First Official Weekend of Fall 2011

I had Thursday off from work this past week, because I have some vacation days to use up before the baby is born.  So, Hailey and I met my mom for lunch at Baker's Square.  Hailey chose turkey on the kids' menu, which came with mashed potatoes and a vegetable.  She chose broccoli and substituted fries for the mashed potatoes.  I was so proud that the first thing she cleared off her plate was the broccoli, followed by the turkey, and then just a few fries.  After lunch, we went over to Kohl's to try to use up the Kohl's cash we had gotten from our purchases the weekend before.  In case you don't know what that is, Kohl's gives you $10 store credit for every $50 in purchases.  $10 buys at least one shirt for Hailey, so it's not a bad deal.  I'll admit I had a difficult time trying to figure out what to spend my free money on.  I made some quick decisions at the end, because I was tired of walking through the store, and ended up not wanting two of the things I picked out.  I knew we'd be going back again to exchange them.  Let's just see how many trips we can make to Kohl's in two weeks!  Ugh!

On Friday after Brian got home from work, we headed up to a small farm in Wisconsin who we get our straw bales and corn husks from to decorate the outside of the house for Fall.  His prices are very reasonable...two large straw bales and 1 decorative corn husk was a total of $12.  Plus, they have chickens, bunnies, cats, and pigs there that Hailey likes to look at.

On Saturday, Brian, Hailey, and I headed back to Kohl's to take those couple purchases back and finish spending the Kohl's cash.  We also headed over to Carter's to get a going-home outfit for the new baby.  Boy does it seem even harder to find gender-neutral clothing than it did when Hailey was born!!  Carter's had only one rack...that's it!  After we finished at Carter's (and a quick visit to the Disney store across the hall), Brian and Hailey headed home, and I headed down to meet some former co-workers for lunch.  It had been a while since we had last gotten together, so it was really fun seeing them and catching up!  On my way home from lunch, I stopped off at JoAnn Fabrics to pick up some material to make Hailey a princess cape she can use to play dress-up in.  The material was on sale for $2.99 a yard!  I'm hoping I'll have a little time this week to work on that.  Saturday evening, we got the house all decorated for Fall.

On Sunday morning, we went to church.  It had been a looong time since we'd been, so it was very uplifting to hear God's word.  They are covering the Ten Commandments right now and today's sermon was on the "Though shall not covet thy neighbor's..." commandment.  It was a great sermon!  Hailey always wants to sit with us in the service instead of going to Sunday school, but after a little convincing, she decided to stay in Sunday school today.  When we picked her up, she said she had a great time and wanted to know if we could come back again!  Of course we can!  I was so excited that not only did she have a good time, but that she liked it so much she wanted to come back!  After church, we worked on some more "to do" list items and then Hailey and I made a moral training chart that I had read about in a book on raising three to seven year olds.  The goal of the chart is to teach children how to act morally in all situations.  Each time they do, you explain to them what they did to show that trait/moral, and then they get a sticker.  Every time they accumulate all the stickers for that trait/moral, they get a special treat (such as a McDonald's Happy Meal for lunch one day).  She got a sticker today for "Faithfulness" for being brave to stay in Sunday school and learn about God instead of sitting in the service with us.  I know there are other ways to show faithfulness and that's the nice thing about this chart...it's not just specific to one activity and the repetition of that activity.  I'm looking forward to seeing how she does!

 You may want to click on this picture to enlarge it to see the words better.