On Monday, I took the kiddos up to a sunflower farm about an hour outside of Atlanta. I had been to a sunflower farm before, but I was dying to get some beautiful pictures with the yellow flowers, the blue sky, and my cute kids. And our trip was a huge success! The weather was perfect, and the sunflowers were gorgeous.
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Last Friday, my friend and I took our kiddos on a field trip to the Etowah Indian Mounds in Cartersville, Georgia. If you live around Atlanta or North Georgia, it’s definitely worth taking a day trip up there to explore. We learned a lot, and the scenery was gorgeous!
The Etowah Indian Mounds historic site was “home to several thousand Native Americans from 1000 A.D. to 1550 A.D. This 54-acre site protects six earthen mounds, a plaza, village site, borrow pits and defensive ditch. Etowah Mounds is the most intact Mississippian Culture site in the Southeast.” (http://www.gastateparks.org/etowahmounds).
We spent a lot of time climbing up and exploring the mounds that were used as platforms for the village chiefs and priests, and burial grounds for nobility. We also took a tour through the small museum filled with artifacts that were excavated around the area.
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As far as celebrating goes, we didn’t feel like traveling far or fighting the crowds to see fireworks. But we did see an explosion – right in our front yard! We did a super fun volcano kid’s activity, and I’m not sure who enjoyed it more – the kids or my husband!
I can’t be the only one out there who doesn’t really enjoy playing with their kids, right?
Am I alone in this?
I love my children. They are the sunshine in my life. I love exploring new places with them, playing outside, taking walks, traveling, going on adventures, doing puzzles, cooking together, doing crafts together, and watching movies with them.
But sitting on the floor in the playroom all afternoon?
No thank you. Not my idea of a good time.
I can’t be the only one who feels this way! In fact, I think playing with our kids for hours is a relatively new thing in our society. I’m sure Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Ma was way too busy milking the cows, washing laundry by hand, and baking bread from scratch to sit down and play with Laura and her sisters for hours. And all I saw Betty Draper do on Mad Men was sit in her kitchen and smoke. Yes, I know it’s just a TV show. And her kids didn’t turn out well anyway… But you see my point!
So with all of that being said, if you’re reading this and you’re the type of mom that loves nothing more than playing dolls, legos, and action figures all day – that’s great! Props to you, mama! But I’m not that type of mom. And please don’t judge me because of it.
I’ve learned over the years there are a few things I can do to make playing with my kiddos a little more bearable.
If you’ve been to Atlanta, chances are you’ve heard of Stone Mountain, one of the largest exposed masses of granite in the world. (Fun fact – I worked at Stone Mountain Park for years!) We still live pretty close and visit often to enjoy the attractions and climb the mountain.
Stone Mountain’s walk-up trail is located near the west entrance to the park and is a 1-mile trek up to the top of the mountain. The trail is open from dawn until dusk, and if you decide to climb up, you’ll get to experience some amazing views of the surrounding scenery and (on clear days) views of the Atlanta skyline.
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