Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Childrens Audio Books

So I decided about two weeks ago to look into books on CD for our upcoming trips. I thought I would try them out at home before we get in the van and expect them to occupy our kids for hours. At first Alicia said, "what is this? There are no pictures!" But I told her to use her imagination. So we listened to Geronimo Stilton books 4-6, all about mice on adventures, here in the house. Alicia loved it. I actually found this one to be a bit old for her though but she still thought it was funny. Next we tried Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and we listened to it when we went to see my dad on Saturday. Again Alicia loves it. I wish I could show you pictures of Alicia's face as she concentrates on the stories. So funny. I have another in the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series and a Boxcar Children audio for or our upcoming trip to Seattle. So for Alicia's kindergarten graduation in May we got her an engraved ipod shuffle so she can listen to the books without all of us having to as well. Ethan doesn't seem to care for them yet (read he doesn't have the attention span yet) so this way she can listen to her shuffle and he can rock to whatever mommy and daddy listen to. :)

Do any of you have any other books your kids enjoy to listen to? I cannot belive we hadn't done this yet. I need to get more as Alicia loves to come home from school and listen to them.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The WORST time of the year for women

Yes, it's that time of year --AGAIN. Swimsuit season. This doesn't usually bother me too much. I don't go swimming in public well, EVER so I just wear shorts and tanks BUT this summer we are planning on going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. I will not go to this wonderous place and sit for an entire weekend. Thus the most hateful shopping that must happen. Thankfully there are a lot of options for those with a few stretch marks they would like to keep hidden. But in the meantime I am going to try and lose a little extra weight. This is also in line with my friend Amy's blog. I will drink no pop for 1 month and stay away from desserts. No snacks after 7:00 and more water. I also will excercise every day, different ways each day.

But really go check out Wolf Lodge. I cannot wait to take my kids! So we have a Seattle business/fun weekend trip planned in 2 weeks and now a waterpark trip planned in 5 weeks!! I love when tax season ends!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

"OOPSY DAISY"

This morning I was organizing Ethan's legos with him. It felt like I had been doing this forever when I looked at the clock and flipped. I was supposed to be leaving to pick up Alicia. So we raced down there. We were waiting in our normal spot. I sit on the curb and Ethan runs around the grassy area. No parents were coming and it felt like I had been there forever! I got to thinking I may have not looked at the clock accurately! So I went to the van to check and yep, I was an hour early! Talk about embarrasing. The preschool teacher probably was wondering what I was doing as I helped her unpack the carseats from her van after their field trip. And one of the kindergartners parents went to the office and left. I am sure she was wondering what the heck I was doing! Ethan said "Oopsy Daisy" on the way home. That is a much nicer way to say what I was feeling.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

YARDWORK

Now that tax season will slow back down we are starting to think about our yard. More specifically our backyard. Yes, our front yard needs attention too as it has been taken over my moss but that can be taken care of pretty quickly with some moss killer and grass seed. But our backyard will need a lot of work. We have not done a thing with it since we moved in. Well that isn't quite right as Ben did level out the yard with some fill dirt and put in an irrigation sytem but that is it! So this spring/summer we will put in some borders and flowers. We will make a little play area for the kids and work on our vegetable garden. We will put in grass and more flowers. I am so excited. Right now I am trying to figure out what flowery vines I want to put in and around our front fence. This is a picture of our bare fence.



I want to make it look like the front fence in Father of the Bride, when they decorate it for the wedding. There are some sites that help those in Oregon and Washington decided which flowers work best for our areas. Well I have asked them for some help but no responses yet. I will probably do a clematis or morning glory. I am stoked to be able to be creative and work on this project. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so I can get started!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Free Fun!




Last night we had a fun evening out. Ben had gotten an Olive Garden card from my parents and so we went out to eat. I always get the Tour of Italy so I can have enough to take home for lunch the next day. (Which I will be eating here in an hour or so --yummy!) Then after dinner we headed over to Toys R Us. Alicia gets a stamp every day at school if she is good. If she gets a full month of stamps Ben has told her we will get her a new toy. Well it is very hard for my talker to get a full months worth of those hard earned stamps. Usually she misses it by just one stamp! She completed a full month in October and then finally got one this March! So she was rewarded with a new toy at Toys R US. Ben also bought Ethan and him a new lego toy. :) And the best part was someone had given us a $40.00 visa gift card so the toys were free. (Alicia also got a $3.00 gift card from ToysRUs for her birthday. If you havne't already you should sign your kids up for the birthday club online!) So we had free dinner and had free toys and then when we got home Ben took Ethan swimming with the 6 month member pass his mother had gotten him. So all around fun evening all for free. Got to love these kind of nights. This morning I spent about an hour putting together his lego Mars Mission Transformer Fighter! It is pretty cool!
An addendum: Today is April 2 and Alicia did not get her stamp. So you can see how hard this is for her. :)