Our first foray into organized sports

We have signed Claire up to play soccer this coming fall. I'm not going to lie, she is very coordinated for her age and we thought maybe if we started young, we might have a soccer scholarship in her future. College isn't getting any cheaper!

Seriously, she has a lot of energy and loves to "play" soccer at home, so I thought we would just try it out and see. Since she has never actually played soccer with other kids, we decided to do a week-long soccer skills clinic just to sort of break the ice ... and get all of the CRYING out of her system. My word, I never knew that child could cry so much. The first day of camp, she probably ran over to the sidelines crying about 20 times. In her defense, she was one of two girls in the group of about 15-18 kids and clearly the youngest and smallest of the group.

After that first day, she did great. She always left talking about how much fun she had and couldn't wait to get back the next day. I will admit that on Tues-Friday, her "no crying" was rewarded with cookies for her morning snack. I am not above bribery.

Here are a few pictures from camp. And just know that I use the term "skills clinic" very loosely. There seemed to be a lot of running and kicking going on. I like to think of it as an hour of free entertainment.

Stretching is very important in soccer. I'm not sure Claire is getting much out of her own personal stretching technique (in the pink shirt, center).

Time for an end of the day team huddle. Her two high school coaches did not know what they were getting themselves into I'm sure.

An action shot.

More running and kicking.

Still more ...

Yeah! A t-shirt, certificate and soccer ball prize at the end of the week.

Claire with Coach Bryan and Coach Taylor. These boys were so sweet (and patient) with these kids. Claire talked poor Coach Taylor's ear off everyday, but he was always sweet to listen and give her special attention when she got upset.

Will's Famous Shrimp Boil

Saturday night, we sent the kids to my parents' house and had a grown-up party a la Cajun-style. The girls from my bible study group and their spouses came over to partake in Will's famous shrimp boil. It is yummy goodness at its finest. Will perfected this recipe in college and it is a summer favorite. I love it because all I have to do is buy the groceries and he takes care of the rest. And clean-up is a breeze too!

Here is a shot of the guys (minus Carey who was late).

Here is Chef Will at his work station.

Once is it finished, you just dump in on the table and eat. Oh what fun! I see corn, potatoes, red onions, shrimp and sausage. Yum, yum!

The girls! We had to get a pre-meal shot before we got all messy eating.

Here are some photos of everyone enjoying the meal.

Menu Plan Monday: July 27-August 2

Another good week of sticking to the menu plan. First, a quick recipe review from last week. The simple enchiladas were good, but I would suggest adding a package of taco seasoning to the ground beef before you stuff the enchiladas. It needed a little more flavor. Also, the bacon and spinach quiche has A LOT of spinach. I loved it, but my husband who can only eat spinach is very small doses was not a huge fan. I would also suggest placing the pie pan on a cookie sheet to bake just in case a little egg spills over the edge.

In addition to menu-planning, I have also started doing a little couponing to help keep the grocery budget a little lower. I'm not going crazy or anything like driving around to 5 different grocery stores to get pop-tarts for a penny, but I have been watching for sales and coupons on items we use regularly and trying to stockpile those things a little bit. I found this awesome website that lists the weekly sales for local grocery stores and matches them with coupons in the local Sunday paper (and provides links to online coupons that you can print). This week was my first attempt to do a little stockpiling and I only went to the grocery store where I regularly shop, although I was tempted to stop at Harris Teeter too since they were having "super doubles" (doubling coupons up to $1.98).

Here are my sale/coupon results for this week:

Total groceries: $71.63

Total savings: $42.42 (59% savings)

Total out-of-pocket: $29.21

Monday: Leftovers for Will and the kids (I have dinner at my book club meeting).

Tuesday-Friday: out of town

Saturday: dinner out with Will's golf tourney buddies and their spouses.

Sunday: (brunch) Blueberry Sizzle french toast, bacon

Sunday: (dinner) Grilled Fish Tacos, rice pilaf

Check out other menu plans here.

Higher Learning

We took our first trip to the library the other day. Just trying to find a way to beat the heat I guess. Plus, we needed some new reading material.

