Monroe Parenting

I just thought this was a really cool picture of Caitlyn. I took it a few weeks ago inside the Butterfly House at The Toledo Zoo.

Border’s in Taylor is having a Halloween Spooktacular party tonight starting at 7 p.m. This is an event geared mainly toward younger children with games, activities, spooky stories and a costume contest. I guess I better get Caitlyn’s fairy costume ready for another outing!!! (Keegan’s elephant costume requires no advance preparation. Simply slip it on him and go.)

I took Caitlyn to the Little Boo at the Zoo yesterday at The Toledo Zoo. We braved cool weather, raindrops and giant wind gusts to get a handful of coloring books, a couple bags of chips and a York Peppermint Patty. (Yes, that was the only candy-type item she got — a single peppermint patty.)

I also shelled out $7 to get her picture taken with the zoo’s polar bear, although what that has to do with Halloween I will never know.

But I must say that for $3.50 we had a pretty good time. (Remember that zoo members don’t have to pay for parking or zoo admission, so we just had to cover the trick-or-treating part.)

Fisher-Price was one of the event’s sponsors, so they had a giant tent set up with all their new toys for the kids to try out and they also were handing out Little People DVDs to all the kids. Very cool.

My favorite part was getting to just mosey around and spend all the time we wanted with the animals. Since everyone else seemed occupied standing in line waiting for treats, Caitlyn and I went off in search of our favorite animals — the elephants and monkeys.

There were no people to wait behind to see those, so we stood there and took our time watching them do crazy things. One of the chimps had a thing for belly buttons, according to the zoo keeper we talked to, and despite her insistent banging on the glass and pointing to me, I wasn’t about to show that animal my bee-bo! Although I’m sure next year Keegan will gladly oblige!!!

I haven’t had the guts yet to sell anything on Craig’s List, but yesterday I did post my first “wanted” ad and got some good hits. I was looking for a Step 2 Fire Truck toddler bed for Keegan for Christmas.

They retail from anywhere between $160-$250, depending on where you look. Now you should by now from the Little Mermaid bike story that there is no way I’m spending that kind of money on a Christmas present……. So I turned to Craig’s List and wrote out a wanted out for one of these beds, giving my location and the amount I would be willing to spend.

Within an hour of posting, I got an e-mail from a woman who said she had seen a few of these beds at a resale shop in Northville. I got the name of the place, gave them a call and sure enough, they had two of the beds available for $59 each.

Let me just say that my sister and I hotfooted it up there and picked us up a firetruck bed!!! I can’t wait to see Keegan’s face on Christmas morning when he unwraps this present!!

Caitlyn has already started talking about her Christmas wish list and at the top is a Little Mermaid bicycle. I didn’t even know that there were Little Mermaid bikes, so I started doing some digging. The Toy’R'Us Web site had them listed for $79.99, as did Kmart when we checked them out there. Ouch. That’s a lot of money!

But, I don’t like to give up easily …..so I kept looking and hit the jackpot. Yesterday the kids and I went to Meijer to pick up a few things and I decided to wander over by the bikes. Previously I had seen Disney Princess bikes and Dora the Explorer bikes, but no Little Mermaid. Until now. There, sitting on one of the racks, was the exact 16″ Little Mermaid bike we had been searching for. And it was on clearance for $39.50!!!!

My mom had mentioned that perhaps they would get the bike for Caitlyn for Christmas so I whipped out my cellphone and gave them a call while holding on tightly to the bike’s handlebars lest someone else got the idea of taking it. The saleswoman told me that it was the last one they had in stock, so I sure wasn’t letting go of it!

My mom told me to bring it home, so that was one problem solved. Then I just needed to figure out how in the world to get it in the cart when I had both kids with me and we were driving one of those carts that had the bench seat hooked to the back. We tried pulling the bike alongside of us for awhile, but with that big ol’ bulky cart it just wasn’t working. So I finally picked it up and managed to squeeze it into the cart’s basket with the front of the bike hanging out over the end of it. Then all I had to worry about was not hitting anyone when I turned the corners and keeping Keegan’s little fingers from pulling all the streamers out of the handlebars one by one.

Of course, once we got the bike out to my Escape in the parking lot, another problem presented itself: How to get the back in the vehicle when there already was a stroller and two pumpkins in the back?! I got the kids settled in first and then went around to the back to scope things out. I picked up the bike and placed it gingerly on top of the stroller (thank God it wasn’t the double stroller!!) and rested the training wheels on top the pumpkins. The handlebars had to go over the back seat and rest near Caitlyn’s head, but that was okay. She enjoyed twirling the streamers and oogling over the bike.

I hopped into the car, started it up and got ready to drive off when I noticed the open door light was on. Drat! The back door wasn’t closed all the way! That took another 5 minutes of finagling to get the bike’s tires pushed further in so I could slam the door firmly shut. Whew!

The bike is now safely hanging out in my parent’s garage (in one piece) until Christmas and I was able to save my parent’s a ton of money on it. Oh happy day when things go on clearance!

Does anybody know of any good Halloween events coming up for little ones to attend? I plan to take Caitlyn to “Little Boo at the Zoo” on Thursday at The Toledo Zoo. We’ve never been to it before but I’ve heard really good things about it. Plus, the zoo is Caitlyn’s favorite place to go, so why not? We’re already members so it will only cost us $3.50 for her to dress up and “trick-or-treat with the animals.”

Other than that, I’m sure there are family-friendly events going on around the county. Any thoughts????

