The weekend was spent enjoying time as a family. On Saturday we went out shopping after getting things done around the house in the morning. The girls each had gift cards that they received for Christmas that were burning holes in their little pockets so we decided to take advantage of “after Christmas” sales and took them to Kohl’s. The boys (all of them) were good sports as the girls searched, pondered, discussed, debated and tried on everything in the store. The sales were amazing though and made the process a bit less painful. It is so much fun to see the personalities of each of the girls come out as they shop with their own money. Gracie is definitely from the school of thought that quality is more important than quantity. She found a beautiful teal sweater and a necklace to match. Molly, on the other hand, is more like her mother..squeeze as much out of that dollar as you can. It took her twice as long to make her choices. She hemmed and hawed until the boys were calling for mutiny before she decided on her purchases. She shopped only from the 80% off rack and was able to get 2 skirts and 4 shirts for her 25.00. She was so pleased when the cashier told her that she had saved $130.00. Both girls were very happy with their choices.
We then drove over to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner. I received 2 gift cards for Red Lobster for my birthday so we decided to splurge and go as a family. Tyler had never been there before and was fascinated by the live lobsters in the tank at the front of the restaurant. He kept asking if he could go see the “hopsters.” I was amazed at how well he did..especially after an hour of shopping! He sat through the meal with no problem and was very well-behaved. I still can’t believe how far we have come. I remember just a couple of months ago thinking we would never be able to eat anywhere but McDonald’s for the next few years because Tyler couldn’t stay in his seat during dinner or for fear that we would be kicked out of a restaurant for food throwing or tantrums. Now here we are 2 months later and we were able to sit through a busy Saturday night dinner at a nice restaurant with no problem at all. I was so proud of him and so grateful for the fun treat of a dinner out. As were we leaving he was thrilled when one of the “hopsters” extended its claw above the water. “Look, Daddy,” he said,” that hopster is waving goodbye!”
On the way home the vet called and said that we could pick up Bailey. She had been at Rainbow vet for 3 days as they tried to stabilize her. We were thrilled to see her looking much better. She, of course, was just happy to be home.
Today we had some fun in the snow. We started by feeding the birds..
One of our Christmas traditions is to make a Christmas tree for the wild animals. We usually string Cheerios, popcorn and cranberries. We make pine cone peanut butter ornaments and suet ornaments to hang on the tree and cut apples to sprinkle under the tree. When we have all of our decorations ready we pick a tree out in the yard to decorate for the wild animals and birds. This is a tradition that we have done for years and a favorite of mine because we then get the delight of watching critters enjoy their Christmas tree for weeks after. This year we didn’t do it. In an effort to simplify and due in large part to a packed schedule it was cut from out holiday “to do” list so it was an extra special surprise to receive birdseed ornaments from my parents as one of our Christmas gifts. What a fun treat to be able to go out after Christmas and decorate a tree for the birds!
After we were done decorating the tree for the birds we went sledding behind the house..
After a little while the older kids were ready to head inside. Tyler was devastated to discover that nobody wanted to have a snowball fight with him. “Fine,” he said “I’ll just have a snowball fight with myself.” He then proceeded to throw snowballs up into the air then jump underneath the falling snowball so it would hit him on the head. I love creative solutions! 🙂
Tomorrow is 2013..Happy New Year!