Louisville, Part 2

Not too much to add for the rest of the week: We had a great time at the Gideon convention and we also got to visit the Pie Kitchen, Rocky's on the river, and Southeast Christian Church on Sunday (think megachurch). It was great to see friends and have a week away. We're glad to be home!! Here's the pictures:

Louisville

Living in up in Louisville!

We're having a fun week so far, and I've just gotten on the internet for the first time in 48 hours- now that's a real vacation! I have 85 status updates on Facebook, 73 unread email messages (mostly junk) and I'm not even going to try and catch up on my blog readings....

I wanted to document our time so far and I actually feel comfortable blogging about being out of town since Dave's sister and family are now living with us temporarily. We are staying in the downtown Marriott in a nice little room that is next door to a bigger room with a grand piano (which the boys like to play with their little hands).

So far we have enjoyed the Louisville Slugger museum, the Science Center and an IMAX movie (Daniel's first movie ever), Old Louisville area (Victorian houses), Cherokee park (Olmstead designed) and the entire Bardstown road area, especially the Highlands. Today we also had a personal tour of the National City Bank building's 37th floor with gorgeous views, thanks to a family friend. All of this in 2 days and we are tired!

Our convention starts tonight so the rest of the week will go by quickly and we won't have time for much more sight-seeing. I do look forward to seeing some college friends tomorrow night and lots of family friends all week. I guess those emails will have to keep piling up until next week.

A Treasure Hunt

From the "I never would have guessed..." file:

We had some glittery star shaped confetti at our party last weekend. Evidently, one of the kids from the party dropped some of it on the sidewalk outside and today Daniel found it. He was so excited by his "treasure find" it gave me a little idea....

I went inside, gathered up the extra confetti (that I had not cleaned off the dining room table yet) and secretly spread it all over the front sidewalk for Daniel to find. This was about 2 hours ago, and Daniel is still out there picking it up and having a blast. And with my new storm door, I can sit right inside in my living room and keep an eye on him.

Update: Wouldn't you know, he picked up every last bit of it, even though he spilled it several times? Oh, we are so genetically related to each other.....

A Great Mid-Summer Week

I don't know if it's because Dave is in town and home by 6:30 pm all week, but we had a really great week:

• On Monday I did laundry, housework and 2 dinners for other families.
  
• On Tuesday I ran errands while the boys played with Erin our babysitter.
• On Wednesday, we went to the Jump Zone, where the boys had 3 hours of playtime and a fun time with friends.
• On Thursday, we got our oil changed in record time, visited a park, did some fingerpainting art outdoors on our picnic table, and had our new storm door installed. Thursday night the boys spent some quality time at Dick's Sporting Goods (which Daniel calls "the golf store") while I picked up some bargains at Kroger (previous post) and Joann's.
• On Friday, we prepared for a party, did housework and I went to our Moms Together planning retreat which provided a nice break, good food and some quality girl time with some of my friends.
• On Saturday I recovered from the retreat and got ready for a big "goodbye" party for our friends The Eckerts who are moving to Washington DC for a year. A great time was had by all, especially the kids who got to bounce in the bouncy house.
• Today we were exhausted! There was plenty of rest and a trip to the pool tonight. We're ready to start it all again tomorrow.
  

Kroger Deals Tonight

I practically grew up in a Kroger store, but the last 3 years have been the Publix era of my life. However, when the deals are good I can't resist. Tonight's shopping trip: I spent $18.65 and saved $22.84, which doesn't seem too impressive, but I got a lot of things I really needed.

Highlights:

• 4 bottles of Herbal Essences Shampoo- FREE
• 2 boxes of Pampers wipes- 61 cents each
• 2 Secret deodorants- 49 cents each
• Organic clearance (great snacks for an upcoming trip)- $2 or less each
• Downy- $4.50 for a big bottle, not bad because I never can get this item for free or cheap. (Sometime I will write a whole separate post on things I can't find deals on.)
• I also got 6 peaches free since they rang up at the wrong price.

** This post is especially for Cindy Franzen, who I saw in Joann's right after this trip and she told me she loves the blog, especially the grocery posts : ) Hope you get to see this one!!

A few new pictures

Indy/ July 4

Going around on a Tuesday

Today was my weekly scheduled babysitter, and I continue to be amazed how much I can get done in a three hour time slot without kids. Here is what I did today (in order):

• Harris Teeter- quick trip to get 2 packages of Pampers (our favorite)
  
• CVS- a few free things this week and cheap sunscreen.
  
• Faye Snodgrass in downtown Franklin- to pick out a belated mother's day gift for myself!
• Taco Bell drive thru
• Walgreens- amazing diaper deal and some great clearance on wipes
• Home Depot- sign papers to hire an installer for our storm door
• ALDI's- strawberries and blueberries- yum!
• A friends' house to drop off some muffins for a taste testing.
• Walgreens again- I can't pass up $7 for 3 packages of diapers, so I did it again!
• Dry Cleaners

And only 31 miles on the odometer so about $6 in gas for all of that- I went in a big circle around Brentwood/Franklin.

The only thing I didn't get done was Publix, but that will be our field trip for tonight since Dave is out of town. We are so looking forward to the long holiday weekend coming up! I'll try to post some new pictures soon, the boys are growing fast!