Last Week(s) of School

June 2013

The last couple weeks of school were jam-packed with activities! And everything came to an end so quickly it was hard to believe that a whole school year had passed!!

June 7, 2013: Donuts w/ Dad

Sean and Ethan went early for the event and then I met them there so Sean could get to work.
{In May there was "Muffins w/ Mom".}

June 13, 2013: Teacher/Staff Appreciation from the Southworth Fam and one of my last Volunteer days

 For most of the major holidays I brought in treat plates for the staff at the school and I thought the end-of-the-year also called for a little sugar rush!

Triple-chocolate chip cookies, coconut-banana bread w/ lime glaze and lemon crinkles

.

I think I worked most of the day as a volunteer because (unfortunately!) Ethan's teacher was moving after school got out and had to pack up her whole classroom! I really enjoyed getting to work in the classroom and spend time with the kids. Ethan had a great class and awesome teacher - we'll miss seeing her in the halls this year!

I also finally got to snap a picture of Ethan and his self-manager badge!!

This was a BIG deal as it took him most of the year to earn it! See, the majority of his class earned theirs toward the beginning of the year. They had to continually have green and blue days on their daily behavior reports {red = bad day/lots of reminders, yellow = ok, needed extra reminders, green = good day, only a couple of reminders and blue = great day, no reminders}. Well, we learned that even though Ethan is a great kid and has pretty good behavior, he is also very social and had a hard time staying on task and/or not chatting with his neighbor. So all year he struggled with this, showing no improvement. A typical week for him was at least one yellow day, often 2 yellow days and sometimes 3 yellow days! We tried a couple of different incentives, but saw no results. Mid-January we started a minimal monetary incentive {15 cents/day for green days and 25 cents/day for blue with a weekly bonus for no yellow days.} Ethan desperately wanted to save up for a $50 Imaginext Eagle castle. He was already half-way with some Christmas money from Grandma, but we wanted the rest to have to be earned slowly. Anyway, it still didn't take off for a couple months and then sometime in April something just clicked. Suddenly Ethan started coming home w/ mostly green days, a couple blue here and there and only a couple yellow days. Fast forward another couple weeks and Ethan was coming home with ALL green and blue days. 

Mid-May Ethan was finally given the self-manager application which included writing 3 reasons why you should get one and having ALL your teachers (library, music, classroom, PE, playground and lunchroom) and parents sign it. Anyway, self-managers wear a special badge and get extra privileges, like eating lunch in the classroom w/ the teacher on Wednesdays, choosing where to sit and the occasional bonus recess.

It would have been totally fine if Ethan hadn't ended up earning his badge, but we were sure proud of the turn-around he had with his behavior. He truly worked really hard to not talk during work time and even had to ignore his friends sometimes or say to them, "I can't talk right now, I'm trying to have a green day." By the end of year, his teacher said he was showing excellent leadership skills. :)

June 17, 2013: Last full day of school and last homemade lunch.

I packed Ethan's lunch every single day, minus a couple when Sean filled in for me when I was sick and the ONE day Ethan wanted to try having hot lunch. This was a pretty typical lunch for him... PB & Honey on wheat sandwich, string cheese, fruit, veggies, a drink, a treat and vitamins {it's easier for me to remember that way}. And whatever he didn't eat at school came home with him and was part of his after-school snack. No wasted food at this house!

June 18, 2013: Last day of school!!

Well, we were LATE on the last day of school! Ha ha!! First time we had to go to the office for an unplanned tardy slip. But I didn't care. It was my fault and it was excused. We were busy getting the last few things for Ethan's teacher's gift...

 

It included a lime cilantro candle {$1 at Walmart}, some chocolate covered coconut almonds {available at Costco and sooo good!} and homemade coconut lime sugar scrub {just coconut oil, white sugar and fresh lime zest}.... Do you see the coconut/lime theme I had going on?? I also threw in a staple remover {as a joke AND needed office supply... I was always having to go borrow one from the copy/work room when I'd come in to volunteer and change wall displays} and a Starbucks gift card.  

Ethan and his Kindergarten teacher.

Pick-up time that day was just a couple hours later, but it was a fun, last day for the kids to be together.  

