Garage Sales, Ect.

These past couple weeks of garage saling were not as sucessful as our jackpot find but we still picked up a couple items for some sweet deals:

Little Tikes Swing: $5

Gap Yellow Raincoat: 50 cents.

Little Tikes Fire Truck: 25 Cents!  I offered a dollar and she took one look at Landon and said "Oh, for him?  How about a quarter?" Ha! That is the first time anyone has every counter offered less :)
Yoda Costume $1....I stuck this in the wash the minute I got home, couldn't wait to see him in it!!
Fisher Price Little People Sound Barn: $1
Fisher Price Little People Discovery Airport: $1
Fisher Price Little People Barn: $1
Mego Bloks Trucks .50 cents each.

And we hosted our own garage sale this weekend!  It wore these two kids out:

Proceeds are going to help pay for my garage sale addiction and we also wanted to clear out some junk before we MOVE.  Yep, the bank accepted out offer and we are having home inspections done this week.  Fingers crossed.

Pinterest Inspired Play

Lately we've been putting all of our Pins to good use!  First we made some fun glow stick water bottles.  We just saved some empty water bottles, filled them back up with water and stuck in some glow sticks that we had bought for $1 at Michaels (You can find them at the Dollar Store too)  I had pinned this idea from HERE.  They actually used their bottles for glow in the dark bowling! How cool is that?!  Definitely going to have to try it when The Wombat gets a little older but for now, just playing with the bottles is intriguing enough to keep him occupied.

Then we whipped up some homemade finger paints.  I was pretty stoked about these because, while L has pretty much grown out of the everything-in-the-mouth stage, his curiosity gets the best of him sometimes.  Plus all the ingredients were already in my cupboard.  Yes! We gave out all of his original artwork to family members when we were finished :)

Here is the recipe:

VIA

Then we did some good old fashioned painting with water.  No hassle.  No mess.  Just a paint brush and some water and an excuse to try on our new little yellow GAP raincoat (garage sale 50 cents)!!!

Next on our to-do list: Liquid Side Walk Chalk!!

Giraffe Encounter

The Sacramento Zoo is not huge. 

It doesn't have very many animals. It only takes about an hour to walk through the whole thing. But it is a quaint city zoo with affordable prices, a train, a merry-go-round, a reptile house and lots of shady trees. It is perfect for a little family outing, which is why we have passes and head there about three times a month.

You can also feed the giraffes for three dollars.  THREE DOLLARS!!! The problem is, the feedings are usually around 11 a.m. which coincides with naptime so we are usually long gone by then.   However, a couple months ago we timed everything just right and my dad was there to take some great shots of The Wombat's very first giraffe feeding experience....which happened to be me and Heidi's first experince too.

Landon was utterly fascinated by them but it gave me the heebie geebies. Their tongues are pretty creepy and for future giraffe encounters I would prefer to hide behind the camera and leave the feeding to Ben. 

Jaclyn wimped out so here is her version:

Mini Mountain Getaway

Ben and I were fortunate enough to get a night away together this week!  My wonderful father in law had given us an anniversary gift (in April) that included a gift certificate to Sorensen's Resort, use of his BMW (which Ben was ecstatic about) and overnight babysitting (which I was ecstatic about).

So on Monday we headed up the mountain.  We stopped for dinner at the Kirkwood Inn.  It's like the best hole in the wall restaurant/bar EVER. The food and atmosphere are amazing.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at Sorensen's.  There was some wine and a cute little note wishing us a happy 3rd anniversary waiting for us in our cabin.  We hiked around.  Had dessert in our cabin.  Ate the BEST breakfast at the cafe.  We brought our books, mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the silence.  Quiet time really only exists when Landon is sleeping these days so it was nice to have a serene getaway.

We have a toddler in the house who demands most of our attention, which we gladly give, but it is so nice and SO IMPORTANT for our marriage to have some alone time and focus only on each other.  We are so blessed that all of Landon's grandparents are more than willing to give us that chance :)

Some Afternoon Croquet

Ben taught Landon how to play croquet at my sister Jessica's wedding:

How cute is that?!?!