Update on the Great Grocery Experiment

So, I'm sure you all have been dying to know how my grocery experiment is going along. To review, I have been shopping at Publix using coupons for the past few months, as well as buying certain items at Costco. I have also done Super Suppers twice now. I want to make sure I am being fair to Wal-mart, so I am giving it a try for another few months and using coupons and the comp ads. I am thinking that in the end, it will still be the best bet for the budget, but it sure is nice to have your groceries loaded into your cart and then taken out and loaded into your car at Publix. I also like the free cookie there too. :) I am also always on the search for good budget-friendly meals. If I find any new ones, I'll be sure to pass them along. That is definitely a key to keeping the grocery budget low.

Speaking of groceries, this pregnant lady is getting hungry. I think I'll go rustle up a snack. :)

Big Sister

This is me and my sister-in-law Marianna and their little boy Evan. You can't really see the Big Sister part of the Bean's shirt, but I had to do a light color b/c that's the only solid colored pair of pants she has!

The Bean is going to be a Big Sis! We are expecting baby #2, due on May 28th. That makes me 9 weeks along. The Bean and Peanut (what this baby shall henceforth be called on this blog until future notice) will be 21 months apart. I have been feeling great, and we are very excited! We told my family this weekend. We had planned on going up there anyway to watch the AL game on Saturday, but we also suggested that we all go out to dinner on Friday night. So we to a little Italian place (Hence the phrase "pesto cheese" in my pics...not the best choice of background, I guess...I'm sure all you photographers are ashamed!!) in my hometown. We thought a fun way to tell them the big news would be to let the Bean "tell" them, so we had a shirt monogrammed for her that said "Big Sister" on it. We put a bib on her so nobody could see the shirt when we first got there, then we unveiled it and told her to "tell" everyone what her shirt said. Of course, everyone was excited about the fun news!



For those of you who don't know, it took us 30 months (2 1/2 years) to get pregnant w/ the Bean, and only 2 months this time, so we praise God for this sweet blessing! We are so thankful!

Bathtime!

Are these bad pics to post??? I don't know, but they sure are cute! The Bean likes her bathtime, and I love her new hooded bunny towel/poncho that she got for her b'day!

Leonardo "The Bean" Davinci

In the Bean's Mothers Day Out program, they have a craft time and the Bean has produced some lovely art pieces for our refrigerator. I used to think people who had their kids artwork posted on their fridge were dorks, but now I'd knock somebody for a loop if they made fun of her masterpieces!! Of course, all she does is pat down the pieces, but doesn't she do an excellent job?? :)

Bean meets the Pavement

The Bean had her first real accident and boo-boo yesterday. We went outside to check the mail and our neighbor had her cocker spaniel outside, so the Bean wanted to pet the dog. So I was chatting w/ my neighbor while the Bean walked around and petted the dog, and all of the sudden - splat!! She met the pavement with her face. (She was walking around on the grass, but fell where the grass meets the sidewalk.) Ouch. She actually caught herself w/ her hands, but then couldn't hold herself up and did a face plant. She only cried for about 30 seconds, but there was a little blood and everything! We used Boo-Boo Bunny and a little Neosporin and all was well. This is what the scrape looked like this morning after she got up. She is none worse for the wear, except that it looks like she was in a fight or something!

Keep your fingers crossed this time!

So I entered the Bean and Evan (my nephew) into the Smockingbird's contest again for their b'day outfits. Last month there was only one entry, but of course I didn't enter anything! This time there are already 2 other entries, both smocked, and it's only Oct. 5th!! We'll see!

The Long Awaited B'day Pics!

Evan and the Bean in their b'day outfits, polka dot w/ cupcake applique.

Yes, they are reversible, so the other side is green windowpane check w/ pumpkin applique

The cake, done in colors to match their polka dot outfits. They also had matching small round cakes to destroy themselves.

The Bean pummelling her cake w/ her hat. She ate it at first, but mostly played w/ it and beat it to death w/ her hat. :) We made the hats also - very easy. You can't see it in this picture, but I also made them matching bibs w/ the cupcake applique.

The Bean opening her presents...this is one of the few pics we got of her opening gifts b/c she cared more about the rocks surrounding the pavillion.

Ok, so for a rundown of the b'day: We had Evan's and the Bean's b'days at the city park in Hokes Bluff, near where I grew up and close to my brother and sister-in-law's house. We went very low-key on the decorations w/ only a polka dot tablecloth on the cake table and balloons tied on that table, matching polka dot napkins, etc. We ate cake and opened presents - pretty simple. There were only 2 other kids there, so we didn't do party favors either. The only things creative about the party were their outfits and hats! The party went great, and the only thing that went wrong was the Great Balloon Debacle.

The Great Balloon Debacle

So, my sister-in-law took a pack of balloons to the party store near her house and told them to blow up 20 of them. We thought that would be plenty. When we picked them up about and hour and a half b/f the party, we realized they were the wrong size balloons. My sister-in-law had accidentally bought a pack of tiny balloons instead of normal size, so neither of us were pleased w/ them. But they were already paid for, so we decided just to use them anyway. Well since they were so small, we decided to blow up the rest of the pack (30 balloons) ourselves and tape them to the tables. We had not planned on doing this timewise, but thought we'd be fine. So we go to her house and blow up the balloons. We took the bunch of already blown up balloons inside w/ us so they wouldn't get too hot and pop in the car. Well, we finished up and started to load up the car w/ balloons to head over to the park to set up about an hour b/f the party. Now, as an important side note, the door handle was broken off on my sister-in-law's car so that they had to roll down the window to get in and out of the car. As I was putting the bunch of balloons in the car, I didn't notice that the window was still down. So what happened to our tiny, but only, bunch of balloons? It was sucked out of the window into oblivion!! And yes, it was my all my fault. So after regaining our composure (my sister-in-law and I were laughing hysterically), I said we should go get some more balloons...I thought we'd have time. Long story short, we ended up having to call somebody else to go pick up the new balloons b/c we ran out of time taping all the other ones to the tables. And when we finally did get the new gorgeous large size balloons, they started popping b/c we tried to tie them to the concrete columns instead of the tables. So here's what I learned for the next b'day:

1) Always bring more than 2 people to set up.

2) Allow at least 30 minutes more than you think you'll need.

3) Check the size of the balloons on the pkg b/f you buy them.

4) Make sure the window isn't rolled down b/f putting balloons in a car.

and 5) Don't try to do something at the last minute that you hadn't planned on!

And we were trying to be simple!! Imagine if we'd planned something more involved!! Any of ya'll have any b'day debacles to share?