This almost made me cry.... All the staff and teachers lined up to wave and see off the kids riding the buses! It was so sweet to see them all waving and yelling to each other to have a good summer!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. SOAKED IN!!

Ethan is in an anti-kissing stage.

He's not against giving them so much.

Or receiving them so much.

But when we give him kisses on the cheek, forehead, nose, etc.... He immediately wipes them off.

The only exception is when he is sleeping. Which Sean has teased reminded him of! Sean will say to Ethan, "I checked on you before I went to bed last night. And gave you kisses on your cheek. And you were asleep so you couldn't wipe them off!"

Ethan then frantically tries to wipe them  off.

Which Sean responds with, "It's too late. They're already soaked in!"

This has led to a new game. Ethan gives us kisses and then calls out, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1. SOAKED IN!" as fast as he can. And we do the same for him.

Who knew it only takes kisses 5 seconds to soak in! ;)

Bad Things Come In 3's

A "woe is me (us)" post.

And I'm not even going to whine about the fact that it is June 23rd and it is RAINING!!
Where's our summer?? We even have the window A/C unit in... We're ready!

 Anyway.

1. Last Friday it was a nice, sunny, not-too-hot day.  I was coming off of my "Holy Errand Day!" on Thursday and had just finished Friday's much shorter list of errands - dropped off a job app and went back to the post office. Since we had no other plans for the afternoon, I decided it would be a good time to clean out the Explorer, vacuum it out and wash the outside. So I did just that! Put away everything that was in the truck that didn't belong, vacuumed all of it and then washed the outside. As I rinsed off the 2nd scrubbing, I noticed a streak of water on the windshield... I looked closer and was shocked to realize that what I thought was water was a CRACK in the windshield!! Seriously?! Surely my eyes were deceiving me... {What is it with us and cracked glass lately?!} Nope, I actually saw the crack grow. Big dollar signs immediately flashed in my eyes, though when I looked up an estimate online it was only half of what I originally guessed. Luckily the crack doesn't go all the way down or through the windshield and doesn't obstruct my vision... Add that to the list of things we need but can't really afford!

2. On Monday I got out and planned to do a 2-mile walk around a track while Ethan played at a local park... Well I got done with 2 miles and Ethan was still playing well so I thought I'd go another mile. At about mile 2.5 I went to pass some ladies with strollers and as I went from the grass back to the track I stepped on the edge of the track and rolled my ankle. I was able to walk it off and finish my 3rd mile, but by that night it was hurting pretty bad so I wrapped it up and iced it. Tuesday it was still a little sore but Wednesday I was back on the track and did another 3 miles. I realize this isn't that bad, but I had to have a 3rd thing to round out my list because the last one is a doozy....

3. FRAUD. On our checking account. From Sean's debit card. With nothing to show for the supposed purchases we made through Jet Star Asia and Go Holiday. A total of $458.42 was taken from our account, including two international exchange fees. Lucky us! {she said dripping with sarcasm!} Although, I guess, lucky for us I did catch it early. Called the bank as soon as I noticed something fishy and sure enough there were two pending fraudulent charges. Got Sean's card cancelled and new one ordered, called the dispute department once the transactions cleared, got paperwork emailed to me, filled out forms and faxed them back. So everything is done... We just have to wait for our funds to be back in our account. They said 7-10 business days. My fingers are crossed.



Here's to a good weekend, hanging out with family and celebrating Sean's birthday!!

PS: I really hope my rolled ankle can count as the 3rd one because we don't need anything else right now!

Holy Errand Day, Batman!

Oh. My. Heavens.

Yesterday was a looooooong day.

NINE stops. With THREE pit-stops at home in between the madness. That makes for 13 buckling and un-buckling of Ethan in his carseat.

But, let's just be honest. This has been another crazy-busy week and it's not even over!


1. Swim Lessons
Yesterday started with swim lessons for Ethan. And I was so happy he got in the pool with only a little bit of stalling. Tuesday was quite different and I had to spend almost 20 minutes of his 30 minute lesson talking with him and trying to convince him to get in the water. I was having flashbacks of our first swim lesson attempts! {#1 was here and #2 was here.} And, crap, I'm realizing that I never hung up Ethan's swim trunks to dry... Oops!

2. Target
After swim lessons we stopped at Target for some Father's Day cards and $1 bin finds. Curse that $1 bin - gets me for at least 1 or 2 things every time! This time we decided these Independence Day star glasses were a "must" and they landed in our cart along with 2 tubes of glow bracelets. 15 bracelets for a buck?! Can't beat that. I know I'll use them in my Primary class or as party favors or something!

3. Un-named store
Next was a quick stop and bathroom break at another fine retail establishment that will remain anonymous until after Father's Day because we were getting Sean's gift!

We went home for a very quick lunch {thank goodness for yummy/easy leftovers - homemade chicken taquitos - that I was able to just heat-and-eat} and I made sure I had all of the paperwork for Ethan's kindergarten registration.

4. Ethan's soon-to-be Elementary School
I've had 95% of the kindergarten registration forms filled out since the beginning of May - I was going to turn it in before the Open House. Well, I finally sat down and finished the last 5% of the forms and we took them to the school and got Ethan all signed up!

5. Another local Elementary School
One of the girls in my Primary class {and oldest daughter of one of our good friends} received a very special service award during the 5th Grade "graduation" and award ceremony. We went in support of her and ducked out a little early when Ethan needed a bathroom break.

Then it was back home again so I could wrap and box up Father's Day gifts to be shipped out.


6. Post Office
Did I remember to check the closing time before we left for the post office? No... And we got there 7 minutes after they locked up the counter for the night. Dang it! Sorry Dads... Your packages may be a day or two late.


7. Papa John's Pizza
With all the running around and knowing that Sean had to be in Salem for a tech rehearsal for the choir concert and because I had Activity Days to get to, dinner last night was courtesy of Papa John's $5 pepperoni pizza deal.

Back home again to get Sean's dinner on a plate, so he could eat it in the car, as he rushed out the door. Ethan and I ate our pizza and shared a cherry Coke {no judging, please!} and then it was back in the car to run to...

8. Winco
I was in charge of bringing popsicles for the treat for Activity Days.

9. Church
Activity Days - we went and played softball at a nearby elementary school. I played catcher. Pretty sure some of these girls had never played before... i.e. I was up and down a lot catching and throwing back missed balls. My quads were pretty tired by the end - especially considering I was playing catcher for both teams - basically almost an hour of doing squats! Ha!

Finally back home again where I got Ethan off to bed by myself, did a quick pick-up around the house in preparation for some friends coming over to watch the season premiere of Suits and took a quick (no hair-washing) shower only to have everyone ditch me at the last minute! So I got on my jammies, popped some popcorn and watched a show off the DVR.

Today we should only have 2, maybe 3, stops... Back to the post office, drop off a job application and maybe pick up some milk. We're already down to our last 3/4 gallon and with the weekend here, that could go really fast!

Fire Truck Park

Ethan had been begging and begging to go to the "fire truck park" and finally one of the days after swim lessons it wasn't raining and we went! It was still kinda chilly out, so we had the park to ourselves most of the time {except for the landscape/maintenance guys} and Ethan was a happy camper.

This play structure was HUGE and had so much to do!

 There was also a huge tree in front... perfect for climbing!

Come summer-time, we will be back. :)

CRACK!!! [Our now-ghetto glass coffee table.]

So TWO days after getting our new phones, I was able to snap this picture and send it to Sean...

"What happened?!" he asked

My reply: "Ethan happened."

 

In case you can't guess by the pictures... He was trying to "get me stronger." 

Just not over the glass coffee table next time, okay? 

PS: We're hoping to remove the other glass panel and replace both sides with some thin boards and paint the whole thing a dark, dark brown to match our other furniture in the living room. When THAT actually happens... I'll post a picture.

