My Favorite App!

I found an app that I just love and thought other mothers out there could use it too.  We all need to teach our kids about the value of money.  For my kids though, it seemed like they either lost the money or never had it with them when they wanted something.  So I found this app called "KidsBank" that makes me their bank.

How it works:
When the kids get money from Birthdays or tooth fairies, they can give the money to me and I add it to their bank account.  In addition to that I set up a list of chores and how much each chore pays.  When the chore is complete I credit their account.

Things I like about it:

• They always have their money with them.  
• I no longer decided what they can have and not have.  They decide if they want to spend the money on that item.
• The app allows you to determine the percentage that your kids have to save and how much they have to give to charity.
• I will allow me to print an account statement that shows them where they spent/earned their money.

If you have a smart phone, check it out.

Eye Doctors

Polina saw an eye doctor when we first came home and he thought her eyes looked good but wanted to see her back in 6 months for a follow up.  We went back in the fall and he noticed some drifting and had us use eye drops to blur one eye to let the other one work harder.  After 6 weeks things looked good but shortly later it started to drift again.  Polina has now been diagnosed with Strabismus.  This seems to be very common in kids adopted from Eastern Europe.  She has started to loose vision in her right eye so we have been patching her left eye for 2 hours every day.  She will have surgery in May to correct her alignment and hopefully that will be the end of it.

Strabismus also known as squint-eye and crossed-eye, is a condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned with each other. It typically involves a lack of coordination between the extraocular muscles, which prevents bringing the gaze of each eye to the same point in space and thus hampers proper binocular vision, and which may adversely affect depth perception. 

Rhea Lana

For the past several years I have seen ads for consignment sales around town but I never bothered to go.  Last fall I went to one for the first time.  I had no clue what I was missing out on!  This sale is held at our local convention center and it is huge!  With Polina growing out of some of her clothes I decided that I would try to sell some items this time.  I entered 87 items in the sale and sold 70.  My sales totaled $397 and I brought home $275.  Beats t he heck out of giving it away.  

Growth

So Polina is now 37" (38%) and weighs 27.5 (10%) lbs.  She is 3 years and 3 months old.

The first picture was taken Nov 18, 2011 and the second photo was taken Jan 14th, 2013 (14 months later)

Nerf

My oldest boy turned 9 this year and is crazy about Nerf guns.  He ask me for a Nerf party so I googled it and found some pretty great ideas from people that have way more time than I do!  You see, Polina's birthday is the end of October and my 2 boys and husband are all within the first 2 weeks of December!  So I have become a master at outsourcing during this time of the year.  I came up with the idea of hiring the 2 teenage boys that live next door to be the platoon commanders.  In November I sent this email to each kid...

Subject:  Telegram for (child's name) 

I found long sleeved camo shirts at Old Navy for $4 a piece.  My son and I came up with 2 names for the teams.  We created logos for each on the computer and then I printed them on special paper and ironed them on the back of the shirt.

Golden Vipers

Silver Hawks 

I found a place on Amazon that made personalized dog tags 2 for $5!

Each one was engraved with their name and  team.   

My dad picked up a bunch of boxes from a local appliance store and my husband and neighbor boys set them all up in the backyard.

 

Needless to say the kids all had a BLAST!  It was hands down the easiest party I ever threw and the kids were talking about it weeks later.

The birthday boy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love this time of year.  I like to get out our Chirstmas decorations right after Thanksgiving so I have lots of time to enjoy them before the season ends.  Shortly after Halloween I started showing Polina Christmas DVDs and reading Christmas books to help her start to understand the season.  She has since become VERY concerned about the big guy.  We have since given him the code name "Harold".  For about the past week or so, the first words out of Polinas mouth were "mom, where Santa?"  This would go on the entire day.  So last Sunday we took our annual trip to see Santa.

As you can see she was not nearly as excited to see him once we got there.

By the time we left the play place she was saying "Santa, watch me"

Before we left the house, I ask the boys to put on something with Christmas colors and these are the shirts they chose.  LOL

 Every year after we see Santa we stop at Fritz's.  The food is horrible but this kids LOVE the train that delivers the food to your table.

After Fritz's we always check out the gingerbread houses and then head to the Westin and on to Union Station for some of the Seasons best decor.

Brett thinks he's getting to old for this "Santa" stuff but I love how he has taken on the role of "caring" for his little sister.

I have been taking my kids to the same Santa every year since my oldest was 6 days old.  I told Brett when we got home that he is under contract to have his picture with Santa until the age of 18.  He finger printed the contract before we would take him home from the hospital. At least that is what we have told him.  He said that was entirely not fair...but he believes that he's stuck and has to do it!  LOL

Why is it that getting a good family photo is so hard???