Soccer pics

Only one more game, and Sam is done with soccer. He is just finally starting to really get the hang of it too. Oh well, I guess there is always next year.

School is finally here...

I know that I am a little late with this post. Most of you have already put up pictures with your little ones in their new school duds. I guess I am just slacking off and enjoying this new schedule of mine. I love a schedule. And if that schedule happens to mean that 2 of my kids are gone at some point of the day it is even better. :) Some of you may say that it is terrible of me, but you must not have 3 or more children 6 yrs. old and younger in your home. I tell you that it can make a person crazy to care for that many children all day long. Every mom can use a break and I'm no exception. Keaton started 1st grade a couple of weeks ago. This is our traditional pre- father's blessing picture taken the night before. ( I think Emmi thought she was getting one too.)
I don't know why pre-school starts weeks after everyone else, but it does. So Sam had to wait for what I'm sure felt like years for him to finally have his turn at a father's blessing. It was a special occasion because we were at my parent's house the night before, and got to have them there for the blessing.
During the blessing I kept hearing these thunking noises. I opened my eyes and saw his feet like this on the table, but with his eyes closed of course- kid you not. We all got a good kick out of it. The boy cannot sit still.
This is Keaton as we were walking down to the bus stop on the first day of school. You can tell by his eyes that he has actually just spotted the bus going by. Lucky for us, it wasn't his bus.. whew!
Here he is in line. I have to admit that I was almost about to tear up at this point, knowing that I wasn't going to see him at my counter for lunch, to think that he is a big boy now and can handle the full time school. Me, Sam and Emmi do miss Keaton. I especially do when I keep getting pestered by Sam to play Wii with him all day. I didn't realize how nice it was to have 2 boys that play so good together. However, 2 days a week when Sam is in preschool I am left with only Emmi for a few hours and it is wonderful. Lately, I have been using it as my day to do my grocery shopping, and it has been such a better experience.

You probably noticed that I didn't post pictures of Sam's first day of school. Up until I uploaded these pictures, I honestly thought I had taken some. But yeah, I didn't take any and I feel crappy about it. Next year, when Sam starts Kindergarten I will make up for it... so stay tuned.

So, you may ask, what exactly (besides pestering me) does Sam do all day while Keaton is at school? Well, he has a new hero and his name is Indiana Jones. My father let us borrow his trilogy and we will more than likely have to buy him a new set. We thought that they might be too scary for the kids, but no, the Temple of Doom is actually Sam's favorite one. In the past few weeks Sam has turned every toy that could possibly look and act like a whip into one, tried to climb my fireplace more than a dozen times, and is constantly asking me to buy him a real "Indy" costume for Halloween. We watch at least one of the movies during the morning, with the record at 3 right now. I can't complain. If it keeps him occupied there aren't a whole lot of other movies that I would rather have to watch.

Oh please don't freeze!

I thought I would give a little update on our garden. As you can see it has really started to take off and I think it looks really healthy too. I was so excited the other day when I went out to water and take inventory when I saw lots of little buds. I have been waiting and waiting to see some little squash and melons poke up their heads and I finally did! Most people have been enjoying these fruits of their labors for quite some time, but I believe that the slowness of my garden is because we did plant our a little bit later than everyone, and this our first garden, so more than likely we didn't do something that we should have. I only pray that the weather won't freeze too early before I can enjoy at least a couple of them..I am a dork, I know, but I have taken pictures of the garden and the little buds. As I said, I was really excited. :)These are the carrots, which didn't do fantastic, but are still growing.
This is the lettuce, which Chad says is time to cut. He is probably right. Just to the right of the lettuce is our little strawberry patch that we have been getting berries from all summer. Emmi showing the 2 cucumbers that we picked that morning. So far we have picked them the most.My first zucchini is growing!Our first spaghetti squash, which is getting really close.
My tomato plants, both hanging and in the ground are covered with little green baby tomatoes. This one is my Roma tomato plant.
My Topsy Turvy's turned out so well! I am so glad that I bought them. Not only are they super easy to maintain, they don't take up your garden space. This is one of my Moscow tomato plants.Okay, so they are super small still, but we have tons of these little buds all over our melon plants. Unfortunately, unless they grow at an unheard of rate, they probably won't mature before it freezes, dang it!!
Another cucumber to be picked.This is a banana squash and I really hope it gets ripe in time. I have been looking forward to eating one of these all summer.

The good news is, is that I have learned quite a bit from this garden even if I don't get all the vegetables that I have planted. Next year you can bet that I will be starting to plant as early as I can and do it right. What have you been enjoying from your garden?

