cow chip bingo

Every year the Quinnipiac PA students host Cow Chip Bingo for their annual fund raiser. They each sell "plots" on a field set up on campus. If the cow "throws her chips" or in other words POOPS in your plot, you win! It was a big event that Sam was invited to stay all day for, so we joined him. They had a 5K run, food, and a race for the kids. Landon came in 3rd... out of the 3 kids that showed up and won some books. Sam was sure to bring his toys- bocce, frisbee, and wiffle ball. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast spending the day with dad!

carnival

Since this happened...We decided to pass on season passes to Six Flags this year and have our car door replaced (which sadly, was the equivalent of about 32 season passes to Six Flags). On our way to Joann's the other day Landon noticed through his tears (he now cries at the sight of a Joann's store) this Carnival set up in the parking lot. We decided to take him that weekend for a night on the town. Landon got to choose 3 rides to go on, while I watched in fear for his life. He loved every second of it- misspelled rides, blaring hip hop music, scantily clad teens, and all! Not quite the Six Flags adventures we had last summer, but he still talks about "The Carnival" all the time.

recycle rant

Here in Connecticut every time you buy a plastic bottle, they charge you 5 EXTRA cents. This doesn't sound like a lot, but I rarely buy just one water bottle, it's usually by the case. They are also not required to list this "deposit" in the sale price, so your total is often a couple dollars more than you plan to pay. Still, not a huge deal. Most stores have a little "bottle room" (many of which are inhabited by homeless since they are accessible 24hrs and not inside the actual store) where you can recycle your bottles and get the "deposit" as a credit back to that store. This sounds great! However, you can only recycle bottles at the store the bottle was purchased. I shop at many stores, so this is a pain! Also, 98% of the time, the machine is "full" so you can't even put your bottles in. Usually by this time I'm so sick of hauling huge bags of bottles around I just leave them in the room for someone else to claim.

In the beginning I used to recycle all bottles. But this little process got old real quick because I rarely received my "deposit" back. I quit recycling and ignored the phone calls from the apartment complex about throwing recyclables in the dumpster.

During one of my nesting stints I decided it was time to empty the completely overflowing bin of bottles. Since Walmart machines take just about every brand of bottle I decided we'd try to recycle there again. IMMEDIATELY upon entering the bottle room I remembered why I don't put up with this crap. Besides the overwhelming stench of urine, every machine except one was full. AND in front of the machine stood this...

I finally snapped this pic about 30 minutes into her sorting. She kept looking at me and saying in a surprised voice "Oh, are you waiting for this machine?" I told her 3 times, "Yes, it is the only one that isn't full.". I don't know what possessed me to wait my turn and get my credit, but it WILL NOT happen again. I'm all for a better environment and all, but don't appreciate being FORCED to recyle or pay the consequences... literally.

killing time

Living in such a crappy climate has forced me to become creative with activities for Landon. That lasted about 2 days. We got sick of rotting away in our apartment so we signed Landon up for as many classes as we could afford. Here's what he and I have been up to. While I craft Landon does puzzles, etc. He's gotten so good at the states puzzle he no longer puts the pieces into the frame, he dumps them out and arranges them on the floor. This probably proves that I craft too much.

I made binding out of the yellow stripe fabric (not pictured) and actually finished the last piece of crib bedding, here's the quilt.

Landon goes to preschool twice a week. They do tons of art projects... am I supposed to keep them all??? Sports class at the YMCA. Soccer, basketball, and baseball with 3 year olds... CHAOS!Sam takes Landon to the free kids building day once a month at Home Depot.Swimming lessons- we should have started this a LONG time ago. Landon has been begging to wear shorts for 2 months now. One sunny day we went for a walk. I forget sunny doesn't always mean warm, notice the snow jacket. I snuck away one Saturday and joined the ward for a trip to the Boston Temple. It was SO nice.We jump for joy when the weather hits 50 degrees, as that has become "warm" enough for us to play outside- that is IF there is no wind. It is April, no more snow... PLEASE!

luck o' the irish

They do a really big St Patrick's celebration/parade in New Haven so after church we decided to head down. We were all dressed in our green, and ready to sit in the sun for the parade. Landon was SO EXCITED to see a real parade since watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on tv. Since we decided to stay for all of church then head down, we got there after the parade started. We searched for parking for about a half hour in down town New Haven on old streets the size of sidewalks. Perhaps we were a little too excited when we finally found a spot, and while quickly switching lanes this happened.Since we weren't ticketed, and the other driver was promptly arrested for using a suspended license we will (hopefully) only be responsible for our damage. Everyone was unharmed, except for some adult egos and maybe Landon's spirits... all of which were fixed with a stop at McDonald's on the way home.

go bobcats!

We showed some school spirit at the Quinnipiac hockey game last weekend. I made Landon's shirt for under $2 plus Sam gets free tickets so we took advantage and had a fun night out. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but it's always good to get out and spend time with the family. Plus, Landon loved it! The best part of hockey, they sell cheap snacks and HOT CHOCOLATE!
We even got to meet Boomer the Bobcat, but Landon was way more interested in watching the game to let me get a picture. I believe they were playing against Brown. It was tied 2-2 in the 3rd period but since we left with 6 minutes left, I have no clue who won the game... however, Landon did win this sweet Bobcat hockey shirt!

my heart "beeps" for you

For some reason Landon is totally into robots. Instead of calling him a nerd, I'm trying to embrace it. Luckily Target was full of robot valentines. We all had a great day full of treats, the best perhaps was my lunch date with Landon at Captain Seas (where I got Greek food)!We made these valentines for Landon's class, they go on top of treat bags.