I never considered myself to be high maintenance till I started shopping at Aldi’s. All my friends had been going there for years and always seemed to gush about the great prices and the fact that their generic off brands were just as good if not better than name brands. I went once but hated the fact that it didn’t have everything on my list, plus it wasn’t really on my way to or from any place (except church but Sunday after church is not a good time to go grocery shopping—believe me I know, I tried this past week)… so I got along with Shoppers and Safeway, but the grocery bill kept getting higher… I then added Walmart to my list… not close or convenient to where I live, but was saving a lot of money… and then I decided to try Aldi’s again.

Our oldest daughter had a little fun getting into her character for Halloween. When posing for pictures in their costumes, she decided to fully act out the part of Snow White. I think my favorite part of the reenactment was when she asked us to take her picture sleeping with the apple. "Skip the ol posing by the door with the trick or treat basket, we’ll go for playing dead on the floor with an apple.

What do you get when you combine 1 founding father 2 princesses and one super hero? Enough candy to last you till Easter! One last question: How many licks does it take to get to the center of Tootsie Pop?

My oldest son seems to jump from obsession to another… You can almost mark each year of his life with a theme…when he was 4 it was Spiderman… he was Spiderman for Halloween had a Spiderman birthday party when he turned 5 and everything we played/talked about… was Spiderman…. until the next year when he was Bumblebee for Halloween had a Transformers birthday party that spring… then came Star Wars and hat was an EPIC obsession… I swear for a good solid year all and I mean ALL we talked about was Star Wars… I learned so much about the characters and movie plots during that year.

As my 4 yr old sat coloring in the waiting room this afternoon the mom beside me commented on her neat job of staying in the lines. Then we both did a double take and looked over at each other.  Don’t mind the fact that the dress is green and should “really” be yellow… I love the fact that my girl goes against the flow and colors it how she wants… sure give Belle purple hair and a green dress.

On the wall in my bedroom, tucked away in the corner on my side of the bed is a shadow box in which I pressed some dried flowers from my wedding bouquet. I’ll confess I don’t look at it often, but when I do I smile and remember that special day. My children, however, don’t share my sentimentality. The other day my 5 yr old and I were sitting on my bed and she said, “Mom, why do you have those old dead flowers hanging on your wall?

The other day I was driving my oldest two children home when they suggested I text their Nana to see if the younger two were asleep so we’d know if we needed to enter in the backdoor. I told them I couldn’t text while driving, but maybe if I got a red light I could send her a quick txt. (I know, I know….) Well the light was green and as we got rather close to our street my 5 yr old daughter says, “Mom, you gotta send the text!

September 27th—He’s officially walking.. No longer just two or three steps then fall down, but plodding on his own across a room before he stumbles. October 7th- 10 days later -  Watch out world! This boy is ready to play.

Scott and I got away last week, just the 2 of us, for 3 nights in the Windy City. It was a belated 10 year anniversary gift to ourselves. And it was WON-DER-FUL!! The city of Chicago is beautiful. The buildings are unique and interesting… truly works of art in and of themselves. We had so much fun walking around the city and taking in its beauty. The weather was overcast and it rained off and on while we were there.