When the cat's away...

Michael, aka "Daddy" has been out of town for several days  now.  We're very excited because he is getting home very soon (like a couple of hours!).  We've had some fun while he's been gone, even though we missed him lots.

The girls had fun putting on bright red lip-gloss and mascara:

We went to a family party and met up with long lost friends while roasting hot dogs and visiting:

We went to a friend's soccer game to cheer on the team:

We made some yummy food from garden vegis:

Lizzie had a slight mishap at school (her eye got bumped into another girl's head during clean up time at school):

And poor Sabrina has learned how to watch for her sisters from the mailbox.
The front blinds have been broken since before we moved in so it's a pain to manage a good view and light in the living room.  

One last story:
We went to a church activity on Saturday evening.  It was a pizza and lawn games activity.  There was a HUGE twister mat spread out on the ground which a bunch of the 8-10 year old boys were using initially as a wrestling mat.  There was an older boy wrestling with them and they were working together to bring him down.  After some time watching their games my little Sabrina jumped right in!  Alas, I was missing my camera and didn't get the picture of Sabrina clinging to the backs of the kids wrestling.  Fortunately they were awesome sports about it and they let her feel like she was right in the middle of everything while being careful that she didn't get hurt.

Physical therapy has been going fine.  Things are improving, but as is usual it has been very uncomfortable.  I think I'm finally over a stomach bug I had for at least two weeks.  Now I just have a migraine most likely from an errant carrot fleck in my salad for lunch.   Other than that, I'm doing great ;)

We just cannot wait for Daddy to get home!!!

Do you have book-obsessed kids?

If you do, you really need to know about the Scholastic Warehouse Book Sales!

I happened to find out about the sale just a couple of days ago which was fortunate since these don't happen just all the time.  You can check here to see if there are any close to you.

We spent probably an hour and a half or two hours in the warehouse.  It wasn't too crowded, but there were plenty of people there.  The section furthest back was all of damaged books for super discounts -- $0.50 for anything up to $5.00, $1 for anything up to $10 and $2 for things over $10.  Some of these were sets missing pieces, books with folded or torn pages, etc.  Some were pretty hashed but many were practically perfect.  It took a while to sort through the boxes to find the gems but it was well worth it.

There was another section full of boxes of books in $1, $2, $3, $5, and $10 aisles.  Then there were many displays of books which were all 50% off their list price (the price you'd pay at a book fair, in the book orders, or at a book store). 

I pre-registered online for the event (which can be done just before you leave home) and printed out a page for them to credit our school and also offers $10 off purchases of $50+ and $25 off purchases of $100+.  Here is what we got:

3 cook books including a cutesy cooling rack. List Price total $45.00
     *Strawberry Shortcake "Holiday Treats Cookbook"
     *"Pink Princess Tea Parties"
     *Disney's "The Magic Kitchen Cookbook" with entirely Disney movie themed foods

4 reading books  List Price $32.00
     *Igraine the Brave" by Cornelia Funke (who wrote the Inkheart series)
     *one of the "Little House on the Prairie" books which Kate is reading right now
     *"Pugsley" - one of the Puppy Place books which Lizzie loves reading
     *"Cat Next Door" which came with a kitten charmed necklace

Oops, sideways picture. 
Electronics stuff  List price: $47.00
     *Electronic PDA (Kate bought this with her own money).  it has an electronic calendar, radio, phone list, etc.
     *Spy Girl set -- pretend lipstick you can record messages into and earbuds you can listen in on.
     *set of 3 computer games -- Kitty, Puppy, and Pony "luv"  (Sheesh I hate it when they do stupid spelling!)

"Daddy" books     List Price - $20.00
     *"Dark Wraith of Shannara" which is a graphic novel of a fantasy novel which is the sequel to one I'm reading to the girls right now.
     *"Batman Begins - the visual guide" a large photo-filled book about the story, the background, etc. of the movie Batman Begins.

Ugh, I really with Blogger let you rotate a picture!
Crafty set   List Price $38.00
     *Magnet Girl post-it notes.  The shorts, shirt, and stereo are all individual post it sets.  This one cost us $0.50 and I just though it was cute.
     *Terrifying Tornadoes -- tornado tube.  Swirl the tube to create a glitter tornado.  Just a fun little gizmo.  This will probably go to Daddy's office desk.
     *Klutz Build-a-book -- mini scrapbook with self adhesive craft foam, googly eyes, marker, glue stick, papers, etc.
     *School Photofold -- accordion folded portfolio which holds 8 school sized photos
     *"DIY Girl - The real girl's guide to making everything from lip gloss to lamps"

Mommy books     List Price $37.00
     *"Amazing Insider Secrets" -- full of interesting tips from skin care to choosing a real estate agent.
     *"The Worst-Case Scenario Survival handbook: Parenting"  -- has tips on everything from How to discipline an imaginary friend to how to tell if your child was switched at birth. 
     *"Kid Disasters and How to Fix Them" -- another tips book (they were both pretty fun) with everything from getting petrolium jelly out of hair to how to fix a broken window pane.

