Egads!

My love for bargains and collectibles just overlapped in what is probably a dangerous occurrence!

As some of you northerners know, the best grocery store in the world (aka The Place Where Dreams Come True aka Wegmans) has a toy aisle that very often has some deeply discounted clearance items.  I have scooped up some serious bargains on puzzles, Legos, and other trinkets over the years.  My heart started racing yesterday when, having run there to pick up "just a few things," I turned the corner and saw all the yellow sale signs-- and, as it happened, there was a SUPER DEAL on a product with exactly TWO items left.  Nevermind that I've never in my life heard of the particular toy.  Each box was marked down to $1!  And there were two!  And I have two kids!

Anybody heard of My Mini MixieQs?  Because, lemme tell you, even the BG decreed them as "cute" (and "so much better than Shopkins") when he came home.  Their hair and clothes both pop off and can be exchanged.  And yes, there were two figures in each blind bag box...that was only ONE DOLLAR!

They are posed so artistically on the edge of the bathtub because we got a good 20 minutes of "one kid hides them while the other then hunts them down" time after school.  Miss C went first and had the bathroom.  She did a great job hiding and made her brother look high...

and low (inside the tissue box):

I'm kinda getting the shakes because I want to BUY MORE....but geez Louise, if anyone needs a reminder that Amazon is not always the lowest price, here's one.  (I think the original price at Wegs was $2.99.)

Okay, One Last Birthday Post

and then we are FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE until 2018!

The "Pancake Pajama Playdate" was a big hit on Friday morning.  (wo)MAN, are girls loud, though!  As they ran all throughout the house trying on dress-up clothes, Miss C's friends kept spontaneously yelling things like, "THIS IS SO FUN!" so I think it was enjoyed by all!

We got a repeat use of the birthday candle, this time in a pancake!

Lest you fear the plates stayed so barren, here's the BG's:

There was also bacon and, let me tell you, that was the HIGHLIGHT of the meal for at least 3 of the girls.  I've never seen so much bacon love in my life.  One girl told me, "My dad always says that I'm 'achin' for bacon'!"  :-)

I'm thinking the 7th birthday gathering could be a "Bacon Bonanza!"  But you know what?  I don't have to think about any kid birthdays til next Jan!!!!

Friday Frown (and FUN!)

You know who hasn't been on the blog in awhile?  This guy, who had the idea to "look sad" because he hasn't been on the blog in awhile:

Took that pic this morning, right after the kiddies got up.  The table is set for 5 Kindergarten friends to come over for a "Pajama Pancake Playdate" this morning since it's a teacher workday.  Somehow I bet big brother will have that "frown" turned upside-down in no time when his adoring audience arrives!

HAPPY FRIDAY!
PS:  Can you spot the birthday girl?

Oh Great-- Another Cake I'm Going to Eat Constantly

I was in a random grocery store recently (shocker!) and stumbled upon this cake mix at a deeply discounted price.  I figured, can there BE too much pink for Miss C? Nope-- perfect.

It looked its prettiest as batter in the cake pans:

To balance the boxed cake mix, I made this Easy Cream Cheese Frosting (using the tip by the first reviewer about mixing butter and sugar first and then adding in cold cream cheese) and it was DEELISH.

And then she was SIX:

The lighting in this pic throws everything off but you can kinda tell that there are three different colors in the cake:

(You can also tell that there were a lot of dishes involved in yesterday's cooking and baking projects....!)

SIX!! SIX!! SIX!! SIX!! SIX!! SIX!!

I recently asked today's Birthday Girl if she would like to have some "girl time" sans those pesky boys.  She immediately asked, "Can we go to [name of paint-your-own-pottery place]?" so apparently she was a *little* bit excited for the opportunity!

Last night, aka Birthday Eve, was our big outing.  And it was a beaut--AND all in one shopping area!!!

FIRST, she did some painting:

SECOND, she got a haircut:

(modeling the ears she picked out of the "treasure box"):

THIRD, she struck a pose by the ice skating rink that she'd REALLY like to try but, um, neither of her parents can ice skate so not really sure what's going to happen with that...

