Home Depot Birthday Party

Today we went to Eduardo's birthday party.  He's the son of my friends Lillian and Guillermo. The kids had a good time.  They made a toolbox.  Roger and I helped since it involved hammering nails.  Cleo painted hers pink, lavender, green and yellow. Sidney painted his green and maroon - Roger tried to make purple. The work hats were kind of small and barely fit Sidney. Cleo's head is bigger so hers did not fit at all.

Cleo waiting for her toolbox kit to be handed out.

Cleo and Sidney working on assembling their toolboxes.

Cleo hit her finger only once with the hammer.

 

Cleo and Sidney painting their toolboxes.

There was an attempt to have a group picture. Cleo was getting more tired and grumpy by the minute.

Sidney sidled off to the side and kept leaning against the fence that separated the party area from the lumber area. He kept sticking his toolbox through the openings in the fence.  Sidney!

We came home and the kids had naps. I went to the gym and walked/ran for 60 minutes - 6 activity points according to Weight Watchers!  I am training for the 5K that I will be participating in on September 13.  I am not going to run/walk tomorrow. I need to start doing weights so I will attempt that tomorrow.

After naps, we went to dinner at Los Bravos, a family-friendly Mexican restaurant near where Eric and Shellie used to live in Smyrna, GA.  Cleo was adventurous and ordered a cheese and chicken burrito rather than her typical chicken fingers. Cleo ate her entire burrito! Sidney ordered a cheese burrito. He ate half at the restaurant and the other half when we got home.  Their entree came with fries and they both ate most of their fries. They had dessert when we came home - they each had one of my Weight Watchers peanut butter cup sundaes.  It's not low fat or super artificial, it's very small and just the right size for them. Cleo's not a big fan of ice cream so she wants to eat the chocalatey part but not the ice cream but she ends up eating it all.

After dinner, we went to Shoe Carnival to look for sneakers for Sidney. We didn't find any that we liked. We checked out Payless but didn't like any sneakers there either.   We went to Target and got him a pair of grey sneakers with orange trim in size 9 - toddler size.  They were priced at $24.99 but I had a 20% off coupon. Then we headed home for baths and bed.

Last night, we watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics which the kids sort of enjoyed.  There were so many historical and strange things going on which were hard to explain to them. We only watched the first 445 minute.  Cleo is super excited about watching women's gymnastics and Sidney gets excited watching Serena Williams play.  Sidney wanted to watch table tennis today, he's an interesting little guy.  I am very excited to see women's gymnastics too.

Tomorrow the plan is to take them to see Ice Age - a 9:55am show at Atlantic Station, there's a theater located in a nice open air mall around 20 minutes from our house.  Then, we will go to Trader Joe's to get organic chicken and other vittles. We hear organic meat is cheaper there than Whole Foods. We need to start feeding the kids organic chicken because of all the bad hormones in regular chicken.

At some point tomorrow we need to find Cleo a 3 inch 3 ring binder.  Part of me wants to wait to find out if a 2 inch binder will suffice.  There are three open houses scheduled at Cleo's school - August 1, 2 and 21.  I wish the open houses were in July and not so close to or after the August 6th start of school.

Have a good week!

Playdates R Us!

Last Saturday, Cleo and Sidney had two playdates.  At 10am, my friend Cindy came over with her 2.5 year-old daughter Madison.  The kids had a really nice time playing.  Cleo kept saying how cute Madison was.  For lunch, the kids had peanut butter sandwiches and goldfish.

Cindy and Madison left around noon.  The kids had naps. We then headed over to playdate number 2 - a BBQ at Cleo's friend Alexandria's house.  Cleo and Sidney had a lot of fun playing with Alexandria and her twin brother Quintin (their last name is Tookes).  Sidney LOVED Quintin's drum set. Cleo really enjoyed it too.

Sidney also liked playing the guitar.  We definitely have some musicians on our hands.

We stayed at the Tookes' house until around 9pm.

Sunday we went shopping for sneakers for Cleo and some remaining school supplies.  Cleo selected a Disney Princess zippered pencil case. Later, we played around the house and relaxed a bit.

This past week, I checked Cleo's school's website and they added an entirely new school supplies list, it was much longer and had many more supplies listed. Thursday, I went to Target and got most of the stuff listed, e.g., Lysol wipes, hand soap, tissues.  There were actual school supplies listed too, e.g., scissors, glue, plastic sheet protectors.  We still have to find a 3 inch 3 ring binder because I only saw 2 inch ones at Target.  There are 3 inch binders at my job but they're maroon, black or white.  It would be great to find a more girly color.

Today, we are going to my friend Guillermo and Lillian's son's (Eduardo) 5th birthday at Home Depot.   I went to law school with Guillermo.  The kids are going to assemble a craft project that involves paint that stains. I am not sure what we will have the kids wear - dark colored shirts I assume.  The party is 11am-1pm.  After the kids' naps, we need to get Sidney some sneakers. His feet haven't grown much but he's worn his shoes out a lot and he needs some new ones.

