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Last year I learned an important lesson. Even though more than two months were left in the summer, one cannot find very many kids sandals available at Target in late June.  I had purchased a pair of sandals for Erik in the early spring last year, thinking he would wear them all summer long.  Of course, his feet grew faster than expected.  Silly me to think I could just walk into a store in the middle of the summer and purchase another inexpensive pair.  Luckily, my box of garage sale purchases for future summers saved me.  I had a pair of sandals I thought I would be saving for this summer that fit (with a bit of room to spare) for the remainder of summer 2008.

Moving along toward summer 2009, I was not going to make the same mistake again.  Last year’s sandals fit Erik, but just barely.  Early garage-sale adventures had not yielded any results.  So, I ventured out to Target last week in search of boy sandals.   And I only found two pairs his size.  In mid-may.  Now, to Target’s credit, the sandals were on sale last week, so many of my fellow Twin Cities parents were probably also out buying sandals.  And I could have gone to check at other Target stores as well…but who wants to do that with three kids in tow?

Of the two pairs in his size remaining at the Richfield Super Target, one was in a cushy, dressy leathery style.  I took one look at those, pictured Erik ruining the leather and padded soles in a mud puddle, and knew I couldn’t buy them.  The other style were Spiderman sandals, which also came with a $2 premium added to their price for those nice licensed pictures.  So, I paid my $15 on sale for a pair of kids sandals, knowing that I might pay a lot more than that if I had to go to a real shoe store or department store to buy them in the middle of the summer.

But, I also made the smart decision to not remove the tags immediately.  Since Erik’s old sandals still fit and Target has a 90-day return policy, I decided to keep my eyes pealed for a better bargain.  I didn’t have to wait long.  The very next day I hit the jackpot with a garage sale being held by the mom of preschool-age twin boys.  I found another pair of  Spiderman sandals for a fraction of the price:

And, as an added bonus, I found a few other nice pairs of shoes at bargain pricing:

(I did get a pair of cushy sandals at the garage sale, pictured above…for 75 cents we can save them for nice occasions!) The only thing that would have made us happier (well, Erik really), would have been a pair of “Train! Train! Train!” sandals, as Erik would put it.

In celebration of a wonderful five-year-old girl who is getting bigger every day:

She is creative and funny:

She loves her brothers:

Here she is ready to open one of her birthday gifts (while sitting her in princess chair…another birthday gift)…

And here she is enjoying her birthday breakfast of strawberry pancakes:

It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years since she looked like this:

Happy 5th Birthday, Madeline Brie Hill!

(This creative work by Madeline really made me giggle…I hope you enjoy it too!)

“Animal Elevator Song”  by Madeline
Little animals, they’re sweet
Once they made a mall
And that day it was finished
So, everyone was able to come in it
But they can only come in when it isn’t dark
Because they can’t drive
So they only could stay home
The only times they could go
To the mall that they made is on Friday nights or weekends
And once they put up a sign on the elevator
They said, No penguins or giraffes on it
And some signs even said no grown up giraffes
On these elevators, only babies in there
How many penguins are there in it?
12 penguins in there
And now when grown up giraffes went in there
Without reading that sign
And they push and push
The penguins tell them that they didn’t read the sign
But the penguins didn’t read the sign either
Is this a funny song to you?
Yes, I do think it is
So, the big giraffes never went in the elevator again!
The little baby giraffes didn’t read the sign
Because they were supposed to go in
So that is the end of Madeline’s  song.

Coming up next in the “creative writing” segment of our blog…”The Princess and the Flower” — a multi-part story written and acted out in photos by Madeline Hill, the budding (almost) five-year-old writer.

When I checked the weather forecast on Sunday night as I was writing my menu, I think it said that Tuesday’s high was supposed to be about 70 degrees.  We went to Aldi on Tuesday morning and it felt warm, but not hot.  So in the afternoon as Madeline and I discussed plans for today (Wednesday, the day that was supposed to be 90+ degrees), I was pretty surprised when I looked at weather.com and discovered the temperature at 4:15pm was 93 degrees and climbing.

My plans for the rest of the afternoon and early evening went out the door at that point.  I had been pondering a quick trip to the corner store to buy some canned beans for the soup I had planned for dinner (I thought I had the equivalent of two cans of black beans cooked in the freezer but only one package was left…the disadvantage of cooking your own beans is that if you haven’t planned in advance, you are out of luck!).  Instead, I put swimsuits on the kids and we hooked up the sprinkler in the front yard!

After a good couple of hours playing outside in the sprinkler, I morphed my “black bean soup and quesidillas” meal into a nice, cool “build your own taco salad” meal using some small bags of already-cooked ground beef and ground turkey I had in my freezer.

Since Tony was gone at a meeting, we rounded out our special afternoon/evening with the kids having their taco salads and lemonade at the little table in the living room while watching Erik’s pick of a “Train! Train! Train Show!”, followed up by ice cream for dessert…and a bath before bed to wash off all the dirt accumulated from playing outside in the wet lawn.

It’s going to be another hot day today…I’m looking forward to getting out the sprinkler again (and maybe the kiddie pool too).

Since next Monday is Memorial Day and we will be enjoying a long weekend at the cabin (with no internet access), I thought I would post the remaining two weeks of May for today’s “Menu Plan Monday“!

Here’s what I have planned:

Monday (18th): Ham and Cheese Stromboli with Broccoli

Tuesday: Black Bean Soup and Quesidillas

Wednesday: Out to dinner for Madeline’s birthday (Her birthday is actually on Thursday, but she’ll be at Grandma Karen’s house that evening)

Thursday: Thai Red Curry (It’s our tradition to eat something spicy while Madeline is away! We’re working on her, but she still doesn’t really like a lot of spicy foods.  Erik isn’t keen on them either, but he is more than happy just to eat plain rice and skip the spicy part!)

Friday: Headed to the cabin…either something easy on the way out the door or we will grab food on the road

Saturday: Sandwiches for lunch, grilled Chicken and corn-on-the-cob for dinner

Sunday: Salmon Patties for lunch,  Kabobs for dinner

Monday (25th): We’ll be getting back from the cabin…I think I’ll make Hearty Bean and Rice casserole (recipe in this post) ahead of time and have it ready to heat through when we get home

Tuesday: either Lasagna rolls or crock-pot lasagna

Wednesday: Seafood enchiladas

Thursday: Beef Roast and mashed potatoes

Friday: Bruchetta Chicken Bake

Saturday: Madeline’s Birthday Party…we’ll be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs

Sunday: Pioneer Woman’s Macaroni and Cheese

You can find oodles of menus every week in the  Menu Plan Monday post at orgjunkie.com!

While I am not typically in the habit of showing off the good deals I snagged at the grocery store, I couldn’t resist today.  And the kids were nicely playing with chalk on the front steps (and Kai was asleep) when I brought in the groceries so I had time for a quick picture:

This was the result of a trip to Cub Foods.  Cub is offering some great store coupons this week, and paired with the many one-dollar-off Kellogg’s cereal coupons from last week and the great dollar-off Kraft Foods coupons from this week (still available here and here as of today), it made for some sweet deals. I spent $60 but saved $40 in sale prices, store coupons and manufacturer coupons.  The produce was one of the biggest non-sale expenses — Cub didn’t have a lot of great fruit sales this week, but I didn’t think we could make it to another store today…so about $9 was spent on the fruit.

I don’t normally buy quite this much junk/processed food — I am stocking up for a back-patio grill-out we are having for Madeline’s birthday.  The hot dogs, some of the pop, some of the mayo, the cheese slices and the Doritos are being saved for that occasion.

I think the deal I am the most proud of is the cereal — the raisin bran and rice krispies worked out to 50 cents per box.  I may even go back to repeat that deal if I have a chance later this week.  I still have more coupons that fit with that sale, and there is no minimum purchase on the “Save $4 when you buy 4″ store coupon.  Who can argue with stocking up when it’s that cheap?!?  Well, I guess the salad dressing (free w/coupon from last week’s paper) and the lunch meat (free w/store coupon and purchase of coke products) were great deals too, but I felt less clever about them since only one coupon was required for each. 

