Color the Paper, Not the Wall

Chase decided yesterday that the coloring book was boring him. He seemed totally content with it earlier in the day when he got to color with Pop Pop...


Now he needed a larger, more exciting canvas though. Hmmm... what to do, what to do?



Yep, this would be the first "coloring on the walls" incident in our house. Thankfully he used washable crayons and thankfully Crayola isn't lying when they make the "washable" claim!

Don't forget to submit a question for our Q & A! Click here for details!

Q & A Time!

It's been over 4 months since our last Question and Answer time, so I thought I'd open up the floor for questions again!

For those of you that weren't here for the last Q & A, here's how it works - you ask the questions by commenting on this blog post and later this week I'll answer them all in a new blog post! There are only a couple of things that are off limits: middle and last names and where exactly we live (Kansas City area is all you need to know). Don't be shy, and ask away!

If you're curious what was asked last time and what the answers were (all 40 questions!) you can click here (pt 1) and here (pt 2).

Saturday Savings - Basic Rules for Saving

I took this week off from grocery shopping so don't really have any savings to write about. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my basic rules for saving money at the grocery store. These are some of the rules I shared when I was asked to present as part of a series at our church on "living simply".

• Subscribe to your local newspaper. Some places require you to subscribe for a whole weekend (like here in Kansas City), but if you get in on a deal you can save quite a bit of money having it delivered to your house vs picking it up in the store each week. I save $1 a week that way!
• Try to clip your coupons on Sunday, that way if the coupons are really great you can run out and pick up a second paper - I've done that several times.
• Look for online coupons at sites like couponmom, Kraft, Grocery Game, etc.
• Sign up for free samples - often those samples come with high value coupons!
  
• Stack coupons whenever you can - that's when you combine a store coupon with a manufacturers coupon on the same item. Target, CVS, Walgreens and Hy-Vee (midwest grocery chain) are my favorite places to stack coupons.
• Be wary of warehouse clubs (Sam's, Costco, BJ's) as the price you're paying is not always the lowest. We go to Sam's once a month to buy a few certain items (5 pound brick of cheese, Goldfish crackers, apple juice, oatmeal and french toast sticks).
• Plan your meal based on what's on sale and what's already in your stockpile.

I also highly recommend the following websites!

The Grocery Game - this is a site I pay a small fee to every 2 months. This streamlines my grocery shopping and I feel 100% certain I'm buying at the lowest price.

Money Saving Mom - this is a site I check several times a day. It's great for finding top deals/freebies at places like Target, Walmart, CVS, etc. This site is also great for finding out about free samples, deals at restaurant chains and more.

Frugal Freebies and Deals - this is a site similar to Money Saving Mom but I often find different deals. I subscribe to this one by e-mail and each night an e-mail comes with all the deals posted earlier that day.

Thrifty and Chic Mom - similar to above site and again is one I subscribe to.

I hope you found this little lesson helpful! If you're in the KC area and have a group you'd like me to give my 20 minute presentation to just get in touch with me. I don't charge and I have a nifty Power Point presentation.

Color the Paper, Not Your Face

The boys have a new found love of coloring. Jackson especially is a fan as he will often yell "cahlah" (ahh my little Mainer!) whenever he sees pens, pencils, crayons or blank sheets of paper. Not only do they love to color, they love to taste the crayons. *sigh* When does that stop? I feel like I'm constantly telling them to stop coloring their faces or to stop eating the crayons...

Exhibit A would be Tyler...

This is a classic Tyler look. He's forever putting that lower lip out, which we find absolutely adorable!

Caption This

This picture I took yesterday morning just amuses me like no other. I feel like it's worthy of a fantastic caption but I'm currently experiencing writers block (too much time away from work perhaps?). What caption would you give this picture? (Hint: You may want to click on the picture to see it bigger.)


While you're thinking here are a few other cute pictures... A teenager at church was nice enough to let me borrow his Nikon D50 for a week. I'm loving it! Originally I was going to use it to help convince Nick of my need for a DSLR camera. Now that the AC is broken in the Jeep and it's becoming apparent we may need a new car sooner than we thought, my desire for a fancy camera has been pushed aside to who knows when. A shame too because I'm having fun. Did I mention I took 307 pictures in a 24 hour period?

