What's In a Name?

Heading back to my 31 day blog challenge, that is going to take the rest of my life to complete! ;)  Today's question was, "what's the meaning behind the name of your business?"



Well...I don't have a business.  Momma ain't got time for all that.

So, I thought I'd tell you the meaning behind my blog name instead.  It's really not much of a story, but let me tell you, I agonized over the name of this silly blog for far too long, haha! I felt like it had to be absolutely perfect.  It needed to be catchy so people would want to read it!  It needed to be some cute play on words!  It needed to reflect how in-depth my thoughts would be!



I'm serious, friends.  I have no idea what my problem was.  (I so wish there was a laughing crying emoji for blogger.)



In the end, I settled on a short and sweet description of our days.  Right now, in this time of my life, I survive on coffee and with two toddlers- we are constantly wiping off, walking on, and sleeping with (ha!) cookie crumbs everywhere.


*Exhibit A: Crumbs.  Poor second child had to get his own snack.  At least it was healthy? Haha :)

This blog is really just a journal for me and my family, if they choose to read it.  Every once in a while I do some fun posts about my thoughts on certain subjects or what toys my kids have loved at what ages because those kind of posts have been so helpful for me along my motherhood journey, but mostly I post about my kids.  And our life- our fun times and our struggles, our dreams and our realities.


*Girlfriend found the lipstick!  Doesn't she look beautiful?

So, my blog name, "Coffee and Cookie Crumbs" is just an accurate depiction of any random day at my house in this time of sleepless motherhood and messy toddlerhood.  Maybe one day, if I get some fancy blog design, I'll add a tagline like: "Finding joy in the messy moments of life" or "Our quiver full of messy blessings" (based off Psalm 127:3-5...you know it--children are a heritage from the Lord...blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.")

*My quiver.*

Anyway, I added a whole lot to this blog just to tell you the meaning behind the name, haha!  I hope you all have a great weekend!  I know I will...I turned in my last assignment of the semester this morning!  Now I have two glorious weeks of nothing before summer sessions start up.


*Doing the happy dance at 5:30 this morning after finalizing my policy brief and turning that bad boy in!

And please--I'd love to know the meaning behind your blog names!  Tell me I'm not the only one who  had such a hard time coming up with the "perfect" name, haha!

Spring Break 2017: Days 5-7

The rest of spring break, we spent around town.  We did at least one "fun" thing a day and just explored our little city.

We...

• Ate doughnuts for breakfast one morning

• Went downtown and discovered all the "Mice on Main" with Aunt Jess

• Grammy came to visit!

• Visited our small zoo

• Dyed Easter Eggs

• Mommy and Daddy went on a date night! (Woo hoo!)

• Went to an Easter Egg hunt (and had our own!)

*Don't judge the pumpkin.  #secondchildprobs

• Got ice cream at the town square ice cream station

*The dog in the background kills me. Just waiting on his opportunity to get G's cone!

• Watched a baby giraffe get born

*Yes, Hadley watched. She said, "well I bet that's smelly." Hahaha :)

• Went strawberry picking!

All in all, it was a great spring break week.  I love taking the time to explore and do things with my kids.  They are just so fun to be around.  These days...are about as sweet as those strawberries. ;)  (And that's pretty dang sweet!)

Spring Break 2017: Day 3

Because we went to bed so early on Saturday, the kids were up by 7 am on Sunday.  We headed downstairs to the complimentary breakfast and Hadley and Griffin thought they were something special.  (I mean, they are for sure.)  They got to pick whatever they wanted for breakfast and we sat down at a special table in the hotel lobby to eat.



Once we were finished, we headed back to the room to get ready for the day.  Everyone was excited because day 3 of spring break we were visiting the Atlanta Zoo!  The Atlanta Zoo is probably my all time favorite zoo.  I've been quite a few times in my life and it never disappoints.  They open at 9:30 on Sundays and we arrived at 9:20.  We had our pick of parking, so we parked under the trees (hello, shade!) and made our way through the express line with our previously purchased tickets.



*A note about our tickets: we purchased a Citipass- a booklet of discounted tickets for visiting the main attractions of Atlanta.  We didn't go to all of the attractions, as our kids were too young for some of them.  (The World of Coke is so awesome and one of my favorites, but listening to a guide talk and just walking around looking at coke products isn't something my 3 1/2 year old would appreciate!)  So, if you are thinking about visiting Atlanta, definitely look into the Citipass!



Y'all, getting to the zoo when they open is the way to do it.  It was still cool, the animals were awake, and even though there were still quite a few people...it wasn't super congested.  The kids had had enough sleep so they were in great spirits, and the only meltdown we had was from Hadley around lunch time because she wanted to play instead of eat, haha!



Hadley really wanted to see the lions and tigers, I really wanted to see the panda bears, and Griffin really wanted to see the giraffes!  And we happened upon the giraffes around feeding time, so we paid $3 for Hadley to feed a giraffe--except as we got up there and paid, she chickened out, so Mommy fed the giraffe instead.  Which was okay, because that was such a cool experience!



They have a great spot in the middle of the zoo for lunch, so we just bought our food there, but you can also bring in sandwiches and stuff yourself.  Right across from the food area is a petting zoo, a train ride, rock climbing wall, gated play area for the kids, and a merry-go-round.  The kids did the petting zoo for a bit, played on the playground for a bit, and then we hit the train- which is always a favorite for my kids.





