Simple Pleasures

Some days it is the simple things in life that make me smile. This weekend I got to go grocery shopping by myself without any children. I had time to search my coupons, so I saved more money. I had time to really pick good produce and not just take the apples my son picked. I did not rush in order to get done before the kids got too hungry and cranky. It was wonderful.

My unexpected deal of the day... I had some coupons from Vocalpoint for $1.00 off tuna pouches. The commisary had them for $1.07. I also had formula coupons for $4.00 off ready to feed formula, (which we normally don't buy) but the commisary had them on sale for $5.05. I can't beat formula for $1.05. I can handle keeping a few bottles in the fridge for that price.

Of course reality soon returned. I got home after 2 1/2 hours and my wonderful husband had played with the kids all morning and the breakfast dishes weren't done. But at least I got to go shopping alone. I'll take that trade every day.

Christmas Tree

The annual Christmas tree hunt is usually a challenge. I like to go to the nearest tree lot and pick out the one that fits in the house, doesn't have any bare spots and is pretty affordable. Daddy likes to hike through the tree farm and search and search and search for the best tree.

I have been lucky in that for the majority of our marriage we have not lived near any tree farms.... Until this year. We went to a tree farm about an hour away and this was not what I would think of as a typical tree farm where they grow trees in straight lines and prune the trees so that they are pretty and full. Well some of them are pretty and full, but most of them are in the brush and hard to find, nevermind to cut and carry out.

After a long time hiking in the brush/woods with Munchkin in the backpack on my back. (much to the dismay of a hunter in a neighboring field) We finally came to the conclusion that if we wanted a full pretty tree we were going to have to get a white pine. (long needles and lots of sticky pine sap) We got our tree and while it is not the perfect tree, it looks good, the whole house smells nice AND it only cost us several hours and $30, which is good because the rest of our typical budget was spent on a great lunch.
We only had to remove 1 birds nest, 2 spiders and a few other miscellaneous bugs. In the end it turned out great, the house smells good, the tree is decorated and I can sit on the computer by the light of the Christmas tree.

Week at home

My kids had the entire week off school this week, and I wasn't sure how it would go. Amazingly we had a pretty good week. We went to lots of places and had some great time just playing.

My kids love the children's museum, they have an area like a little city complete with a fire engine, store, bank, dentist and city bus. My kids love the store especially since the cash register makes noise.

The best part of the children's museum was the fact that it was a holiday week and there was only ONE school group, and most kids still had school so it was pretty quiet.

Ice Skating

Today was a great day. My husband let me sleep in until 7:30 and then after breakfast we left all the dishes on the table and took the family ice skating. I haven't been ice skating in years and my skates are a long ways away at my parent's house, but they had rentals and I loved getting on the ice again.

I wasn't sure how the kids would do, but they did great, eventually.

We put Buddy on the big rink and I wasn't holding on to him yet and he took a major fall. He was screaming and wanted those skates off NOW.. Daddy finally got him calmed down and put him on the kiddie rink and he fell in love with skating. The kiddie rink is rough ice and so he doesn't slide as much and it is only about 15' square, perfect for a 3 year old. He spent the entire time there and even taught himself to jump with both feet with his skates on. He threw a tantrum when it was time to leave, we almost had to hold him down to get the skates off his feet. He wants to go back tomorrow.

Princess loved going around the rink with me, though after watching Buddy fall, she decided to wear her bike helmet over her hood. The first few times I skated backwards and held on to her hands, but she didn't like that as much. Then I held both hands as she went forward. Finally she was able to go most of the way around holding on to only one of my hands. She would do one loop and then want some time in the kiddie rink and then go a few more loops around the rink with me. Unfortunately our camera decided to have issues with the 37 degree weather so it quit working after the first few pictures and since I am not about to post pictures of my backside as I skate backwards holding my daughter's hands, there aren't any other pictures.

There was a professional photographer there taking pictures for publicity shots, so I will post later if we can ever get some of those pictures, I know he took some great ones of Buddy.

As a side note if you are planning on taking your kids ice skating, Bring their Bike Helmets and have them wear them. Buddy has a pretty nasty bruise on his cheek/eyebrow from his fall, he was not wearing his helmet.

Cold weather

I love warm fuzzy pajamas with feet. It is rare to get all 3 kids in them on the same night.

Rain

Last weekend I took part of Saturday and went shopping to a huge craft fair by myself. It was a georgous day in the 70's, I had a wonderful relaxing afternoon. During the afternoon there were a few rainstorms that came through. I found these pictures on the camera later this week. There are certain things that happen when I am gone that I don't always know about. It makes me smile to find out some of them.

Train Table

I know that train tables are great for kids, especially for little boys like mine who love their train sets. My problem is that they take up a LOT of room and we simply don't have space for one. today I made the solution.

I signed up to get Lowe's magazine for free and it always has some cool ideas in it. This recent magazine had this idea.