Animal Set     List Price $64.00
     *Stuffed Elephant with Safari Friends little book with info about Safari Animals
     *Klutz "Everything Horse including the Horse"  with a little plastic "parent approved" horse and a book about horses -- how to draw them to how to care for them.
     *"Farm Animals"
     *"The Cat -- Why do Cats Purr? And other true facts"
     *"Planet Earth - Animals of Africa"
     *"Look Inside a Frog - and easy-to-assemble frog model" -- complete with a book about frogs and how they live.
     *"Uncover a Dog" - a large board book where each page you turn shows another system that makes up a dog and talks about how it works and what it does.


Not bad at all if you ask me!  Total list price would be about $283 plus tax and I only spent $41 (after the $10 discount).  That makes me smile :)

For you local folks - this sale is continuing through Thursday of next week, so you still have time to get up there!

Excuse me now while I go curl up with a book :)

You know those days when everything just goes right?

Yeah, this wasn't one of those.

If you haven't already read about our adventures getting the girls on the bus this morning then go read it now.  I'll wait.

Well, more like this will still be here when you get back.

Moving ahead to the end of the school day:

I pulled cookies out of the oven and tied a ribbon around two bunches of fresh flowers just in time for Sabrina and me to walk to the alternate place the girls should be getting off the bus.

Ever since Kate's first day of preschool I've given each girl a flower or little bunch of flowers at the completion of the first day of school.

We thought we'd get there just barely in time, so we hurried...

 and nothing was coming.

So we waited...

 and waited...

and FINALLY saw the bus!!!

but wait....... it's going the wrong way!

Yes, that is the bus the girls ride.  I zoomed in and checked.

At least we had some entertainment in the mean time.

Finally the bus came.

And left.

The kids had climbed off.

Mine had not.

Hmmmmm.......

So I asked one of Kate's friends where Kate was.  Turns out she got off on a much earlier stop around the block kinda from our house.  Apparently she cut through a yard and got home only to discover it was empty. 

And remembered she'd forgotten to make sure Lizzie came with her!

She came outside and found us up at the corner.

She got her flowers.

And we waited for the bus to turn around so we could get Lizzie off it.

It finally came!

but it was empty.

The bus driver said Lizzie and another 1st grader had gotten off somewhere else and another mother had offered to walk them across the street safely so they could get home.

Just then we looked down the street and finally saw her coming.
Phew!!!

The mother of one of our nursery babies had gathered up the two little lost girls and walked them home.  Thank heavens!

This morning I discovered that Lizzie's backpack was more worn out than I'd thought, so I got her a new one while Sabrina and I were out during the day.  She insisted on modeling it:

We got the flowers all trimmed and put in vases on the table:

and finally got to eat the peanut butter cup cookies.

At least we had a sweet end to a chaotic day.

Now we have to get ready to try it all again tomorrow!

Nothing Sabrina, my ankle just popped.

It is so quiet here this morning!  Kate and Lizzie are at their first day of the new school year.

Anyone who has tried to traverse Springville recently  knows about the construction.  The road the bus stop is on is under hefty construction.  I have been watching the bus website and it said all was good, and I even called the transportation department this morning and they didn't known of any changes.  So we walked to the bus as usual.

We had to go over some broken up sidewalks

and got to watch the trucks work while we waited

Sabrina wanted her hair done "fancy" this morning too so she got french braids too.

I started physical therapy yesterday so I'm allowed to use just one crutch now.  I'm pretty slow and it's pretty uncomfortable, but at least it leaves a hand free to do things like take pictures.

Another friend came to the bus stop too

And a borrowed toy was returned

We kept waiting and w a i t i n g...

while the kids played shadow tag.

When finally the bus showed up way up the road at the corner and a girl ran down to tell us to come get on the bus up there.

Kate and Lizzie hopped right on as I hobbled up the road

I'll have to take the girls across the busy under-construction road until the construction is done so the bus can come the normal route.  What a pain in the ankle.

Then the door shut.

and off went my little girls

and Sabrina and I went back home.

Ever since they left Sabrina has been jumping up and saying "What was that?!" at every little sound.  Including when my [good] ankle popped like it always does.