Nothing like getting to work at 7:30 a.m. and being able to say to say that I’ve already had my cake and ice cream for the day! Caitlyn thought I was crazy when I told her to get up this morning and said that we were going to have cake at Grandma’s for breakfast. Hey, birthdays aren’t everyday!

My dad also thought is was funny to give me  a bright pink badge that says “Birthday Girl” in ginormous letters. And he thought I wouldn’t actually wear it to work today……HA!

Yesterday, Dave and I took the kids to Wiard’s Orchard in Ypsilanti for some fall family fun. (Of course, it’s the only place I really wanted to go for my birthday — the big 28 — so we went.) The kids had a great time but next year I think we’ll just stop at the orchard store for some donuts and cider and skip the rest. So now you may be wondering why we would skip it if we had such a great time, right? Well, to be it frank, it’s a rip-off.

The cost just to get in is $10.50 a person. Even Caitlyn, who is only 3, cost $10.50. Children two and younger are free, but there are no kid price discounts. The problem is that once you get inside, it seems like nothing is free except for a few select activities. There are two moonwalks for kids, but really how long can you stand there in the cold and watch your kids jump around? Keegan enjoyed bouncing back and forth between the windows to peek out, bu then came the issue of the older kids knocking him over.

Of course, Caitlyn zoomed right in on the petting zoo that had llamas, sheep and goats, but that cost $2 for a little ice cream cone with feed in it to coax the animals over.

Next to that barn was the pony rides. Now, if you have kids you know that pony rides are like a tractor beams — they just get sucked right in. These particular pony rides happened to cost $4 per child. Ouch! The even worse thing was that halfway through the ride (which was Keegan’s first), he decided that he wanted to get off. So he wrapped his arms around my neck and basically pulled himself out of the saddle and into my arms. I felt like I just wasted $4.

Further back on the property was a station that was set up for “gem mining,” only $5 a try; face painting for $3; sand art in tiny little containers for $3 or $4, and rubber ducky racing for $2 (and I don’t even think you got to keep the cheap little duck that would have cost 25 cents at the store). We quickly avoided everything that was under that overhang!

There was putt-putt golf that I think was free, but rather impossible to do with a wiggly 1-year-old. There also was the haunted attractions that could be accessed doing the day without much of the scary features, but, once again, how do you take two small children and a stroller through those??

I didn’t even see some of the items that were advertised on the Web site as part of the admission price such as the giant slide and straw mountain. These are things the kids would have enjoyed.

One of the best parts of the trip was the free hayride. Caitlyn wanted to throw the hay overboard and Keegan just wanted to reach out and touch the passing trees. They both seemed to enjoy getting lugged around the property on a giant wagon. We could have opted to ride on top of the fire truck instead, but it would have been harder to contain the two of them out in the open like that.

We did make a visit out to the pumpkin patch to pick out two “plumply, dumply pumpkins” for the kids to decorate near the end of our trip. Eight bucks later and we had those nestled safely in the back of the car.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, but I think it’s geared more toward older kids who can get more bang for their buck by visiting all the haunted attractions. If we ever go there again for their fall county fair days, we’ll make sure the kids are a bit older.

 When grocery shopping, do you ever come home with bags of junk food that you don’t remember putting in the cart? Ever wonder how you get to the checkout line only to discover that you’ve spent way over your budget? And then you get home to find out that despite spending all that extra cash, you still forgot a bunch of stuff you need?

Here’s what I do to keep things organized and on budget when grocery shopping:

1. Only take one child with you at a time (if you can help it). I usually leave Keegan home with Dave and take Caitlyn along to keep me company. She likes to help “hold the list” and  tell me what we need to get next (as if she can actually read the list). By taking just one child, I can focus on what needs to be done instead of spending all my time making sure they’re both behaving.

2. Before you go, plan ahead. Because we’ve been so busy lately, I’ve started planning out a week’s worth of meals so that there’s less running for the Golden Arches at the last minute. After I make out the menu, I start a grocery list so that I’m getting exactly what I need to make complete meals and not just a bunch of freezer junk food that gets nuked in the microwave. This is a great way to curb impulse spending. Stick to the list!

3. Take a calculator. Boy, nothing stops me from throwing extras in the cart like watching the numbers adding up on the calculator. To keep an actual running tally instead of just guessing where I’m at keeps me grounded.

4. Start clipping. For the first time in my life I actually own a coupon box. And yes, I’m actually using it, too! Previously, all the coupons that came my way would end up crumpled in the kitchen junk drawer. Now they’re all organized by section in my bright blue box and Caitlyn likes to help me search through them at the store. She also likes to “help” me clip them out.

5. Don’t shop at just one store. I’ve discovered that I save a ton of money by doing my shopping at a few places instead of trying to cram everything in at Meijer.  I’ve started buying all my fruits and veggies at Ciolino’s and it has been well worth it! Caitlyn and I went last night and I got all the veggies and fruits on my list for $11….try topping that at Meijer! I also like to go to Aldi’s to get pantry items such as soups and noodles.

Since I started using these methods, I have cut my grocery bill in half. Instead of spending close to $250 every three weeks, last night my total was $116. And by using all the in-store ad specials last night at Meijer, I saved $48.50! Yes, I was doing the Shawna-Happy-Dance last night!

I was sent this link by a co-worker and I laughed so hard that I had to share it. This comic condenses everything a mother would say in an average day into 2 minutes and 53 seconds….. She’s my hero!