A Bunch of Epcot Fairies

I totally forgot to add this last little bit of excitement from Disney's Epcot.  This was, by FAR, the girls' favorite stop in all of Epcot.  They have grown quite fond of fairies, goblins, mer-folk, and other fantasy creatures.

It's really cool.

Anyhow, we wanted to share what we saw of Disney's idea of the fairy world.  They paired the Fairy theme with the butterfly exhibit, which I think was absolutely brilliant.  If you go ... you should definitely check it out.














You can see a wide variety of different fairies and fairy homes.  And yep ... that last one is Stinkerbell ... err ... Tinkerbell.

And one of the most inspired ideas of the entire Fairy world was a series of fairy signature boards.  Each fairy had their own signature, with their own board.  Disney gave the kids a sheet of coloring paper.  The kids were able to walk to each board and get a 'crayon / pencil rubbing' of each fairy's signature.  At the end of the exhibit, they had signatures from all the fairies in a different spot on their coloring sheet.  Then they could take it home and color each fairy however they wanted, and have the signature right by the fairy.

This is an absolutely KILLER idea.  And I think all U.S. national parks should add this to their junior ranger badge programs.


Al

Big Night Tonight

Tonight is opening night for my daughter's school play. The play is Alice in Wonderland. She is playing the Black Knight and she is very excited about it. They have had practice every day this week after school and it's been crazy.

They had up to this point only had play practice once a week and I would always bake her and her friends cookies or brownies. They loved it. It's hard to go right to work after school. They really started to look forward to it and they were so cute that I didn't mind doing it. Well this week I had to bake 4 times. It was really a little too much, but I figured I'm able to do this for my daughter so why not. The only problem was that some kids that are not her friends got a little crazy and started to grab at the food and made my daughter a little nuts. She was happy to share with anyone who asked, but I guess they got kind of rude about it and my daughter got in trouble. I felt so bad here I was trying to do something nice for her and some other kids had to go an ruin it. Well live and learn I guess. It's irritating that my daughter was the one in trouble instead of the obnoxious kids that were causing the trouble.

Anyway I hope she does a great job and has a great time doing it. I'll be going to tommorrow nights show because that's when my parents can go. There are 3 total performances. The final one will end with a party for the cast. It's going to be a very busy weekend. The poor thing has been loaded up with homework this weekend as well. So unfair, but not everyone is in the play. She's going to be tired, but I think it's such a great experience for her. I'm so proud.

Great Message in Glee Last Night!

Well Tuesday night is Glee night and that means me and my 13 year old chill on the couch and watch. We look forward to it all week and when it finally comes on there is no distractions. No texting and no calls aloud till after. She is very serious about it.

Last nights episode had a very important message. It focused on Mercedes and Kurt more than any of the other Glee kids. Mercedes is now on the Cheerios and evil Sue Sylverster wants her to loose weight ASAP or she is off the team. This causes Mercedes to go to extremes and eventually faints from lack of food. She is then befriended by Quinn who is very kind and gets her to see that starving yourself to make someone else happy or to be a part of a group is wrong. You need to love yourself for who you are. Mercedes appears at the pep rally even though she is off the team and speaks to the crowd asking anyone who feels the way she does to come down and join her. She sings Beautiful which was just that beautiful. You need to be happy with who you are. Though it's important to be healthy. You should never go to extremes to get there.

As for Kurt we see him trying to get his father and Finn's mother together so he can be with Finn. This obviously blows up in his face when his father starts to bond with Finn. Poor Kurt feels totally left out. I felt bad for him. Though I think he needs to get a clue that Finn doesn't fly that way.

Anyway great episode and I look forward to next week.

Another Mountain Over Come

By Mountain I mean Thunder Mountain found in Magic Kingdom. My 9 year old is not a ride girl. She would much rather just walk around and look at everything. Rides don't interest her so that means mommy hangs out with her and waits while my husband and 13 year old ride the rides. I don't mind though as I'm not a huge ride girl myself. I have no interest in the roller coasters that flip you upside down and I hate the big dips. My stomach always ends up somewhere else.

