Field trip to the Reston Zoo

Here is just a small sample of the pictures that I took on Brody's field trip last week to the zoo.  All of the kids had a great time!  Brody loved all of the animals and really liked the "bird cage" and feeding the goats!  They were all supposed to wear their zoo shirts but Brody refused which is why he isn't wearing the same shirt as everyone else.

On the bus!

Self portrait--lol

One of the other moms took my camera to take a picture but Brody wouldn't look at the camera--shocker

On the hayride

Breezy day

Brody trying to hold Lauren's hand---she wasn't having it---lol

Turtle shell

In the bird cage!

This bird LOVED my backpack--he kept trying to get inside this pocket!  

Brody trying to get the bird off of my backpack

Feeding a bird

He's inside my backpack again!

Chasing the ducks

Brody and Lauren

He loved it when the goats took the cup away!  

Brody and Kevin feeding a turtle

Some Harris Teeter finds!

I went after the gym and scored a few great prices!  I didn't take pictures of everything I got but just know that I spent less than $30 for over $70 worth of stuff!  (that includes 6 stuffed chicken breasts, chicken sausage, shampoo, conditioner and other stuff not in these pictures!)

The noodles ($1 off of 2) and the Weber grill seasoning ($1 off of one) were FREE after coupons.   The baked beans were .50 EACH after the $1 off of 2 coupon.  The taco seasoning were .15 EACH after the $1 off of 2 coupon.  The Triscuits were each $1 after I used two $1 off one item coupons that I found online.

No coupons needed for this great deal......Goldfish are buy one get one FREE this week!  Each bag ends up being $1.25!  That is a great price for Goldfish and they are eaten like crazy in this house.

I will be going back next week as well---hope you find some great deals too!

Random thoughts by Travis......

This is a letter that Travis wrote to me at school for Mother's Day.  :)

Always a hit....this time a single but a triple the inning before.....

This wasn't his longest hit of the evening but you can see how nicely his swing is progressing these days......

In the blink of an eye......

You know that kids grow up fast but it's harder to see this when you see them every day right?  Until you get back their sports pictures (or other yearly pictures) and you compare them with the pictures from just a year ago.  I was shocked at how much Travis has grown and matured in his face over the last year when I looked at these pictures!

The crazy long "college like" application was WORTH IT!

Travis got into FUTURA for next year!  For those that aren't in Loudoun County---this is the name for the GT program in the schools starting in the 4th grade.  Travis got into the "pool" of kids based on his Cogat and Nagliari test scores from the end of 2nd grade and the beginning of 3rd grade.  A few months ago they sent out applications for those kids in the pool to fill out to be considered.  Dear lord this was a long and stressful application---you started second guessing your answers about you kid!  (which makes me dread college apps already!  lol)  Their teachers can also write a recommendation but I honestly don't know if his teacher did this or not. 

Travis is really excited about going to the class once a week---this year the kids went to Algonkian for the day--so he will be at Lowes Island 4 days a week and (likely) Algonkian once a week next year.

Magic erasers are......well....magic!

I have had this spot on my stove for awhile----no matter what product or trick I have used (including a baking soda Pinterest one) it is still there.  See that big black spot on the right?  Seriously it's stuck on with super glue!

After using various other products and things it looked like this:

Only a small improvement.  I was about to give up until I grabbed a magic eraser and scrubbed that darn spot until my arm felt like it was going to fall off.  Maybe it was the magic eraser or maybe it was the hours in the gym that did it but now that spot is almost 100% gone!

I know a tiny bit of it remains here but my arm was seriously killing me and my magic eraser was torn to shreds and it was my last one.  I always forget how awesome those are!  They are also magical at getting things off of walls like drips, fingerprints etc without ruining the paint!

A Pinterest FAIL

This pin seemed like it had so much promise.  Just baking soda and hydrogen peroxide mixed together and your baking pans will look like new!  Hmmmmm.  I can see a small amount of "seasoning" came off but not even close to all of it.  I call this a fail.  If you want to see the site I had pinned for her crazy miraculous results you can view it here. Maybe I didn't let it sit long enough......maybe I didn't put enough gunk on but I won't be trying this one again.  ;)

Before

During

After---a slight improvement but not even close to the results she got

16 days?!?!?