I’m still hoping to hit Target for a few deals later this week (like a store coupon + manufacturer coupon for chicken that will yield a 20 oz. pkg of chicken for less than $2).   And I’m looking forward to more cereal sales this month on other Kelloggs cereals since I still have a bunch more of those dollar off coupons!

It’s a day late for the real “Menu Plan Monday“, but we’ll join in the fun with our menu for this week anyway…

Last week was an awesome food week in our house.  I accomplished making Tamales for the first time in honor of Cinco De Mayo.  It was just as much work as all the websites said it would be.  But I now have leftover pork filling in the freezer, more corn husks, and more corn Masa mix to make tamales again, and it should be a bit easier next time.  I used this recipe to make Flan for dessert, and it was soooo yummy!  On Sunday, Tony pampered me by making three yummy meals — home made waffles with strawberries for breakfast, veggie panini sandwiches for lunch, and shrimp fettuccine alfredo and fresh asparagus for dinner.  Yum Yum!

Here’s our menu for this week:

Monday: Yesterday we had chicken in the crock pot (a hold-over from last week’s menu — we went to a potluck on the night this was originally scheduled), cheesy mashed potatoes and a salad.

Tuesday: Beef and Black Bean Tortilla Pie

Wednesday: Chicken and Dumplings, using leftover chicken from Monday

Thursday: Pasta Carbonara and veggies or a salad

Friday: Baked Apple Pork Chops and Sweet Potatoes

Saturday: a quick Stir Fry of some sort with shrimp or chicken

Sunday: Either homemade pizza or grill burgers/hot dogs (depending on weather and lunch plans)

You can find more great menu ideas every week at orgjunkie.com!

I thought I would start this week’s “Menu Plan Monday” with a review of last week.  My chicken pot pie was the best surprise of the week.  I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, making a few minor modifications such as using leftover chicken instead of cooking a new chicken breast, adding cheese to the sauce, and using the pie crust on the bottom with a few crescent rolls on top.  I taste-tested the sauce before baking and ate a serving leftover on Saturday.  It was yummy, and that is really saying something coming from someone who has never really liked pot pie.

The biggest bust of the week was the Tomato Curried Potatoes, but I am not sure that was the fault of the recipe — I think the smaller of my two crockpots is broken. What was my first clue? After 8+ hours of cooking on high, the liquid in the pot was not bubbling and the potatoes were still crunchy.  Really?  The crockpot still heats up, but it’s probably more of a “serving” temperature than a “cooking” temperature.  And I am such a packrat that I am thinking about keeping it “just in case I ever need something to keep food warm in.”

Here’s this week’s menu:

Monday: Either Tuna Noodle casserole or Spaghetti.  I have ingredients for both and neither requires planning ahead,  so I think I am going to wait and see which I am more in the mood for. This is really living on the edge for a planner like me. 

Tuesday: We’ll celebrate Cinco De Mayo with Tamales.  I have never made them before so this should be quite an adventure.  I might use this recipe or maybe something more traditional. The filling will be shredded pork, using a pork roast I got on sale at Rainbow a couple weeks ago. We’ll do some fun fruit and dessert — probably mangos and flan.

Wednesday: Eating dinner at a meeting

Thursday: Beef roast and baked potatoes with a veggie of some sort

Friday: Curried Chickpeas with Rice…and maybe Naan if I am motivated and the afternoon is going well.

Saturday: A whole chicken on the grill if the weather cooperates. Or maybe it will be in the crock pot if the weather doesn’t cooperate.  Side dishes TBA.

Sunday: It’s Mother’s Day, so we may have plans with family…or whatever we do I am hoping it doesn’t involve me cooking. It’s supposed to be a break for mom, right?

As always you can find more great meal ideas in this week’s Menu Plan Monday post at orgjunkie.com.

