Super Duper Bargain Week!

I feel a little silly writing a post about my two big bargains from this week, but then again, this is my blog and I can post what I want, right?! Anyway, I am so excited for Eli about the train stuff that we got, I just really wanted to share it.

E really loves cars, trains, train tracks, all that kind of stuff. Anytime we play at a friend's house who has a train and tracks, he will play with those for extended periods of time.

We had been avoiding the whole "train table" because they are so BIG, and not cute, and we don't have an official playroom, but use the good 'ol "formal dining room" for play......but I know my child would love it. My sister found a few on the online classifieds up in the Woodlands, and we were THIS CLOSE to buying a handmade, not painted one for $25, but the lady never called her back. I decided then to look on Craig's List - and lo and behold, there it was. THE listing. Thomas the Train Table and cars/tracks - AND, the people live in Katy. AND, they had posted the listing just the day before. AND, it was only $100.

The guy said someone wanted to come after work and look at it, but he didn't have a time - and this stay at home mom said, "I can come anytime!" Was that snarky? Anyway, I was able to come at 3 that day - they live literally 8 minutes from my house. The lady was so nice. She was basically wanting to just get rid of stuff, not really try to make money. It's like she has never heard of Goodwill or Katy Christian Ministries, but that's ok because that worked in our favor. She had all this train stuff, box of cars.....I took almost everything. So while it was still in the car last night, I took some pictures to share. (Right now, everything is in the garage under a blanket and tarp. I'm dying to get my hands on it all to sort it all out).

This box she just "threw in" for the heck of it I guess....a Leap Frog with a Thomas book and one extra book, and a Leap Pad thingy, with at least two cartridges. There are also some older kid type puzzles in there that I guess we could keep for later.

This Thomas set is made of plastic, but uses batteries to go around on the tracks. Wasn't sure I wanted it, but then again, would be nice to add in to the toy rotation.

This is the Thomas train-shaped carrier FULL of train cars. I'm not sure if they go only on the wooden tracks, or plastic ones, or both. But it's still a goldmine.

Next set - here are the wooden tracks with train cars that fit on them. I would have been happy with just the table and this set for the $100! I thought it was really sweet that she had all these sets divided out in separate boxes.

And finally, the plastic set. This is the largest set she had, there are a ton of tracks in there, and that big station house thing, a crane, trains....she said this is the one her son played with the most.

This is the end of the train table. It's upside down in the car, so you'll have to use your imagination, but there are two pull out bins on each end for storage.

Another box of blocks she "threw in." I was hesitant again to accept, because we do have some blocks like this - but I could see there are some with wheels in there, and some animal shapes. Can always save for later. Or give away. Actually, my first thought was, "I'll take this because that is a great bin!"

Annnnnd finally the "free" box of cars. There are definitely some in here that are junk-worthy, but then again there are some others that are very worthy of keeping. I started going through the box last night, but then realized I still needed to walk the dogs, so threw everything back in there.

I am thinking that I might bag up several different sets of cars so I can have some in the diaper bag, some in the car, some just to pull out when I see boredom kicking in...and they will be all "new! and exciting!" when I pull them out. Same with rotating out the train sets. I know we won't give it ALL to him at one time on his birthday (coming up soon!!).

Continuing with my bargain theme - I got this table FREE on Sunday. See, this is one reason facebook is actually good - I reconnected with a gal I hadn't seen in about 10 years. She was helping a friend downsize her house. A couple of months ago, I bought a gorgeous trunk, chest of drawers, antique chair, stool, and scrapbook stuff from her. Well on Sunday, she was getting ready to move out of the house and had a room of give-away stuff. This little table is probably from the 40's or 50's (so says my mom). I want to sand and paint it probaby off white, and use it as a side table with my recliner (that I got from Aunt L's estate sale and plan to recover) and use in either Eli's room or the new baby's room.

She also just gave me two great bins full of scrapbook stuff. This one is full of paper.

This one has stickers, stamps, more paper, punches....can't wait to share all this with my scrappin' friends!

So, that wraps up Cheryl's Bargain Week. Hopefully after our annual antiquing trip in October, I will have more finds to share!!!

What WE were doing on the first day of school (for everyone else)

Today was everyone else's first day back to school. Summer isn't over for this toddler!

You gonna eat that?

I finally decided that we really need to start working on Eli drinking from an open cup. What prompted this decision? Well, he has his two year old check up next month, and I figure the doctor is going to ask if he can drink from a cup, and I'll feel bad to tell her I've been too lazy to try because sippy cups are so convenient, and then I'll feel even worse that I am somehow contributing to stumping his development (ok that is a little far reaching), so anyway time to deal with the mess and bring on the open cup.

The last few times we had tried, he would end up pouring the whole cup down the front of his shirt, missing his mouth completely. But today, he actually did great at the actual drinking from the cup part.

So, I decided to give him his milk at dinner in a cup - by the way, he chose this pink plastic cup from the pantry.

Almost immediately after taking a few sips, he decided to drop his carrot pieces into his milk. Of course, Doug and I told him not to, but he would then drink the milk, with the carrot in it - so we decided to just watch and see what would happen. Now, "let's just see what happens! and I'll grab the camera!" is not our usual parenting method, but I did find this whole experience fascinating. And Gross. And couldn't turn away.

What are you looking at, E?

Since I guess carrot flavored milk wasn't enough, he decided to drop in his chicken pieces......

....then spill some of it, so I switched plates with him. Yes, we ate on paper plates last night. It was leftovers night, give me a break.

Mmmmmm, taking a drink with the chicken and carrots in there.

Stopping to chew his milk.

Oh, let's go ahead and fish out some chicken.

And finally, time to dump it all out.

And, here's a picture of my lazy hound dog, too lazy to even remove the toy from her mouth.
This way you can have this image in your mind instead of the chicken-carrot flavored milk. You're welcome.

Always Time for Tea

So many times during the day, I find myself jumping on the computer "just for a minute!" because I need to go look something up, find a phone number......things that might take just a few actual minutes if I didn't stop along the way to check Facebook, my blogs, links mentioned in the blogs, emails, emails from blogs with more links, that interesting sounding article on msn.com's homepage...you get the picture. Eli has now figured out he doesn't really like it when mommy sits down in front of that rectangular screen thingy, because she will pay attention to those pictures on the screen and not him for a little while. He's taken to tugging on my shirt when I sit down at the computer - today, he tugged and said, "cup?"

He had pulled out the dishes I had gotten for him at my aunt's estate sale (these belonged to her mother in law!). Somebody wanted to play picnic.

He had even remembered to go get the stuffed dog we had used last time as a friend at our picnic. Note how we're just in our diaper sitting on the floor with the dog hair, 'cuz we're all fancy like that.

I guess he decided we needed a bigger crowd, so he got Pooh bear too.

And actually added this third stuffed animal (which is really all I think he has, he's not really into them that much), but decided to give the bear a big 'ol hug!

And, that's all the pictures, because the photographer had a picnic to get to......

More Pool Fun with Stacey!

Earlier this week, we met up with Stacey and her two girls at one of our local pools again! I figure I am getting our money's worth out of those HOA dues. Stacey is such a sweet and encouraging friend, I am so happy to have her around!!! Here are a few pics of our day.....

Audry just completing her swim from the water slide!

Wheeee! I loved going down the slides too!

Eli with the Cars tire ring, a gift from Ms. Stacey.

Are all three kids actually looking at the camera? At the same time???!

I think this is Audrey. I love pictures of water!

Hi Sophie! Sorry you're a little out of focus!

And, Stacey - I'll have to email you ALL of the pictures! Thanks for playing with us!

Day at the Pool

When I was growing up, when you went to the swimming pool, there was a small round pool that was the "baby pool," and then a large pool, with diving boards on one end. If you were lucky, there was a slide. Even when I worked at a daycare during college years, the pool we would go to in the summer was like that. Well, not anymore! I'm really glad pools are much more fun nowadays. We have some great local pools in our neighborhood. My sister in law and the kids came over to swim, and we headed to my favorite local pool. It was closed! Have no idea why. So, we went over to the Water Park pool, which really was better for the older kids anyway, since it has four neat slides and a waterfall. There is a splash pad with spouts of water shooting up everywhere, and all kinds of water things spraying water everywhere. At first Eli seemed to be having a good time, but then became rather clingy and kind of cranky. Since I had another adult with me, I brought the camera to get a few pool pics. Didn't get too many of Mr. Cranky Pants, but did get some fun ones of my niece and nephew!

Aaron helping eli into the water. Sorry Aaron for cutting off your head in this picture....

He LOOKS like he was enjoying himself, at least in this moment!

I love the look of joy on Rachel's face as she exits the waterslide!

Can you spot the flying limbs in all the splashing as she comes off the slide?

Yep, that's me! They let adults on the slides too, so Laura and I took turns. I haven't been on a slide in a million years. Reminded me of the times we used to go to the Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels with my high school youth group, we went every summer for a day.

Aaron finally decided to give it a try.

Aaron liked the big triangle water holders that fill up and dump water out. I asked him to go one more time so I could get a picture. Couldn't back up far enough to get the triangle bucket in the picture. But here he is waiting, then getting splashed, and jumping!

the Aquarium

Sometimes I feel like our family - my little family of three - is kind of....well, boring. So when some friends suggested we go for dinner at the downtown Aquarium restaurant, I was all about it. We hardly ever do anything downtown, even though I like to go to events and such. We ate dinner at the over-priced, not that good of food restaurant, then walked around outside. They really have a neat set up down there. If we had more time, I would have liked to have seen more of the actual aquarium exhibits. We did ride the ferris wheel and the train, and those were both really fun. It was nice to get out of our little bubble and do something different on a hot summer evening!

Mikal and Doug, fathers extraordinaire....with two toddlers that had just woken up.

Hello little fishy! Aquarium in the restaurant.

Yay, a picture of all three of us!

On the ferris wheel! I thought I would be more freaked out to ride it, but it was great.

Downtown with setting sun, taken during the ferris wheel ride.

Pretty girls!

Waiting in line for our train ride.

This is a true excitement expression, Eli was thrilled when he saw the train come around the corner.

Freaky, right?! The train stops for a few minutes in a tunnel with an aquarium all around it. So you get to see sharks and other big fish (or all different kinds of sharks) swim on the sides and OVER the top. I think their mouths are the creepiest thing.

I love how all this amusement park stuff is right next to downtown and the skyline.

As we were walking to our car to go home, I spotted the reflection on this car and snapped a quick pic. I didn't realize you could see me in the reflection too! I thought it looked so neat. I made sure I didn't get the license plate in the picture, didn't want to look like too much of a stalker. Would have been cool if this had been OUR car!