My New Favorite

My new favorite place to take my family has got to be ChikFilA.  The one here in Waxahachie has amazing customer service, yummy food, and great specials and events.  Today (& Thursday if you missed it today) was double dollar days.  That means everything that I bought today got printed onto a special receipt that I can bring back next week and get everything I ordered today FOR FREE!  Oh and tonight they had family night with a clown, face painting, and balloon animals.  We had a blast!  To top it all off, they have a little station with supplies for kids, including stick-on disposable place mats, little containers of Cheerios, wipes, crayons, coloring sheets, and even sprinkles for ice cream.  Thanks, Hachie ChikFilA for making my family's day :)!

Question of the day: What restaurant do you love for their great family deals?

Keeping Busy for Cheap!

My last post, I asked you for ideas about free/cheap things to do with little ones in the summer. Well, we have tried to do a few of those things:

Like go to the park. Mary (in back) and Olivia get to enjoy being outside and ride around in their stroller, and the heat alone wears them out so that they sleep well.

Mary says, "hello" to all of Mommy's followers :).

Olivia wants to reach out and touch you too!

Of course, Georgia absolutely loves going to any park. She likes it even better when there is a "paygound", as she calls it, involved. This is one of our family's favorite parks. It is in Duncanville, near where Pat grew up. The name of the park is Kidsville and it has been there since Pat and I were little. I remember going there with my family!

It has a unique design, including:

a "tightrope"

Regular and baby/toddler swings (lots of them!)

A wooden castle-like structure with lots of places to climb, crawl, and explore and a bicycle-sized street system complete with a "bike" wash.




We've also tried to get creative inside the house with having fun.

My mom brought this hat over and it proved to be good entertainment, especially on Mary while she did her "happy dance"!

And who could forget...EATING!

My dad brought us some pork chops not too long ago....you think that Georgia liked them much?

We've also being grilling in the backyard a ton. Pat can cook, while Georgia plays in her baby pool and with the hose and I keep an eye on the twins.

This picture IS summer to me!

My hubby!!! Love him!

Olivia cooling down with some frozen peaches in her mesh feeder.

Dinner on the grill.

"I'm gonna get you, Mama!!!"

Once in a while, I do have to get away...thanks to friends like these I come back sane. We travelled up to Frisco and had a great girls' day at IKEA, In 'n Out Burger, and Sam Moon. Yay for girls' day!!!

Question of the day:  Who do you need to thank for helping you stay sane?

to be continued...

I'm way too tired for a post tonight, but here's a preview of what is to come soon:

-crawling

-grocery store adventures

-glow sticks

-IKEA

-In 'n Out


to be continued...

Summer

I love love love having summers off.  I can spend time with my family, get a few things done, and staying in short or sweat pants all day long.  Like any teacher, I need the break by the time June rolls around and I am definitely a better teacher in August after being refreshed.

However, I am finding that the lack of structure that comes with summer is driving me CRAZY!!!  I'm normally pretty good about planning outings way ahead of time to ensure that I have time to get organized for them and make sure we've got the money to go where we want to go.  But summer is another story... lately we have been getting stir crazy and taking off on a whim almost every day.  This would be okay except we keep spending money when we do.  We have had fun going to the zoo and going out to eat, but I know that we have to be smart about our choices.

Today, I am proud of myself.  We went to the park.  It was fun and wore the girls out so much that the twins fell asleep before we even got home and Georgia fell asleep on the couch hours before nap time.  I guess the lesson here is: the best things in life are free.

Question of the day (really need your impute here): What do you do for free to entertain your kids in the hot hot hot summer?

Open Mouth, ADDI!

Okay, funny story.  A while back my best friends, Mary & Michael, brought their little girl over for dinner at our house.  It was a fun night and we even caught a cute video of Georgia and Addi.  Addi wasn't wanting to eat, so Georgia took it upon herself to get Addi to eat her beans.  Addi kept saying "No!" and shaking her head and Georgia kept saying, Open Mouth, ADDI!"  Finally, after repeating this sequence a few times, Georgia cocked her head to the side and said, "No?  Oh, I see" and put the spoon down.  Open Mouth, ADDI! Video

We laughed really hard about it...apparently hard enough that Georgia still remembers a couple of months later.  Anyway, she now randomly starts yelling, "Open mouth, ADDI!"  Addi doesn't have to be any where around us, and most of the time we haven't even been talking about her.  I guess it goes to show that Georgia has the memory of an elephant.

Question of the day: What's the funniest thing your kid has ever said?

Georgia and her BFF Addi at Georgia's 2nd birthday party.

Why Plan B?

Just thought I'd back up a little bit to explain the title of my blog.  Plan B for my family has meant something very different than most people would think of...in fact it's not really a plan at all.  If you know me personally, then you know that I am all about planning.  In college I even had a calendar/planner that was broken down into 15 minute time slots.  I organize and re-organize everything in my life way more than is normal or healthy, but that's just me.

If you read my first post, then you know that there is one thing that didn't quite go as I had "planned" and that is my kids.  Sometimes I find that my natural tendencies and personality are at conflict with my faith.  You see, I want to control my life.  I want to know what's coming, be prepared for it, know how it will work out, write down every detail of my strategy, and even put a few cute touches on it (it being life).  One little problem: to be a true Christian, I can't be in control.  Being a Christian means giving it up, letting God take the wheel and being open to the results of that choice.  That's what Pat and I have done when it comes to having babies.  And God decided that a 2 year old and twin 9 months olds is His plan for us. 

It's not easy.  Heck, it's really really hard a lot of the time.  I feel like I am constantly rocking a baby or doing laundry or doing dishes or rocking a baby...wait, did I already say that?  BUT it is exactly what God has planned for us and his "Plan B" is just what I want.  Even if it wasn't my plan at all.

I know that this post is heavy on my beliefs, and some of my posts will be.  But I want this blog to be about my life...ALL of it.  So some posts will be about how we survive our daily life (practical stuff, like feeding schedules), some will be funny stories of my girls, and some will be a little deeper.  Hang on and enjoy the ride!

Question of the day: Who's in control?

Just a Note

Just thought I'd let you guys know that the adds on my blog are not a reflection of  my views or beliefs and I do not choose which adds appear here (especially those that refer to contraception).  If I want to tell you about some amazing thing that I love, I'll write about it here in the posts.  Thanks!   Also, if you are following me, please be sure to join or follow by email to the right. 

Question of the day #2 :) :  I love a bubble bath at the end of a hard day...what's your escape?