For our ‘formal’ school time we are back to focusing on the basics of reading, writing and math.  While many other things we do are certainly educational — me reading tons of books to the kids, art projects, cooking together, etc…we’re not specifically attempting any other topic studies at the moment.

We started Alphabet Island Phonics toward the end of March.  This program is fairly complete and can take us all the way from letter sounds through all the basic phonics rules over the course of three workbooks.  Right now we are “meeting” the letters who live on Alphabet Island (each letter has a character and a story that goes along with it) and talking about the sounds they make.

While the letter sounds have mostly been review for Madeline, it’s great reinforcement and she needs to “know” the characters as we move into the actual reading part of the program since the phonics rules are taught through stories involving the alphabet island characters.

Alphabet Island also incorporates writing lessons, and the technique they use seems to be working for Madeline.  Each letter has a poem describing its proper formation.  I read the poems to her while she practices writing her letters.  Writing still doesn’t come easily to her and it’s not her favorite thing to do by any means, but we are seeing far greater success and improvement with the Alphabet Island materials than we have with any other method we have tried.

We started Saxon Math K as our new math program in early April.  While it is technically a Kindergarten math program, the level (at least at the beginning) is more compareable to a lot of preschool math programs.  I chose Saxon Math K because there is no writing involved for the student — all lessons are conducted orally between the teacher and the student, with the student often using manipulatives (such as small plastic bears) to practice various concepts.  It also includes a discussion of the calendar during each day’s lesson.

This math program moves at a fairly slow pace and starts pretty basic.  We’ve skipped a few lessons that seemed too basic and flown through several easy lessons on some days.  I don’t know that Madeline has learned a ton of new material so far, other than in the “calendar” section of the lessons.  But, she loves doing math and is gaining confidence in her math abilities…something that wasn’t happening when I was just trying to drill her on counting to 20.

I got a real steal of a deal on a used copy of Saxon Math K, or I might not have gone with this program.  I like the format now while Madeline doesn’t need to be stressed out with writing while trying to focus on math, but as she becomes more confident with writing I expect we will want a program that involves actually writing numbers on paper.   I am als not keen in the long run with the fact that Saxon is a spiral math program (introducing a lot of concepts and not necessarily mastering them before moving on).   I would anticipate we will swtich to a different math program either at the start of Madeline’s official Kindergarten year in the fall, or when ever it seems like she would be more comfortable with a program that involves some writing (since I think most even K math programs require at least some number writing).

I’m really happy with the curriculum materials we are using right now, the progress that Madeline is making, and our outlook moving into “real” homeschooling for Kindergarten this fall.  I feel like I know a lot more what I like and don’t like when it comes to picking a curriculum.  I like having reading and math as separate curriculum pieces, so that if we feel like focusing on one or the other for a few days or we want to do several lessons in one day or take more than one day to get through a lesson, we aren’t messing up our progress in the other subject.  We haven’t been “doing school” every day, but we seem to fit it in enough days each week for Madeline to make progress.

I am feeling like we’ll have a pretty smooth transition into the fall — we’ll most likely continue with Alphabet Island phonics and either continue Saxon Math K for at least part of the year (or maybe until we finish it) or possibly switch if Madeline is ready.  Then we just need to add in the social studies/history and science pieces of the puzzle, as well as continuing to read books together, do art projets, and other fun stuff.

Getting in a schedule groove may be the biggest challenge as we move into Kindergarten homeschooling.  We’ve been doing school many days while Erik naps in the afternoon. But as Erik’s nap has moved later in the day, this has made school more of a challenge.  Madeline doesn’t necessarily need a nap any more, but she is more tired at 3pm and not as fresh for thinking hard about school work.  Erik has a hard time not “messing up” whatever Madeline is working on for school stuff (moving around her letter cards, throwing her math manipulatives, etc).  I’m sure with more practice, training and maturity (and appropriate diversons supplied by mama) Erik will be able to learn to leave Madeline alone for long enough for her to do school while he is awake.