This trip my daughter had gotten herself all psyched up to go on the Thunder Mountain. She promised she would do this ride. She was ready. As roller coasters go this is pretty mild. It just goes around the mountain granted a little fast, but there are no scary dips or crazy twists. I was confident she would be fine and like the ride.

Well she was loosing her nerve as we waited to get on. We had fastpasses so the wait wasn't long, but she kept saying she wasn't sure anymore and didn't think she would like it. I was considering pulling her out of line when I just said the heck with it. She would be fine.

She was fine and I found the ride to be very fun. I hadn't been on in awhile. She however declared that she didn't like it. It was much to fast. She seemed fine on the ride itself. I think she was just being contrary. Never the less she tried another new thing and I was proud of her and told her so. You never really know if you'll like something until you try it. I don't want her to be afraid to try. Later I asked her again about the ride and she said she would probably go on again. It wasn't scary. Kids are so funny.

My Daughter and the Super Scary Water Slide.

While at Disney World we stayed at the Boardwalk Hotel. I love this place I honestly can not express how much I love it. It's in a great location with regards to the parks. It is very close to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. This is a big plus to me as those are my favorite two parks.

The Hotel also has a fabulous pool. This pool has a water slide that they make look like a roller coaster that would be found on the old boardwalks. The reality is it's a fun slide, but not all that huge. It is a lot of fun though. My 9 year old is scared of anything she hasn't tried before. When she saw the slide the first thing she said was that looks like fun. Then we walked over to it and she got a good look and watched the people come down and she said she wasn't doing it too scary. She wanted to go to one of the other pool at the hotel that didn't have a slide. Well we didn't do it that day and we complied with her wishes mostly because it was close to dinner. However, the next day her father and sister gave the slide a whirl and they loved it. She watched them come down a few times and then finally decided to give it a try. She was nervous, but her dad went up with her. She came down with the biggest smile on her face. She loved it. She climbed out of the pool and went back up again and again until we basically had to pry her off it. I loved watching her have so much fun. Her father and I were like we told you and we really want her to remember how much she liked it. It's so hard to get her to try new things. We want her to be less afraid of trying anything new especially new food as she is also a very picky eater. By the way we did get her to try 3 new kinds of food on the trip as well. Big strides were made. Big strides.

Now that we're home she told me how much she misses the slide. She wants to stay at the same hotel next time we go and I hope we'll be able to.

Disney's Epcot Fish Aquarium

Kait was totally thrilled with this building in Disney's Epcot.  I had to grab a little bit of video, so she'd have something to look back on to remember it. 

I must admit, as a water enthusiast myself, this was definitely one of my favorite places to hang out while we were there.  I highly suggest stopping in, even if it's only for a few minutes ... it's worth it.  You'll see sharks, rays, turtles, dolphin, and all kinds of other fish.  It's very cool!



Al

Our Time in Hollywood Studios

We decided to go to Hollywood Studios on Monday. Now I still call it MGM. The name change just totally confuses me. Anyway it was still a bit questionable with the rain so we packed up the ponchos and away we went. Since we were staying in the Boardwalk hotel there is only about a 15 minute walk to the park. We arrived a little after 9 and it was a mad dash to Toy Story Mania. The Disney employees actually block one of the ways to the ride because stairs are involved. It is literally a stampede to get to this ride. My husband even made cow noises. He's a very funny guy. Well we made it to the ride and it actually appeared to be shorter to wait in the line to go on the ride rather than grab a fast pass for later so that's what we did. It was awesome. We all love this ride. You basically sit in this little car and wear 3D glasses and play a sort of midway games. You aim and shoot at targets. Sooo much fun we love it. After the ride we grabbed a fast pass for later. We ended up doing the ride 3 times that day.

Next we headed under the hat to await the High School Musical show. This is always a big hit. My husband and I even sing along. They really do a great job with this. My youngest loved it and we were in the front row. After the show we headed to one of my personal favorites, Star Tours. I am a true Star Wars geek and honestly can not get enough.

