song about wanting to see your peacock), it was pretty harmless if there are moms that are thinking about taking their kids to the show. My sister is going to see her Friday in Tampa and I encouraged her to take her girls...this show was meant for them. And for the rest of us that just want to live the teenage dream.

The fun doesn't end folks...swim meet tonight, Chelsea Handler at Chastain on Friday, and friends from Boston in town this Saturday. And Sunday I sleep.