There's an entrance to a park nearby that I've always thought would be a cool place to take pictures, so yesterday morning when it was nice and cool I loaded the boys up and we headed down for a photo shoot. Fun times! These are just a few of the favorites. I'll share more in the coming days!

Jackson in stripes, Tyler in green and Chase in brown

Video Clip of the Week - Car Jam

As promised on Monday, here is the hilarious video my sister took of the boys on the way to the Crown Center Fountains!

Thursday evening I put together a "Boys" play list on my Ipod. I figured the boys might enjoy listening to some of "their" music (Go Fish, Rob Biagi, Phil Joel, etc) in the car! Typically we listen to K-Love which they seem to enjoy enough but they love it when we play their music in the house, so why not the car?

Turns out they LOVE listening to their favorite songs in the car!

(Song playing is Superstar by Go Fish.)



Now at the mere mention of riding in the car Jackson gets excited and starts "na na-ing" while Tyler runs around, dances and says "go, go, stop" (one of the favorite songs is "Before, I go, go, go, I stop) and Chase just plain gets excited.

Did I mention the fighting has stopped since introducing the music last Friday? Good thing too considering we've now moved the boys to the little Neon (AC is broken in the Jeep and that's not good when it's 100 degrees outside)!

Bee Pool

This summer we've been using the same $4 kiddie pool we used last year. The boys have been relatively content to just run in and out of the tiny pool, but to be honest I was a little jealous I couldn't get wet too!


We've been waiting and watching for the seasonal merchandise to go on sale so that we could buy something bigger and that would last another year or two. Sunday we snagged a sweet deal at Target and yesterday was the first time the boys got to play in their new "Bee Pool".

One aspect of the pool I hadn't considered is it's ability to teach my children natural consequences. Yesterday I repeatedly told the boys that if they got out they had to stay out for a few minutes before asking mommy for help back in. Any time one of the started to try to climb back in on their own I would repeat "No, no. You need to ask Mommy for help. You won't like it if you fall in." Most of the time the boys would then firmly plant both feet back on the ground and sign and/or say "help please".


Twice though Ty decided to be a rebel and do things his own way. And twice he ended up head first in the water and crying because it freaked him out. By yesterday afternoon he was quite good at always remembering to ask for help back into the pool!

Fountain Fun

Last week the boys, my sister Laura and I went to a fun playdate at the Crown Center Fountains in downtown Kansas City. Without Aunt Laura there, we likely would not have attended this particular playdate; the boys don't really listen well and the fountains are not only crowded, but also right next to a busy street.

I'm really glad she could make it because the boys had a ball! My only regret was not having another adult there so I could take more action shots. Or maybe a bigger regret was not having a change of clothes for Laura and myself... we were pretty wet!

Be sure to check out the video clip of the week on Wednesday... Laura took a hilarious video of the boys on the way to the fountains!

Jackson

Chase & Ty

Chase, Jackson & Ty having a cookie break

Aunt Laura and Jackson (I think!)

Aunt Laura being brave with Chase & Jackson

Aunt Laura & Ty

Aunt Laura & Jackson (I think!)

Ty, Chase & Jackson watching the fountain show (the fountains are synchronized with music)

Jackson, Chase & Ty

Super Dad

All pictures in this post are from the Father's Day Fun we've had so far today!

It is common knowledge that I think Nick is Super Dad. And Super Husband... He's just Super!

From the very beginning, Nick has insisted that I sleep a bit longer in the morning while he gets the boys up, dressed and fed. I think the only time I've been able to convince him to let me get up in his place is when he's been sick, and that's a rare occurrence. I'd say that's pretty super.


If I've had a particularly tiring or trying week Nick will do his best to either get me out of the house or get the boys out of the house. Sometimes an hour of quiet does wonders for my attitude. I'd say that's pretty super.


Nick would rather hang out with the boys than anything else. He even passed on the chance to go to one of the opening rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball playoffs this year in order to spend more time with the boys. I'd say that's pretty super.


