Pumpkin

Oh Heaven......look who's 7!!!!

It's Pumpkins 7th birthday! She's SOOOOO excited!

This year we've decided to scale back on the celebration. She and I had breakfast together. I sent cupcakes to school for her class celebration. When she got home from school she went to gymnastics. Upon her return we went to Chuck E. Cheese for some pizza and games. After that we came home had cake and opened presents.

She was so happy to share her day with Papa, nana, Auntie Tracy, Uncle Jake, mom, dad, Train, Paris and Uncle Cary.

She loved the loot and is so thankful. So if you sent something her way...be on the look out for her thank you card.

 Pumpkins cute friends came to eat cake with us. Aren't they soooo cute?

 So excited for a wii game of her own.

 She couldn't hold back her excitement on this one. She's been asking for this for 2 years.

 A dolphin pillow pet!

Uncle Cary with his nice haircut.

I missed a few of the gifts but Auntie Lori sent her some cute pink dishes, nail polish, hair bands and lip gloss. Oh...the lip gloss!!! Personally, I think after Lori's gift we could have called it quits and she would have been happy.

We love our Pumpkin and are happy she's part of the family! It wouldn't be the same without her!

Sunday musings

I know I'm the worst at blogging. I can't seem to EVER formulate my words/ideas into sentences. I don't say anything using flowery words and I never go into depth about stuff. That's the problem with seeing the world in Black & White as I do. I live and think inside the box. I view the word in Black & White. I rarely see the "colors of life" or even find the gray area.
This drives the husband nuts at times.....Okay. most of the time.

I thought I'd post the randomness of this week and what's on the docket for next week.

Train was excited to take the sacrament today. He was unusually good during church. As we sang the opening hymn he whispered in my ear, "I need to take the sacrament". I had never heard him say that before. Proud mom moment.

Train has used the potty several times this week. When I tried working on potty training with him, he just gets mad and refuses to go. When it's HIS idea, he's more than happy to go.

He's been enjoying gymnastics. It seems we've just taken a turn in the road. He now pays attention, does the things that he's supposed too and he doesn't run away anymore.

Pumpkin has been off track for a week. She's been doing a 1st grade workbook and doing well.

Pumpkin crashed on her scooter, falling on her forhead. Her head turned purple. It's gone away but her nose is bruised.
Pumpkins bio-dad called. I haven't spoken with him in 5 years. He's excited for the husband to adopt Pumpkin.

Pumpkin has moved up to the high balance beam. Her bridge is getting stronger and she's working on the splits.

Train has learned this week that he's not invincible. He was standing on a skate board yesterday and the neighbor girl gave him a push, he fell off and skinned his knee. Today, jumping from the couch and ottoman he banged his knees again. Crying insued.

We plugged in the Wii this week. We got it for Christmas but it's just sat on a lonely shelf. The girls are excited. We just played the Wii Resort Bowling. Pumpkin kept throwing her ball backwards into the crowd. (She did better years ago when we actually went bowling). So far Mom is the bowling champ with Train right behind.

THIS WEEK
Christopher's Steakhouse
Meeting with an attorney
Easter dinner at our house
lunch date for the little people and myself. We're treating ourselves to McDonald's

Save, Spend and Give

So today I chose to hang out in my pj's. Yep, it's 1 pm and I'm STILL in jammies.
I stayed up last night to watch Made of Honor. It ended about 1:30am. Such an irresponsible thing to do, I know. BUT Patrick Demsey.........he's the crush from my childhood days.

As I was laying in bed this morning, I heard the girls voices. Paris had gotten herself out of bed (for once) and was ready to participate in the neighborhood yard sale. All week she had been prepping stuff to sell. So bright and early she grabbed Pumpkin and they headed out.

The husband showed up about 9:30 am from a grueling call shift. Phew....that's over with but not really. Today he's post-call and pre-call with another stinkin shift tomorrow. I guess we'll see the now sleeping beauty next weekend.

Anywho.....he flips the t.v on and to my suprise Made of Honor is on again.....so I'll sit on the couch and watch my crush the movie again.

Meanwhile the girls are outside trying their hardest to sell stuff. About noon (when my movie was over) I figured I should tell them to pack it up. When I got out there, I was suprised at how they had set up their area and how much they had made. They had clothes hung up for easy viewing, items displayed on a table and other things set out in front  of the table. I was impressed with their organization skills.

They came running inside to dump the things that didn't sell and planned on running back out to see what treasures they could find.

It popped into my head that THIS would be the perfect time to teach them about money even if I was still in my pj's.

The girls and I sat down at the table, counted the loot and I began to divide it. Paris jumps in with the comment,"I bought her a purse for $7 and she said she wanted a bunch of my stuff.  I get all the money".

 At that moment I discovered that my oldest child is a shark.

After some explainging by me and complaining by Paris we moved on. They each got out 3 envelopes and wrote Spend on one, save on another and Give on the last one. We then reviewed what tithing is, why we give it and what it pays for. (Thanks Taryn for the RS refresher lesson on tithing).

Paris reluctantly put her 10% aside, Pumpkin put in change so she didn't have to give up any washingtons.

 Then we talked about saving. Why do we save? How much do you want to save? What do you want to buy so we know what to save for?

Paris sat with a nuce around Grant, Hamilton,Lincoln and Washingtons.

While Pumpkin was listening enthuestically and not laying a hand on her neatly stacked pile of presidents and Hamilton.

We had a Dispicable me "light bulb" moment. Pumpkin quickly stuffs 87% of her earnings in the savings envelope and the loose change in the spend envelope. She runs to put them away and says, "I"ll get to buy my own stuff now. Woohoo, Lalaloopsy doll....here I come."

Paris used this moment to bolt from the room.

I have to say, I had zero intention of talking to the kids about money today. I actually had zero interest in doing anything today. Usually I have to plan everything out in advance and don't function well off the cuff. I'm glad Dave Ramsey inspired me to do this.


 Pumpkin wanted to paruse the yard sale and spend her money. Now she's got it put away and is happily playing the wii while she talks about how cool it is to save her up for something she wants to buy.

So glad for teaching moments.

SO glad I can actually say, I did something right as a parent.