David and Emma went to spend a few days with Papa and Nana, and Samuel spent a couple days with G-pa and Grand-mama this past week! I was in much need of some alone time! Andrew and I had a date night! Andrew cooked steaks, with roasted potatoes and broccoli! We even ate off our china plates! 🙂 It was nice to have some time together. It was VERY quiet! At first I enjoyed the quiet, and then I decided that quiet is over rated, and so we went to pick up the kids. 😉 Not exactly true, but you know! 🙂

I have been in a clean out, get organized, and planning mode in the past month. While I haven’t accomplished all I would like, I have done quite a bit in the way of cleaning out closets and getting rid of some things. I have also been making lists of things I need to do to help get ready for school. I know some people just go with the flow and don’t seem to need to make plans, or lists, or anything, but that is not how I roll. I am very much a list person! I make lists about everything, it’s how I keep my brain from exploding. 🙂 I can guarantee you that by the time school starts I will have a daily schedule written down, and probably a whole list of activities and things we can do at home. My brain is swirling with possibilities and ideas as I type!

I was at the dollar tree the other day, I found a whole bunch of work books for David and Emma! So if you are looking for something to help your kid brush up on their letters, writing, etc, or something to help supplement what they are already learning.  I recommend going to the dollar tree! I found several prek-k books about shapes, colors, letters and numbers for Emma, and several first and second grade books with math, phonics, and handwriting! I was also on a search for art supplies, and found several things at the dollar general store! (It beats going in Wal-mart right now)

I have been thinking about making a list of books that I can tie in different activities with for the kids. Whether it be a craft, music, baking, etc. I would love to hear some of your ideas! I can think of several off the top of my head, but you may know a book or activity that I’m not familiar with!  I’ll share my list with you when I get it put together!

Both David and Emma were in extreme need of some new shoes! They both literally walked out of their summer sandals, and David keeps outgrowing his tennis shoes. So I ordered them both a new pair of tennis shoes for this fall. I’m telling you this because when looking for David a pair of shoes, I came across a pair of boys light up shoes, not too expensive, and easy to find. However, when looking for Emma a pair of shoes I found it to be much more difficult! I knew if I bought David a pair of light up shoes, I had better find Emma a pair of light up shoes as well. (Yes, there is that much jealousy in our house!:) ) Emma loves Paw Patrol and PJ Masks, and so I went searching for her a pair of shoes. I found a pair of paw patrol girl shoes, but they were really expensive! Double the amount of what I was going to pay for David’s shoes. I figured it was because they were the “paw patrol” shoes. I became curious and searched for paw patrol and pj masks shoes in boys, they were a lot cheaper!! In fact they were the same price as what I was going to pay for David’s non-character shoes. WHY?? So I showed them to Emma and she chose the PJ Mask shoes.  I bought my daughter a pair of boy, PJ Mask shoes! Is this crazy? Am I the only one to do this? I don’t know, but Emma loves them! Oh yeah, they light up too! So double win!

Our little garden has done exceptionally well this summer! Our cucumber and tomato plants have out done themselves! I have put away about eight to ten bags of whole tomatoes in the freezer this past week! I had never done this before, but I watched my mom do it practically every summer as a kid! So I had a good idea about how to do it! If you have a surplus of tomatoes and don’t want to go to all the trouble of canning, I recommend doing it this way! All you do is bring a big stock pot of water to a boil, drop the tomatoes in and let them sit for about a minute, take them out and cool them down in some ice water. Then make a small slit in the bottom of the tomato with a knife. The tomato skin will peel off very easily. Then core the tomato. Put the peeled and cored tomatoes in freezer bags! I put about five or six tomatoes in each freezer bag, but you could put more if you want. They will be great to use in chili’s, soups, and sauces this winter!

My favorite picture of the week!

Love,

PK