(Last years list in the mud room)

YIKES........there are only 16 more days of school left!!!!!!  I need to start working on my "summer to do" list asap!  For those that don't remember I had a to do list posted in the mud room and the goal was to try and complete all of them by the end of the summer.  Here was our list last year:  We got 14 of them done last summer.  I'm sure we will have some repeats this year but I will know once I make the list!  lol  I also had an "I'm Bored" bucket last year.

Summer 2012
1.  Plant flowers
2.  Make forts
3.  Ice cream from the ice cream truck
4.  Busch Gardens
5.  Water balloon fight
6.  Zoo
7.  Beach
8.  Play in the sprinkler
9.  Go to the library
10.  Have a picnic
11.  Go to a baseball game
12.  Go to a museum
13.  Wash the car
14.  catch fireflies
15.  Make sidewalk paint
16.  Go to an outdoor concert
17.  Make ice cream
18.  Go hiking
19.  Make popsicles
20.  Make our own play dough

We got 14 of them done last summer.  I'm sure we will have some repeats this year but I will know once I make the list!  lol

I also had an "I'm Bored" bucket last year.  IT worked REALLY WELL!  If Travis said those words at any time during the summer he had to draw from the bucket.  Some of the things in the bucket are fun like "play video games for 30 min" and others are not so fun like "clean up the playroom".  It's just the luck of the draw which you pull out!  I highly suggest having one in your house this summer.  :)  

A Pinterest fail and then a pass--lol

You may or may not have seen the "pins" on Pinterest about writing on a plate and baking it to make the ink permanent.  I pinned one awhile ago and finally tried it.  I had a plate from the dollar store and wrote the word "cookies" on it.  I baked it at 150 degrees (the lowest my oven goes btw is 170 degrees--lol) for 30 minutes like the pin told me to do.  Once it cooled I got a little water on it and rubbed at the ink----basically it ALL came off as you can see below.  So......

I went back to Pinterest and looked for other pins about this.  I saw a bunch that said you needed to bake the plate at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  So I wrote the word "test" on it this time on the other side from the other now missing word.  Once it cooled this time I tried the same washing method and it worked!  Now I have a fairly easy and inexpensive gift idea for people!  (I would suggest telling people to hand wash the item though just in case)

The word "cookies" used to be on the left but you can see the higher temp worked since you can clearly see the word "test".  :)

So not ready........

Travis needed new hockey shorts the other day--partially because he had ripped off one of the velcro tabs but they were also getting super tight on him in the waist.  So we go to the pro shop to get new ones and were handed this:

Seriously?  He's 8 and he needs a TEEN CUP?  He thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen since it's SO much bigger than the old one.  Sigh.........I am in real trouble when he is a teenager........

A few pictures from baseball

Travis is having a really good baseball season so far.  He has had a hit every time he's been at bat and had one in the park home run already this season!  Travis is certainly a power hitter---his swing is crazy---hockey and golf have come in handy.  :)

Potatoes from Pinterest

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this "pin" on Pinterest and on Facebook.  The time I pinned it I was directed to this site here.  The idea is very simple......take baked potatoes and slice them VERY thinly but not all the way through, drizzle with olive oil, butter (I didn't use butter),  garlic, salt and pepper and bake at 425 for about 45 minutes.  OMG----they are SO GOOD!  They were almost like chips on the outside--nice and crispy --but more like a regular baked potato on the inside.  I will definitely be making these again.......who knew slicing them like that made them taste that much better?

Before they were baked.  The potato shown below is the one in the back.

After!  YUMMY!

Dirty oven glass?

Almost a year ago now I pinned this page on Pinterest.  She had some easy tips to clean your dirty oven glass.  Now I know using the "self clean" on your oven may get this done as well but I hate the smell that comes from the oven when it's "self cleaning".  So earlier today I looked at the glass and said "I am going to finally try that".

The recipe is simple......1/4 cup of baking soda and some water to make a runny paste.  This much covered my two glass doors but not much else----if you need to clean the actual door (like I should have-lol) you obviously need to add more.  Wait about 15-30 minutes and then wipe/scrub it off.  Voila!  Clean oven glass!  :)

You can see the brown grime that is really hard to clean off normally

Paste is on!

Clean glass!  (just wish I had made more paste and cleaned the door too--lol)