Swim Lessons - April 2012

I am still a little shocked by just how well swim lessons went for Ethan. Of course, it has been a year and a half since we first attempted them!! If you'll recall from this post and this one from October 2010, our very first attempt at swim lessons did NOT go well at all. To the point that I put off attempting it again for months and months and then every time I tried to enroll him after that it seemed like I kept missing the deadline for the next set of classes. Finally, the day we were set to leave for California and while I should have been busy packing, I got online as registered Ethan for swim lessons [and was finally able to use the $50+ credit we'd had sitting on our Vancouver Parks & Rec account] for April. We changed it up a bit and I signed him up for lessons at a different pool. I knew he was more ready, but I was still hesitant. Of course, day of the first lesson I leave early since I have to stop and get gas plus I'm not sure where the pool is, only to miss the turn because the turning lane is backed way up so I had to go a round-about way to get there. He was 10 minutes late to his 30 minute lessons. Argh!! But we made it on-time or early to EVERY lesson after that!

This class was labeled "pre-beginners" and was mainly for the kids to get comfortable being in the water, putting their faces in the water and beginning to float on their back, etc. Ethan was, by far, one of the "bravest" in the class. He's good about putting his face in the water and would do whatever the teacher asked without much or any hesitation. He was also one of the older kids in the class, but he needed to start somewhere. Here's a little look week-by-week of his lessons... {Side note about the pictures and videos: parents watch the lesson from the 2nd level, through glass windows, so that's why the pictures are not the greatest and the sound doesn't match what's going on in the pool in the videos!}

The first week really was all about just getting the kids comfortable being in the water and not clinging to mom or dad. Lesson 2 they started to work on back floats a little.

When the pool noodles came out half-way through the fourth lesson Ethan was in heaven!! By far one of his favorite parts since it let him be independent. I admit, my heart kinda stopped when I saw one teacher for 5 kids with only a pool noodle keeping them afloat where none of them could touch! But they all did just fine.

By week 3 Ethan had already shown a lot of improvement with his back float and could *almost* do it with no assistance. The teacher just barely had his hand on Ethan's back but as soon as he took it off, Ethan would panic and his bum would sink down! He was also doing better with his kicking/gliding. This video is from week 3.

Just when Ethan was starting to get a little bored with swim lessons and was ready for Preschool to start up, they did boat/water safety for one of the classes and the kids got to wear life vests and ride in the foam boat. Ethan and the other girl in the boat were the braver kids in the class so for them they actually tipped the boat after they had talked about what to do if you fall out of a boat. On the last day Ethan accomplished a back float with NO HELP!! The kids also got use the noodles again and played a little game of catch with the ball. Ethan liked that, too.

So, Ethan passed the Salamander pre-beginner class and is moving on up to Turtle pre-level 1!! We're hoping to do June lessons once preschool gets out.

March Recap

Feels like a long time since I've done a recap post... probably because it's been 2 months! Yikes! Let's get right to it...

* Group-date-movie-of-the-month: The highly-anticipated....

http://ricmeyers.com/2012/03/29/battle-hunger-royale-games/the-hunger-games-movie-poster-24/

Can't you just hear the creepy whistle in your head right now?!
Anyway... Loved the movie! I've found that most people who loved the book, loved the movie. Some little details from the book that I was bummed were missed or changed, but overall a great movie. I also liked that they gave more background to Snow... trimming away at his roses!

* Overdue Wellness Check

Almost a year overdue, three shots and growing like a weed! You can read all about it here.

* Spring Cleaning: Let me just say that spring cleaning for a perfectionist by nature is hard. Story of my life when it comes to decluttering. It's not that I like to keep things, but when I am organizing/de-junking an area I like to be able to do it all at once. I have a really hard time "chipping away" at it. But when I have the time, I've been working on some deep cleaning, re-organizing and de-junking. I did a thorough cleaning of the top of the stove, stove liners, "under the hood", etc. one week. I've cleaned out the hall closet. And I even pulled out the fridge and vacuumed, swept and scrubbed under/behind it. That hadn't been done since we moved in and it was pretty dusty back there! I even found a magnet from the previous tenant!

* More Snow! Snow in the Pacific Northwest in January and February is pretty much the norm, but March?! And mid-March, at that?? Yeah, that is NOT so much the norm!

* St. Patrick's Day: We didn't do anything special around here... I think we maybe wore green that day. But Ethan had a birthday party to go to (at the movies - I was asked to go along and help) and Sean had a choir concert in West Linn. I did, however, make some mint-green chocolate chip cookies earlier in the month. I love that it looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream in the mixing bowl!

