Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Friends, shopping, and a great website

Not the best blog title...maybe I should've said, "Busy Day!" We had a great day yesterday.  It began with a little mini-reunion with some former Campus Outreach Thailand teammates.  From L-R, there was Kara, me, Catherine, Melody, Mandy (Melody's daughter), Caitlyn (Catherine's daughter), and Catherine is holding her cute little guy, Caleb.  I don't think I can ever get enough of spending time with such awesome women!  Melody, Catherine, and several of the other women that were on the team formed a strong bond while we were in Thailand together.  I often miss the times of fellowship and conversation that we used to have together.  These women have impacted me for life...and I'm so grateful to have experienced a little piece of Heaven through my relationships with them!
 After lunch I thought I would take the kids to Target to spend some of their Christmas money.  Have any of you taken advantage of the after-Christmas toy markdowns there?  I usually don't because 1) I usually hear about it after the fact and 2) Target is an hour away and I usually wouldn't just go there unless I'm already in town.  My first thought was to take the kids to Toys R Us, but then it occurred to me that I had read about the markdowns and thought...hmm..the kids could probably get a lot more for less.  Off we went!   Isaac was able to get this big Thomas the Train pop up play tent (which he LOVES!), a foam sword (he loves swords of any kind..lol...all boy), and a Curious George book.  Sophie was able to get a smaller Tinker Bell play tent, a little Tinker Bell plastic storage container, a bead design thing (with lots of beads!), a Leapster Game (only $7!), and a rubbery puppet that she had been holding constantly!  Lots of good deals.  I think we hit the tail end of the sale, though, because there was only one aisle of stuff left...but we still found plenty of things that the kids liked.
I was excited, too, because I found some small storage caddies for homeschooling that I can put a bottle of glue, a pair of scissors, and some crayons and markers in.  I used them today and it's perfect for the girls to have their own little caddie at their table instead of trying to share.  They did find with sharing, but it just cuts down on space.  I went ahead and got one for Isaac, too, since he'll be starting school in a year or so.
Last night as I was preparing for school this week I came across a great website that I had to share!  This would be great for teachers or for homeschoolers.  I printed off one of their free booklets that had an activity the girls could do that went right along with the booklet.  There are also lots of other resources on there.  The site: http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/.
I feel like I've finally found a little reading program that will be good for the girls and will help them keep learning new words.
Hope all of you are having a good week! 
Blessings~Stacey

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