Quest to Find a Good Winter Coat 2

I went shopping with the boys tonight. Plus I got Mica's picture taken at the Picture People. I had one of their huge coupon packages. Isaak's next in line to get his photo taken. I'm waiting for his new hat to come in the mail; before getting his photo taken.

I was hoping the mall would be dead. Huskers are playing football tonight. I hate dislike football. Of course I live in a city that goes crazy over their college football team. All non football lovers must of had the same idea as me {let's go shopping}. It really wasn't that dead.

The boys were more then crazy while waiting for our photos! I mean running, giggling, jumping and taunting one another! I had to pin hug Isaak. They are so good singly! Together it's wrestle, chase and fight. The rest of the time they were good.

My quest to look for a winter coat continued. It's my goal to find one with a metal zipper, not cheap plastic. One that will last through 2 boys. I first posted about this here. I found a heavy jacket at Kohls. It's a Silver Point Plaid Flannel Jacket.

Tonight I went to Children's Place, Gap Kids, Yonkers and Crazy 8. All of which had plastic zippers.

My last stop was Gymboree. The boys begged to go down the escalator. I had already taken going to the toy store away as punishment for misbehaving in Picture People. Did I ever mention that I'm slightly afraid of the escalator? I almost lost my balance when I was holding my cousin as a baby. Plus my older sister threatened to push me down the steps when we were kids. Kids! I just picture falling and slamming my head against the metal edges. OUCH! DEADLY!

Image found here.

All was ok on the escalator. Isaak wanted to jump on himself, but I wouldn't let him. I was expecting to find nothing at Gymboree. Their website just started featuring winter coats this week. Crazy 8 is a sister store, and their coats had plastic zippers. To my surprise I scored! Did I mention that I love that store! Not only is everything cute, but they have TV's in the back. I either needed a TV or a track for my boys! Sure things are higher priced. That's why I hit their sales rack, or catch them when they have sales. They also have Gymbucks. Kohls has something like that to. If you spend over a certain amount, they'll give you bucks to spend in their store later. This is good and bad. Good if you remember to spend it, bad if you forget or loose it. Well I remembered this time, and I didn't loose it.

I bought this metal zipper pea coat for $50. It was originally $70. I got $25 knocked off of that with my Gymbucks:

It's a little dressy, looks super great on Mica, has a metal zipper, grow room, a hood, it wasn't too expensive and it's neutral enough that any hat will work as long as it's not black. If he goes sledding, I might make him wear his crappy, hard to zip puffy coat from last year.

Other Features of this coat:

• Microfleece lining; nylon sleeve lining
• Detachable button hood
• Inset zip placket
• Front pockets
• Machine washable

I also bought this for Isaak. I may make it be from the man with a white beard. Isaak loves puppies! He didn't have a clue what I was buying because he was watching TV. ;)

They have a whole line of puppy and train shirts right now! Perfect for my boys!

The Elevator to Doom

I got a praying mantis attacking a bee on video. He/she has been hanging out in front of Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs' house for a week. 

 

You can hear the boys talking in the background. It's impossible for them to be quiet. They were excited to see this praying mantis attack. Kind of creepy, yet kind of interesting.

Yesterday I Signed a Baby's Cast

It's been awhile since I've seen any of Aunt Terra's family. We went to KC one weekend, then they were sick and then Isaak was sick. I stayed away on purpose just because I didn't want sickness to be passed back and forth. Isaak could of had what their family had. Sickness is a vicious cycle! I hate finding out that my family was responsible for getting other people sick. It happens though.

Cousin Emerson got a cast on his leg to fix his club foot. His foot got nicknamed, "Magic Foot." The cast did go up a little higher then they thought it would. I imagine that it's harder to cast a baby's foot. No bones were broken. They just massage his little foot and cast it. They were hoping for a yellow cast, but had to go with white.

I love seeing all the signatures on his  cast! Some of them are kid signatures. I helped Isaak sign his name.

They are trying to work on getting him to take a bottle. He needs to exercise his throat muscles. He did a little tiny bit today. It's a start. He's trying to suck his fingers. In this case it would be great if he did. Aunt Terra's finger could use a rest. :)

Guess Who's Been Trying to Whistle?

Our 3 year old Isaak's the one! Only it's not just a regular whistle he's trying out, it's a fingers in the mouth and blow whistle.

What he does is a fingers in the mouth and scream un-whistle. Let me tell you, listening to it 10 times in the evening is annoying!

Do we ignore his new found un-tallent, do we tell him to knock it off {which is what we have been doing} or do we make him go outside on the porch to fake whistle? If we make him go outside, people in our neighborhood might think something is wrong at our house.