FOURTH, we had dinner and discovered that Tuesdays are "KIDS EAT FREE" night!

FIFTH, we had ice cream!  I shot myself in the proverbial foot by pointing out all the suggested combinations-- I really thought she'd go for the (PINK!) "Strawberry Skydive" and that sounded pretty tasty to me.  But she chose that hideous blue one on the left:

She thought it was great:

 It made for good lipstick, that's for sure:

SIXTH, we hit up the toy store and she picked (using birthday money from Big D-- thanks, Big D!) what is apparently her "Dream Come True" set:

It is sure fun to celebrate SIX!!!

Taking Reservations!

It all started when we were wandering Target on Friday and saw this:

 I mean, how could I NOT want to buy that whole set-up?  So cozy and inviting!   There was an alternate fabric design that she liked and we hoisted it in the cart while we waited for the boys to meet up with us....at which point the Very Logical BG expressed some hesitation about this random purchase...which was totally valid...so we ended up deciding to go home and do some online research about other potential teepee ideas.

When I started looking, I discovered that teepees are expensive.  It dawned on me, then, that perhaps we could go a different way and find something that would be even more up Miss C's alley and more pleasing to my wallet.  And so we did!   It arrived yesterday--in a very wee carrying case--and the two NON-engineering Kentobeans struggled to put it together while she was at a playdate.  Not gonna lie: it was tough.  I am sooo not a three-dimensional thinker.  But this guy helped me:

And she LOVES her new hangout spot! 

(which will not live permanently in our living room but is where the initial construction happened.  Also-- I ran out of time to string the star lights properly so they're kinda jumbled.  But whatever!)

Oh, Those Digital Natives

I just opened the Photos on my phone to figure out what to post from the weekend, and found a completely unexpected little image.  I truly have no idea how she put this together but hey-- there are worse selfies than ones that have been branded with a love for school!  :-)

Alas, after a lovely 3-day weekend (wherein we kept getting confused about what day it was since Friday seemed very much like a Saturday), it is back to the regular routine for us today.  Hope you all have a faboo week!

Flashback Friday

If I don't have any evening activities, I'm pretty much ready for bed as soon as dinner is over.  I feel as though we should start eating dinner later so as to be closer to an acceptable bedtime, since 6:30 probably...ISN'T.  Alas, this has been a pretty quiet week and, because of that, I don't have any new photos to share.

Back into the blog vault we go, therefore!   This snip is actually from January 21st but we'll allow it since 1/21/17 is not a blogging day AND I appreciate that this mentions a day off, which we are also celebrating today.  Not so much the "holiday" (that was Monday) but rather a day that happens every 4 years thanks to the whole area basically shutting down.  The BG commented yesterday that it felt more like a pre-announced snow day...which of course depressed me since we have no freezing temps in the forecast for DAYS.  In fact, we are supposed to get up to 3" of RAIN here on Sunday.  What the what?  You know how much fluffy white stuff that could be if it were just, you know, NORMAL January temperatures.  Harrumph.

ANYWAY.   Here's a look back at four years ago:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

If You're Following Along at Home...

...latest flavor is mighty tasty!

Wordless Wednesday

A Fancy Party, Clearly

Delayed post this morning as we try to get back into a routine after a long weekend that was, frankly, not very restful.  Good thing we have another one this weekend with no school on Friday for the large event taking place nearby!

The small gathering to celebrate the B-man was a success.  We took the kids to a crazy big (and crazy crowded on a school holiday) indoor jump/climb/run/swing/be a ninja place for an hour and then came back home to play Minecraft, eat dinner, and--upon B's request--go on a scavenger hunt around the house for fun little trinkets.  Several "stops" into the hunt and the kiddies were looking mighty fancy donning their prizes:

And then he was NINE!

Nine? Fine!

The B-man hit the big 9 yesterday. Since the high school football banquet is always the Sunday night of MLK weekend, however, we totally ditched him last evening...but I'm pretty sure he and C had lots of fun with the neighbor babysitter! And it's all good, as well, because the real festivities are this afternoon: he's having three friends over for some adventures.  I ended up spending most of Saturday in bed with a yucky cold so I lost pretty much that whole day for getting things done, but I think we'll make it...

Speaking of making it, the BG and I were putting together a cake at 6:00 this morning.  We are big fans of choosing "fun factor" over "professional appearance" but it seems to me that's the right balance for a group of, you know, CHILDREN.  The B-man is still very into Minecraft and, after looking at a few ideas for cake decoration, I decided to go with a simplistic TNT design.

What better to use than chocolates emblazoned with "HERSHEY'S," representing the amusement park highlight of B's year?

It's a multi-level (and -flavor) creation:

...with a pretty sweet surprise in the middle!

We're calling it the "TNT Cherry Explosion Cake"...and it's sure to be a happy addition to a future version of this collage:

Spiky!

Someone needs a haircut but, in the meantime, check out those (naturally created with no human manipulation) spikes after a shower last night:

Figured it was a nice foil to yesterday's pic of a wee lad, too!  Kid will be 9 on Sunday....what the what?

(Also note the sister photo bomb plus, if you follow the IMPORTANT NEWS on Facebook, you can see the edge of my new desk chair + pop of red chair mat!  :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Throwback Thursday

Oh Good-- I'm Not Crazy

(about this, at least)

So...an Aldi recently opened near us and I've gone weekly because they handed out four $10 coupons, one for each of the last four weeks.  It's really like a game because I find different treasures every time I go-- which makes meal planning more difficult but makes trying new things super fun!

I've been hearing people rave about La Croix for awhile now but I've just never been a sparkling water fan.  I couldn't help but notice the fantastically colored boxes on the Aldi aisle yesterday-- what's that?  Special "curated" flavors for a great price?  Well, fine, I'll give it a try.  So, as I'm looking over the flavor options, my brain recognizes some of the fruit names but it also hits me as being Spanish.  I didn't think too much about it and went with Cherry Lime:

I was chatting with a friend while unloading my bags at home and decided to give this bevvie a try.  (LOVE the tall, skinny can, too!)  I told her that the names were in Spanish but then thought, "That's dumb-- it's obviously French since, you know, LA CROIX." 

It wasn't until just this morning when I decided to google "lime in French" because all my years of l'ecole made me leery of that accent mark.  Sure enough, that's not French.  So then I googled "Cerise Limon" and got this hit-- check it out! It IS a blend of French and Spanish!  I'm not crazy after all!

[And it was a lovely little afternoon bubbly!]

InsTUESDAY

I thought it might be fun to try to make it a point to use my Instax camera at least once per week.  I should have planned ahead a little better; alas, the two children in their pre-breakfast Netflix cartoon-on-the-couch routine is what we get for today:

On the schedule today: class pictures!  School pics are always taken in the fall but they wait until winter to do the class photo. As much of a racket as school photography is, I love the old-school "class standing/sitting in rows on the stage with the blue curtains in the background" thing.  Imagine all the social media possibilities for memories 20 years from now!!!  [Or will we just beam photos to each other through our brains or something?]

Miss C is very excited to wear a "beautiful dress."  Mr. B was very explicit in wanting to wear "something that does NOT look like church clothes."

Welcome to our world. ;-)

Winter Weather Wire, Dispatch 1

We all sure hope that the "Winter Weather Wire" has LOTS more dispatches over the next two months!   This season has kinda started out disappointingly...

Friday morning: told we could wake up to about an inch.  FAINT DUSTING.
Saturday morning: told we could wake up to lots of snow falling, totaling up to 3".  FAINT DUSTING.

(cue sadness)

Now, in case you're thinking, "I didn't know the Kentobeans were particularly into winter activites"-- you would be correct. What we ARE into, however, is the forced laziness of a snow day.  Everything shutting down pretty much gives us explicit permission to be the napping/reading/screen-watching people we really are.  ;-)

Back to Saturday.  I guess the still-in-place forecast was enough to make some decision-makers nervous so they went ahead and kept all school facilities closed in the morning. This meant that B's 10:00am basketball game was not happening.  We all thought that was kinda over the top (although we were fine with it!) but then the snow really started coming down late in the morning:

We ended up going outside with the BG in the late afternoon when he wanted to clear the driveway.  As you can tell, hair-brushing was not part of the prep:

Not enough snow to sled down the hill, but just enough to create winding paths all around the yard(s).  We had a lot of fun making and then following one another throughout these trails!

Throwback Thursday

I still think people who say "point-set-ta" are crazy!

A Grand Marketing Scheme

One of the (far too many) holiday treats I bought from TJ's was this "Taste Test" of caramels:

You know what gets our kids really excited?  Dessert challenges of any kind resembling the ones they have seen on YouTube videos, of course!   We embarked on a three-night culinary adventure wherein the dad cut four caramels per night into tasting pieces:

I only snapped pics the first night and (clearly) they weren't great but at least you can get an appreciation for the randomness of Miss C's tasting outfit:

In true family form, the BG had each kid make a guess about which of the 12 flavors each nibble was.  He kept a tally and there was definitely a winner....but I honestly can't remember who it was because I overdosed on holiday sweets somewhere along the way.  I can tell you that they each ran to the sink to spit out the "hot chili" one, although they both thought it was "strawberry black pepper," not knowing they'd had that one the previous night and it was delicious!  :-)

Exploring

It all started when I received an email about a special deal at a hotel where the BG and I stayed early last year.  That led me to do some investigating to see if there were other special deals around town over the break because there are few things that make me happier than an overnight adventure with a side of eating out and exploration.

Bingo!  Found a great deal for a suite at a hotel just one block down from where we stayed the last time.  That meant it was still just across the street from Trader Joe's and within walking distance of lots of eateries.  I made an early dinner reservation at a place I'd heard about and my plan was for us to check in at 3 and wander around until dinner.  I went ahead and bought advance tickets to see Sing! the next morning so was banking on that being our "entertainment" for this particular adventure.

On the drive in, however, someone began expressing passionately that he sure would like to go to a museum.  After some initial recalcitrance (largely due to the fact that we'd then need to go to dinner later and I looked and there wasn't another rezzie at the restaurant until 8pm!), I finally realized he was right.  So we changed our plans on the fly and ended up...

Taking the metro (another win for the kiddies!):

Checking out some artifacts:

Standing next to an elephant leg bone:

It was a beautiful night to be out:

And, actually, the dinner reservation I made after a new round of research yielded a truly delightful family dining experience so it all worked out after all!

The kids loved having a full kitchen, made better with some TJs treats, too!

I hiked over to a celebrated bakery in the morning and was the 2nd customer upon its opening.  I carried everything carefully back "home" and, after eating, getting ready, and checking out, we dropped all our stuff back at the car (parked thanks to a Parking Panda rezzie) and walked over to the movie theater which turned out to be SUPER comfy:

Not bad for $6 tickets!   (And a fun movie, too!)

We ended up getting lunch at Whole Foods and then milkshakes at a place where we'd hope to eat but there had been no tables when we first went in.  By the time we stopped back by for milkshakes, however, there was no problem getting some tasty treats to go, and we sipped on them all the way home. Such fun!

Last Day

Today is the last day of Winter Break.  I just found out that the county next door has school today which is undoubtedly a treat for the parents who have the day off work!  In our household, however, days off from school are the only way to keep both parents home so, as good as it will be to get into a 2017 routine, it's nice to have one more lazy family day at home.

I've been trying to get each person in this fam to think of some things he/she would like to accomplish this year.  It's kinda like pulling proverbial teeth but I'm committed to us doing new/fun/interesting things in 2017.  And hey, here's an electronic space where I can chronicle whatever those turn out to be.

In the meantime, here's the pic I wanted to post Friday:

More pics to come of our fun little overnight but, as for now: