TIny Talk Tuesday: GI Joes and Mom vs McDs

This week Brian got out some more of his favorite childhood toys!! He had basically saved his entire collection of G.I. Joes, figures and vehicles.

The kids had blast looking through the toys:) And watching Brian put all the pieces together and tell them what each item was.

Brian held up one piece and Anna shouted out, "It's a purse!"  Such a girl guess, LOL!!

Brian chuckled and the corrected her, "It's binoculars!"

Later in the evening, Chris said the sweetest thing, "Daddy, thank you soo much for saving all your toys for me!"

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Last week we made fried chicken sandwiches for dinner;) Our way:)

We discovered a few weeks ago that we could McDonalds chicken nuggets and $1 chicken sandwiches.

So while eating a dinner of fried chicken sandwiches, one of the kids said, "Whoa, Mom! These are even better than the ones at McDonalds!"

A+ for Mom;) LOL!!! Nice to know my kids are rating mine better than McD's:)

SOOC: Only 93 Steps

Thanks, Dad!!
Will you build me the car tomorrow???

Missing Tooth, He likes it & Bogeys

Since Anna lost her 1st tooth days after her 6th birth, she's been checking to see if she feels any more that are "loose". Funny enough that we felt another one a few weeks ago and last week....


She LOVES loosing her teeth... LOL!!! And it's been soo easy, they just fall out:) And she's got another one that's loose right now... it's her top left!! We'll see if that's the next one to go:)
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Nate is staying awake longer and needed more opportunities to sit up. He just seems to be happier when he's not always on his back. So we purchased a walker for him this weekend....

Think he likes it??


But I think it was cute that he still found his siblings more entertaining:)



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Brian was watching pieces of a PGA tournament this weekend. He missed some of the final putts and came in and asked, "Did he get a bogey?"

Chris answered,"Nate had a boogie!" LOL!!

Leap Frog Giveaway on SIMPLE!!

We love LeapFrog in this house!! We are FANS!!!

When Anna was small we purchased a LeapPad.... she was too small when we purchased it but they are still using it!! Let's just say that it is well-loved!! They LOVE the interactive games and stories.

After my friend CarolAnn told me about the LeapFrog Letter Factory video.... I was hooked. We purchased the whole set and I've learned TONS about phonics.... enough to help Anna with her reading.... it was a HUGE help since the program she was using to read leftout the phonics rules!!

Anyway, we were able to review LeapFrog's Tag Reader System through SIMPLE!! Ohhhh, it's soo great! Here is her and Caleb reading together!!

And we're hosting a giveaway of a Tag Reader until March 27th on SIMPLE!! Very cool!!

Andrea found these coupons for a TAg and books.... it's $10 off a system and $4 off a book!! And can be used at your local Walmart or other LeapFrog retailer.

There are other cool SIMPLE giveaways was well....

Very cute Wind Chimes - Ends March 17th

Bumbleride Indie Twin Stroller ($659) - Ends March 30th

Have a great weekend spending time together with your family!!

LOL.... our country diggs

These are some of the toys were received as "hand-me-downs" from our neighbors (they sooo don't look used!!). While we were out the other day I was noticing how much yellow and green we now have in our yard...

My "urban" siblings always joke me about being "country" when they come to visit. They think I live a quiet and simple life ( although my house is NEVER quiet unless they are watching a video or PBS kids)! When they sit at the kitchen table for a meal, we share our yummy biscuits with homemade jam. They can see and hear farming equipment driving down our HWY road in front of our house!

And now my kids are "driving" JOhn Deere toys...... LOL

***The kids are really enjoying these "new" toys!! We are so blessing by our sweet small town friends and neighbors:)

Riding Deere, Eating Crow

I know I mentioned the other day that we received some toys from a neighbor that we gave to our kids for Christmas. They were hand-me-downs... but they were in EXCELLENT condition and we are very thankful for our neighbors' generousity to us.

That being said..... since I've been in the "parenting" mindset I've always thought that giving my kids a powered vehicle for outside play was a waste of money and really not good for the kids. These power vehicles are costly, easily over a hundred + dollars! And when I think of outside play, I think of the kids using their energy...running, riding, climbing, swinging, etc! With these powered vehicles the kids SIT...

Well..... now that we own one I have to ask for my words back:) I still they are costly and I still think kids need active time outside. BUT this powered John Deere Gator has been a HIT with my crew.... they love it:) Right now they are learning to drive it around and to take turns.

Here's a couple of little videos of our fun with the Gator soo far.... I think the grandparents would be a little more at ease with the kids wearing helmets and having seatbelts:)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

But Christopher 's ALL-Boy Creative Side took over the other day and he started collecting leaves for us:)

I know this is still a new toy for my crew, so it still have the novelty of a new toy.... but they have really, really enjoyed it. I think it's already clocked over 2-3 hours in my yard, and the church yard!! And the kids get a great opportunity to learn to share:)

And BTW.... while outside these last few days they have gotten PLENTY of exercise. Sometimes chasing the Gator, sometimes riding their bikes with the others riding and sometimes just swinging and running around as they wait for their turn:)

I guess I'm eating crow.... not the first time and probably won't be the last:)

Kudos to my hubby for the title:)

Duplos Keeps Siblings at Play

While cooking dinner the kids asked if they could take out the Duplo blocks. I keep these blocks away for "rainy days"!!! Anyway, since I was busy in the kitchen I let them kids play...... and I really didn't see them or hear anything but laughter and make-believe play for almost half and hour. It's then that I found this:)























Ahhhh, after a hard day it's nice to see them playing together and having fun:)And the Duplos have been soo nice (a borrowed toy from Grammie). In fact Grammie has collected more Duplos and the kids had a BLAST with them while we were at her house last weekend!!!

And we had a few successes, Christopher did pretty well with some potty training! So that's pretty exciting:)