First Day of School!

Daniel had a great first day of school! He was apprehensive and fought off a few tears in the beginning, but then he was off and running! It was, of course, much harder on me! Tony took the day off and was there to drop Daniel off and pick him up with me and Arianna. It will definitely take some getting used to...it is really quiet around here with him gone. When we picked him up, both teachers commented on how well he did and how well behaved he was which made my heart smile! We are so proud of him and it was a great start to the school year.

Cheryl & Co deal

Another great special for Cheryl & Co! They currently have a Hibiscus Sampler Gift Tower on sale for $19.95. If you use code VP at checkout, you can get this item shipped for just $14.95! That's an awesome price for a great gift!! So tempting to send it to myself :-) The $5 off code can be used on any product on their site and they have plenty with free shipping!

Show Day!

Daniel had his last "show day" at Little Gym on Wednesday! That makes 4 sessions that he has attended and really enjoyed! He was a little sad that he won't be going back. Their schedule just doesn't work out for us once he starts school on Monday. So, I am looking into a couple of other things to keep him busy and having fun!

He has done very well in these classes. One of his first instructors commented on how far he has come since the beginning. One of the biggest things we have noticed is his confidence has gone way up...which is awesome!

After class, we headed over to McDonald's for a "celebration"...ok just to play! Believe it or not, we made it over 5 years without ever going to a fast food playground! And we have been to plenty of places that have them....we just have an aversion to them for various reasons and honestly Daniel never asked to go to them. When the new McDonald's opened near us, we decided to take them in there. It is a nice one- I'm sure partly due to it being so new. We don't play there often, so it is a treat for him and he enjoys playing. There is a McDonald car in the area for the smaller kids that Arianna likes. While she was sitting in the car, a bigger kid climbed in next to her. When Daniel, aka protective brother, saw this, he shot over there to keep his eye on the situation. He managed to nicely get himself between Arianna and the bigger kids. It was really sweet to watch him look out for his little sister.

Next up... movies and lunch with Mom...

Fun Day at the Zoo!

It is only Wednesday, but it has been a busy week already! Monday we played with the neighbors for a bit and then got everyone caught up on Dr. appt checkups! It was bad enough having back to back appointments, but this was also a new doctor so it took awhile- glad it's over! Daniel managed to get out of there without any shots this time so he was happy. Arianna did have to get 2 shots but she didn't cry or even flinch...she did look a little mad though!

Tuesday, I took the kids to one of our favorite places...the Fort Worth Zoo! It was a little hot- but hey it was under 100 degrees! It turned out to be a great day though! The kids both had a lot of fun and really wore themselves out! Daniel was really enjoying taking it at a slower pace this time and asked a lot of questions about what each animal eats among other things. The only dissapointments this time were that the Penquin exhibit was closed for renovation and the carousel was also closed. I was really disappointed about the Penquins since that is Arianna's favorite. But I wasn't so disappointed about the carousel since I at least didn't have to stand in the heat for half an hour waiting!










After the zoo, we headed downtown to pick up Tony for lunch. We decided to head over to Freebirds for some good food!!



Next up.... Show Day at Little Gym!!

Free food!

If you like Chipotle and you like free food...this is for you! Free Chipotle! Hmm.. I think I know where I'll be eating!

Coupons!!

If you know me, you know I love a good coupon! So, here are some that I thought I would share with you!

My all time favorite place to order an edible gift... Cheryl & Co has 15% off sitewide through midnight Sunday. They have a lot of gifts with free shipping as well! My favorite is the create your own boxes. Frosted banana walnut, cinnamon pumpkin, lemon and of course the frosted white cookies are all favorites. (now I'm drooling!). Check out their site and use coupon code NU at checkout for your 15% off!

Boston Market has a few coupons out right now. This one is for a free meal when you purchase a meal. And this one is for $3 off a $6 or more purchase.

Crocs.com is offering free shipping on a purchase of two or more pairs of shoes until August 23rd. Check out their clearance section too- I found some good deals in there!

More to come later...

Vote for Vivian!

If you have a minute, please vote for my friend Jen's Bully, Vivian in the CuteDogPhoto contest! If you are so inclined, you can even vote daily! You can also visit Jen's Bully Blog here! Good luck Vivian and Jen!! :-)

eta...the link is also on Jen's blog if you click that link!

Family Pictures!

I thought I would follow the pictures of the kids with some family pictures...so here you go! We did a few different poses this time...

We love the potato heads and parts...especially the Disney themed ones! It has been at least a year since I got new parts at Disney, so I think we are due to get some more in October. After all, we need some Princess and Minnie parts for Arianna (ok...and me!). They give you a box and it's $19.99 for everything you can squeeze in that box (and have the box close). So, I have learned a few tricks and can pack those boxes to the rim without much space in between!

We spent a good part of Friday playing with these and the kids aren't the only ones that have fun!

Here are a few others with some super heroes and a bad guy thrown in as well!

The budding artists at work...

August pictures!

It is still hard to believe that August is already here...I'm still trying to figure out where the summer has gone! It is also hard to believe that Daniel is 5 years old and that Arianna is already 20 months old! Time moves way too fast!

Randomness

I love "random" things, so here are some pictures to wrap up July and move on to August! (Where the heck did July go anyway??).








Daniel loves scavenger hunts and has been asking to do another one for weeks now. I don't think he really even cared about the actual treasure- he just loved the hunt!

Do you see Mickey??

If you are a Disney fan, you have probably heard of "Hidden Mickey's" at some point...it is when you find the shape of Mickey's head hidden somewhere. The Disney Imagineers have placed thousands of hidden mickey's all over DisneyWorld for us to find. We always have a great time looking for them whenever we visit Disney! Daniel is an expert at finding "Hidden Mickey's" anywhere we go- even outside of Disney! To be a "true" hidden Mickey, it has to be related to Disney and strategically placed by the Imagineers, but we're going to use that term anyway ;-). Daniel finds them in Disney movies, non-Disney movies, flower bushes, the ground...just about anywhere! Here are some pictures of our own hidden Mickey's! :-)

Here is one from the kid's menu at Posado's Cafe (yummmmy food!)

This one is from a chicken nugget box at McDonald's :-)

Other than kids shows, our TV pretty much stays on HGTV or Travel channel. Here are a couple from one of the HGTV shows. This was some "random" art that they did on a wall.

We have seen quite a few more, but these were the ones we caught on camera so far...we'll be on the lookout for more! Can't wait to go searching at Disney World and on the cruise in October!! Have a great Monday!

Park Hopping!

We have been keeping to our running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning each week. Some days are easier than others for sure! It looks like we'll be trying to pump out a few more miles in the upcoming weeks thanks to my brilliant ideas! I found that there will be a 13k (8.1 miles) and a 5k (3.2 miles) at Disney's Hollywood Studios during our vacation as well as a 5k on Castaway Cay while we are on the Disney cruise! So...I have convinced Tony that he should run one of the Tower of Terror races. He can definitely do the 5k without issue, but I think he is contemplating pushing the envelope and training for the 13k. It should be an interesting run! It's at 10pm on a Saturday night (the night before we leave on our cruise) followed by a Post Race Party that we will all attend. Hopefully we'll be able to run the 5k on Castaway Cay together...but we shall see when the time comes! So, I am knee deep in Disney planning right now and loving every minute!

So, as I have said before, when we do run, we usually take a break midway at one of the many parks in our area. The kids love all of the different parks that they get to play on each time! They really love the parks...Daniel loves it all- especially taking his little sister down the slides with him! Arianna loves the swings and would stay there all day if she could! It's our own version of "park hopping" :-)

More fun times!

Well, I said that we were busy the past month and we really were! Whether they are inside or outside, they never seem to stop moving! Here are just a few of the things the energetic kiddos did this month!

We have found that our long hallway makes it easy to play games from basketball and bowling to bean bag tosses and everything in between!