Throw Back Thursday: Walt Disney World March 2011

Since we are currently planning another trip to Disney World, Elliott and I have been going through our pictures from last time over the last few days.  We thought we would do a throw back Thursday post with a few of our favorites.  We literally have hundreds, so it was hard to narrow it down, but for various reasons, here are a few of our favorites.

Waiting in line to meet one of his favorite characters.

He loved Chip and Dale and never missed an opportunity for a picture.

This was the first character hug he initiated.

Handy Manny was the only Disney Junior character we got to meet, but that was fine, because he was Elliott's favorite at the time.

When Elliott looked at this picture he told me that he almost completely disappeared into Lotso's belly!

Pooh was another favorite to hug.

Elliott had a lot of fun with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen.  Here Prince Naveen is asking if Elliott is trying to steal his princess after she hugged him.

Elliott's response was "maybe"

Naveen decided they could still be friends, because Elliott had an awesome name, just like their friend, the dragon (from Pete's Dragon)

Pluto was the first character Elliott went up to by himself (he had already met Snow White and Daisy Duck, but wanted an adult with him for those)

He couldn't believe it when Cinderella wanted to dance with him.

Dancing with Cinderella

All smiles after their dance.

Stitch was Elliott's favorite character to meet, but we only got to meet Lilo the one time, he was soo excited!

Vacation Planning

Ok, so anyone that knows me knows that I like to plan A LOT in advance for any expensive vacations.  I'm totally fine with waiting until the last minute to do something under $1000, like going to visit family, but anything more, I want plenty of time to plan.  Our last vacation besides to Missouri was in July and I started planning in March, and that was the latest I've ever waited.  Last time we went to Florida I planned for nearly a year (I think I started planning in early May and we went in late March).

So I think my husband was pretty surprised when he came home from work the other day, and Elliott and I had been looking at Disney World and Universal rides and comparing them, trying to decide which was better.  We tentatively had a trip to Missouri planned for September, to see family.  After thinking about it, and looking around online, I decided that we should extend it and go to Florida as well.  We have a time share sampler thing that we bought last year that includes more than enough points for 10 nights in Celebration, FL, and they had openings for when we wanted to go.  I told my husband I wanted to do it, fully expecting to have to talk him into it (last time we went to Disney World, he said that would most likely be the only time we went), but instead he liked the idea.  He's been wanting a real vacation for a while because of some of the things going on at work.  And I think it would be great for our whole family as well.  We've had a pretty crazy year!

Carl checked his schedule at work, and it looks like he can take off the full 25 days we want, as long as he requests it soon.  But then the same day he checked it, we got the soccer sign up information, and it turns out that the season is starting late this year, so Elliott wouldn't be able to play if we go then.  So now we have checked out the stuff going on at Disney in November, and made sure that we would be able to get a suite at the resort and everything as well.  Carl hasn't been able to check at work yet to see if he could get that time off, but Elliott is really pushing for that time instead.

There are definite advantages to going in November, like how much cooler it will be.  Elliott and I are both wimps when it comes to really hot weather.  November in Orlando is typically similar to July in North Dakota (our hottest month of the year).  September will seem incredibly hot to us.  No matter which time we go, we can go to one of the special night time parties at Magic Kingdom.  I think I would like the Halloween one better, but Elliott is pushing for the Christmas one.  Waiting until November would also give me more time to plan and save.  So I have a feeling that if November works for Carl's work schedule that is when we will end up going.

I've already checked with my mom (she's who we stay with when we are in Missouri) and she said she doesn't foresee any kind of problems with either dates.  And she can watch Snoopie while we are in Florida as well (Darla will keep Trixie, and the cats will go to my father in law's house, or stay with the house sitter).  I'm getting anxious to know when we will go so I can go ahead and start making reservations and real plans!

Bath and Body Works Online Sale With Coupon Code

My son and I both love Bath and Body Works.  Before we removed all artificial dyes from our cosmetics and toiletries, we used a lot of their body washes and lotions.  Elliott loved several of the scents in the guy collection, and also enjoyed a few of the fruitier ones as well.  Now we can no longer buy any of the body washes, and only a few of the lotions, but that hasn't put an end to our shopping there.  We still buy wallflower scents, candles, and car air fresheners there.  They have so many different choices, and even Carl has come on board and is willing to go into the store to pick out his own scents for the truck, instead of just trusting Elliott and I to do it for him (although I think the real reason he now is willing to go in there is to keep a closer eye on our spending!).


Last week when we were at the mall anyway, we went in to see what was on sale.  They had a bunch of body washes, lotions, etc for 75% off, and the wallflower 2 pack refills for $5.  We ended up buying 2 bottles of lotion, and I think 8 2 pack refills.  We also bought a few of the scentportable refills (for the car) and a new holder to add a second one to the van.  

Watermelon Lemonade is one of our favorite scents, we were disappointed that there was only one left in our local store.

 I know it might seem crazy that I then started looking online to see if I could find more of my favorite scent (watermelon lemonade is a favorite of everyone in my house) on sale, but that's exactly what I did.  We have wallflower nightlights plugged in in Elliott's room, the upstairs bathroom, and the hallway.  We have just regular ones in our room, the downstairs bathroom, and the living room.  Sometimes it's kind of a pain to make sure all the scents on one floor work together, but it's worth it to keep our house smelling fresh instead of like animals (we have four pets that we love dearly, but they all stink).

It turns out that the online sales aren't necessarily as good, but they are still pretty good.  Plus there's a 20% off coupon (BBW20JULY) you can use to save more.  One bad thing is you can only use one coupon code per order, so you still have to pay shipping, but it's a flat rate of $5.99 so if you are buying several things it's still worth it.  

Many wallflower 2 packs are on sale for half price ($6.25), the big 3 wick candles are on sale for $12 (normally $22.50)  and the scentportable refills are on sale just the same as they usually are in store, buy 4 get 2 free.  The 20% off makes both them and the candles a better deal than the sales that were going on in store last week.  Also there are some great deals to be had if you are in the market for lotion and body wash.  The prices start at $2.75 for full size bottles (making them just $2.20 after coupon)!

The Children's Place Sale

 The Children's Place is having a great sale right now.  They have a lot of clearance items marked down to $3.99-5.99.  There's a coupon code available for 40% off your entire order, too.  The sale said it was over yesterday, but then they extended it through today.

I ended up ordering Elliott 4 pairs of shorts, 3 shirts, and 2 sets of shorts pajamas for under $40 shipped.

This was one of Elliott's favorites, $3.99, or $2.39 after the coupon code.

These shorts weren't in the clearance department, but were on sale for $5.99, so $3.60 after the coupon.

These weren't on sale, so we ended up paying $7.77 after the coupon, but he really needed pajamas, so we bought them anyway.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope all my American friends are enjoying our nation's birthday.  We live in an area where we can still do our own fireworks, so yesterday Carl and Elliott went a little crazy with buying them.  It's been a while since Carl was so excited to buy them, though, so we bought whatever he wanted, within reason.  They've already been doing a few daytime things.  We'll have a lot to do late tonight, though.

Carl is grilling hamburgers right now for lunch, and will be grilling brats, hotdogs, and ribs tonight.  Nothing like grilled food all day. :)  My sister is actually off work tonight, so she will be joining us later.  We're excited.  She's had to work every 4th since she moved up here, so it will be nice having her here!

This is just part of our stuff.  It's missing one big thing, plus most of Elliott's stuff he can do himself (smoke bombs, sparklers, snakes, etc)

Teenagers in Training

Elliott is eight years old now and is convinced he is old enough for a cell phone.  My husband and I disagree, and luckily so do the parents of  his friends.  The only one of his friends who has a cell phone is a diabetic and needs it to contact his parents immediately if his numbers are off or he just feels like they might be.  I'm glad Elliott realizes that while B NEEDS one, Elliott only wants one, so he doesn't use that comparison.  The main reason he wants a cell phone is to text his friends.  That isn't really a valid point when none of them have cell phones, though.

Lots of Sleepovers

I'm not sure if it's because Elliott is an only child and I am a stay at home mom, or what, but it seems like we constantly have someone wanting to spend the night at our house.  We're about 4 weeks into summer vacation, and we've already had to tell several kids that we have a limit of three times a week for sleep overs.  We've had eight sleep overs at our house already this summer and Elliott has spent the night with two of his friends as well.  Tomorrow night he is spending the night with one of those friends again.

The good thing about so many sleepovers is Elliott is willing to clean his room without much fighting.  Ha.  That's one of the conditions to have a friend over, and he's really been pretty accommodating for the most part.  It also keeps him from telling me that he is "soo bored!" which is definitely great.

There are drawbacks, too, though.  It makes it hard for us to get school work done when we have someone over so often.  I feel bad sending kids home all the time.  We aren't doing a whole lot of work these days, but I want to make sure we continue to do work at least 2 times a week, so he doesn't forget the stuff.  I also miss having more time with just Elliott.  I like his friends, but sometimes I just wanna hang out in jammies all day with Elliott, ya know?

It's also expensive having kids over all the time.  When they are active, they are hungry.  We have been over budget on our groceries constantly since school got out, so I ended up raising it by quite a bit for the summer.  Things like fruit, yogurt, and granola bars are just flying at my house right now!  We've also been doing art projects and science experiments with friends, too.  It is a lot of fun for them, and worth the money, though.

I really am glad that Elliott has so many friends.  And I'm glad that they all feel comfortable at my house, and they are comfortable talking to me about anything and everything.  As they get older, that will become even more important I'm sure.  Right now they all still listen to me and follow my rules as well, which is definitely an added bonus. :)

Gymboree Sales Today Only

I read about a huge Gymboree sale today over on Frugalityisfree.com.  Normally I don't shop much at Gymboree because I think their stuff is too expensive, and the boy stuff isn't as cute as the girl stuff anyway.  Today I decided to check it out, though, because I realized Elliott needs more shorts last week when I was putting away laundry.


Today everything on the site is $12.99 and under, and there's free shipping with no minimum purchase.  JR posted some cute girl things in her post about it.  Since we just have a boy, that obviously wasn't what I was interested in, but I did find some cute things for big boys.

Elliott loves plaid button up shirts and has them in a variety of colors.  Gymboree has a few different ones, but this one was his favorite.

Wordless Wednesday

When people ask what I like about North Dakota, I always mention the beauty and wide open spaces. 

We Paid the Van Off

I know this blog was supposed to be about saving money and getting debt paid off, but somewhere along the way I lost that focus.  We are still somewhat focused on that goal in real life, although it does seem like we just keep taking on more stuff when we get something paid off.  But we are working on it, and our debt numbers are steadily declining, even when we add a new column.

A few weeks ago we paid our Uplander off.  We only paid it off 3 months early, but either way, it's paid off now!  This is sad to admit, but it's actually the first car my husband and I have bought at a dealer and paid off before we traded it in.   It's nice to not owe anything on it anymore. :)  Unfortunately it will probably end up being replaced in the fairly near future with something we have to make payments on again, though.  The van has almost 140,000 miles on (it's a 2008) since we drive everywhere.  It's been a lot of places, and we still love it, but if it starts giving us any kind of problems we will have to get rid of it.  With all the cross country driving we do we need something that is completely reliable.  We have already started early processes of car shopping again, trying to decide what we want next.  But so far we haven't really found anything that we love.  Hopefully that will change before we actually have to get a new car!

Busy Weekends

It seems like every weekend has been busy since the weather got nice enough to do stuff outside.  This last weekend was definitely no exception.  Our family is really enjoying it, although I do worry that Carl might be overdoing it since he had surgery less than 2 weeks ago.  He says he is taking breaks when he needs them, though, and he's not in more pain than usual, so I guess it's going okay.

Friday morning Elliott and I got most of his school work done early so that we could go to base after lunch.  We didn't see any yard sales listed in the paper, but thought we would go try our luck anyway, and go to the park, too, since it was a nice day.  Elliott took the rest of his work to do in the car.

We got to base, and only found one yard sale still going on.  Elliott did find 5 books (2 How to Train Your Dragon, 2 Artemis Fowl and 1 Bunnicula) that were all part of a series that he likes.  We only paid $1 for all 5.  So then after driving around for a while, we headed to the big park that is his very favorite.  We had been playing there for about 40 minutes when Carl called to ask us when we were coming to base (we were supposed to meet him after work), because he got off work early.  He was pleasantly surprised to hear that we were already on base, so he came over to the park and Elliott played for a while longer, before we decided to go ahead and do some other stuff.

One Week Down

Today we finished our first week of homeschool.  It went really well, and we are really enjoying it so far.  Elliott is learning a lot, and we are making time to do a lot of fun things.  We've been doing better at time management because of school, so we are making time to do fun things outside of school time as well.

This week we learned about our nervous system in science and the names of our bones in health.  Elliott's so funny doing his dance as he shows me names of the bones. :)  In language arts, we've mainly just been doing review type work, and I'm trying to figure out if he needs any extra work on anything (so far he's done a great job on everything).  In math we've been reviewing place values and the different ways we can make larger groups (1 group of 1000 is the same as 10 groups of 100, 100 groups of 10 and 1000 single ones for example).  In social studies we've learned about communities and the difference between urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods.  We're still working on numbers in Spanish.  And we're working on looking things up without using the table of contents so much in the Bible.  We're also doing a unit study on animals, and learning about their habitats, their eating choices, life span, and their sizes.  We're also spending lots of time reading every day.

Gardening

We are getting a late start on our garden this year, but hopefully we will still have plenty of time to grow everything and enjoy eating garden fresh veggies and a few fruits.  This year is the first year that we have planted a garden since 2009.  We normally travel a lot during the summer, making a garden hard to care for properly.   Now that we are homeschooling Elliott, we are planning our travel times during the off season.

At our current house, we really don't have a great location for a garden anyway.  We have several trees in our yard, and between them, our house, the neighbor's garage, and our shed, there's just too much shade for a garden very large to grow very well.

Wordless Wednesday

 Summer Reading

Elliott got his box of surprise books from Scholastic yesterday, and couldn't wait to check it out.  He's already read three of them!

A Start To Homeschooling

Yesterday morning we were supposed to start doing some homeschool work just to figure out some rough ideas for the amount of time we would need on various subjects. We also wanted to get an idea of how much work he would be doing on his own, and how much he would need (or want) help with.  It turns out he had so much fun doing the first few things, that he decided to make yesterday his first official day of school.  I think part of it might also be that he is currently grounded so it was a great way to spend time he had to spend at home anyway.  Haha.

We did have a little bit of fussing, and a minor meltdown, but overall, we both enjoyed it.  It turns out that he is most likely going to want to do a lot of the stuff more together than I anticipated, but that's perfectly fine with me.  We've switched curriculum on a few things, and they seem to be a little more advanced than what he is used to, so we had to discuss things a little more in depth.  It appears that he didn't learn some of the things in second grade that this curriculum assumes he already learned.

We've been working on homeschool again today, and he absolutely hates one of the things that I bought.  It's not a huge deal, though, because it's one that I bought as a supplement.  We just started with it because we are waiting on a new copy of what I need, after our first one got damaged.  He's still not overly fond of Go Math (which he insisted we get, even though it wasn't my first choice for math) but I think we are going to stick with it a while longer before we give it up.  I spent enough money on it that I certainly want to give it a fair shake, but if it needs to be replaced, we can make that work, too.

Spanish is still his favorite subject, and he's done it both days this week, even though I told him that we only needed do it once or twice a week each week.  I have a feeling it will end up being an everyday thing, or at least as often as time allows.

Maleficent

It seems like our family used to go to the movie theater nearly every weekend.  Over the last several months (maybe a year?) we have cut way back, though, and go more like once a month.  Part of that is because there just haven't been as many movies that we have wanted to see, and part of it has just been that we haven't had as much time, with the insane work schedule Carl has been on so much of the time.

Over the weekend we did go see a movie, though.  Elliott had been really wanting to see Maleficent.  He mentioned how great it looked every time we saw a commercial.  So when he saw that it would be on base opening weekend, he begged to go see it.  Since we have been trying to support the base theater when possible, we agreed to take him to see it.

Elliott loved it.  He said part of it was scary, and part of it was kind of weird, but over all he loved it.  He has never seen the original Sleeping Beauty, though, so he went in there with no real ideas about what to expect, or how Maleficent had appeared in the original movie.  He viewed it completely as a movie on its own, and thought it was great.

  My husband and I both thought it was okay.  Neither of us thought it was as great as Elliott did, though.  I typically enjoy books and movies told from a different point of view than the one we've heard before, so I did find it interesting.  The acting was good for the most part, and some of the special effects were really good.

Over all, we found it to be a good way to spend some time on a Saturday afternoon, but it's probably not a movie we will add to our collection (unless Elliott buys it with his own money or gets it as a gift from someone else).

How Much Can One Kid Eat?

Elliott's only been out of school for a little more than a week, but man has he been eating!  I think he must be getting ready to go through a growth spurt, and then hopefully his eating will slow down a little bit.  Otherwise we are going to have to rethink the grocery budget or something. :)

Even when he was in school I packed his lunch almost every single day, so his lunches were already in our grocery budget.  It's the snacks and the huge portions it seems to take to fill him up lately that are killing the budget.  He's still thin, so I'm not worried about him eating so much, and figure he really does need it, but it gives me a stomach ache just watching him eat so much.

Just as an example: last night we ate at Taco Bell for supper, where he consumed a quesadilla, taco, and cheese roll up, along with a large drink.  As we were shopping RIGHT after we ate, he started complaining that he was hungry again.  So on the way home he ate an ice cream drumstick.  Then after we put away groceries he ate some Annie's cheese crackers, a banana, grapes, 2 slices of toast, some cottage cheese, and was still looking for more food when I finally sent him to brush his teeth and get ready for bed.  He also drank a big glass of milk during that time.

I've been buying so many fresh fruits and veggies lately that someone I know asked if we were running a day care or something to need all that stuff with only one child.  Haha.  It's amazing how much one child can eat when he's active and hungry, though!

Scholastic Books

One of the first things that I did after filing paperwork with the school about homeschooling Elliott next year was sign up for scholastic reading club.  I've been buying books for Elliott through Scholastic reading club since right before he was born, since I have a sister that is a teacher.  They have some great, quality books cheaper than anywhere else, and it's easy to see what is appropriate for each age.  He's always enjoyed books, but he especially enjoyed getting the flyers at school over the last two years and going through and picking some books out by himself.  My sister that lives up here is now a preschool teacher and uses Scholastic reading club, so we could order books for him whenever we wanted anyway, but I have to admit that we were both excited about starting our own account.

It was pretty easy to sign up as a homeschooler at Scholastic.  I just had to talk to someone on the phone for a few minutes to verify that I was indeed going to be homeschooling Elliott, and she got it all taken care of.  With a homeschool account, you earn bonus points the same way that you do as a public or private school teacher.  Obviously I won't be earning them as fast since I will only be ordering for Elliott mainly, but it still adds up pretty fast.  Especially considering that for several years now I've ordered more from Scholastic than the rest of my sister's class put together.  We really like books at our house. :)  I was able to join in late March, even though we were finishing up the year in public school.  The lady I talked to was super nice and said they let people go ahead and start early in case they need anything for the schooling they will do during the summer.

Surgery and Time Together

My husband had surgery on Tuesday.  It went well.  He's off work this week recovering.  So far it's gone really well.  We were both a little bit concerned that we might drive each other crazy. :)  I mean, obviously we love each other and like spending time together, but this is definitely more time than we usually spend together, unless we are on vacation, or he's really busy with some project at home.  Since he can't do much right now, he's mainly been hanging out in front of the TV.  Which is fine by me. :)

Next week Elliott and I start doing a little bit of homeschool stuff.  We aren't doing much in June, just kind of getting a feel for how things will work.  We aren't counting it as far as record keeping or anything either.  It will mainly be a few fun things, and me checking for gaps so I know if we have to hit anything harder before we move on to cover the stuff in his third grade books.   While I was in the waiting room on Tuesday, I worked on some loose lesson plans, and tried to figure out just what all I will be checking him on.  I don't think there are going to be any major gaps anywhere, but I do want to get a feel for the time it takes him to do some stuff, too.  I've been looking at ways to work on a few things that he's not quite as comfortable with, too.  It's amazing how many books and worksheets are out there to cover just about anything you want.  Right now I'm mainly sticking with things that someone else has already created, although I have a feeling that as I get more comfortable with it, I will probably end up doing a lot more of my own.

Happy Memorial Day

We've had a busy weekend full of family fun this weekend.  We went to Bismarck to go to the zoo on Friday (it's much larger than the Minot one, with more room for the animals).  Saturday we spent the night in a hotel with a pool with two waterslides so we could go swimming.  I think Elliott ended up going down the slides about 200 times. lol  We were at the pool for about 5.5 hours Saturday and then Elliott and Carl went back for another hour Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church.  Yesterday after church, a couple from our church invited everyone to their house for lunch.  Elliott finally played with the other kids from our church and had a blast.  Right now Carl is outside grilling.

We have had a great weekend, but we are also taking the time to remember why Memorial Day is a holiday.  As a military family, it hits close to home.  We don't personally have any close friends that have been killed in action, but it's easy to see that it could happen.  And people that are willing to give their lives for us deserve all the respect and admiration that they get, and even more.  Memorial Day is such an important holiday to teach children about.  We've talked about it several times with Elliott this weekend, and I think he really gets it now.