The Mart - Eating!!

When you get 13 ladies together for shopping, there is definitely going to be some good food along with it.  Our first stop for dinner was Mary Mac’s.  

This is a place the girls go every year when they come to the Mart.  It is good southern cooking.  I am not much of a southern meat girl but I love some southern vegetables so I chose the vegetable plate.  

Of course they bring out the best yummy cinnamon rolls and rolls that I was so full that it was hard to eat all my other food.

They also brought out pot licker, which I had never had.  I really didn’t even know what it was.  For those of you who don’t know, it is the juice from collard greens with a piece of corn bread inside.  Oh my it was pretty good as well.

When it was time for my food, I was pretty full but managed to eat a little of each vegetable.

  

Of course some of us ordered dessert, but I had to change mine to no ice cream and then just get it to go.  Nothing like southern pecan pie for a late night snack.

Saturday night we searched and searched for something good and different.  Stephanie had heard of Antico Pizza and it has received great reviews so we tried it out.  When we arrived, there was a cop out directing traffic around the restaurant, so we knew it had to be good with all of the people.  There was a line out the door but the reviews said it only took 15 minutes to get through the line.  Also when the dough runs out they close up - what a place.

As we stood in line, we noticed all of the people bringing in their own drinks, which was a little strange, but we still went with it.  

We arrived at 7:30 and stood in line for about 10 minutes to order our 4 pizzas and had to grab drinks out of the cooler.  There were no substitutions or half toppings.  I was beginning to feel like this was the pizza nazi like the soup nazi on Seinfeld.

We decided on 2 Margarita pizzas-  one with pepperoni, a lasagna pizza and their speciality pizza which had a little spice to it, but was very good.

 There isn't a lot of seating, no plates just a roll of paper towels on the table.  Thankfully we were able to grab this table for all of us - the perfect timing.

A view into the kitchen area with a few extra tables.

Our pizza was out within 5 minutes of us sitting down and it was all very good.  We were back out to our vehicle by 8:15, so 45 minutes total - not too bad for feeding 13 of us.  I can't wait to go back and visit this place.

It was a great weekend of shopping, eating, laughing, and being with friends and I had such a great time.

The Mart!! – Shopping

This is my first year going on this girls’ weekend shopping trip to Atlanta to shop at the Mart.  I didn’t really know much about the Mart except that everytime you asked Stephanie where she got something – she said The Mart.  Stephanie, Lisa, Marty, Caroline and myself left Thursday evening for Atlanta and we met up with 8 other ladies to shop for the next 2 days.

Now I love to shop and am a big after Thanksgiving shopper.  However, the Atlanta Mart was like the day after Thanksgiving on steroids!!  The Mart is where buyers for stores go and place orders at wholesale for products to sell in their store.  They also have A LOT of cash and carry stuff for sale.  The Mart is located in 3 18-20 floor buildings in downtown Atlanta.  Here is where we spent most of our time.

We arrived at the Mart about 8:45AM and the doors opened at 9AM.  Oh my goodness at the people.  We first grabbed all the free stuff they were giving away at the front of one of the buildings– bags, candles, etc and then headed to the building with the cash and carry.  I mostly followed Stephanie around so I wouldn’t get lost and she could show me the ropes. 

The picture we sent to our husbands - the princesses!!

I have never seen so much jewelry in my life.  Charming Charlie’s on steroids!!  We found some great deals on jewelry, clothes, shoes, and bags.  It was a great experience and one that I hope I will be able to go back to.

Stephanie's new pet rabbit - or rather Ava's.

Each night when we came back to the hotel, Stephanie, Lisa and I would show each other all of our great finds.  It was so funny because one of us would usually ask “where did you find that”?  Off we would go the next day to try and find one for ourselves. 

After 2 days of shopping from sun up to sun down – I was pretty much shopped out and out of money!!  Time to start saving for next year.

 Our packed vehicle on the way home.

Dentist and Jump Fun!!

The boys had their 6 month check up at the dentist and they did very well.  Dr. Weaver was very happy with how their teeth looked.  He said Brody struggled a little getting the X-Rays, but really who likes to have x-rays done at the dentist office.  Brody has only lost 2 teeth so I asked is this normal or should he have lost some more.  His response is later is better.  The reason is because it gives their mouth time to get bigger so the teeth have somewhere to go instead of crowding all on top of each other and there is more of a need for braces. 

After a great visit we headed to Jump Zone.  They were so excited and couldn’t wait to slide and jump.

It is great having 2 because they normally stay together and look out for each other.  I found a seat and watched.  After a couple of hours of jumping, time for a few games.

Finished off with a lunch at Arby's made for a fun filled summer day -except for the dentist.

Summer is quickly leaving

Despite the construction going on, we have tried to do a few fun things during the summer.  However, I think the boys have really enjoyed playing legos, cars, Wii and their 3DS and LeapPad.

Homemade crayons with all of our broken ones

 

Homemade popsicles – Cookie dough made with Almond milk.  These were a huge hit and not that bad for you

We had a pool day with a few of their friends – Jude, Tyler, Tucker and Tate.

 

We took advantage of the $1 movies near the Avenues.  Every week they had a couple of movies for $1.  We chose Rio, which I had never seen, but Brody had seen it in his Kindergarten class.  Thank goodness we arrived early, because it was crowded.  I guess everyone wanted to take advantage of the cheap movies.  I came prepared with a couple of drinks but I think they increased the prices of popcorn and such because I bought a medium popcorn and a med drink and it was $12.  What in the world?  That was crazy!!

So our lunch that day consisted of popcorn and ice cream.  Definitely summer time.

I have been so busy with the construction and my favorite shoes have been my Reef flip flops.  They have definitely seen better days, but will get me through this.  Anyway, before we left for the movies that day I had forgotten to change shoes and didn’t realize until I got out.  Yeah, I was styling that day.

We also went to see Monsters, Inc. with the whole family.  There have been several movies out this summer that the boys want to see, but we agreed (mama decided) on the first one out so we didn't miss it in the theater.

The summer is quickly leaving us so we are trying to get in as much as we can before I have a first grader and a PreKer.