But who knew that the library didn't open until 10am?? Apparently, there has been a recent reduction in hours in light of our current economical situation. Good thing there was a playground outside to keep us occupied for the 30 minutes we had to wait for the library to open.





We finally got inside and quickly picked out a bunch of books. Claire had a blast. David, on the other hand, was not a happy camper in the stroller, so it was a quick visit!




Of course, we had to get at least one Dora book (on the bottom of the pile). Claire has been so excited about her "new" books and she will actually sit quietly in her room for her "rest time" and look at the books on her bed. I have enjoyed getting to read some new "big girl" stories too. We will definitely return these books in 3 weeks and pick up some new ones. Can't wait!

David: 15 months old

David was 15 months old last week. I waited until today to post so I could get the official stats from the doctor's office.

Weight: 23 lbs. (30%)

Height: 30 inches (50%)

Head circumference: 20 inched (>97%)

Hey-we grow our babies' heads big, which makes for LOTS of brain power. Speaking of heads, here is a shot of the new haircut. It's still growing on me.

This has been quite a challenging three months with the Big D. I love him to pieces, but he is all BOY. From the sweat and grit to the stinky feet (I'm told that he gets that from his daddy). David is one busy little boy for sure.

Right now, he loves to climb ... the stairs, onto chairs, onto tables (see photo below).

He also loves to put everything in his mouth ... including the Styrofoam fruit see pictured above.

His other favorite activity (when his is not climbing on chairs) is to pull out all the Ziploc bags in our house and throw toys in the dryer when I am not looking. Climbing into the dishwasher and closing doors is also a favorite activity. Did I mention that we should never spend any money on toys for this child.

He plays HARD in the bathtub, and more often than not, there is more water on the floor than in the tub when he is finished. How could you get mad at this face?

He still loves to snuggle with his mommy when he is tired and I could just eat him up. He also likes to look at books, but I can't really read to him because he gets mad if he is not in control of the page turning.

Right now, he says "Mommy", "Daddy", "milk", "bye", "thank you" and this afternoon at nap time I think he said "night, night". He is very good at mimicking the intonation in your voice when you say something and he also likes to scream (for fun) and hum.

But, his very favorite thing to do is spin. Claire loves to dance with Will in the living room after dinner and David will get in there with them and just spin round and round ... until he falls down ... literally. It is the funniest thing I think I have ever seen. We have to make sure he is all clear of the furniture ... or the tile floor in the kitchen. I will try to get a video up soon (if I can figure it out) because it will crack you up.

Happy Birthday Uncle Doug!

Will's brother celebrated the big 2-9 earlier this month, so we headed down to Alabama to celebrate his birthday with a big SURPRISE party.

He was genuinely surprised. Can you tell?

Will tests out the cake.

We got to see some of our favorite Alabama friends at this little party! These silly girls crack me up. Look at them checking each other out. I never did get a picture where they were both looking at me at the same time.

Mattie Moo making a silly face. Claire is not quite sure what to think.

Mommy's friends ... Kaisha and Laura.

Look at all these balloons. If Claire had been outside, she might have floated away.

Brothers!

Menu Plan Monday: July 20-26

We did good this week sticking to the menu plan. Will tried to talk me into going out one night and I adamantly refused and we enjoyed leftovers instead. We did end up going out to dinner with some friends on Saturday night, but we were actually having a freezer meal on that night anyway, so I will just save it for later.

So far, some our favorite recipes have been the Greek Chicken (Will told me no less than 5 times how much he liked this chicken), Ham & cheese baked roll-up and Apricot Chicken.

Monday: spaghetti, salad and bread

Tuesday: A-1 pork chops (i.e., pork chops marinated in A-1 marinade and grilled), roasted potatoes, green beans

Wednesday: leftover buffet

Thursday: Dinner out with our Sunday School class supper club group.

Friday: Simple Enchiladas, rice, corn & black bean salad

Saturday: (brunch) bacon and spinach quiche, strawberry salad

Saturday: (dinner) my small group and their spouses are coming to our house for Will's famous Shrimp Boil. I am going to make this for dessert.

Sunday: (lunch) leftover quiche, fruit salad

Sunday: (dinner) other leftovers buffet or something from the freezer.

Check out other menu plans here.