Finally we headed to the American Idol Experience. This was awesome. The girls were amazed. The stage looks exactly the same as it does on TV. They really get you all excited and the host and judges are great. The girl we voted for won that round so the girls were so excited. We decided to return for the finale show at the end of the day.

We headed to The Stunt Show which is always awesome and then had dinner at the Scifi Dinner. This is one of our favorite places to eat at Hollywood Studios. If you are ever looking for a place to eat there give this a try. It's set up like a drive in. You eat in old fashioned cars and some of the waiters are on roller skates. Also the food is yummy.

Our final activity of the day was the finale show for American Idol. It was awesome there were some really amazing people. Of course only one could win the day and get the golden ticket to go to the head of the line at a real American Idol audition. There was a 14 year old boy and he was amazing. We all voted for him and he won. He sang I Can Go the Distance from Hercules. He was also adorable and my daughters were a little smitten. The sad thing is he's to young for the real American Idol, but I have a feeling Disney may snatch him up. He could be the next big tween thing.

When the show was over we headed for the door only to hear it was pouring out. Of course it was. I pulled out the ponchos and off we went back to the hotel. Luckily it wasn't that bad and seemed to lighten up as we went. It was another great day. More to come tomorrow.

Great Vacation!

We had a blast. Sorry I haven't Blogged. Just way too much fun going on. I have to say this is the best time I have had in Disney World. I have no idea why. Though if I had to guess I would say that it's because we have been there so many times and at this point we just do what we want. We go into a park and we don't even need a map. It's great. We just zoom around the other people who are lost and confused. We always offer to help. Disney can be very overwhelming if you've never been there.

Let me try to catch you up on what we did. On Sunday we headed to Magic Kingdom. It was a little rainy so Thunder Mountain was closed and Splash Mountain didn't seem all that appealing. That was disappointing to my oldest, but she got to ride Space Mountain 3 times. We also went to the Laugh In with the characters from Monsters Inc. This is always very funny. We rode the race cars which is not my favorite and I'm pretty sure my daughter was trying to kill me. Oh well we survived. My youngest finally went on the Goofy Roller coaster. This is a big step for her. The Goofy Roller coaster is an easy ride. She liked it so that was good.

Then the downpour came. We were so not prepared. We ran for It's a Small World hoping it would be over when we came out. No that was not the case. We headed for the Carousel. Then it was obvious it was not going to stop. Someone in heaven was clearly dropping buckets of water on us. I spotted the nearest store and we made a run for it. Disney knows marketing. They were selling piles and piles of rain ponchos. We bought 4 and we were back at it.

Truth be told we would have headed back to the hotel, but we had dinner reservations at Tony's. Tony's is suppose to be the restaurant that Lady and the Tramp ate at. It's one of our favorite places. After taking a vote we decided to stay. My youngest still loves the Disney Fairies so I took her to wait to meet them. It was a 70 minute wait, but we all agreed we might as well wait it out because of the rain and it was still a little while till dinner. She loved it. She met Tink, Iredessa and Terence. I think she loved Terence the most because he danced with her and sprinkled pixie dust in her hair. It was adorable and she was glowing. If you have little girls who love the Disney Fairies and you visit Disney World don't miss meeting the them. One of my daughters favorite things. They really make it special. Yes, you have to wait and longer than you want I'm sure, but I honestly think it's a special moment. My daughter can't stop talking about them. There really is nothing like visiting Pixie Hollow.

Well then it was off to Dinner. It was wonderful and well worth sticking out the rain. Tony's rocks as my daughter says. Though when we finally did return to the hotel we were all dieing for a hot bath or shower. When we were all warm it was time to dry the sneakers. We used a hair dryer and stuck paper towels in overnight. Yuck. All in all it was a wonderful day in the Magic Kingdom.

Tomorrow I'll talk about our time in Hollywood Studios. We are home now and pretty exhausted. It's good we have the weekend to unwind and recover.

