$1 bags of Teddy Grahams

Every so often, the commissary knocks the price of Teddy Grahams to $1. I love it when that happens! These bags are the perfect thing to grab when I'm on the way out the door to soccer practice, a game, or just a long van ride running errands w/ the kids.
And one dollar! You can't beat that with a stick!

Ooh look! Something Shiny!!

So sometimes I purposefully distract my kids with the, "oh look! there's something shiny over there!" approach. 

Probably the best example was when the kids and I (of course hub wasn't there, all the good stuff happens when he's gone) were in the van driving on I70 from Fort Riley, KS to Topeka, KS. We were driving along and #1 asks when my anniversary was. I answered, "next week, June 28th". He asks, "so how long have you and dad been married?" I answered, "Well, honey, next week it will be 8 years." 

He looks out the window for a minute thoughtfully, then turns back to me and gasps, "Wait. I turn 8 on my birthday. You mean you were pregnant with me when you got married!!!" 

<<<Now let's stop for just a sec. He was only 7. His birthday is in November. The kind of math skills required for him to be able to figure that out was not what I was expecting at 7 for crying out loud! I was hoping to delay this conversation for at least 4 or 5 more years! >>>

Back to the story. Where was I? Oh yes, the gasp, "Wait. You mean you were pregnant with me when you got married??" 

To this I replied, "Yes. <pause> Who wants to stop for  ice cream??"

Like I said---oh look! Something shiny!

:)

Audrey

Hey look, it's me------------------------------------------------------>

Babysitting: the good, the bad, the money!

On military bases, when kids turn 12 and take the red cross babysitting course, they can babysit (certain restrictions do apply). So when #1 turned 12, we let him begin taking some responsibility with his younger sibs. 

But of course he wanted to be PAID! So here's what we worked out:

*he makes $2 per hour baseline (yep, I'm aware how cheap that is...  :)

*if he does certain add on niceties (like play catch nicely, color with them, etc), he can make more $

*if I ask the younger sibs how he did as the babysitter and they said he wasn't great, he gets $0

*if the younger sibs call me while he's babysitting and ask us to rescue them...he pays us!!

So far, so good!!


*I had to capture this moment. This is #1 being the helper side of the tween instead of the needler. The needling took place 2.2 seconds after the photo was taken...

I love these kids!
:)
Audrey

Camera Shenanigans and Tomfoolery

Yep, the kids got a hold of my phone and took random pics again.  

I think they know how much of a kick I get out of looking at them.  There are many pages in our scrapbooks that are made up of their random shutterbug shenanigans.  Their tomfoolery = a glimpse of their unique perspective of the world.

 Crazy kids. I love 'em.

:)

Audrey

Kids' Art Wall Gallery

Kids' Art Wall Gallery...that's a mouthful. Try saying that 5 times!

So while my one and only daughter, #2, was sick and home from school, she and I tackled the large wall in the entryway. I just wasn't sure what to put here. I thought about framing a large map of the United States and mark on it where we had lived. I thought about framing prints of the states where we have lived and put them there in some fabulous design. But both those options required funds which we were putting into other things at the moment. Things like back to school supplies and clothes for 4 kids, food for 4 kids, and fixing up of the fixer-upper house that we bought 2 months ago.

So as I was surfing around blog-land, I came upon this post at House of Smiths, and it was like the angels in heaven were singing! I was going to create a wall gallery of the kids' art that I already had framed!

In our last few houses, (we're a military family, so we move often) I've hung the kid's art in our kitchen because we've had lots of wall space and the bright colors add alot to the off white wall color that the military provides in their quarters. But here in this house that we bought, the kitchen has virtually zero wall space. So I had all this art with no where to go...until now.

#2 and I gave ourselves a time limit of how much time we could devote to the project so that we could watch a Harry Potter movie before the boys got home off the bus. And we knocked it out in exactly one hour! We are a pretty good team, if I do say so myself!

I love that #2!

Audrey

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How the "Tween" got its name~~

I always thought it was a kitschy word used to describe the years that are between childhood and teen-dom.

But today it dawned on me, that in my house, a tween is an offspring caught in the middle between being a needler and being a helper.

They go back in forth between the one giving wedgies to the younger sibs, to being the one who tries so hard to get the younger sibs to hurry and get their shoes on so mom doesn't get mad, or reminding them to wash their hands after the toilet.

Being a tween in this house is a very difficult position to be in. I wouldn't want to be them. Hopefully I can help all of us with this transition because I see some pretty awesome stuff on the horizon. I'd just like all of us to get there in one piece. :)

I love these tweens.

I know I'm cheap.

I know I'm cheap.

I have a huge bin of cleats of various sizes. Each time the kids want to sign up for a sport: soccer, baseball, football; I have them go to the big bin and search for a pair that's close to their foot size.

Let me point out here, that I never played sports as a kid. Ever. Not one season of soccer, softball, nothing.

Back to my story, so as the 3 boys are preparing for soccer practice last night, the boys I notice that #3 is wearing baseball cleats instead of soccer cleats. At this point I'm still not sure why that's a big deal, until #1 shows me that in baseball cleats there is a tip pokey thing. Technical term.

What's a cheap mom to do 5 minutes before practice??

That's right. Get out a steak knife and saw that puppy right off the tip. Ha! Got it done!

:)

Audrey

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