1,2,3,4,...99,100

Tomorrow is the 100th day of kindergarten! C has had several projects leading up to the 100th day. His class is trying to collect 100 food items to donate. They also had to each bring in their own "collection" of 100 things. Leave it up to C to come up with the idea of 100 pieces of blue macaroni! So we worked last night to get the pasta dyed and after it was dry C started counting.

We made it to 100!

And I have to share what I think is my most favorite thrift store find ever. Yesterday we took three big bags of clothes to our local thrift store. While we were there I saw the cutest little hand-carved high chairs for baby dolls. Aren't they adorable?

They were only eight dollars! They have little stickers on the back from a woodworking shop in Wilmington, NC. AP loves feeding her babies in them!

Riding, Jumping, and Painting..Oh My!

What a great long weekend we had! The weather finally warmed up from the sub-zero windchills we had last week so we headed outside. Saturday morning we went to our town's greenway to get a little exercise. Daddy ran and C rode his bike while AP and I walked. We went about 1/4 of a mile too far for AP. She found a spot on my hip for the last part of our trek :)

AP trying her hand at photography Here comes daddy!

Saturday afternoon we had plans to meet with friends at Chuck E Cheese, but when we got there they weren't letting anyone in unless you were there for a party. So now we had 5 wired kiddos ready to play and nowhere to go! Luckily, a few blocks away is an indoor jump place so that's where we headed.

Another exciting thing that happened last Friday was that C got to check out a book from his school's library for the first time. The kindergartners spend a lot of time learning about the library before they actually get checking out privileges. C chose a book entitled "Snow" because of "all the beautiful pictures".

Yesterday we decided to check out Art Quest at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts for the first time. The kiddos LOVED it! There are about 15 hands-on art projects that they can jump in and do all by themselves. There were digital projects, blocks, still life drawings, painting, writing on a Plexiglas wall, animation, printmaking, tissue art, paper rolling, and probably more that I didn't get pictures of. I actually think I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures at all...oops.

We took a break after a few projects to eat our lunch outside. It was a beautiful day. We were sort of on the roof and had great views of downtown around us.

After our lunch break, it was back in to channel a little more creativity. Here they are working hard to draw a wooden statue. C really got into it :)

Striking a pose with their tissue paper art

This was my art. It reminded me of pomping our Homecoming floats in high school!

C was working the printing press! It was really cool and I plan to frame the little prints they made.

They wore themselves out! They actually both fell asleep before 7:15 last night, which made daddy's night easier. I was at my 2nd WW weigh in, down 2.8! It's not that much, but I'm heading in the right direction :)

Friends and Free Stuff

First, for the free stuff. I haven't posted in a while about my couponing adventures, but I'm still at it! The items in the picture below are things that were absolutely free at Kroger yesterday using coupons. There were a lot more things that were under a dollar. The website that I use to help me get organized is southern savers dot com, if anyone is interested.

Monday we managed to get a third snow day from the flurries that we had last Thursday. We love snow days! We met a few friends to play at an indoor playground and then go to lunch.

Today we got to play with another little friend for a while. His mommy was at the doctor checking on his soon-to-be little sister!


AP loves playing with S because she thinks she is taking care of him :)

We are getting him used to all the pink, and baby dolls, and girlie stuff!

I loved the light coming in through the kitchen window. He was reading a book to the dog :)

After we picked brother up from school we made cupcakes together to take to church tonight.

Everybody helped out. Even though S would rather have kept playing with trucks. The boy loves him some trucks!

Even the dogs helped out! (don't worry they were licking AFTER all mixing was done)

Back to the trucks :)

Not Necessarily An Esteem Boost

Sometimes the brutal honesty of my kiddos is harsh! Tonight these 2 conversations happened in the car within 5 minutes of each other and left me thinking I was a wrinkly babysitter :)

If you've read this long or know me in person then you know that up until last May I worked at our local middle school as a therapist. As we were driving past the school tonight, AP asked me if that is where I used to work. She had visited there several times and never forgets a thing. I told her that it was. Then she said "Is that when you were a grown up?" I asked her if I wasn't a grown up now, she said "no you are like a babysitter!"

Then further down the road we were commenting on the road construction and looking at the big cracks in the cement that the crews were fixing. C asked "Does the concrete get cracks when it gets old like your face gets wrinkles when it gets old?"!!!

Just Us Girls

Saturday I met up with a friend and her little girl who is one of AP's best friends for a girls day. Andy took this pic of us before we left the house, I thought it was really cute until I realized our blanket behind my head had our last name on it, so that's why there are question marks to the right of my head. If I were more photo editing savvy I could have just edited it out, but I'm not.

We all got our nails done first. AP was chatting the sweet lady's head off while she was getting her manicure.

Here is AP with her friend while they were drying their nails under the lights. AP chose purple and her friend chose green with sparkles.

After we got our nails done we drove to what we thought was a tea room, but it is now an antique store. Luckily, there was a cute little meat and three right across the street so we stopped in there. I had to take a picture of the legs of our table. They were wearing jeans and boots!

The girlies showing off their nails.

It was a fun day and great to get some girl time in. AP and I decided that we need to do it more often!