Have a good weekend.

Western Day

Today was Western Day in Cleo's class at daycare.

She and two other kids wore Western-themed stuff; they both had pink cowgirl hats. She was the only one that went all out - but she did not have a cowgirl hat. I looked for a cowgirl hat at the Dollar Tree but was unsuccessful.  While at the Dollar Tree, the kids suckered me into buying coloring books and helium balloons.  Cleo got a Captain America coloring book and Sidney selected a Thor coloring book, the store did not have a Hulk coloring book.  I got Cleo a tiara shaped "Princess" balloon and Sidney selected a yellow happy face balloon.

This summer, Cleo and her classmates wrote to Tim Hudson, a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Cleo received 4 tickets in response to her letter.  I did not know until today that she wrote the letter and she did not recall what she wrote in the letter.  The tickets are for a Saturday, September 1 game; the Braves are playing the Phillies.  I am excited because Roger and I have been discussing taking Cleo and Sidney to a baseball game again.  My work friend gave us tickets to a game last summer. Cleo enjoyed it a lot. Sidney acted up a bit and we left after the 7th inning stretch.  Her best little pals also got tickets so I hope the tickets are for the same day and we are all sitting in the same section. We checked the location of the tickets in the stadium and they're in the top most section.  Even though the tickets aren't good, the kids will still have a good time.

Tomorrow I will be attending one of my company's subsidiary's monthly management committee meeting. Every other month it's in Dublin, GA (2 hour drive south from our house).  The alternating months the meeting is in Austell, GA which is a 15 minute drive from our house. Thankfully, tomorrow it's in Austell. I have to give a 15 minute legal matters update. I am not too nervous right now because there is not much new to report.  I always get a little nervous right before I have to stand up and give the presentation.  I am the only woman who attends the meetings.  I have been attending them since May 2009.

After the meeting ends (which should be around 3:00pm), I am heading to Walmart to do some comparison shopping for school supplies. We still have to get a few more school supplies for Cleo.  Her school posted its supplies list and we got a lot of items but still need a little more.

I will also shop for ingredients for the vegetable pasta salad that I am making and bringing with us to Cleo's BBQ playdate at her pal Alexandria's house on Saturday.

Cleo is going to Lego Land with her daycare class on Monday, July 23. She is very excited. The Lego Land here in Atlanta is not as big as the one in Florida. The one here is located in Phipps Plaza, the fanciest mall in Atlanta.

Sidney did not eat his dinner tonight.  I guess his growth spurt is over - kids typically eat a lot when they're going through one.

Rainy Days

It's been raining a bit every day all week. It's great because our lawn and trees really need water.  We let the kids don their rain gear yesterday after we brought them home from school.

They enjoyed it thoroughly.

Sidney ate his dinner every day since this past Friday.  Today he ate around half of his dinner.  I was so happy that he was eating his dinner since most of the time he takes one look at it, pushes the plate away and announces he's not hungry.  We make him sit with us until Cleo's done with her dessert. Sometimes just sitting there he will change his mind and eat.

I finally made it back into the gym. I went Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and today.  I am so proud of myself.  I signed up for a Kaiser Permanente 5K race for Sept. 13 and I plan on running most of it.  My company pays the entry fee and arranges everything for us. My work pal and I are going to train to run it. She's not a runner and you all know I am not a runner.  Today, I went on the treadmill for 30 minutes. For 18 of the minutes I ran/jogged.  It felt great at the time but I think I pulled something in my thigh. I am sure it'll feel fine soon. I just need to take things slower and not run so much at one time.

This past weekend Cleo, Sidney and I went to Cleo's friend Brookelyn's younger sister Lauryn's 2nd birthday.  Cleo and I attended Lauryn's 1st birthday party too. Cleo and Brookelyn are in the same class at their daycare.  Cleo and Sidney both had turns hitting the piñata.  Sidney got to go first because he was the youngest child able to participate.  Here he is patiently waiting his turn.  Cleo's pal Quintin is standing next to Sidney.

Cleo's friend Alexandria also attended the party.  In the friends shot are Brookelyn, Alexandria and Cleo.

Sidney made a "Royalty" crown in school this week and took it home yesterday. He insisted on wearing it in the car and at dinner.

Sidney is essentially potty trained at school. He never wears pull-ups and sleeps in just his underwear. We are still working on getting him to that point at home. I suppose we could not put him in pull-ups so we are consistent with what they do at school.  We would still put him in pull-ups for naps and overnight.  Cleo was 5 before we stopped putting her in pull-ups overnight.

Sidney has matured a lot and is so smart. He asks a lot of questions like Cleo does and is super observant and curious.

