Most Spirit Award

Today was a bike-a-thon at Ben's preschool. It's a fundraiser for the preschool which helps keep the cost of monthly tuition very low.

Ben was on his bike and ready to go.

This is Ben and his friend Caleb. They are best buds.

On the sidelines cheering Ben on was my Mom and Noah. Noah was more interested in feeding my mom his rice krispy treat.

Whenever the kids crossed the finish line, they were given a tally mark on their back. Whoever had the most won something. But having the kids stop was causing a lot of accidents. Half way through the race Ben completely wiped out. He hit the brakes hard and ran into another kid on his bike. A lady who was doing tally marks barely caught Ben before he hit the pavement. He was still a little roughed up though. We went over to take a picture on the Police motorcycle while he got over the incident.

Come to find out, his chain fell off during the collision. I could not get it back on without a screwdriver. It's one of the few things I don't carry in my purse. Go figure. Ben took it in stride and hopped on Caleb's little sisters big wheel. He didn't even flinch that it was pink.

During the last 5 minutes, he gave the big wheel back and decided to run.

I gave him the "Most Spirit" award today. He just kept on going. Ben always has the best attitude and he's just a wonderful kid. God, I love him.

Queen

Our kids are influenced by our musical choices. We play what is on our Ipod, but they each have their favorites among our favorites.

I created a playlist on my Ipod for each kid. Depending who is in the car, we turn on what they like. Emily's playlist has lots of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson. Ben's includes Aerosmith's Dream On, The Beatles and several John Mayer tunes. Noah is into Coldplay's Viva la Vida and Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music soundtrack. Just to name a few.

And every so often, the Ipod will be on shuffle or Daddy will be in control and someone will find a new favorite. David takes Ben to preschool in the mornings and Ben told me the other day that he likes the song "Who Wants To Live Forever". The other night 2 hours after I put him to bed, I heard him talking in his room. I went to check on him and he said he couldn't stop singing that song.

Today, when I picked him up from preschool, I found this drawing in his cubby.

The teacher will often ask what the picture is about and write down what the student says. Apparently, the song is still stuck in Ben's head.

I was laughing and Ben tells me after he told his teacher it's about "Who Wants To Live Forver", she broke out in song. Then, the whole class sung the song. It was like a mini Glee preschool classroom singing Queen. What I would have given to see that.

I always knew Ben would inspire the arts.

Super Cuts

We are leaving for a vacation to Orlando on Saturday. My Mom body builder brother will be here tomorrow to stay at our house to watch our golden retriever pit bull. I have a check list 3 pages long and every day is busier than the day before.

On that list was haircuts. I've been cutting David's hair since he got more pay cuts and we realized that $15 at Great Clips once a month was another expense we could do without. I put on the #2 guard on the clippers and go to town.

Ben has been getting the same haircut since he was 2 years old. Again, the #2 guard and I go to town. Hey, I'm good at what I do so why change things?

Noah will be 2 in August. He hasn't had a haircut yet and really doesn't have much hair which is strange since he is a product of David and I. His hair is thin and wispy. It's getting long in a few areas and he looks like he has Wolverine horns sometimes. I decided to try to cut his hair, but opted with a #8 guard as I didn't think he needed a crew cut yet.

This is before.

During.

Still during.

After.

Don't see much of a difference? Yeah, me neither. His hair was so fine it just fell through the clippers. I had a baggie ready marked with Noah's first haircut and the date on it. But this was all the hair I could gather.

And I think some of it may be Ben's.
I'll try again when Noah is three.

April (Snow) Showers

April showers bring 6 inches of snow when you live above 5,000 feet in Arizona. The forecast called for this, but we usually don't believe it. The kids were so excited to play in the snow.
Emily landed in the snow after a ride down the slide.

Ben made snow angels.

Noah cried because he couldn't walk in his snow boots because they are too big. And I stopped to take a few pictures instead of picking him up right away. That's just the kind of Mom I am.

Rocko played fetch with snowballs.

Our peach tree blossoms wondered what in the heck was on top of them.

I went out with no make up on and Ben told me how beautiful I looked. He's going to make some woman very happy one day.

Noah started crying.

Emily cried.

Why? Because their Dad pegged them hard with snowballs. He's just a big kid himself.

I tried to get all three kids in for one picture. David was behind me obviously holding a snow ball to get them all to smile. All they did was flinch.

After an hour, everyone was done. The kids have a routine after they play in the snow. It involves an electric blanket and popcorn. It was only 9:15 in the morning, who says you can't have popcorn for breakfast? Not me. That's just the kind of Mom I am.

It's already melting fast in our 40 degree weather and I'm hoping that's the last snow until next winter. In any case, we are heading to Orlando in one week where the high is in the 80's. I'm packing shorts and flip flops and I'm going to enjoy every ounce of sunshine and humidity that Orlando has to offer. My cold toes can't wait.

Move Over von Trapp's

Last night the kids found the harmonica. I hid it so well last time, they hadn't seen it in about a year. They immediately formed a marching band, complete with Ben on the drums (toothbrush and plastic kitchen pan) and Noah on the tamborine.

Here is the big finale before going to bed.

Something tells me the von Trapp's aren't too worried.

Extreme Couponing

TLC has started a new series on extreme couponing. It aired last night and I just finished watching it. I just have to say a few things.

