Mama Tuesday - Happy Birthday Duke!

Today is Duke's 6th birthday and we are having a party!!!!  Duke is one of our dogs and yes, we are having a party.  It is a rainy, nasty day here in NoVa and for our Mama Tuesday activity, we are making cards, decorating wrapping paper and making him a snack.  This morning we went to IKEA for some other things and we lucked out in picking up a leather collar/leash combo in the clearance section for $4 - saving me a trip to PetSmart :-) 

I have laid out construction paper, glitter, glue, stickers, crayons, colored pencils, yarn bits, etc. and am going to let the kids just decorate away to make him some cards.  I also have a two foot length of butcher paper from Costco that I will have them decorate to make wrapping paper and then we will wrap his present.  We are going to "make" him a snack of dry food mixed with wet food but I'll let them measure and mix for as long as they want and maybe they can spice it up with some quinoa that I've got leftover in the fridge.  All this will be done on our dining room table which is covered with a vinyl tablecloth that I picked up for $1 at Target in clearance.  It only comes out for big, messy projects and really makes clean up soooo much easier (and keeps my anxiety level lower).

Hope you enjoy whatever you do on your "Mama Tuesday"!

New Me, New Plan, New Posts

I've decided to get my act together and start posting regularly.  I was having a hard time for a while but now I've decided just to share the things here that I share with my girlfriends in the real world - nothing earth shattering, but fun and probably money saving.  I also think that having a theme for posting tends to help keep me on track. 

I'm thinking of the following: (please let me know if they sound ridiculous)

Savings Sunday (stores and sales I'm going to hit this week)
Manic Monday (an overview of what my week contains - meals/food prep)
Mama Tuesday (what my daughter calls it since she doesn't go to school T/Th - a fun "mommy" tip or activity to do with munchkins)
Wild Wednesday (the day my husband and I have together with no kids - either involves a very cheap date or home improvement - probably a rundown of something totally mundane with a tip to make it easier
Thrifty Thursday - some fun way to save money/stretch a buck
Take Five Friday - a link, story, antecdote to make you take 5 and enjoy life - also mandating I tell you how I took 5 over the week - trying to work in my own 5 is hard so I'm hoping to be accountable here
Family Saturday - suggestion for something to do all together whether your family is just one or 100

Also I will throw in additional posts that may not fit the schedule but this will at least give me some structure and guidance and also provide a regular posting routine for any readers that I might someday get :-)

Sterling Rec Center Nap Inducer

The Sterling Rec Center located at 120 Enterprise Street, Sterling, 20164 will be filling the gym with inflatables tomorrow, Saturday, from 9:30 to 11:30. It costs $5 per child and should be a great time. It's like a moonbounce birthday party but you don't have to bring a gift! Last time they were supposed to have this event they cancelled it so I've called ahead and confirmed that it will be on for tomorrow. Hope to see you there!