Weekend Adventures

I'm sorry there aren't any pictures from this weekend. The camera batteries need to be charged, and for some reason, they don't charge themselves. Saturday, we went outlet shopping. AJ and Papa spent a lot of the time walking around while the women looked for ways to blow money. Lexi scored several pairs of earrings, AJ got a pop-up ABC book and soccer pajamas and I got a bunch of cooking marinades, popcorn seasonings and baking mixes. I'll try anything to get the kids to eat something besides hot dogs, chicken nuggets and macaroni & cheese. I have talked them into eating tacos, but it has to be soft tacos and I usually have to bargain with AJ to get him to eat the meat. He usually feasts on shredded cheese and flour tortillas. After shopping, we decided to go for ice cream. I had forgotten how much fun ice cream can be. Watching the two of them savor every mouthful was a joy. I think sometimes we get too involved and too rushed to stop and enjoy the simple things like vanilla ice cream with sprinkles or bubblegum ice cream with chocolate chips (that's not exactly the flavor of my ice cream fantasy, but whatever works). AJ would scoop up a big bite with his little plastic spoon, close his eyes and absorb the ice cream as it melted in his mouth. Lexi was so proud of the flavor she created, that she felt everyone needed a bite to share in her delicacy. Lexi informed us tonight at dinner that she wanted to be a chef when she grows up and a mommy too, which makes her a mommy chef...hmm sounds familiar. Of course, AJ pipes up that when he gets bigger he wants to be a doctor. He wants to fix the boo-boos. Today ended up resembling last Sunday. Lexi had a playdate after church, which caused AJ to go into a meltdown because he couldn't go too. I bribed him with McDonald's where he played for close to an hour and a half. I'm starting to see a pattern here. I'm not sure fast food is worth that kind of money. Sure you say, but it is only once in a while (every Sunday) and the next thing you know, the clown is getting $40-$50 a month for chicken nuggets and some apple dippers. I'm thinking perhaps I need to come up with a cheaper bribe. Hmm, or maybe I should quit bribing and teach my son that occasionally we don't get our way and that sometimes life just isn't fair. It's a good thing I'm not Britney Spears or I would have advocacy groups all over me. One thing I did learn today, sometimes taking the cheap way out isn't always the best. Take for instance, I checked the internet to find the lowest price of a CD that I wanted to buy. I found the cheapest price at Circuit City. I drove there, checked the price and found that it was more than what was quoted on the internet. I said to myself, well I'm not buying it here if they can't their prices right. I'll go to Wal-mart which had it for the same price or to the Exchange were I could at least get it tax free. So, after trips to the aforementioned places, I learned that you should buy it when you see it and forget about finding it cheaper because the money I wasted in gas and the amount of time I wasted (to only find out that neither store had the CD) was not worth saving the extra buck. I guess sometimes convenience is worth the money. Now that I've gotten all deep :), let me leave you with this. Over the past few days, Lexi has been taking a stab at creatively using the English language. She informed AJ he was fired when she didn't like the way he was playing with her. She "directed" him to pose for me in a picture, and she informed me that her flip flops no longer fit because they outgrew her. I would also like for anyone with a little extra money to burn (since you are out chasing down the cheapest price) to feel free to donate to AJ's birthday fund because apparently I'm to buy him a motorcycle, the one with the bars that go vroom (with the exact hand motions to make sure I understand him). Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy him such an expensive gift because I'm blowing money on overpriced CDs and gas.