Not Dead!!!

I promise! I've tried the last 2 nights to do a post and Blogger is giving me grief when it comes to uploading photos =( Hopefully tonight!!!

BIG Good Mommy Moment

I despise Chuck E. Cheese. Dislike in the strongest way a person possibly can. For a multitude of reasons that I'll refrain from boring you with. HOWEVER, thanks to the power of advertising marketed to the short males that live in this house, Paxton and Beckett learned all about the entity of my nemesis. Curse you, Nick Jr.
BUT, being the wonderful Mommy I am, I sucked it up and convinced Kurt that we should take a trip to see the Mouse (not Mickey!) Geared up with tips of Kurt's coworker and my SIL (coupons and hand sanitizer!!) we took on Chuck.
For $32, the boys had a load of fun, we didn't bring home anything (that I know of)except for inflatable hammers and foam dice, and Paxton asks at least once a day if we can go back.

Menu Planning Monday

Labor day edition!!! School started for everyone here this past week, so we need to get in a new groove with schedules. The little boys new "mooch night" will be Thursdays since that is my new class night. I did my grocery shopping on Saturday, so I should be set for the week! I'm linking up to I'm an Organizing Junkie as always--her link is in my sidebar =)

Monday: Golden Mushroom Pork Chops, mashed taters, peas
Tuesday: Stuffed Peppers, rice, corn
Wednesday: Ham Steaks, sweet potatoes, green beans
Thursday: No cooking for me
Friday: Something with ground beef--TBD
Saturday: London Broil, cowboy potatoes, veggie
Sunday: Balsamic marinated chicken breasts (new recipe), pasta side, veggie

A friend asked me about how I meal plan: there's no huge science to it, I mostly sit down with the local grocery stores sale flyer and start from there. I check out what meats are on sale and build on that. If ground beef or chicken breasts or stewmeat is a good deal, I'll buy extra and freeze some in my Seal-a-Meal bags (LOVE this thing!) That way when the sale items are chicken thighs and other meat I don't like, I can always fall back on pulling out of the freezer. I stock up on things like pasta and rice sides when there is a sale, same thing with veggies and canned tomatos and the like.

Our baby is in school!!!

Beckett goes to school! He's in 4yo Kdg (he will be one of the oldest in his class, he misses the cut off in our state by about a month) and will go to school 2 days a week. I got to take him on his first day since Kurt had a schedule change at work. He was excited to go and we were just about first in line out in front of school!! He found him name by his coat hook and happily settled into a seat while the other kids came in.
His end of day report was a good one (we figure things will change after he gets comfortable there!!) and he says he's willing to go back so we'll labell this as success =)

Our Sweet Second-Grader!!

Paxton is in a new school this year! (the district USED to be set up with neighborhood schools, you'd do K-4 at the same school and then hit middle school at grade 5, but it is no longer that way--do not get me started!) The 2nd and 3rd graders attend the school closest to our home, but we had never experienced it before. He has a teacher we're familiar with though--Mrs. Jones had Parker way back when! We was very excited to be up and moving on the first day and for a change, I was able to go with them this year =)

Back to School: Parker

He's a JUNIOR this year!! Drove himself to school for the first time--I've never seen him up and moving so well/early on a first day of school (or any school day) day since he was at OE Gray, HA!! I got my traditional pictures of him at home and asked him where he'd like to meet up at school and got "the LOOK" =)

Wordless Wednesday