Sam, the Soccer Player

It was a special night. It was our first soccer game, (up until this point we have only put the boys in t-ball and swimming lessons), and more importantly, it was Sam's first game ever. He has been too young for t-ball and so for the last couple years he has had to watch Keaton play. Now it was his turn. No, I did not put Keaton in soccer too even though he is old enough to play. I decided that since Sam has watched him 2 years in a row, he can watch Sam this season, and have his choice of what he wants to play next year.

There was a few things that I learned about Sam after watching him this first game:

1. Sam has a very eager personality and will raise his hand quickly, and for anything. When the coach asked for volunteers on who would sit on the sidelines first Sam's hand shot up like a rocket. I know by the look on his face that he didn't know that that was what he was signing up for when he walked over to sit with us instead of starting the game with everyone else. Then, only a few minutes after he finally got rotated in the game his hand shot up once again when the coach asked for a new goalie. Again, he wasn't sure what he had signed up for and pretty much whined to me on the sidelines the whole time he was stationed there. It didn't help that the other team kept trying to score in the wrong goal, and Sam didn't see a lick of action.

2. Sam has the attention span of nil. I was constantly trying to get him to stay focused in the game and go after the ball, but it wasn't working. On the sidelines he wouldn't stay still and wanted desperately to climb the park's trees.

3. Sam is all about the food. Even though I had fed him dinner just before we had left for the game he kept asking me for a snack and water. (Note to self: Bring a big water bottle next time... I don't know what I was thinking). But once he knew his coach brought treats for after the game he perked right up. I was impressed that he even offered to share his treat with Keaton and Emmi without being asked.

I thought that Sam would have been more forward and would go after the ball a bit more, but he was really reserved. He is a solid little guy and I know that he has good potential in any sport that he wants to play. Lining up at the start of the 2nd half. Sam is second from the left.
That's my Sammers, little #4.

Do your prayers...

over your meals look like this too? Just checking.

Discovery Gateway

I realized that school starts this coming week, so I decided to take the kids out on one last "hurrah". My boys have been begging me to take them back to the children's museum or to the "bazeem" as they call it. My Dad was able to come with us and help me corral the kids, which was a huge help. This was me and my Dad's first time to the Discovery gateway, and we were very much impressed. Get ready for lots of pictures of smiling faces... because there is a lot of them.We first went into this area that had tons of tubes and holes that you could stuff balls down and watch them get sucked up and moved around like a vacuum. It sure kept the kids busy.Next was my boys' favorite, the construction site. (Can you tell Keek loves to work the crane?)Emmi waving at me from the "police car".The house was just adorable, especially the kitchen with all the food.I thought my boys were too little for the rock wall, but they wanted to try it. Eventually Sam was able to climb up as high as you could go. He sure is a climber.A group picture on the fake horse. Sam's face cracks me up.The grocery store had rows of shelves with plastic food and grocery carts. They didn't get a chance to work the cash registers, but they didn't seem to mind it. They loved to checkout.Driving the firetruck.At the service station, filling up the car with gas.The water table was great, with every type of water toy you could imagine. Keaton kept getting a kick out of turning the crank and watching the wheels turn.You may be asking why this picture looks different. Well, it is because Sam decided to jump the second I took the picture, so he is in mid flight... ha ha ha, what a kid. They were pretending to do a play for me and their Grandpa B.Last but not least we got to climb inside the Life Flight helicopter, which is for medical rescue. This was a treat for us because my mom works for Primary Children's Hospital and we hear a lot about Life Flight through her. Hopefully this is the first and last time we are in one, (knock on wood).Me and my girl. Whew, we were finally done.

Grocery Smarts

Last night was my first trip into the grocery store to see how much money I could save. I attended a free class a few weeks back and learned how it all works. I was very anxious to try it out. Me and 2 of my buddies went in together, learning the ropes and giving each other moral support. I have to say that grocery shopping is waaayyy more fun with friends than with kids.

This is all the food that I came back with. Sorry it is dark, but it was almost 1 a.m. when I arrived home and was taking the picture, and at that time I didn't care about quality. :)

I spent - $95.44

and

I saved - $116.60!

The first thing I learned from this experience was how overpriced food is, I mean really... I could have spent $212.04 for that food on my counter! Second, is how easy it is to save money if you get organized and buy what's on sale. Thirdly, how darn fun it is to see those coupons deduct money from the total. And lastly, how much I still have to work at this. My goal is to get my grocery bill down to $50 a week. So, I am looking forward to even better numbers to share down the road, (I hope!)

As a side note, I was not the only one who saved money in our late grocery run last night. My friend Sara spent $62.85 and saved $64.06 and my friend Sheila spent $56.92 and saved $91.06. All in all, we spent $215.21 and we saved $271.72! Not too bad for first timers. By the way, if you are interesting in learning more about grocery smarts go to www.sheshopssmart.blogspot.com

and you can go from there.