Great Deal for fresh food

If are readers of my food blog you've noticed me talking about the Crossroads Urban Center food co-op. Well I'm going to give it a mention here on my family blog for the readers who don't visit my food blog. I've been doing the coop for the past 3 years and have really liked it. I save money and I get non-processed food for a steal of a price. Yes sometimes the choices in veggies and fruits have not been to my linking but it's either forced me to try something new or to give it to a neighbor or food bank. I'm going to post what I received yesterday, the pick up is once a month, and then I'll link to previous pickups that I have blogged about. Here's how to order- link .
Yesterday's pickup:
2 8oz. top sirloin steaks
4 5oz. pork chops
2 lbs. chicken legs and thighs
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 lb. brown rice
2 loaves Stoneground's artisan wheat bread
6 lbs. yellow onions
14 lemons
17 apples
2 cantaloupe
7 red bell peppers
2 romaine lettuce
5 avocados
14 tomatoes
1 asparagus
2 ham steaks
1 loaf German rye bread
1 package Colosimo's kielbasa sausage

For a grand total of: $48.25 , look at the top of this post for pictures.

Now here are links to a few other pick ups from a few months ago:
Jan 2009
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008

As you can see the quantity of items increased over the year. The more people they have buy the more they are able to purchase. Anyway I've really liked the coop and I hope you give it a try to see if you like it too.

Family Movie Night

I've been randomly holding family movie nights the past year. It's not done on a regular basis just whenever the urge hits. Yesterday I saw Bolt was available on redbox so I decided it would be movie night. The kids enjoyed it. We liked the movie and may have to buy it for ourselves. Honestly I think the favorite part for the boys is the treats I make for movie night and the fact we all sit together on the couch to watch. Last night I served fresh squeezed lemonade and freshly popped popcorn, not the microwave kind but the fun to make on the stove kind, and banana splits. We had tons of fun and it reminded me I should do this more than we do. I'm thinking of hosting a drive in movie night during the summer. I think I'd have to invite some family and friends to make it more fun but I think everyone would have a blast. I'd move the big screen television into the back yard so it would be just like a drive in movie theatre. Anyone interested in coming?

Anyway the above picture is funny because about 10 minutes after the movie ended Zachary fell asleep on the couch.

I'm selling my playhouse if anyone is interested

I would like to get rid of the playhouse that we've had for 2-3 years now. Its still in great shape for being outdoors. The little "cooktop" is bent but new screws or if you want to try bending them back and it should be good to go. I'm asking $75. LMK if your interested.

Fun giveaway!

My friend is doing a drawing for a fun family summer pack. Go here to enter.

She is giving away:
three winners will receive: a coupon* for any of the Yoplait for Kids yogurt products (Go-Gurt, Trix, Yoplait Kids), travel cooler (to take your yogurt on the road), a jump rope, a water bottle and an outdoor game set that includes a beach ball, paddle ball, Jai-Ali and a Frisbee.

Just some pictures from yesterday

Amazing Deal at Amazon

If you like, which I prefer to buy these for my kids, the Annies macaroni and cheese amazon.com is having a really good deal on them right now. I was able to get 24 boxes for $22 and change. That's about 91 cents a box. I signed up for the subscribe and save with two boxes delivered every six months. I figure I'll cancel my order in six months if the prices have gone up. Use the code ANNHOME5 at checkout to get it for that price. And my order qualified for free shipping.

3/17/09

Don has been building gardening boxes for me. I feel its a great project for him since he has not found a job yet. He's actually doing a really good job at them too. I think I'd prefer my boxes a little taller but hey I actually have him building them for me so I'm not going to complain.

I've decided to expand our vegetable garden this year. And instead of buying $300 in nursery plants for flowers and veggies I'm attempting to grow them from seed. I'll keep everyone posted on how well that turns out. I've spent about $50 on seeds and if the "projections" I've read about online are true I should get about $1500 in produce from the garden.

Some random thoughts on television

I use to love watching Jon and Kate plus Eight. I've now moved it to the I no longer watch the show file. At first the show was cute and refreshing. Now days I find myself acting like Kate, which is my opinion is not good, and just plain getting upset at Kate. So here our my random thoughts on the show:

Why are boys icky? Kate constantly talks about how icky boys are. The boys have rules that the girls do not. She allows the girls in the boys room but boys are not allowed in the girls room. She always makes faces when she talks about her boys. It just really bothers me that she finds the boys so much more disgusting than girls.

Why won't she allow the kids to be kids? The cupcake episode was my turning point. The show started going down hill then. I just don't get why she'd dress the kids up really nice to take them to decorate cupcakes. The utter disgust she had towards the whole outing was apparent and I felt horrible for the shop owner who opened up just so Kate's family could enjoy the afternoon. She's also always worried about them playing in the grass because she can't handle grass stains.

The taking the kids to see the new house show bothered me too. They were there for about five hours to show the kids the new house yet instead of showing the kids the house she spends over four hours cleaning the fridge.

The going to get a dog show bothered me too. She would not allow the kids to name the dogs because she did not want to call them some stupid name for years to come. Her kids were plainly upset that they did not get to help pick the names.

The reason I am no longer watching is I find myself acting like her. I sometimes have a very short temper when it comes to the kids just like Kate. I find myself belittling my husband the way she does. So as much as I love watching the train wreck each week for the sake of my family I need to give up the bad influence that Kate is.

3/12/09

We took the boys swimming today at the local pool. The kids all put life jackets on and for the first time ever spent almost 99% of their time at the lazy river part of the pool just floating through. They had tons of fun and it was really hard to get them out of the pool. We managed to get the twins out but Nathan was freaking out and crying. After we finally managed to get him out of the pool he comes over to me and tells me the reason he did not want to get out. The reason...................................................He was afraid that having been in the life jacket for so long that it would not come off of him. He was scared he was going to be stuck in a life jacket forever.

We are a freak show

Argh I know I go on and on about this about this really drives me bonkers. I realize my boys are all about the same size and I get the public curiosity but I don't get why this makes people become stupid. It freaking annoys me and I'm going to release my anger on some poor person who probably does not deserve it. On a typical outing we usually get asked no less than 3-4 times if the boys are triplets. Course this does not count the stares and finger pointing from those who aren't daring enough to come ask me. Honestly it does not bug me that much being asked if the boys are behaving and under control but when they are running around, throwing tantrums, or just plain upset it does bother me. And under those conditions it seems after asking if they are triplets and being told no they follow up with are you sure? What, do they think I would forget? Do they think I'm just playing a game with them and they really are triplets? Yes I had another horrible time out with the boys today with somebody who had the nerve to ask me if I was sure they weren't triplets. I swear, just for fun, the next time I get asked I'm going to say yes but they are only half triplets since none have the same father. I wonder what response I'll get from that one.

More pictures

Final Day at Disneyland

Th final day was not a great day. I think everyone was tired and cranky. We started the day at DCA and spent pretty much the whole day there. We finally got to ride Toy Story Mania after having it breakdown twice on our last day. Nathan was quite upset not to be able to ride two rides there. He was quite upset not to be able to ride the Grizzly River Ride. He came up about one inch two short. He cried for well over a hour. After spending most the day there we headed to Disneyland to catch a few rides we had not done yet and to do a big shopping trip. I never thought I'd say it but I was sure glad to be done. I'll post later tonight or tomorrow a few more random pics and then I'm done posting about the disneyland trip.

Back from Disneyland Part VIII

Last pictures from the second day. Tomorrow I'll get around to the third and final day.

Back from Disneyland Part VII

Just a few pictures from the mid day escape to the swimming pool and slide at our hotel.

Back from Disneyland Part VI

Just a few more pictures from our second day at Disneyland. All taken before we headed back to the hotel for a little break.