Yes, I use coupons.
Yes, I won't pay the full retail price for just about anything.
Yes, I spend time surfing blogs and planning my shopping trip.

The difference between me and the people on this show is that these people are well, extreme. I get one copy of the newspaper every week. I do not go dumpster diving to find more or go out of my way to get extra copies. And you shouldn't need to. If you want to adequately coupon for a family of five, one copy of the newspaper is enough. Sure, sometimes I wish I had another coupon for something but it's not all that often.

The lady last night got 62 bottles of mustard. Seriously? What does one need with 62 bottles of mustard? We use about 2 a year. And another lady had toilet paper stashed under her children's beds. And what are you going to do with 35 bottles of Maalox? Oh that's right, you'll need them after you eat the 12 packs of hot dogs that you got for free. This is EXTREME couponing and in my opinion it's OCD with a dash of hoarder. But gosh, it's good TV!

In any case, I am a realistic couponer. I buy what my family will need or use. I give what we can't use away. Since I'm fairly new to this, I don't have all the ins and outs down yet. But, I've built a fairly modest stockpile. One shelf in my linen closest for some extra stuff.

In my pantry, I have about 10 back up boxes of cereal. Seriously, how much does a family need?

Pasta was recently free and I got us a 6 month supply using printable coupons.

My pantry is bursting and I've started another shelf in the garage for cleaning stuff, juice and what not. Oh gosh, is that how every extreme couponer started? In any case, I feel good about how much money I'm saving and I'm happy that I have backups of the things we use. I feel that anyone can do what I do especially with all the blogs out there to help you. Start small with one store or drugstore and see what you can do.

You don't need to be extreme, just realistic.
And if you ever come to my house and forget your toothbrush, don't worry, I got you covered.

Around Our House

I haven't posted in a week. Our main computer has been broken and I found I was just out of the computer groove, even though we have a laptop and an older computer. Well it's not a commodore 64 or anything, but it's about 6 years old and a little too slow for me. In any case, our main computer is up and running with half it's RAM and more on the way from Amazon. I'm back on track now.

We had a work party for David's employees on Friday night. These are all really nice folks and it was fun to have them at our home. There were about 30 people and we had a great time. Everyone brought something to eat, so it was super easy for us. And someone even organized games, like this get the penne rigate on the spaghetti without using your hands.

It was a perfect night with little wind and warm temperatures. Everyone naturally flocked outside. There was very little mess inside and that made the party even more of a success.
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I had put away our indoor roller coaster when Noah was learning to crawl. He keep crawling right off it and onto the floor. Now that he's older, I thought he could figure it out. With the help of his brother and sister, he has.

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Spring road construction means our cars are a mess. David washed them this weekend. The kids "helped". Which basically means, they got their sponges wet and then played in the gutter.

I remember I used to charge my parents 50 cents to wash their cars. My kids haven't figured that part out yet. They also haven't figured out how to actually wash the car and not play in the water.

They were having fun while David was spraying them, until he got them soaked.

Ben didn't care, but Emily started crying. Fun over.
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Noah looks sweet and innocent. Right?


But this kid is a total complainer. Today, he went into full meltdown mode when I tried to transfer him sleeping from the car to the crib. He kicked and screamed. I wasn't giving in. A 15 minute cat nap in the car is not enough...for him or for me. He yelled and he yelled until he started coughing. I went in to check on him. He made himself vomit. His gag reflex is impressive. As soon as I picked him up, he was out like a light on my shoulder. I didn't see any puke on him, just on the sheets, so I let him sleep on me. And he did just that...for 3 hours!

When you try not to blink for the camera timer, you look like a deer in headlights. Just an FYI. And you know what, he did have vomit somewhere on him. I got a good whiff every few minutes. It made for a very long 3 hours and the scent permeated onto my clothes.
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When David cleaned my car inside and out, he found enough goldfish crackers to feed a small country. I tried to pass it off as my survival kit. If we are ever stranded in our van, we can eat well for at least a week. He didn't buy it. In an effort to keep my car clean, we switched to carmel rice cakes.


I guess we could always NOT eat in the car, but Mama's gotta do what Mama's gotta do and if the kids are quiet and happy, Mama is quiet and happy. Well, I'm never really quiet. But, it's a win/win.
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Ben's patching is going well. He's fine with it for the most part. Today when I picked him up from preschool, I told him if we put the patch on now he'll get 20 minutes out of the way driving home in the car. I said, "it'll kill two birds with one stone." To which Ben gasped and said, "I didn't kill any birds! Why would I want to kill two birds?" He was totally serious. He makes me laugh.
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I bought the kids new sidewalk chalk today for $1. They were so excited. It was like I just bought them a pony. Emily's new thing is writing her name and making a fancy Y, which she claims is a cursive Y. But, I can't remember what a cursive Y looks like.

Even Noah enjoyed the chalk.

And Mama enjoyed 15 minutes all to myself. Best dollar I ever spent.
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Leaving the best for last...
Our friend was over working on our computer and David and him were talking. I was sitting there as an observer not having a clue what they were talking about. Bytes, processors, blue screen of death, it rattles around in my brain. So, I went into my own thoughts. And what I thought is, my husband is hot. If he wasn't my husband and I was staring at him across the room, I'd wish he were my husband.

I'm a very lucky girl.
I wonder if he'll feel the same when he comes home from work and wonders why I smell like vomit.