"Legates' Family Vacation" ~Coming Summer Of 2011~

My husband is so smart, I would just like to say that. A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I were talking about vacation this summer. He wanted to take a "REAL" vacation this time, and not just short day trips like we do on most vacations. He suggested that we let the kids decide. My first thought was "You can't just let them pick anything you know." but my husband being the smart man he is, had already come up with a plan to safeguard against that. He suggested that we (meaning Jeremy and I), would pick out 3 places (3 family approved places)(3 price approved places), and from there we would let the kids decide. Brilliant! And the 3 choices are...


~The Beach~
Outer banks NC
     -Sand castles
     -Waves
     -Swimming
     -Mini golf

~The Mountains~
Smith mountain lake VA
     -Lake
     -Boats
     -Hiking
     -Fishing

~History~
Williamsburg VA
     -Discovery
     -Learning
     -Great wolf loge
     -Bush gardens


Jeremy had a slide show made on the computer, explaining all of the places and fun things to do there. Very exciting! We showed this to the boys Monday morning. They were very excited, and they love the slide show with all of the pictures and such. We told them to take a few days to think about it, and not the tell us anything yet, and on Friday they would write in their journals, and tell where they wanted to go and why. Wonderful plan! This gave them a few days to really think it over.

Yup it's Friday, and yes the votes are in, so where are we going? Well I'll just write what the kids wrote.

~Darien~
     I would like to go to the Mountains, because we can go fishing and paddle a paddle boat. I never did that before, and I want to know what it is like. I would also like to climb a Mountain.

~Zachary~
     I want to go to the Beach. I want to go there because I like to play mimi golf and play in the sand. When I play mimi golf I will play with a red ball, and when I play in the sand I will make a big sand castle.

~Nathaniel~ (with help from mommy, on writing and spelling)
     For vacation this summer I want to go to the Beach. At the beach I'm going to make a sand castle. I would also like to play in the water.


So there you have it. The beach won. That was a big surprise for me, because I was sure all 3 of them were going to pick History (because of the Great wolf loge), but none of them did. I'm glad they all wrote about what they wanted and nothing else. Now I know how they feel, and I hope Darien won't be to disappointed. I'm sure once he gets a golf club in his hand he'll be fine. Thanks for reading!

What I want for Christmas is...

So I have been hearing a lot of Christmas wishing in my house lately. I'm sure all of you with kids have been as well. It has been a lot of "I want this for Christmas." and "Can I have that?"

Its also no big surprise that my kids have a few video games on their list. My oldest Darien, has a very big item on his list "The Lego Harry Potter Hogwart's Castle." Now I know Christmas is (to some degree) about making your kids happy, but to what extent?

This year I have been stressing to my kids the true meaning of Christmas, because this year I feel like they are all big enough (not counting Olivia) to understand. Of course they already knew the true meaning of Christmas, but this year I have been stressing it.

I don't want my kids to grow up thinking they can have whatever they want. If only life were that easy right? The thing is that, the big item that Darien wants is $130. Yeah, their is no way! Now if Darien were an only child and that was all he was getting then sure maybe (a big maybe, mind you), but no.

Now you may think (not all of you but some maybe) that maybe it's not fair, that he is not an only child, and that if he really wants it... I mean if an only child could have that for Christmas, then why can't a child with siblings?... It does seen kind of unfair right?... Wrong!!

This is where the frustration starts (kind of). See it's a gift from God to have siblings, I remember when I was little, that I always had someone to play with, and it was really nice. I remember playing Barbies with Mindy, and playing Cars with Wesley, and also remember playing stuffed animal with little Shelby (not so little anymore). When I was a kids I did everything with them, and that it was fun, and to have this particular gift, sometimes you have to make sacrifices (and they are well worth it). My children also have this blessing, and I want them to think of it as a gift. I told him the reason he can't have that item is because it's to much for just one item, and if I buy this one item, that only he wants, it's not fair to everyone else. I think he understands now. The real reason that he wanted it was because, he wanted all of the characters. This will be easily solved by buying two of the smaller, and less expensive sets. Yay for me!