I just can't say enough good things about the Atlanta Zoo.  The staff is friendly and welcoming- always available to answer questions, the set up is great for little kids who want to stop and play, and they have so many great animals- it's just a great thing to do in Atlanta!



We left the zoo about 1:30p and were meeting David's friend for dinner about 45 minutes away in Sandy Springs.  Over in that direction is the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area (Have you ever heard Alan Jackson's song "Chattahoochee"??  It's about the Chattahoochee River!)  We used to go there when my grandparents lived in Atlanta and I was a little girl, so it was only right to take my kids!



One of my favorite gifts given to my kids were these National Park Passports.  Whenever you visit a National Park, the kids can get their passports cancelled just like you would if you were visiting another country.  It's a great way to plan your vacations and see some of the nation's most prized National Parks.  I knew ahead of time that we would probably stop by here, so I brought the kids passports just in case.  Hadley thought this was the COOLEST thing!



We walked the trails a little bit- which we learned were trails worn over hundreds of years by people moving and settling throughout Georgia- and let Hadley put her feet in the water like Mommy used to do.





We met David's friend at Perimeter Mall for some Cowfish (seriously so good) and they had a great place outside the restaurant for the kids to play.  We rounded out the day with some great fellowship, dirty and tired kids, and showers/straight to bed when we got back to the hotel.





I'm so proud of these kids, they were such troopers.  Day 3 did not disappoint!

You can read up on the other days of Spring Break 2017 here:

Day 1
Day 2

Spring Break 2017: Day 2

All of Hadley's school friends had spring break "plans" (you know those three year olds are so busy these days), so I thought it would be fun to take a little trip, too!  David can't take a whole lot of time off work these days, but he was able to snag Monday off, so we took a quick trip to ATLANTA for the weekend!!  It's about a 2 hour drive from us and there are a ton of kid-friendly activities to do.

We made it through the evening without anyone getting sick (yay!) and I meant to get up early and start packing, but I didn't actually get out of bed until 8 am!  (When the kids sleep in, you take the opportunity to sleep, too!)

We had *planned* to leave right after breakfast, but the packing still needed to be done, people needed to get dressed etc.  so that didn't happen.  David and I made a game time decision to leave by 10, so we could get down there, grab a bite of lunch, and go to the aquarium.

In order to leave on time, I forgo-ed my shower (because that's what us mom's do, right?) and just packed like a crazy person.  I'm proud to say that over the years, hubs and I have gotten so quick at "getting ready" for trips, that we were out the door by 9:30!! Whoop whoop! Which actually worked out great. I'm not sure if you've heard, but a portion of Interstate 85 collapsed because of a huge fire about a week ago.  We made GREAT time....until we hit Atlanta.  Atlanta is already known for it's lackluster performance in rush-hour traffic and now that one of the main thorough fares is gone, there are few options to maneuvering the city and we got stuck big time.  By the time we reached our destination, the kids were hangry and ready to eat.

via

(Also, I love Atlanta, so I joke from the heart on this ;) )

We planned to do one excursion a day and because our hotel room wouldn't be ready for a few more hours, we headed straight to our first stop: The Georgia Aquarium!  David and I came to Atlanta for our first anniversary, so we already knew how massive this place was, but Hadley and Griffin were in awe.  It's 2 stories of fish, sea creatures, animals you can touch (starfish, stingrays, and sharks, oh my!), beluga whales, huge whale sharks...you name it, it's there.  They have a cafeteria so we grabbed some food before we started the long trek through the aquarium.


This photo quality is terrible, but I LOVE his face! This is what happened when the sea otter swam RIGHT by him!

We didn't bring the stroller in because that place is busy, but in hindsight, we both decided we should have because the kids got tired of walking around.  We both ended up holding someone as we went through.

One of the coolest parts is the dolphin show.  They have 4 beautiful bottle-nose dolphins and during the 30 minute program, they show off all their tricks.  Essentially, the trainers show how they work with the dolphins, how smart the dolphins are, and teach us facts about dolphins.  Hadley kept asking to see the dolphins jump again!

Riding in style!

The kids were starting to have meltdowns after the show and it had been a long day for them, so we left the aquarium and headed to the hotel.  If you ask Hadley what her favorite part of the trip was, she will most likely tell you it was the mini-fridge in our hotel room.  (Hahaha!)  She "unloaded" our snack bag into the mini fridge and any time we were out and got food, she'd exclaim, "I have an idea!  We can take this and put it in our mini fridge!"

Hadley and her mini fridge ;)

There was a restaurant right down the street from our hotel, so we walked to dinner (at 5 pm, holla!) and walked back afterwards.  It was about 6 pm when we got back to the room, so we bathed the kids, put them in jammies, and propped them up to watch a movie.  Hadley wanted to paint her fingernails and toenails, so the girls did that.





We ended up in a room with a king-size bed and a pull out couch.  We brought the pack n' play, but didn't end up using it.  Each of us took a baby and slept in separate beds.  It worked great and gave me all the feels about vacations in the future.  I so love spending time with my little family!

You can read up on the other days of Spring Break 2017 here:

Day One