$10 Date

SO- this weekend Nathan's sister asked if the big kids could come over to spend the night. The kids of course were thrilled to see their aunt but more importantly their cousins! Yay! While the kids spent time with family, Nathan and I set out for a hot date. Ok, so maybe not-we had Ian with us but when you do my "mommy math" 1 baby is like having none at all without his siblings...

Anyhow, we set out and started with dinner! I had $10 toward Cosi from Groupon, so when Nathan and I ordered, it was just $7 for us to eat dinner. Then later we had ice cream- at Bruster's (YUM!) and with my buy one get one free coupon, Nathan enjoyed Key Lime Pie and I had New York Cheese Cake ice cream for $3! Total date $10- which also includes the free movie rental (also courtesy of Groupon also).

Now don't get too excited- we topped it off with a trip to the grocery store-I know, it's the little things. Although Nathan and I always enjoy quiet time and some quality mommy/daddy time with Ian, we missed our big kids-it is almost too quiet without them! We were blessed to top off our weekend celebrating Griffin's (our nephew) baby dedication at church. This is always an exciting time to spend with family and we simply couldn't ask for more.

Call It Crafty...or Creative Use of Super Glue

I've often said I am not necessarily a crafty person, but the kids and I do like to do things together-even if it turns out that we simply made a mess! As summer approaches, I will likely have more crafty projects and experiments that we like to do during the summer-until then, I thought I would share a couple of this past weekend's projects we worked on.

Here in Kentucky, we are getting ready for the Kentucky Derby! This means hats, hats, hats! McKenna and I worked on her hat this weekend for the stickhorse derby in her kindergarten class. It turned out to be very cute- although I must admit I toned it down a little from her original concept. As you can see we opted not to include glitter, sequence, or beads, but silk flowers, ribbon and super glue certainly did the trick. We were both happy with the fashionable derby hat! You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the picture- I took it with my cell phone and it does her hat no justice...

The second project we took on was an idea I actually took from someone I work with. A lollipop bouquet! When I saw her with it, it was absolutely fun and bright and I thought "I can do that". Turns out that our sweet nephew broke his arm over the weekend and had to have surgery-the lollipop bouquet was perfect to take to him!

I hope you enjoy these ideas and I can't wait to share a few more in the future!

Order, Order!

This past week, we have had to reclaim order in our household. We are not by any means "neat freaks" or overly structured in our household routines. However, somehow, our house has started to look like an episode of TLC's Hording: Buried Alive and our routine has gone askew. In order to implement some structure back into our home we have gone back to some of the management strategies that we have done previously. What is it that maintains order in your household? I would love some tips or new ideas, but in the meantime, this is just a little of what we do.

1. Daily Chore Charts- I have made chore charts using DLTK's Custom Chore Charts for both McKenna and Asher. Chores they are responsible for include making your bed, picking up your toys, and finishing homework. They give themselves a check mark as they finish their chores and earn a set amount each day which they put in their money jars. You can find other charts at the Chuck E Cheese website or CoCo Key Water Resort. You may also want to create your own and have various rewards available depending on what makes your children excited about their jobs :)

2. Cleaning- we have opted to choose a room each night to clean. The first time or two through the house can take a while depending on the room and what needs to be done, but after a routine has been established, the house becomes neater a little quicker and it takes less and less time to devoted to the specific rooms. We also try to have a night or two off from cleaning weekly-usually the weekends if the schedule works out :)

3. Dinner- we continue to use E-Mealz and I continue to love it. It takes the guess work out of menu planning and gives me the answer to "What's for dinner?" Our grocery bill has increased slightly but we are eating out less and we are buying "better" food. We have more produce and fresh foods-much less junk food around the house. One of my favorite things is a little surprise or variety added to the menu or website for special occassions. For example, there was an Easter menu available and this week there is a Mother's Day breakfast in bed menu (at no extra charge). Fun!

4. Homework- McKenna has homework regularly and Asher also has homework from time to time. We finish homework soon after we get home from school-the kids may have a snack or play outside for a little bit, but usually homework is finished by the time dinner is served.

As mentioned, this is just a little about what routines work best in our home. I'd love to hear about what you do that gives your household order!