I got a piece of MDF and had Home Depot cut it for me so I had one piece 3' x 5' (by the way I have the scraps if someone wants to buy them from me.) I bought a yard of green felt at the fabric store, ($7.58 a yard and it comes 6' wide) I used spray adhesive to mount the felt on the board. It is a little tricky because felt stretches, so you need to be careful not to stretch it as you put it down, but you do need to make sure it doesn't have ripples. The magazine said to just staple gun it on the back side, but I can see the kids stretching it on the top and putting holes in it. Then I flipped it over, trimmed the edges and again used spray adhesive to attach it to the back. Then was the hard part of putting on the wheels. I had bought casters at home Depot and each had 4 screws to attach them. It was cold and I was too lazy to go out to the shed and get the cordless screwdriver, I regret that decision. After a HUGE blister formed on the middle of my palm, I quit for the night and then got the screwdriver and finished this morning. I used 6 casters, and put the 2 in the middle away from the edge so that when kids climb on it is has a little more strength.

I flipped it over and was going to put shoe molding around the edges, but the finish nails I have are too long. So it will be another stop at the hardware store later today. The molding is to make sure the pieces don't fall off. But when that is done I will have a GREAT train table that fits under the bed. I was going to get the train pieces out to take a cool picture, but Munchkin woke up and had to help. Now I just need to put it in the storage area and bring it out for Christmas morning. I am also tempted to get some loose pieces of black felt so that they can make roads and move them around, but I'm not sure how it will work.

Rice Krispy Kreme

I posted last that I made Rice Krispie treats for the kids yesterday. When I fed them to the kids they kept on calling the Rice Krispy Kreme treats. I think they have fond recollections of Daddy's special breakfast treat last weekend when mommy was gone.

Of course this morning I took the kids out to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. (Daddy worked late last night and I wanted to let him sleep as long as possible) They wanted to go to Krispy Kreme, but it is a 25 minute drive and Dunkin donuts is less than 5 minutes away. Nothing like a sugar infused morning with 3 small kids.

Groceries

I try really hard to make our money go farther in the grocery store. Today was a tough day for our grocery budget. The good news was that today I had $17 worth of coupons, that is really good for me. The bad news. I still spent WAY too much on groceries. But there is a justification, this week was one of those weeks when I needed all the high price items. This week included diapers, formula, laundry detergent and the Thanksgiving Turkey (69 cents a pound at the commisary.)

My favorite buy of the day.... Rice Krispies were on sale for $1.99, I had a $1 off coupon and then on the front of the box was a coupon for $1 off marshmallows. I found marshmallows for 75 cents. I got Rice Krispies and Marshmallows for about 75 cents total. My kids had Rice Krispie treats for snack this afternoon.

Reading

I want our kids to love reading, we have books everywhere and I read to them often. This week I found the kids like this.... It is a beautiful sight, particularly when they can't really read yet. Even Munchkin loves to read, but that may be just eating books.

I miss my friends already and we really do need to see each other more often. K does have the cutest kids and we had a great time playing with the kids... And Zoe the dog. This is Caleb, he is a fantastic big brother and loves playing board and card games. This is Cassi, she is one tough little girl who has been battling cancer and loves to be tickled and play hide and seek.To read more about K and her family and their fight against Cassi's cancer, please check out their web page. www.caringbridge.com/visit/cassidy or click on the lick on the right.

Amazing

I have some amazing friends. They love me despite my faults, they tell me what I need to hear and they bless me beyond my imagination. I see God working in their lives daily and am in Awe of their faith and strength

I am sitting in the USO lounge in the airport in Charlotte NC. (one of the GREAT benefits of military life) I am returning home from a weekend spent with 2 amazing women in my life. T and I left our children at home and journeyed to support K. We were planning on having a fun girls weekend, supporting K, having some fun and enoying a spa day. What happened was so much more. We shared, we laughed, we prayed, we cried and laughed some more. Despite the fact that I haven't seen these amazing women in about 5 years it didn't matter. I am on my journey back to my family and I am overcome with the joy and love of my friends.

Girls... I miss you already and will post pictures later, but I am traveling and feeling completely blessed by you in my life. THANKS doesn't say enough.

Pine Needles

We don't rake leaves at our house.... we rake pine needles, or at least we rake and the kids jump. I really don't like it, they stick to shoes and get tracked all over the house, I would much rather have any other trees. But since they are on the neighbors property, we just get to clean up the mess. What is usually a chore was actually fun on a nice fall day. We spent most of the day outdoors and enjoyed the sunshine. Everyone was covered in pine needles and took showers at the end of the day too.

Dolphin Swing

We used to have a purple dolphin baby swing that we bought at a yard sale when Princess was a baby. She loved it. Buddy loved it, and then it got stolen.... But then my sister found a new blue dolphin at yard sale. We now have another dolphin for the munchkin. She will sit and giggle for a REALLY long time. This is Buddy in the swing... he loved it too. Just as a note, I do have pictures of Princess in the purple dolphin swing, but that was on our old computer..... too hard to find. Maybe if I ever get real motivated I will search.

Lion

Buddy as Lion - 15 months

Munchkin as Lion - 10 months