This weekend we have two playdates on Saturday. At 10am, my former work friend Cindy is coming over with her 2 year-old daughter Madison. Cindy had a little boy in January named Matthew.  Matthew is not coming; he is staying with his dad. Cleo, Sidney, Roger and I attended Madison's 2nd birthday this past December.

Then, at 6pm we are going to Alexandria and Quintin's house for a BBQ playdate.  They invited other people so it's like a casual party.  We are bringing a vegetable and pasta salad side dish.

We are all set for uniforms for Cleo for the Fall.  We need to find long sleeve hunter green polos. I want to find them at a store because returning them to online stores only, e.g., French Toast, is expensive. I still cannot believe that she starts kindergarten in a few weeks.

Magic Mike Gets a C+

I saw Magic Mike with some friends this past Saturday night.  We met for dinner at Yard House, it's a chain restaurant with locations in other states. During dinner I had 2 skinny Cosmos that were great. They were called "skinny" because they were sweetened with agave nectar.  I did not get drunk, the drinks were not strong at all. I had this great rice bowl with vegetables and fake chicken made of Gardein. The restaurant touts itself as an upscale pub. It had a great beer list, cocktail menu and food menu.  Everyone enjoyed their dinner and drinks.

There were 6 of us a dinner and I was the only one present who either didn't own or had not read Fifty Shades of Grey.  Two of the women owned the book because their husbands had bought it for them but they had not read the book yet. The other women said it was a very fun read.  I broke down and bought it for my Kindle two nights ago. I only read the first few pages. It's fine so far; not great writing but my friends had warned me that it's not literature.

After dinner we headed over to our 8pm movie. In the lobby was a short man in a Spiderman costume.  The kids are really into superheros lately so I took a picture with him. Sorry it's so blurry.  Check out my yellow $9.99 maxi dress that I got from Ross.

The movie was just okay.  The stripping/dancing scenes were worth the price of admission but the acting was rather awful.  It was fun to have a girls night out, I hadn't done that in a while.

After the movie, 4 of us got frozen yogurt at Yogli Mogli. It replaced what had been an awesome Coldstone Creamery across the street from the movie theater.  At Yogli Mogli, we selected the cup we wanted, filled our cup with as much frozen yogurt that we wanted, selected the toppings and then paid based on the total weight. There were a lot of flavors to choose from but I tried and really liked the thin mint.  We sat and chatted until around 11pm then we all headed to our cars and drove home.

Sunday, we visited Roger's college friend Wendy who lives around 45 minutes from us in Norcross, it's considered part of the Atlanta Metropolitan area.  We got to her new house around 11am. The house was a foreclosure and she got a great deal.  There is a really nice deck in the back and Cleo and Sidney enjoyed selecting which twigs they wanted to take home with them. I did not let them take any home.  We spent the afternoon with her. Around 4pm, the 5 of us headed to the Golden Corral that was around a 10 minute drive from her house. Golden Corral now offers cotton candy. Cleo had 2 servings.  She loves cotton candy and other fair food like that - big soft pretzels, snow cones, etc.

We headed home after the Golden Corral.

I recently treated myself to a cute necklace.  Sorry I have no idea how to rotate the picture.

Tomorrow, I am heading to Macon, GA for some meetings at YKK USA, one of my company's subsidiaries. Macon is around 1.5 hours south of Atlanta.  I hope to be back in the office by 4:30pm so that I can grab my car and go pick up Cleo and Sidney from daycare.  Speaking of cars, we recently paid off our black Volvo. It took 6 years but we did it. We received the title in the mail yesterday. It feels like quite an accomplishment to actually own something.

Last week, we refinanced the silver Volvo. I spoke to Wellsfargo last week and they offered me a lower rate than I was paying on the silver Volvo.  So, Wellsfargo gave me a check to pay off Carmax and I will now make payments to Wellsfargo. Our monthly payment has been reduced by $200!

This Saturday from 3-6pm, Cleo, Sidney and I (and possibly Roger) are going to Cleo's classmate Brookelyn's younger sister's (Lauryn) 2nd birthday party. Cleo and I attended Lauryn's 1st birthday party last year.  This year, Cleo's best bestie Alexandria is going as is her twin brother Quinton.  Sunday, we will likely go to church then school supplies shopping for Cleo. Her school's supplies list is posted on her school's not so helpful website.

This week, we bought Cleo her uniforms. She can wear any type of khaki bottoms and has to wear navy or hunter green tops. She can wear patterned long sleeve shirts under her short sleeve tops or patterned knee socks (when it's cooler, of course).  We got her 6 long sleeve shirts (3 navy, 3 hunter green), 6 short sleeve shirts (3 navy, 3 hunter green), 2 jumpers, and 5 skorts. I cannot believe that she starts kindergarten on August 6. She's ready; I am not ready.

I will take some photos of the kids this weekend and post them.