Back from Disneyland Part V

Second day in the park was an early entry day for us since we were staying at a Disney hotel. The lines were long to get into the park. I'd been dragging the kids around quickly the day before and all of us were tired and cranky so I decided to let them set the pace for today. Right through the doors everyone was rushing to be first in line to the rides but the kids spotted Mickey Mouse and we walked right up to him. Next we spotted Pluto and the kids loved watching him autograph the books on his nose.

We headed to fantasyland and the boys wanted to ride the carousel so we did that first. Zach spotted the Dumbo ride and wanted to ride that so we headed there next. After standing in line a few minutes Zach starts to freak out but we forced him to ride and he had fun. I let Zach pick next and he wanted to ride the tea cups. He loved that ride. I really wish I would have taken him a few times but I got so sick again on the ride. We rode a few more rides in fantasyland then headed to Mickey's toontown.

Nathan and Noah wanted to ride the Gadget Go Coaster so Don took them on that. I have a pretty cool picture of that I'll post later. After letting them tour toontown awhile we decided to take a break and head back to the hotel.

Back from Disneyland Part IV

Over at California Adventures there were a few rides for the kids. We started at It's a Bugs Life but Zach freaked out waiting for the show to begin so we headed for Toy Story Mania. In case you forgot my kids are huge toy story fans. They loved this Mr. Potato Head who is outside the toy story mania ride. He talks to you and I think the kids could have sat there for hours with him. After standing in line for about ten minutes the ride breaks down and they tell us they are not sure if it will be up and running again that day.

Noah wanted to ride the King Triton carousal so we got in line for it. All the kids really liked the ride. We finally broke down and let them buy a toy at the shop near the toy story mania ride. After that is was slow going for the boys. I wanted to stick around to watch the parade so we went to the plaza to just sit and kill a hour. While there we saw Minnie Mouse and the kids had fun meeting her. If you don't notice in the picture Noah is peeking over the top of Minnie Mouse.

I'm so glad we stuck around for the parade. It was short but it had so many of the kids favorite characters in it. The best part was Buzz pointing out to Noah who was trying his hardest to get his attention and Woody lasering with Zach.

After a very long day at parks we headed back to our hotel. We decided to try a place called Captain Kidds for dinner. That was a huge mistake as I was sick most of the next day.

Stay tuned for our second day in the parks.

Back from Disneyland Part III

The morning started early on the first day of going to the park. While the park did not open until 10am the kids were up and ready to go at 8 am. So we headed for downtown disney to kill some time. There is a fountain in downtown disney, last picture above, which the kids really liked. It would randomly shoot water out and it kept them entertained for hours. This is also the spot where the question "Are they triplets" was first asked in Disney. I'd say we were asked at least 1,000 times during our three days there.

As we entered the gates the kids spotted some characters and wanted to go see them. The only one we managed to meet at that time was Goofy. I am so happy I decided to ignore Don and bought the kids autograph books because they really loved having the books to get autographs. They had so much fun meting Goofy.

Off we went to find our first ride. I wanted to start them in Fantasyland but they spotted the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland and wanted to ride that one first. There was no line for the ride we walked right on after dragging Zach through as he decided it was too scary. He ended up having loads of fun on the ride but that was the first of many times we had to drag Zach onto a ride. After getting off the ride it empties into a store filled with Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear toys. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to move the boys on. Once outside Zach spies Buzz Lightyear and took off to meet him. I have to say the boys are still talking about meeting Buzz Lightyear. They had so much fun meeting one of their favorite characters.

The next ride we did was Astro Orbitor. Zach would not even consider getting on the ride so I stayed with him while Don rode with Nathan and Noah. This turned out to be a favorite of the Nathan and Noah. The rode this ride at least 4 more times during our visit. We then hit the Finding Nemo submarine ride which was the longest wait in line we had the whole entire time. We stood in line for at least 30 minutes. Course Zach started to freak out again as we tried to load on the ride yet ended up enjoying the ride once on. Next stop was Autotopia. Zach and I went together and he had fun driving. Near the end Zach told me that he did not want to drive again, it was too hard and scary.

We stayed at Disneyland until about 2pm when we moved over to California Adventures. More to come later.