Polka Dot Party

Good Monday morning!

The Showcase Pic is of Roxie from our trip. It was a pretty picture which didn't get put in the mix, so I'm going to make you look at it ALL WEEK LONG.

The Gallery Pics are from the last day of our trip. Tomorrow on A Simple Life is a new day with all new "local" photos. Exciting, I know!

AMELIA ISLAND

Day Five - Oh, Miss Paula Deen... Have You Seen Tom Selleck?

Departure day. Yes. After three fun-filled, manatee-sea turtle-feral horse-Tom Selleck-FREE days, it was time to head home. As we watched the morning forecast, the local meteorologist informed us it was going to be between 105 and 110 with 100% humidity. If we didn't get off the Island soon, Mike and I were going to swell to twice our normal size!

We added over an hour to our drive home because we wanted to go through Savannah and have lunch with Paula Deen. That's right. I wanted to sit at her table and have a nice little chat to end my trip on a positive note. In reality, I knew the rules and the truth was we had little or no chance of getting a table for lunch at Paula Deen's. However, we did want to ride through Savannah and scope it out for a future "Me and Mikie" vacation.

We also had a Plan B. If Paula's was full (which we had been assured it would be), we would drive 9.2 miles to her brother's eatery (Uncle Bubba's Oyster House)... and we would eat with Bubba and he would tell us "Paula" stories.

Savannah was beautiful, and we found the restaurant easily. Were my eyes deceiving me? Where was the mile-long line? Where were all the hoards of hungry people? Could it be?

I hopped out of the Big Gold Van and ran to the outside hostess... and watched as she pointed at a large sign. "No Lunch Seating Available."

"Just tell me. Is Paula Deen in the restaurant today?" I asked the hostess.

"No, ma'am. She's not here today," she replied.

"Then I'm okay with this. I can fry my own chicken and bake my own pound cake using a pound of butter... and Paula's recipe," I said to myself as I climbed into our vehicle.

The kids were not disappointed about missing lunch at Paula's famous restaurant. They were disappointed about not eating... period.

"Don't worry. In ten minutes, we'll be at Uncle Bubba's," I told them, and off we went.

No one had ever told me if there were long lines at Bubba's, so I was a little worried about asking hungry teenagers to wait any length of time. However, as we pulled into the spacious parking lot, it was very evident who was famous in this family... and whose restaurant you could actually walk into and have a meal! Go Uncle Bubba!

Did I have my picture taken with Bubba, Brother of Famous Paula Deen? Nope. He didn't show up for work that day either. Was Tom Selleck among the lunch diners that day? Yeah. Right!

We were seated and eating cornbread with NO wait whatsoever. It was a big, sparkling clean Southern restaurant, and we were very satisfied.

The rest of our trip was uneventful... but very long. It had been a good five days, but as Dorothy says, "There's no place like home!" And she's right.

Will we one day return to Amelia Island? Uh... Yeah! We have some unfinished business to take care of... But unfinished business or not, it was a fun trip to a very different little place.

We loved the waves, the huge beaches, the cold Atlantic Ocean water, the Baywatch lifeguards, the different restaurants, the lazy afternoons by the pool, homemade ice cream and milkshakes, and the beautiful Historic District. It is definitely worth another trip. (But I think we'll wait until after the Heat Wave of 2010 ends!)

Weekend Review

Wow! Not planning a weekend can really take it out of you. (Just kidding!) I think we all needed a "come what may" kind of weekend.

Austin worked at the Chick and met up with a friend for an X-Box tournament late Sunday evening... He was happy.

Josh saw Karate Kid with a friend (for the second time), and participated in the X-Box tournament with Austin and friend... He was happy.

Roxie went shopping with one cousin, swam with some friends and spent the night with another cousin one night... She was happy.

Mikie worked Saturday to play a little catch up from our trip. We had a date Saturday evening. Sunday was spent piddling around the house... We were happy.

A little nothing can go a long way, and I think we are all feeling refreshed and ready for another week of summer! Will I have another "unplanned" weekend in the near future? Uh. I don't think so!

Polka Dot Party

I stumbled across a FANTASTIC website called www.passion-for-parties.com. It has ALL the information you need to throw an easy, wonderful and FUN party for your kids, tweens AND teens. I'm going to share a small part of their Polka Dot Party with you, but go to their website to see ideas for many, many more themes.

Also, they have pictures of the invitations, how the rooms should be decorated, the cakes, etc., etc. It is a very easy-to-follow website, and I will be visiting often!

How to Decorate

1. Use solid color paper plates that match your party theme to fill your party area with polka dots! Adhere them to door frames, windows, walls, and anywhere else you might like. They make a huge impact and look really great! (There are pictures on the website. It is SO cute.)

2. You can even make a birthday banner by stringing plates together and adding letters to the plates to spell out "Happy Birthday."

3. Another good idea is to hang balloons from the ceiling, so the "dots" are dangling down into the party area.

Polka Dot Games

1. Twister (our girls actually opted for Twister Moves...the dance version)

2. Bingo

3. Polka Dot Punch - Blow up about twice as many balloons as there are kids using two colors. (If you have 8 kids you would blow up 8 of one color and 8 of a second color). Divide the kids into teams and assign each team a color. On your go, the kids toss the balloons into the air. The object of the game is to keep all of your team's balloons in the air while trying to knock all of the other team's balloons to the ground. Once a balloon hits the ground it's out of play. The team that runs out of balloons first is out. The kids love this so they'll want to do it over and over again!

4. Polka Dot Pop - Same premise as above, but the kids try to sit on the balloons of the opposite team and pop them. The first team to pop all of the opposing team's balloons wins. You may want to increase the amount of balloons for this game.

Polka Dot Party Food

Dippin' Dots ice cream
Puffed cheese balls
Bagel Bite pizzas
Melon balls
M and M's
Dots candy

As I said before, this is just a sampling of some of their great ideas. If you are stumped about an upcoming party, this website is a must-see!

Have a magnificent Monday. Make this summer day count! I'll be sharing a fun recipe Tuesday, and a little Randomness. It will be an easy, breezy day on A Simple Life.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda