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.