Getting paid to try something new!

So I was able to score a great deal on a new product today, Finish Quantumatic. Not only was it a great deal, I ended up being paid to bring it home and try it. By combining a Publix store coupon with a Manufactures coupon and waiting to buy that product until it was on sale is how it all worked!
I had heard that some of the Publix stores had the Finish Quantumatic Kit on sale for $4.99. Thankfully the stores nearest me had it on sale. And there is a store coupon for $3.00 off one and a manufactures printable coupon also for $3.00 off one. Using both coupons and having the item on sale I had $1.01 overage on each item. So I thought it was a good time to get more fruit! YUM!!
I got lots of grapes and a few more oranges. I also got a couple of  Capri Sun packs for a camping trip that we will be taking in a few weeks.
Before sales and coupons this would have cost. $110.45 and after sales and coupons I paid a whopping $1.92!! That is a savings of 98%. And it always make me feel even better to get such a great deal on fresh produce. And what better way to do it than overage! And I get to try a new type of dishwashing soap for free!
Also I went to a couple different Publix stores to get all these. They did not have all of them at one store.  Thankfully they are only a couple miles apart so it is worth the drive.

This is what all I got:
10- Finish Quantumatic starter kits.
2- Capri Sun Packs
3lbs- Oranges
6lbs- Grapes

Disney's Epcot in Orlando

Not too long ago, we were able to take part in Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day volunteer program.  We volunteered a day picking up garbage at a park in Bartow, FL.  And we were rewarded with a free day at a Disney park.

For our day at Disney, we decided to head over to Epcot in Orlando - since that is the only Disney park we hadn't been to yet.

It was a pretty cool park.  We got there about 9:20 in the morning - about 20 minutes after it opened.  And we left about 9:30 at night.  We were able to hit every major ride.  The biggest ones we got to ride a couple of times.

By the way - if you go - stop by Soarin right away and get a fast pass.  When I say right away, I mean as early in the morning as you can get there.  This ride has lines ALL DAY LONG, and the fast passes are gone by early morning.  So, get this pass first, so you can come back and not have the more than hour long wait.   We waited until 7:30 to get on this ride, and we were able to do a second quick trip through before the park closed. 
Here were a few of our highlights:

Here are the girls at the start of the day.


Test Track Car Ride - crash test dummy style ride.





The Fish area - this part was actually really good.  They had several large aquariums with live animals ... including a dolphin, a shark, rays, turtles, and tons of other fish.  We had no idea this was here, but I think Kait could have stayed in this building ALL DAY LONG.






Garden of the Future ... at 'The Land' ride.  This was another ride that was surprisingly neat.  They have greenhouses and gardens of the future, growing right now - in 2010.  This was VERY cool.  You can even do a 'behind the scenes' tour, but of course it costs lots of extra $$$ ... so we didn't do that part.  I can see that it would be a neat tour to take though.










Velcro Game show - this was a separate little comedy show.  The women running the show decided to torture a couple of men in the audience ... which meant I had to go up and compete.  Who knew I was such a mad diaper changing master.




Segway ride




Coke flavors from around the World - this was another cool stop in the park.  Coke sponsors this store, where you can taste the different flavors of their soda from other countries around the world.  And the samples are free.  This was a strange experience, tasting what other country's think are nice flavors.  WARNING - Watch out for Italy - their favorite flavor is something you won't want to repeat.











There was one more EXTRA SPECIAL part of the park.  But we'll save that to share with you later.  The girls loved this place, and we wanted to show you how cool it really was.  I'll just say this ... it has fairies, flowers, and butterflies all mixed in one place.  Oh My!

Al

First Few Days in Disney

Haven't been posting sorry, but it's only because we are having such a great time. We arrived in Orlando around 12:30 am on Friday. We were totally exhausted and crashed in our hotel. We are staying at the Boardwalk and it's fabulous.

The first day we slept in and then hung around EPCOT just walking around. Though we did do the Kim Possible attraction and saved the world. The girls both loved that. I do have to admit I heard the communicator beeps in my sleep. We had a nice dinner at the Rose and Crown and listened to the British Invasion. I love the Beatles. We also had an afternoon swim. It was a great day.

Today we headed into Animal Kingdom. We made a B line right to the Safari and saw lots of animals including a baby giraffe, very cute. We sat in front of some college kids unfortunately and my girls heard some colorful language. Not much I could do about that. My girls no better than to repeat it at least. We saw the Lion King show which I love and so do the girls. We all sing along. My youngest really wanted to see the tigers so we headed on down the trail where they were and she saw lots of tigers. They were pretty impressive. Basically it was a great day in the park. We headed back to our hotel after eating dinner and had another swim. It felt so refreshing. Now we are exhausted and just chilling out on the couch. I love Disney World.

What God can do!

Here is how God multiplied my efforts and blessed us more than I could have imagined! Remember how I had won the $100.00 Publix gift card a little over a month ago. Well I just used the remaining balance the other day. I was excited to figure how much I was able to make that free money go. But was super shocked when I figured out the totals. I figured they would be good just not this good.
So with that gift card I was able to get $768.72 worth of groceries and cleaning products. And that is not including what I will be getting back in rebates and other gift cards. I will be getting back $29.50 in rebates from purchases with that card and I also got the $20.00 Publix gift cards from the scrubbing bubbles deal!
So add that and it is $818.22!!
To say that I am shocked is an understatement. There is no doubt that God has pressed down, shaken together and made to run over the blessings that he has given us! It has brought tears to my eyes that we have been given so much.
Praise be to God for all of his Blessings!

Money Making at Publix!!

So now that Publix is back to a new sale every week and I was so excited to see the new sales. I looked at the add and there really was nothing there that was all that good to me. Lots of things on sale that we do not eat or use. But then I got to looking a bit more and came up with a plan. And I was Doubly blessed by having it come out to a money making trip!
I got mostly cleaning supplies with a couple other deals thrown in for fun!
Here is the photo then I will tell you how I turned it in to more money...
4- Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom Power Sprayers-- FREE!
4- Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer refills-- FREE!
6- Scrubbing bubbles tub cleaners-- FREE with $2.00 Overage
2- Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush 2in1 Kits-- FREE!
2- Scrubbing Bubbles Cleaning Gels
4- Bottles Dentyne Gum. .14 each
2- Kraft 1lb shredded Cheese. $1.74 each

Total before sales and coupons $137.34. Total after sales and coupons $13.05.  I finished up the Gift card that I won so my out of pocket was only $7.56.
So I bet you are wondering how I made money on this. Well Here is what I did. This last Sunday in the coupon inserts there was a Target store coupon for a free $5.00 gift card with any 3 Scrubbing bubbles purchase. So I cut them out and when I went to do my shopping I stopped by the customer service desk and asked if they would take that coupon and instead of a Target gift card a Publix gift card would be given. The nice man behind the counter said I don't know why not. So I had 4 of those coupons and so I was given a Publix gift card for $20.00! Making this trip a $6.95 cent money maker! But if you take in to account that I only spent $7.56 out of pocket it is an even better money maker of $12.44!
I used Manufactures coupons that made the power sprayer refills free, and the Fresh Brush Kits Free. Then for everything els I combined Manufactures and store coupons to make them either free, free with overage or close to free.
So now I am stocked up on cleaning supplies!

Lots of Good Stuff from Publix

 So I have not posted because I was a bit dissapointed with the sales at Publix. Because of Easter they have a wonky sale schedule. Instead of keeping the once a week sales change they do it every week and a half or so. It really makes for a long time. Or at least I think so. Add to that that I have miss placed my receipt from the second transaction, and I am a bit bummed that I can not give exact totals.  But then when I really got to thinking about it I still did really well. So finally here you go.
I did my purchases in 2 different transactions for 2 reasons. 1, I had 2 $10.00 off $50.00 dollar coupons and 2, because they had a special where if you buy $25.00 worth of groceries you can get a $50.00 gas card for $40.00. So since it is hard to save on gas I decided to get 2 gift cards and save that way!

Here is purchase #1...

8- Coffee Mate creamers- FREE with Overage!
2- 7UP 2 Liters-- FREE with overage
2- Pepsi 2 Liters-- FREE
4- Progresso soups--??
2- Betty Crocker Brownie mixes-- .30 each
6- Yoplait fiber one yougurt packs-- .25 each
2- Bags Doritos-- $1.50 each
4- Nabisco Flipside crackers-- $1.00 each
4- Quaker True Delights Granola squares -- .55 each
2- Emerald Cashews-- $1.14 each
Total Before sales and coupons $88.43, After $10.24. A savings of 90%. Paid for with the gift card that I won, so nothing out of pocket!!

Here is the second purchase...


 6- Coffee Mate creamers-- FREE with overage
2- Betty Crocker Brownie mixes. .30 each
2- Soft scrub cleaners-- Free with overage
1- Bayer asprin-- FREE with overage
12- cans Progresso black beans .43 each
2- Emerald Cashews-- $1.14 each
4- Stoufers family lasagna $1.49 each
2lb apples--??
I think that I paid about the same amount for this purchase as the first. And I got another gas card. Nothing out of pocket for me!!!
Unfortunatly I only have a little over $5.00 left on the card. Boy have I sure made the most of it!
And to top it off I was able to pay only $80.00 for $100.00 worth of gas cards. That money came out of our gas budget for the month, not the publix gift card.  It is a nice bonus to be able to save on something like gas that is what it is and you just have to pay. With this deal it was like getting a free fill up!!

Thankfully Publix is back to their regular schedule for the sales!! Makes me happy to go shopping again!
Also to let you know I am going to be doing a post soon about savings in other stores soon. I have had a few people ask me how to save this much on their groceries when they do not have a Publix to shop at. So I am working on that because I know that you can save just as much, if not more, than I can at the stores you have locally! So be watching for that!

Thanks for sharing in my deals!
Chris

It's My Birthday!


Yeah, it's my birthday, but it doesn't hold the excitement it did when I was younger. I still smile when I get up, but now I'm just getting older and that's a drag. Not to mention that my birthday falls on tax day and the day the Titanic sunk. My daughter loves reminding me of this as she is obsessed with the Titanic. Though I have nothing to complain about today. I'm spending the day getting ready to head to Disney World with the family for the girls April vacation. They have been several times before as we are Vacation Club members, but that doesn't stop them from being super excited. I can't blame them. I'm excited too. Disney World is the most magical place on Earth. I love it there.

My oldest one even woke up before be today and that never happens. She had to go into school early today to take a test that she'll miss tomorrow because we leave for the airport right after school today. She didn't even care. There was no grumbling. She was bouncing around and humming. Yes, I kid you not she was humming. It was all very amusing. I didn't even have to yell to have her hurry up. Again this has never happened. I want this day marked down in history because I'm pretty sure it will never happen again.

Anyway we are heading out and I will try to blog everyday with photos if possible. Though I will not be doing my entrecard drops as I really won't have the extra time. I'll be back at it after vacation. Hope everyone has a great week.

Keeley-tude ...

We're watching a TV commercial about a BRAND NEW feature on a cutting edge car.

What's the feature?

The world's first 'blind spot' notification system.
If you're driving and you go to change lanes.  And by chance, there's a car coming up in your blind spot, it'll let you know with an astonishing new feature that 3/4 of all drivers in America need.

 -- The blind spot notification buzzer --

WOW is an understatement!

Keeley's question after the commercial was over ... 
"So, does that mean ...  a blind person can drive it?"

Oh ... man ... this kid is hilarious.

Glee Returns Tonight!


I think the title says it all. Glee is finally back. Oh how my daughter and I have missed this show. We can't get enough. This show is her favorite show period. There hasn't been a new episode since November and it has been a painful wait. Though we did have the DVD to hold us over.

