Thankful Thursday

1. The grass is GREEN again. Last Thursday I could have said it's partially green, but over the past week it's turned totally green. Now I'm looking forward to seeing the trees turn green again.

2. We have been wearing short sleeved shirts! I enjoy seeing the kids wearing different clothes. I was ready to put away the winter stuff, but of course I haven't totally put it away yet because we're in that transitional phase of the year when it comes to clothing. I have loved wearing capris again!

3. We had a nice time at the Children's Museum on Friday night. It was a lot more crowded than usual, but it was a treat because #1 it was free, #2 they had yummy snacks available, and #3 Paul's parents and Paul joined us. Because of this trip I've decided to skip the $2 Tuesday this month (would be the 21st). I think our next trip there will be the $2 Tuesday in June.

4. Ladies Bible study resumed this Tuesday! We are doing a study of 1, 2, and 3 John. I'll miss two of the seven sessions due to our trip to Florida. Nadia was excited because Camille (who wasn't there during the last study) was there again today. She's a kindergartner who goes to a half-day (PM) Kindergarten so Nadia had a girl close to her age to play with during the two hour study.

5. The weather has been SO lovely! It hasn't rained as much over the past week, and it's been in the 60's or 70's. YAHOO! I've finally been getting some MUCH needed exercise!

6. Nadia and Ian had a great time at Paul's parents house last weekend! They enjoyed the workshop at Lowe's, lunch at McDonald's, shopping at Walmart, and visiting Aunt Millie's bakery.

7. Paul and I enjoyed our time with just Oliver while they were gone. We got some shopping done at Walmart and used gift cards to have dinner at Applebee's. Yum!

8. We enjoyed seeing the production of six of Aesop's' fables on Sunday afternoon.

9. Paul watches far more movies than I do, but there have been two movies lately that we both enjoyed. The most recent one was Million Dollar Arm (wasn't quite as good as "When the game stands tall", but it was a pretty good baseball movie).

10. Nadia wanted to read Anne of Avonlea. The book is at the 7th grade reading level so it was a bit too hard for her, but I love that she tried to read it herself. I will read it to her sometime, and it won't be TOO long before she'll be able to read it herself. We'll finish Pollyanna tomorrow, and then next up will be Pinocchio.

11. Oliver has been taking a nap every day without any issues. WHEW! The only day he didn't in the past 10 days was Sunday, and that was because we were at church from 8:25-12:15, then came home and had lunch, and then were back in the van by 1:20 to go see the play. I'm taking Nadia and Ian to see Mary Poppins this Sunday afternoon, but I'm not taking Oliver so he can have his nap at home with Paul. He has been napping for 2-3 hours every day. Much better. I actually had to wake him up from his nap yesterday (so we could go to get the oil chance), and I woke him up today so we could go to the playground before dinner and soccer practice. I did let him sleep 2 hours both days before waking him up. :)

12.The kids and I enjoyed having dinner at Friendy's last night (thanks to a gift card Ian received in February) while the oil was being changed on the van. The oil only needs changed every 10,000 miles on it, which works out to about once a year! I decided not to attempt to take the three kids roller skating at the AWANA family fun night. The waitress was really nice and gave us an extra bowl of goldfish (two for the three kids to share whereas we were only entitled to one) and gave Oliver a chocolate milk at no charge (I didn't order a meal for him and so expected to have to pay for his drink). How kind!

13. I was able to make our reservations for our Fast Passes, and aside from not getting any to meet Anna/Elsa, I was pleased. I was thrilled to also get a reservation for lunch at the Be Our Guest restaurant! Our vacation will be here before we know it! Nadia and Ian will be leaving with Paul's parents on May 4, which is less than three weeks from now!

14. Last week I decided to sign up for a month of the dvd service through Netflix (costs $8) because some movies we wanted to see weren't available at the library. I guess because we hadn't used it for awhile, when I signed up they said the first month was free. Great!

15. While we were at the mall last night I took advantage of three coupons and got Nadia some clothes for this summer and next fall/winter and Ian some for next fall/winter. The original prices of the 9 items at JCP would have been $134, but I paid a grand total of $18.91 (saved 86%). I don't recall what the total of the original prices would have been at Sears, but I paid $16.23 total for a bathing suit for Nadia for this summer plus two long sleeve t-shirts for her for next fall/winter (Hello Kitty and My Little Pony). I don't enjoy shopping at the mall with all three kids, but I do enjoy getting some good bargains!

16. I joined a Shutterfly group on Facebook several months ago, and it has been SO beneficial. I've learned how to receive more codes for freebies (photo books and such) from various places, and sometimes people within the group trade codes (ex. maybe I received one but I'd rather have a photo book and someone else received a photo book but wants what I have). I used to average paying about $15 for a photo book (including tax and s/h) but now I rarely pay more than $9. Today someone posted that she had gift cards for Amazon that she wanted to trade for Shutterfly codes. I traded a photo book code for $20 on Amazon. Paul used that $20 toward my birthday gift. Score!

17. Yesterday Ian made my bed for the first time ever. He came in around 6:30 and was in bed with me, and at one point I got up to go to the bathroom, and while I was in the bathroom he made my bed. It was very lumpy because he forgot to straighten the sheet, but he did a nice job with the bedspread. What a sweetheart! This is proof Nadia serves as a role model for her brothers.

18. Nadia and I have been studying inventors lately as we near the end of her US History curriculum - Edison, Ford, Wright brothers, etc. We've gotten some great books and dvd's from the library to learn about these inventors. I also got a book and dvd that have been helpful in reviewing many of the topics we've covered over the last year - one being Remember the Ladies: 100 great American women and the other is a set of two dvds of the show "This is America, Charlie Brown." As a side note, I did skip one of the 100 women (Margaret Sanger).

19. Usually on Wednesdays Paul is at school for 13+ hours straight, but yesterday he came home in the afternoon for awhile and then went back in the evening. He was mostly working at the computer in our bedroom while he was at home, but he did take about 30 minutes out of his day to spend with Nadia and Ian during Oliver's nap. Usually they don't see him at all on Wednesdays so that was a special treat!