* WSSB Spring Carnival: Ethan and I had so much fun with this last year, we couldn't miss out this year - even if we could only stay for a little while since Sean and I both had to get to mutual. We had dinner that was provided and then Ethan played a couple games before heading to the bounce house for the rest of the time.

* Oregon overnighter: Ethan and I spent 24hours down in Oregon visiting my family - see this post for the details!

And that's it for March! No random pictures again - mostly because we were stuck inside most of the month with all the rain, snow, wind and other crummy weather!

Dinner

Dinner-time is tricky in our house like I'm sure it is at most people's houses. Sean has piano lessons most nights of the week plus other church meetings and every other week we both have to be at the church one night for youth activities. That night dinner is often not until close to 9pm.

Then you factor in that it is just the three of us. Sean will eat pretty much anything I make, but Ethan's a bit more picky. I don't like to have a ton of leftovers if I can help it - maybe enough for Sean's lunch the next day - but I don't like to be wasteful or pay more for smaller packages, either. Not too mention that I try to keep it healthy, but can't exactly expect my family to live on chicken, brown rice and a salad every night.

And just when I think I have a routine down, making menus and planning ahead... well, life gets in the way and we have a crazy week and the pre-planning goes to pot and we end up living on cold cereal, mac-n-cheese w/ hot dogs and frozen pizza for the week. I hate those weeks. You know the ones, where every night is a battle just to come up with something to make.

Anyway. Right now we are in re-start mode after the craziness of Spring Break, Easter, Ethan's birthday, taxes and everything else. Yesterday I sat down and made a 2-week menu (that will take us a couple days past next payday), grocery list AND checked coupons before going shopping and stocking up.

A typical dinner menu week for us usually consists of:
- one night that is a pasta dish (pasta is a favorite at our house)
- one night with a mexican/latin flair to it
- one night of breakfast-for-dinner
- one night of cheap-quick-and-easy (usually church youth activity night and this could be boxed mac-n-cheese or even a $5 pizza depending on the craziness of the day)
- one night of "typical dinner plate" with meat, starch and veggies
and then I also try to limit ground beef and pasta to just one or two meals/week and we often have chicken once or twice.

So what's our 2-week menu look like?
We've got spaghetti, roast chicken, chicken chili, french toast, spinach ravioli and tostadas the first week and BBQ, sweet-n-sour meatballs, fajitas, stromboli, mac-n-cheese, taquitos and (maybe) pizza the 2nd week. {Side note: the white, blocked-out areas are our schedule - just little reminders of what's going on those days that may influence the type of meal we'll have. I just didn't want it all over the internet.}

I also have a pretty big list of ideas that I've compiled over the years that helps, but even with 65+ ideas we still have nights where we can't think of what to have. So, I'm wondering... What are some of your go-to dinner ideas?? Please share!!

PS: I've had friends ask for my dinner ideas list in the past, so if you really want it, I would be happy to email it to you.

Survival

I love Spring.

I love Easter.

I love celebrating Ethan's birthday.

I don't love taxes.

Unfortunately for me, all three often are within just a couple weeks of each other.

And it didn't help that Easter and Ethan's birthday fell back-to-back (and right after we got home from Cali!) this year - just how it did the year he was born. And then there was a party to plan. So, last week consisted of:

Easter Sunday: church, hosting/preparing Easter dinner
Monday: Ethan's birthday, job interview (more on that later), errands, dinner at Red Robin
Tuesday: Ethan started swimming lessons, more errands
Wednesday: cleaning house, party prep, more errands
Thursday: Ethan's swimming lessons, more party prep, mutual/activity days
Friday: more house cleaning, even more party prep, watching 5 kids (from two different families) for two busy moms
Saturday: Ethan's birthday party with 9 kids ages (almost) 4 to 6
Sunday again: church, dinner at a friends' house
Monday again: doing all my friends' dishes at our house because their sink backed up, finishing up taxes
Tuesday again: Ethan's swimming lessons, some errands, neglecting the house and submitting taxes