Tonight we look forward to great songs, silly moments and just plain fun. Not to mention what will happen next. Will Mr. Schuester divorce his wife? What will Sue Sylvester do to the Glee club now? What about Quinn and her baby? Oh and what about Finn and Rachel? Tune in and find out. My favorite part of the show is always the music. There is just such a talented cast on this show. I want my Glee!

Wackie Cake

One of my daughter's friends is allergic to eggs and all milk products so when we were at a birthday party this week I felt so bad that she couldn't have one of the yummy cup cakes that was there. It dawned on me that my mom has always made this cake from scratch called a wackie cake. I have no idea where the recipe came from, but she has been making it forever. This cake has no eggs or milk products in it so it's perfect for a child who suffers from this type of allergy.

I thought I would share it since it is such a delicious cake and can be enjoyed by anyone. My mom usually puts a butter cream frosting on it. I mentioned this to the mom and she said she would simply add some powdered sugar or sprinkles. I hope her daughter likes it.

Wackie Cake

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups water

Blend ingredients then cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Don not grease pan line pan with aluminum foil.

Enjoy!

My Date with Keeley

After we picked up such a NICE gift for Kait, I realized it wouldn't be very nice to leave Keeley completely out of the loop.  So, Chris gave me the green light to take Keeley out for a special night.

We decided to go out for dinner and a show.

We stopped into Crispers and shared a Caribbean flatbread.  And then we watched "How to Train Your Dragon".  It turned out to be a super fun night.  We just hung out together, and chatted about life and books and the future.

The movie is excellent.  It has a great story line, and they throw in some good humor as well.  It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while.  Definitely worth watching.

Here's Keeley and I - before we left for the night - still looking quite fresh after our bike ride.

Ice Skating Party

I thought it was going to be ugly. My daughter has never been on ice skates and has never wanted to go on them. Then the invitation came in the mail for a birthday party. I didn't know what to do so I left it up to my daughter. She went back and forth with it, but the bottom line is the girl is a good friend of hers and she should go whether she skates or not. She agreed.

I thought everything was fine and then she came down stairs this morning with tears in her eyes declaring she was not going to skate. I was frustrated because I knew that if she just tried she would like it. Well I was taking her no matter what as we had said we were going and I refuse to hurt any one's feelings.

We got to the rink and a girl asked for her skate size and she said she wasn't skating. The mom was great and said don't worry no pressure. Well some of her friends told her it was fun and to give it a try. She agreed. They have plastic crates stacked on top of each other to make it easier for newer skaters. I got her one and she skated around that rink with the biggest smile on her face she had a great time. I'm convinced my children just like to drive me crazy. Well I'm just glad she had a good experience and will skate again. It's a lot of fun especially when you have friends who do it. I told her on the way home see what happens when you give something new a try. You may discover you like it. I just hope she remembers what a great time she had when the next new thing pops up.

New Bike for My Girl

So, Kait has been getting older. I know ... right?

She has gotten to the point that her BMX bike is no longer sufficient for her long legs. This coincided with a magical bump in out income ... a tax return. With the stars and planets align like that, we try to put it all to its maximum potential, so we picked up a new bike for Kait.

Truth be told, I wanted to go for something even nicer than this. Something that could last her until she is able to afford her own out in the real world ... where I'm sure she'll want to take her own bike tours and such.

This one turned out to be a decent buy, at a fair price. And my Dad might think highly of this one, since he started off with a similar brand, back in his early days on the bike.  So we took the plunge.  So far, she LOVES the color.  And for a girl ... that's pretty important.




Then we also decided to do a nice, long trip to test out the new bike.  So we did a 28 mile bike ride yesterday - which I mentioned last night.  Here's the odometer proof.  I've got the odometer as a gift, and we were so excited to use it to see how far we rode.



After the trip we were all tired and WIPED out.  It was a great ride though.  And Kait did awesome on her bike. 
Here's a few other shots from the trip.














Catch you soon!
Al

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