The boys adore their daddy and race to the window when he pulls into the driveway at the end of the day. That's pretty super to watch!

Saturday Savings

Decent week of deal hunting here in our household! If you missed my sweet $1.61 shopping trip to CVS earlier this week then you need click here to see those bargains! For now I'll just focus on the finds on our family (yep the whole family) shopping trip last night. Everything on the table was $57.61 and here's what it includes...

Price Chopper:
Belfante Lime Sherbet
Westpac Frozen Veggies - 4 bags
Miracle Whip
Lays Potato Chips
Cheese Nips - 2 boxes
Crest Toothpaste
Hefty Plates
Hefty Cups
All 2x Laundry Detergent - 2 bottles
Eckrich Jumbo Franks - 2 packages

Hy-Vee:
Banquet Pot Pies - 6
Generic Frozen Veggies - 3 bags
Hungry Jack Syrup - 2 bottles
Ice Cream Novelties - 2 boxes
Peaches - 2.75 pounds

Aldi:
Whole Milk - 3 gallons
Skim Milk - 1 gallon
Paper Towels - 1 roll
Napkins - 250 pack
Brown Sugar - 1 pound bag
White Bread - 2 loaves
Motts Natural Fruit Snacks - 24 pack
Saltines
Bananas - 3.75 pounds

The Deals: The Crest Toothpaste was only .50 with my coupon (78% off), the Miracle Whip was .99 (75% off) and the Cheese Nips were $1 a box (49% off). It was also quite handy the Price Chopper had cups and plates on sale as we are hosting a pizza party later today! With my coupons the cups were only .75 (69% off) and the plates were $1 (61% off). The rest of my deals were about 50% off on average.

Total Before Sales, Coupons and Tax: $109.60
Total After Sales and Coupons: $54.72 (50%)

The Cuteness of Jackson

Every once in a while one of the boys will get excited to see me with my camera and will begin posing for me. I love it when that happens and take full advantage of the situation! Last week Jackson was posing away for me and I got so many cute shots of him. Unfortunately the first two shots have a crummy view in the background but I fixed that for the remaining pictures. Now if I could just get all three boys to cooperate like this at the same time!

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

I think it's official. The terrible twos are upon us. Yuck! The boys have become more irritable, they are demanding, they're aggressive (actually for now Jackson is the aggressive one but I'm sure he'll rub off), they spend a lot of time in "Time Out" and they throw spectacular tantrums. Oh the tantrums...

Don't believe my sweet looking little boys are capable of such terrible things? Just wait until you see the pictures! First though, I feel like I need to build the story from yesterday afternoon just so you can see how fast they go from adorable crowd pleasers (literally) to little monsters in the car.

Yesterday on our way home from a meeting I had at church, I decided to stop by the basketball camp Nick is working at. I knew the morning session of camp was about to end and thought the boys would love running around a gym and seeing Nick. When we walked in, camp was just wrapping up. The boys were pumped to be in a huge gym, see lots of kids and lots of balls. The squeals were hilarious! I so wish I'd had my video camera with me because the excited signs and talking (basketball! coach! balls! etc) were so funny! Nick and I kept saying and signing "wait" which they would then say and sign back and then they'd run a happy little circle around us in anticipation. It was quite entertaining for all the parents waiting to pick up their kids.

When camp broke up the boys had a blast running around and a lot of the kids (whose parents weren't there yet) were great with the boys.


Then we had to leave.

Uh oh.

The boys did not want to leave the gym and they certainly did not want to leave all those basketballs. Oh boy. The crying and fit throwing started as soon as we tried to leave the gym, and continued in the hall and all the way out to the car. Nick and the head coach even grabbed a few extra balls to give the boys for the ride home in hopes it would calm them a bit. Nope. Chase enjoyed looking at his, but he was in a relatively good mood to begin with. My other two angels?

And this was after we'd already been on the road for 10 minutes!

They did that the whole way home. They were so worked up and crabby I didn't even bother trying to force feed them lunch. They went right down for their nap and I didn't hear from them for 3.5 hours (over 4 for Ty!).