Yes, I could do our taxes earlier, but where's the fun in that?! Ha! Just kidding. Actually, this year was the earliest I had started them - clear back in mid-February when I first got the software. I did 90% of our taxes that day. I just had to add in Sean's piano money/expenses (which required a little research) and finish up State. And yet, everything sat in TurboTax, all cued up for when I was ready to finish them, for a month and a half! Ay-yi-yi. Every year I swear I'll do better and every year I wait until the last minute. Oh, well. They are done. And we are getting a refund (yay!). And I survived the last-minute madness. And today will be all about cleaning the house and doing laundry. Seriously, nobody come over. It's a disaster-zone. And maybe something yummy will get baked up while I take care of the chaos. I'm thinking chocolate chip cookies or cinnamon rolls are in our future.

Ok, I take it back. If you want to come over today you can. After the house is cleaned up and after I have a treat to share!

Now, don't bother me... I'm cleaning!!

PS: Stay tuned.... Exciting posts still to come. Look forward to Disneyland, Easter, Ethan's birthday, Ethan's party and Ethan starting swimming lessons!!!

"Please bless that we can go somewhere."

"And please bless that we can go somewhere."

You'd think Ethan never gets out of the house!

Let me assure you, he does.

Though apparently the bank, gas station, grocery store and Target aren't the most exciting in the eyes of a 4 year-old.

So Ethan has added this little gem to his prayers - even when it is a prayer to bless the food at mealtime! It's a good thing it's Spring and sunny days are just around the corner. I think this little dude is tired of being stuck indoors!

Leap Year = Bonus Day

Leap year every four years is just enough time for me to forget about it in between. It seems so foreign, even though we have been doing it every four years for a long time! And, I don't know, it kinda feels like a "bonus" day - you know, like getting an extra hour of sleep in the Fall for Daylight Savings when you "fall back" an hour. Let's see four years ago... February 29, 2008...
Sean and I had been married for just over 2 1/2 years. Ethan was almost a year old. We had just bought the Explorer (only one more year until it's paid off... yay!). Our nephew was born a couple weeks earlier. Three weeks later I started this blog. And I have NO IDEA what we did on that particular day! Oh, well. I did try looking for a picture around that time, but early 2008 is right in that scary time-frame of pictures I'm pretty sure are lost (before I started buying a new SD card once one was full instead of relying on the computer for the uploaded images). I'm praying they're on a picture CD somewhere, but I'm afraid to know for sure that they're gone forever.

Anyway...

So how did we spend our "bonus" day this year?? Ha ha! Nothing exciting at all. Typical chores were done... cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the floors, picking up around the house and making dinner. I did bust out two new blog posts: Cinder-Ethan {the funny tale of Ethan's shoes being accidentally dumped in the recycle bin and lost forever} and Rash Wednesday {the funny title, but sad tale of Sean's allergic reaction to something, though we don't know what!} And also trimmed up the mop that was sitting on top of Ethan's head!

Before

After

Dinner resulted in an empty milk jug, so I went to the store while Sean finished getting Ethan ready for bed. Glad I went to the store last night as opposed to this morning, because we woke up to this:

SNOW... On March 1st... in the valley!! Crazy!!

Driving conditions were fine - our school district wasn't even put on delay - but I still prefer to stay in, turn the heat up and enjoy the quiet whiteness from inside our home. Of course, it's already melting away, but I see some baking, snuggling and movie-watching in Ethan and I's day today!!

Cinder-Ethan

Cinderella's adorable, lesser-known step-brother.

He's never mentioned in the stories.

Maybe because Cinderella's a little embarrassed...

She may lose one shoe, but it's eventually returned.

Cinder-Ethan manages to lose BOTH shoes.

Not just once.

TWICE!!

In a six-month period.

Ay-yi-yi! You're killing me, kid! And our bank account. Kids' shoes are not cheap!
Luckily, the first pair lost was at the end of summer and it was his sandals that he'd already outgrown. Not too much of a loss. We even tried to go back and get them. I hope whoever took them had a child in desperate need of sandals - even if they were stinky, little boy sandals!

