Good Deal!!!

There is nothing I love more than a "free" day and last Monday was just that kind of day. We started off with a trip to the local library where the kids turned in their books from last week and checked out new ones for this week. For reading one book, they each got the weekly summer reading program incentive prize (mini white boards and markers) for FREE and then, since they read more than 5 books apiece, they got to spin the prize wheel too. Emma won a FREE kids meal at Togos and TJ got a coupon for a FREE frosty at Wendys. I timed our trip to coincide with the start of a music program at the library as well. So we got to take a Mommy & Me type music class for FREE and I got a music CD for FREE and each of the kids got an egg shaker instrument for FREE. After we left the library we took a quick trip to 7-11 where, since it was July 11th (7/11), it was FREE slurpee day! We each got a FREE small slurpee and headed home. Later that evening I dropped the babies off to swim with their cousins while I went to meet Karen for our pilates class. Ok, technically this class wasn't free, but we bought them as part of a package deal a while back on a Groupon type site, so it was already paid for... which made it FREE today! After class we finished up the evening with a quick trip to Target where I used some coupons to get some (nearly!) free school supplies for the kids and a new pillow for Mikayla. I think my total expenditures for the day was only a couple of bucks. Can't beat that for a fun filled day!

Happy Independence Day!!!

We had a pretty good 4th of July this year! We all went over to Tim & Jenny's to swim and BBQ. All the food was delicious. My crab stuffed, bacon wrapped, jalapeno poppers went over especially well! I can't believe 100 of them disappeared so quickly. I also figured that this would be the first year where Emma was old enough to actually get a kick out of fireworks so I went out and bought a box of overpriced sparklers. All the kids loved them! Until Emma got burned. Not once, but twice. A small spark got her in the face but she was fine with that. Just a quick "ouch" and a wipe with water and she wanted to go back to doing more. And then a rogue ember fell off her sparkler and got trapped against her ankle, under the strap of her sandal. I immediately dunked her foot in to pool but she still got a pretty good burn. It's small, luckily, but went through a few layers of skin. Emma cried for a bit and I held her and got her a bandage going and then she was back to her old self. I figured she was fine when she decided that she would rather stay and spend the night with her cousins rather than coming home with me! My baby is getting so big...

My girls...

I spent Friday hanging out with Emma & Mikayla. Big or little, old or young, Emma sure does love her cousins! We started the day with a trip to the library where we met up with Hayden and Sophia. Mikayla is good with the little ones (when she feels like it) and she held an impromptu story hour for the girls. They loved it! Then I took the 3 of us to lunch at Shakeys & out for free bowling. We finished up the day with a stop at the grocery store and then headed home for a nice movie/ nap time. When Emma woke up, we painted suncatchers. She was very proud of herself and all the colors she put on her Tinkerbell. Can't ask for a much better Friday than this one!

Fun with Friends!

Thursday was a very fun day for us! Soon after we woke up, I took Emma & TJ to meet up with Hayden, Jen, & Charlene at the local movie theater for an early showing of the new Disney movie, Cars 2. The movie was pretty cute and the kids were very excited to go see it. Unfortunately that excitement seemed to wane after about an hour for Emma. I can't really blame her... the 1st Cars movie is more TJ's forte than Emma's too and, besides that, I think a full 2 hours is a bit long for a movie aimed at young kids. Anyway we still enjoyed most of the movie. After that, I quickly ran home to pick up Mikayla since she had gotten dropped off at the house after we had already left in the morning. Then we stopped to pick up some pizzas and headed over to Jen's house for lunch and swimming. Jen had finished building her new deck on the side of her pool and it looked great! She did an awesome job! We had a wonderful time splashing the afternoon away and did a great job of tiring out the little ones. Emma went down without a problem at bedtime and TJ actually passed out for the entire night at around 6pm! He must have been wiped! And anything that can exhaust a preschooler has to have been a successful day!

Forest Falls 06/28/2011

We didn't really have any big plans for Tuesday and, since I was still watching both TJ & Matthew along with Emma, we really needed to get out of the house! So I piled them all in the jeep and we headed up the mountain to meet Grandma & Al and do a little hiking in Forest Falls. We only spent a couple of hours up there but we had a pretty good time. I think the hike, although short, was a bit taxing for a couple members of 0ur group, but we all made it to the water and back in (mostly) one piece. The only major complaint of the day was the bugs! I had forgotten insect repellant and there were millions of little sweat bees and biting flies swarming around us. Matthew & I seemed to get especially bit up in comparison to everyone else... I guess we must just be the sweetest smelling of the group! :)

A refreshing afternoon...

After we finished berry picking on Monday morning we were all a bit hot and dusty. My cousin Cindy lives near the berry patch and she invited us all over for the afternoon. We had a delicious meal of grilled carne asada fajitas and a wonderful time swimming in the pool. The kids thought all the water toys were very cool. Matthew was quite the "pool surfer" in fact! She has a beautiful house and backyard and we had a great time visiting as the kids played and splashed.

Temecula Berry Company!

It's blueberry time again! Technically, its almost the end of blueberry time this year. So Mom & I headed out to Temecula with Emma, TJ, and Matthew bright and early Monday morning. The bushes had been picked over quite a bit, as compared to last year when we had visited in mid-May instead of late June, but we were still able to get quite a haul. I think we each filled a bucket almost all the way up. And some of us (EMMA!!) probably ate at least a bucket's worth as we picked. She pulled the same scheme as last year... fill her bucket a little, ask to see mine, comment on how it is SO much fuller than hers, ask to swap, commence with eating the berries Mommy picked. Lol. She's a smart cookie, that one. Uncle Orland, his daughter Cindy, and her son Brahm came out to pick berries with us as well. Brahm & Matthew got along wonderfully and it was a great (albeit hot) morning!