See I have been seeing a big flaw in my generation, they are really selfish. They must have THIS car, and THAT computer, and they HAVE to have this, and WEAR that name brand, and have THIS furniture, and it's just sick. Why?... No wonder America has no money, it's because of them! They finance EVERYTHING, and then they don't have the money to pay for it, so the government does. Yeah that's right, and yeah that's what I think, and I am not going to let my children grow up acting and thinking like that. Take a stand America, and start raising your children right.

Okay I'm sorry I let this post go into they whole America spending problem, but I just want to remind all of you parents to focus on what's important, and teach your kids to do the same. Merry Christmas!

That is all thanks for reading :)

Trick-or-treating / Christmas shopping!

So last night I went trick-or-treating with my sons, and Jeremy stayed at home with the baby. We had tons of fun. I made up a map of our neighbor hood so we could mark off the houses once we rang the bell, The plan was to try to get them all. I set out with the boys. Darien and Zachary were Power Rangers, and Nathaniel was Batman, I was Winnie the Pooh.

It was fun, we didn't get to all of the houses, because it was windy out, and that made it colder, but we did end up with a lot of candy. Plenty, and it should last us a long time. I had so much fun. One of our neighbors had made their garage into a haunted house. If you walked through, you got more candy. Darien was the only one brave enough to do it. He said it was dark and there were skeletons, and scary costumes, but he wanted the candy, and he didn't care. He came out laughing and said "That was fun mom!" Nathaniel just hung on to my leg, he wasn't going anywhere near that house. I saw some really great costumes. One kids was dress up like a robot, it was great. He even had a flash light in has head piece. I also saw a really good Vampire one. It didn't look cheaply made, and she looked great in it. Lots of people were just hanging out in their font yard, playing music, dancing, and handing out candy. It was great, like a big neighbor hood hang out. After covering about half the neighbor hood, we headed home. We ate some candy, then went to bed. The kids now have plenty of candy. I divided it up and put it into buckets with their names on them, so they can eat it at their on pace (when allowed). I told the boys that they can eat some after meals, as long as they ate all of their food, and after school work. Sugar rush anyone?


I also have good news (well good for me), I'm all finished Christmas shopping! YAY! I finished it on Friday, and I am so happy, and I can't wait to wrap all of the gifts. I order it all online. Right now Amazon and Toys R Us are offering free shipping so it just made sense to order all of them. This way I don't have to worry about trying to buy things without my kids seeing. Since I homeschool, they don't go to school, so I can't buy things when they are at school, and they always go with me everywhere. I also got to compare prices with both Amazon and Toys R Us (they don't always have the same), and buy things from the best place. I started by making a wish list on Toys R Us, then I took that list and looked up all of those items on Amazon, and I wrote down who had the best price. This saved me $40 dollars. If I order everything off of Toys R Us, then the total would have been $360, and if I order everything off of Amazon the the total would have been $370, but since I went back and forth the total was $320 (yeah). Amazon has really good prices on Lego, and Toys R Us has great prices on Board games.

This year my husband and I thought of a great Idea. We are not putting labels on the boys gifts, because they share everything anyways. This way they will all get more presents, and it took the pressure off of us, because we didn't have to worry about how much money we spent on each of them. We just got things they all would like. So much easier!

Bones and Kettle Corn

So last Thursday (the 14th), Jeremy had a class and had to say over night in Philadelphia. I love to watch Bones, however Jeremy doesn't like it much, so on the Thursday nights that he is home, I just skip it and watch it on hulu the next day. So last Thursday I was super excited, because I would be able to watch Bones on the night it aired, without hearing "Oh no were watching this?" My plan was to put that kids to bed turn on Bones, and pop some Kettle pop corn. Once I started flipping through the channels however, I soon dicovered that there wasn't any Bones, there was only MLB play-offs (sad). I hadn't pop my pop corn yet (thank goodness), and I thought about still doing it and eat it while playing warcraft, but decided that I wasn't hungry enought to eat the whole thing, and it's a crime to waste kettle pop corn, and it just a bad idea. I just can't live with myself knowing that I had wasted kettle corn

When I was telling all of this to Jeremy, and I mentioned to him about wasting kettle corn, and everything else, he laughed and said "So if you were applying for a loan and they bring up your credit history, it's going to have in red letters '"Can't be trusted wasted kettle corn!"' Exactly!

So don't go wasting Kettle corn, it's just a bad idea.