Fact: I have never been able to whistle a tune. I went to a camp when I was in elementary school. I was nominated as the person in our group to go eat a bunch saltine crackers and whistle. I was running against about 5 other kids. I knew I wouldn't win. Guess what? I did win! It wasn't a tune I whistled, but I was the first to make whistle sound.

I actually found a video that teaches a person how to whistle like this:

WW: First Pumpkin of 2011 {Linky}

 Isaak just wanted to throw grass. I call his second photo: Punk and a Pumpkin.

 Mica was excited to sit with our first pumpkin.

What's your favorite pumpkin recipe? Mine is Pumpkin Crisp!

I Keep Messing Things Up

Do you ever have nights like that?

I attached my WW link to a Linky that was for Giveaways only.

Then I responded on FB to a person that was asking if a bunch of people live in India, "I don't like in India." When I meant to write, "I don't live in India." So there are probably some people that think I'm just an awful person right about now. I corrected myself and said, "I meant to say I don't live in India. I like India." Uggg!

There is a saying, "Don't drive when you are drunk or tired." I think this applies to typing to!

It's been a long day! Next week is midterm week, so I was having students turn in projects left and right today. Then I was reading and correcting student PowerPoints for presentations all day today.

Duplo Tower

Daddy just posted this on Facebook:

Last Night the Boys and I Made Pizza From Scratch

I know it's not the healthiest thing to eat in the world. Every once in awhile it's ok to eat, and fun to make! The process took forever to make it by scratch.

Isaak loved patting the dough out.

Then the boy's took turns putting different toppings on. There was no fighting! :) They really like helping me in the kitchen, but sometimes fight over who gets to help with what. Isaak seems to be a little more interested in helping over Mica. That's a little odd because Isaak's the younger one.

Here's Isaak's hand putting down the olives:

Here's Mica's hand putting down the healthy pepperoni:

It also had tomatoes from our garden, cubes of feta cheese, garlic, onions and mozzarella cheese on the top.

Oh and the boys got to try something new last night. They haven't had any zucchini in awhile. I love it, Mica kind of eyed it for awhile before trying it.

Funny Things the Kids Said and Did Today

Isaak said, "Hey Momma watch me!" Me, "Ok I'm watching." ;) He jumps up, goes to kick a ball, misses and falls on his butt. LOL He wasn't hurt.

Isaak's said, "Hey look at my sculpture!" It was a Duplo construction. He had about 7 of his sculptures throughout the house that I was supposed to look at, at different times throughout the day.

Mica made me watch him put together a Lego RC car from Toy Story 2. His instructions, "Mommy you can't look at anything else while I'm showing you how to put this together." I'd try and hand him a piece he needed and he'd say, "Mommy I've got this! I'm an expert at putting this together!"

Mica said, "I just want to make a really old train track. Like one that was from the late 2800's." That had Daddy and I both laughing. :)

Quest to Find a Good Winter Coat?

I've been researching this. The coat I bought for Mica last year was good, except the zipper was not so good! It got so annoying that I'm not even sure we'll pass it down to Isaak.

J Crew has some winter coats that have metal zippers. What I like is that their website has a zoom for the products. I could get so close to see if the zipper was actually metal or not. Some were, some weren't. Their coats are expensive though. Some might say, "You get what you pay for. It will get passed down to the next kid anyhow. I want it to last." Others might say, "I don't want to spend that kind of money!" I understand both perspectives. I'm both a cheep skate, and want quality. Sometimes the two mesh, sometimes they don't.

This one is $138 plus shipping. YIKES at the cost.

I saw last year Gymboree had coats with metal zippers, but they don't have their winter coats out yet. Not even on their website. :( We actually have this store here in town.

I did stop off at Sports Authority just to see if they had any coats for boys. Their selection was really limited. The sales lady did say that their North Face jackets can be worn in the winter. No metal zipper! She did say that they have a lifetime warranty. They were still pretty expensive. I just can't see a kid playing in the snow with a North Face jacket on. 

I then went to Kohls. I didn't find a winter coat with a metal zipper, but I did find a jacket that can be worn for most of the cold days. It's a Silver Point Plaid Flannel Jacket. It was originally $48, and I got it for $28 plus 20% off! It's all soft and lined on the inside (thicker then it looks), has a hood and Mica likes it! SCORE!!!

Other places I plan on trying out: Yonkers, Dillards, Von Mour, Canfields (local camping store) and Scheels. I'll blog when I get to them, which may take me awhile. ;)