Megan's 10th Birthday Celebration

We usually swim on Wednesday's and since Megan's birthday was on a Wednesday, we went swimming!

Megan wanted to go roller skating for her birthday, so when Eric got home we headed out.

2 year olds on roller skates, can be quite hilarious. Sadie would stand up, fall down, stand up, fall down. Luckily she thought it was pretty funny.

Megan was a bit unsteady at first, but quickly got her skating legs back.

Surprisingly to me, Jackson was TERRIBLE. But he still said he had a lot of fun.

Sadie was quite content to let us pull her around the rink.

Then we came home to open presents!

You will notice that in every picture Sadie is "helping" Megan open her gifts. The temptation of wrapped presents was too much for her. Luckily Megan was gracious enough to let her "help."

Finally it was time for cake. Megan chose strawberry cake with strawberry icing. Unfortunately I had a cake malfunction this year that took off most of the icing. Luckily Megan didn't mind, because she doesn't really like icing anyway. So it all worked out.

Happy 10th Birthday Megan!

At 10

Megan's 10 today! A decade. Here are a few things about my wonderful girl:

• She has an amazing memory for facts. I think it's because she finds almost everything interesting and therefore retains information about things easily.
• If it is anything other than about 75 degrees she is either EXTREMELY HOT or FREEZING COLD.
• She's not the most patient person in the world.
• She's great at following directions and putting things together.

• She can spend hours working on a craft project.
• She's an excellent jump roper.
• She kicks her sheet off every night while sleeping.
• She is not much of a snacker.
• She continues to eat Apple Jacks every morning for breakfast, and continues to spill at least 3 on her placemat.
• She's super smart.
• She's witty and hilarious.

• She will make a great babysitter someday.
• She's competitive: for good and bad.
• She jumps right into new situations, and continues to make a friend wherever she goes.
• She's never afraid to voice her opinion or ask questions.
• She has the self-confidence to wear a men's tie out in public. Which she did last night.

• She loves to play sports, and is quite good, but I think she is into them mostly for the social aspect.
• I can count on her to take really good care of Sadie, and to play and fight with Jackson.
• She recently gave all of her Barbie dolls "interesting" hair cuts, and also cut a bit of her own hair in an "interesting" way.
• She's very orally fixated, and always has something in her mouth.
• She's very thoughtful and is always making cards for people for special occasions.

She's totally awesome, and majorly cool. Happy 10th Birthday Megan!!

Guilt Free Shopping

 Now if you know me, you know how much I love to shop at the D.I. I go at least once a week, and have bought tons of clothes, toys, furniture, kitchen items, sports equipment, purses, etc. And since July is one of the month's of the year that I feel like we can't hang onto any money (mostly due to birthdays and vacations), I have decided to do a post about MY FAVORITE thing to buy at the D.I.: SHOES!!! Does anyone else plan their outfits around what shoes they want to wear that day? I generally wear flip flops during the week, but when I am deciding what to wear to church, shoes often come first.

We'll start with Sade.

Brand new tap shoes- $3

Brand new dress-up shoes: $1

Cowboy boots: $4

Boots: $4

Jackseys Turn:

Cars flip-flops: $1

Cowboy Boots: $4

Soccer cleats: $4 (I especially love finding sports shoes that my kids need that would have cost me at least $20 at another store)

Brand new shoes: $3

Now Megs:

Brand new Sketchers: $5

Brown church shoes: $3

Brand new pink shoes: $3

Camo shoes: $4

Now my shoes:

This is my latest purchase: Brand new $4

I really love these, but have nothing to wear them with: $3

Brand new: $4

I have one outfit to wear these with: $3

Brown Boots $6: I had been searching for brown boots for months when I finally found these. They are about 1/2 size too big, but work for what I need them for.

Occasionally a purchase goes bad:

These were bought out of desperation when I was on my quest to find brown boots: HIDEOUS: $5

Now I would like to show off what may be my favorite D.I. purchase of all time:

I love these cowboy boots with every fiber of my being. An expensive $11 (by D.I. standards) and worth every penny!

Eric has also found some cool shoes:

Including football and soccer cleats. The soccer cleats have come in mighty handy this month, since Eric now plays in a soccer league on Friday's. Not to mention the money saved. I think we paid $6 for these, but I am

sure new ones would have been in the $40 range.

I love the D.I. and I love watching Eric having fun playing soccer, but what I don't love is uneaten kids meals after watching Eric play soccer!

I could have bought 3 pairs of shoes at the D.I. with the money I spent on this food. 

4th of July-2010

This year our 4th of July festivities pretty much consisted of church, food, board games, and fireworks. It was nice and relaxing.

Before church Eric took some pics of the kids.

If you enlarge the picture above you will see by the look on Megan's face that she is not thrilled. When we asked her why she was in such a bad mood, she replied, "Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is for someone my age to take a picture like this!" I laughed and laughed. I would have probably been embarrassed also if my parents made me take a picture with my hand over my heart gazing at the flag when I was 10 years old.

When it got dark it was finally time for fireworks! This is the first year in quite a while that we have been in town for the 4th of July. I had forgotten how fun our neighborhood is on the holiday. Everyone had bought quite a few fireworks, so the festivities went on for hours!

Sade's loved the sparklers.

In true form Jackson was cautious.

Megan was fireworks fearless just like Sadie.

The worms were a huge hit with the kids.

By the end of the night my kids were exhausted. I had to force Jackson and Sadie (and myself) to stay for the finale. It was late and they all fell asleep quickly, but didn't sleep in this morning!

Hope you had a happy 4th of July!!!