Pair number two went missing just 2 weeks ago. Friday morning, to be exact. Sometime between 8am and 9am, or whenever we heard the beeping from the Recycle truck backing up. Of course, at the time, we knew nothing of the missing shoes.

But let me back up just a bit....

One of Ethan's chores is to take out the recycling. We keep a cardboard box by the front door, behind the recliner. We also keep some shoes behind the recliner. {See where this is going, yet?} Our garbage and recycling is picked up Friday mornings, so Thursday night Ethan put on his shoes, took out the recycling, came back in the house, put the recycle box back behind the chair and carelessly threw his shoes inside the box....

And then I carelessly left them there, not thinking much of it because the recycling had already been taken out....

And then a flattened cereal box got put in the recycling box....

And then Sean carelessly dumped the recycling box into the recycle bin and pushed it to the street early Friday morning....

And then the recycle guys carelessly took our recycle bin and dumped it in their big truck. How dare they not check first for a pair of little boys' shoes!!

And sometime Friday afternoon, while straightening the living room, I noticed the completely empty recycle box sitting behind the chair. Panic set in. And disbelief. Surely Ethan's fancy-schmancy light-up shoes that he's only had a few months or so did not really get thrown into the recycle bin and then hauled off by the recycle truck. Preposterous!

But his shoes were nowhere to be found behind the chair. Or in his room. Or by the back door. Or under the couch. Or anywhere else I was hoping they somehow mysteriously walked off to on their own.

Dang.

$17.99 plus tax, down the drain. Or recycle bin.

And no one to place the full blame on... Ethan shouldn't have put them in the box in the first place, I should have grabbed them out of the box and Sean could have checked the box {or left it - there was only one thing in there. Curse his thoroughness!!} which had to have seemed a little heavy for just containing a cereal box.

Dang, again!!

Not that Ethan doesn't have shoes. These were just the newest and sturdiest of his small collection - which only includes church shoes, plaid canvas shoes and some too-small lace-up running shoes.

Off to Target we went.... After a discussion on how there would be no whining about which shoes he got because Mommy would be picking them out since he had not taken better care of his last ones.

We lucked out. Boy howdy, did we luck out!

While the fancy-schmancy light-up shoes were not on sale, several other styles were. We got TWO!! Count them: one, TWO pairs of shoes for less than the cost of the fancy-schmancy light-up shoes. A pair of brown, casual/dressy shoes for $8.48 - they were half off and look good with jeans OR his khakis for church on Sunday. AND a pair of super-cool, light-blue-with-dinosaur-skeletons Converse (well, the One Star line that Converse makes) for $8.68!! They retailed for $28.99, which means I got them for 70% off. Woot woot!!
And, fingers crossed, maybe the fancy-schmancy light-up shoes will go on sale between now and Ethan's birthday. Or maybe we'll make a trip down south to the Nike outlet store. Because he kind of still needs a sturdy pair of shoes he can wear outside and not worry about getting yelled at by mom for getting them dirty!

Bottom line: Ethan learned his lesson! And so did mom. And dad.

Team Geo-Trax

Just a little glimpse into some of our everyday stuff...

Background story: Ethan got a Geo-Trax train starter set from my parents for (early) Christmas last year and then Sean and I added to it a little for Christmas. Then, it got added to a little bit more for his birthday. And then Grandma Mary gave Ethan a cool track set for Christmas this year with lots of turns, straight pieces, a cool ramp and even some RR crossing signs!
Last week, Ethan commissioned me to build him a new track.

I take my train-track-building very seriously. It takes the brain of an engineer, I tell ya!

EVERY piece must be used.

All ramps, bridges, the tunnel and the crossroad must be taken advantage of.

Oh, and it can't be boring. i.e. Ethan likes lots of "wiggles," or S-curves, to make it interesting.


Challenge, accepted!

Here's what I came up with. It took up the bulk of our living room floor.

I am SO glad you can not tell just how dirty that floor was. See, this picture was taken after the track had been up for several days (I moved the coffee table out of the way for the picture, but it actually weaved around the legs)... It's difficult to sweep around that thing. And mopping is impossible, so the floors were in desperate need of a good cleaning - not that you can really tell! Ah ha ha ha!!