Friday? Still the Fun Day!

Yep, no matter how stressful, no matter how hectic, Friday is still our "escape" day!

The leftover half a loaf of french bread, we turned it into french toast! Mr. Man suggested it and he is a genius for that. He himself loves french toast so that was an expert suggestion in my book! (I so love that man! Whew, is it hot in here or is it just me? LOL)
Then, it's time to let our cockatiel out! We let him out and he says "hello" to everyone by opting to land and play with any of us. I-Dude got that honor this morning. Look at that smile!Then he finds a bigger mirror and "sings to his friend" in there. LOL
Cece and Dexter seem to have "private" conversations when they're together. I wonder if it's about how to convince us to let him out more. ;-)
After our typical "leftover smorgasbord" lunch and a nap, we headed to Half Price Books again for the last day of their Reading Promotion. J-Pony held on to her coupon last week and earned another one this week. Her choices, she found a computer game she saved her coupon for and two great books with today's coupon. She saved $6 and only paid, $5.83! As for I-Dude, he saved $3 with his coupon and paid only 1.08 for two books!

Btw, it's official, my girls are Anthony Horowitz fans and our family's hooked on the Berenstain Bears series. Michelle found "My Sister's Keeper" and a photo editing software.
When we got out, we decided to look into DSW Shoe Factory and try on some shoes. As you can see, I-Dude was not enjoying the "activity of choice". LOL
Here's me finding a great sparkly pair in the Clearance section. (My cell took this pic and I look like my feet are jaundiced.) *hee hee*
But before that, I tried on this 4-in. "blind ya" number! Cute, but not me...
Here's J-Pony finding a great pair for a wedding...
And I-Dude slipping into some Rocket Dog slip-ons! There was no children's section... ;-(
Here's J with a sweet turqoise pair that matched her socks.
Michelle found some really cute ones, too, but the prices, not so cute! Yep, the only thing we're able to afford, the browsing and try-ons, what else? Before we left and after all those we tried on, this is the pair I fell in love with! It just looks like fairy slippers made of leaves and vines. (But as you can see, even with that blue (40% off the shown price) tag, I can't afford it.)
Then off towards HOME to make dinner and since it's Friday, it's also movie and soda night! (I get nominated for Mother of the Year weekly because of these two. LOL) As you can see, we chose to watch...

Well since I've also blogged about our day, it is officially over... It's some ME time now. (Whatever that is...) ;-)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, EVERYBODY!!!

Half Price Books Delivered!

Today, we dropped off Mr. Man at Love Field, went to Ace Hardware and saw a bench/arbor I love. (cell took this picture-bright day)

Then, off to Half Price Books to redeem the kiddos' $3 off coupon. While browsing, we spotted a stash of Geronimo Stilton books, a family favorite! We have been looking for some more titles for a long time now without the aid of school bookfairs, so this find was a real treat! And the over "half price" tag helped a lot! *woot woot* You should have seen the kiddos, J-Infinity and I-Dude made sure they started on one title each in the van. So cute though not surprising! We still had a long ways to go, look at all these titles!
(Daily Trends dot net)
For dinner, we treated ourselves and I made Taco Salad similar to this.
(Carl's Jr. dot com)
But in mine (below), I used thin slices of beef, I made my own Mexican rice, cheese, red leaf lettuce shreds, tomato cubes and sour cream. It was WOW! Michelle loved it, too! (sorry, I had to eat before I took the picture. LOL)


Hope you had a great Wednesday!

Test Results are IN!

And J-Pony and L-Infinity did a great job on their TAKS tests! It's equivalent to the Terra Nova and SAT-9.

J-Pony missed being COMMENDED (better than national average) by 1 point on one of the categories. But had a very impressive score all around! She's still in the 99th percentile. Last year, she got a perfect score! Great job, J!

L-Infinity got COMMENDED on all categories, putting her also on the 99th percentile and which qualified her to earn a FREE 100% grade on any major tests, except finals, on Math, English, Science and Social Studies next school year! That's 4 perfect tests she gets to earn! Woohoo! That is a big burden off her shoulders as it will be her Senior year and the stakes are higher. You know how right I am about that.

I-Dude and J-Pony earned themselves an A-B Honor roll both semesters; she forgot to turn in two-three homeworks each semester and he got sick too many times and missed graded classwork. We just don't know what happened to those homeworks.
They both got good grades in LEAP so we're happy. J got nominated and awarded "A Kid with Character", meaning she excelled in all six traits! She earned a spot on the Hall of Fame Wall! I-Dude had a near Perfect on both Math and Spelling and he is the Best Reader in class. If he didn't miss any tests from being sick, he would have been in the "A Honor Roll" on both semesters, a goal to work on next year...
Also, for reading 1000 minutes last summer, I-Dude and J-Pony pioneer the first ever, along with the other first set of students (only 31 out of hundreds), commemoration plaque of the very first Readers Hall of Fame program sponsored by the PTA for the school. You bet we're doing that again! They both earned a medal and certificate at the start of the year.
They also both earned their second round of Six Flags tickets for reading 6 hours during the Six Flags Reading challenge.

Oh, you didn't know, my children are bonafide bookworms! They would bypass a snack if there's a new book in the house! Love them for that!

Now, as J-Pony gets ready to wind down from 4th grade next week and enjoy summer to get ready for 5th grade... L-Infinity has to focus her natural talents to get an edge on the competition and start to pick a college. I personally, am biting my nails as to which one she'll choose! I'm hoping for BYU of course! ;-)

Enjoy your Saturday...

We're A Reading Family!

In our little family, books are just as important as food, so each family member reads, reads and reads some more. I, the mom, act as the proofer, and end up reading most of these books; and in all honesty, I prefer Children's and Young Adult books to Adult fiction because they are more imaginative and a better means of escaping mundane things we call life.

Look at some of these books we've read... And I mean only some, we have many more books that had to be boxed up due to lack of space and to us, libraries are more appealing than McD's chicken nuggets or Sonic's milkshakes. That should give you an idea how much we read...

How about your family?