Piper has been working hard at learning how to cut lately...shes getting there:) So the other morning instead of our usual practice paper i had her cut up some bread into little pieces to take to our pond to feed the ducks! She loved it and was so proud to feed the ducks the breakfast that SHE made for them! all the while learning how to cut! Just a little idea for any other homeschool-preschool mommies out there:)
Yesterday (Saturday) morning we woke the girls up at 5:30am to go the the Plano Balloon festival they have this time each year. Jake went last year as a volunteer for the boys and girls club...but this was the girls and I's first time. It was pitch dark when we got there yet the parking lot was PACKED full this is such a big deal that hundreds of people will show up at 6am on a Saturday morning! The 'Glow' started at 6:30 where all the hot air balloons light up their fire in the dark...it was just beautiful! Although Jake and I were pretty disappointed that there were only 2 balloons out for the 'glow'...Jake said last year for the night time 'glow' there were over 20 balloons out...that would have looked just amazing, oh well. As soon as the sun came up dozens of trucks started pulling up onto the field and setting up their balloons for the 8:00am take off. It was just increadable to watch dozens of balloons getting set up and taking off into the air. We also got to hang out with the Elders (who provided yummy Shiplys donuts!). After the big take off a few balloons stayed on the ground and they opened the field up for everyone to go check the balloons up close! it was so wild!! they are HUGE and just beautiful! Then they had tons of bounce houses for the kiddos to play on and even Violet was brave enough to go on them! It was such a fun morning!
we seem to be having a full playdate schedule lately and we LOVE IT! our dear friends the Elders just had a little baby boy about a week ago (at home by they way! woohoo for beautiful homebirths!) So for his little visit to the *cough* 'Jewish Doctor' *cough* they brought big sister Jocelyn over to play! She is 5 years old and talks like a grown up! she is such a great friend to Piper and Violet! In honor of little Elliot, we decided to bust out the easy bake oven and make some 'cup cakes'...
So this summer we were taking 2 VERY long road trips in May one was 7 hours and one was 16 hours! It got us thinking about the fact that because we want 3 kiddos we knew soooome day will will have to jump on the 'mini van' wagon so why not go ahead and get one before our road trips (other wise we would have to rent a van because Heather would be travailing with us and Heather affectionately called our car the 'clown car'....yeah it was REALLY small). So in March we put our car on craigs list, months went by and we had NO interest! So jakes dad rented a car for all of us and we moved on with our trips. We got home and jake kept it on craigs list on and off, but since no one ever called on it, i completely forgot we were even 'trying' to sell it! Then the night before labor day a lady emailed jake wanting to see it!! Jake spent 3 hours the next morning cleaning it up for her while i scowered the internet for vans...but she NEVER showed!! Then just a few days later another man called and came to see it...he loved it...but didn't offer us a very good price so we turned him down (we weren't even REALLY trying to sell the car anyway;) then that night another family came to see it!! SO weird right!! 6 months on and off craigs list with no interest then 3 people in one week!! Anyway, they loved it and made us a great offer so jake met him at his bank the next day (yesterday) and BOOM my car was sold!! Well thankfully I have always kept a 'cars' savings account through ING and had been saving for this 'someday' van for quite a while (that's obviously savings that is on top off the money we would get from our payed off car)... so of course my late afternoon was searching all over auto trader and Craigs list...i found 3 i seemed to like, 2 at one place in south Dallas and one RIGHT down the road at David McDavid Honda (a HUGE dealership here in the area). So around 4:30 yesterday afternoon we head down, though Dallas traffic to see these 2 vans that were in our price range that were AWFUL!! grr i was pretty discouraged and by this point it was getting late. But we go see the one at the dealership and it was AMAZING!!! we probably played the 'game' all wrong...even piper during the test drive was saying "Mommy my like it! can we take it home!?". So after the test drive and the back and forth game to get the 'right price', and the explaining to about 8 people 'no, we do not want to finance, thank you' (ugggg i HATE it!) and one LARGE personal check later...we are officially a mini van family!!!
