Jackpot!

After a morning of yard work with the whole family, followed by a playdate for Amanda, I packed all three kids up into the car and headed for Hanover. 

I promised the girls that we would go shopping for swim goggles, in preparation for next weekend's overnight trip to the Cape to celebrate Dave's birthday.  The hotel will have a pool and a hot tub, and they wanted to be ready.

But first, we had to drop off a donation at Saver's... and I bravely decided to venture into the store with all three kids.  Boy, am I glad I did!  We found so many great bargains on clothes, and I had a 30% off card that needed to be used before it expired.

I have to share photos of our bounty.

Amanda bought the blue sparkly pillow and pink sewing box with her own money.  The beach cabinet is for the upstairs bathroom, and has 5 shelves that are perfect for things like toilet paper and Band-Aids.

Clothes for Liam, Amanda and myself...

Clothes for Eva on the left, and shorts/suede coat for Amanda on the right.

Summer clothes for Liam, skirt for Eva, and the rest for Amanda.

After my discount, my total was $65!  Some of these clothes look brand new, and are Justice brand, much to the girls' delight.

In the meantime, while we were out bargain hunting, Dave headed the opposite direction to Plymouth.  I had found an antique wing chair on our South Shore yard sale site last night, and the first person in line for it never showed up.  I couldn't believe our luck!

This was a steal - - only $15 - - and exactly what we have been looking for.

All of that for $80... wow!

And the best part was, after our Saver's trip, the girls decided I had spent enough money on them and said we didn't need to go shopping for swim goggles!  Little do they know, I just placed an order on Amazon for their goggles and I'll surprise them next weekend.  They did a great job helping out with yard work this morning, and it's nice to give them a treat from time to time.

Boston Ballet: Cinderella

Today the girls are going to see Cinderella, performed by the Boston Ballet, with their grandmother and cousin Jasmine.  This will be a fun day for them, partly because they get to ride on the subway, which is always a treat.

We have another piano player in the family!

I finally started official piano lessons with Liam a few weeks ago.  We had been dabbling here and there for a while, but now we've gotten down to business with regularly scheduled lessons.  And, I must say, he is an absolute natural at it!

His whole personality changes once he sits on the bench.  Instead of his usual easygoing and playful self, at the piano he becomes very serious and focused.  He sits up straight with great posture and keeps his eyes on the music. But the best thing is the way he gracefully lifts his hands at the end of a piece - always folding them and placing them gently in his lap.  I guess he's learned something about poise after all these years of being surrounded by musicians!

 After just 2 weeks, he is already up to page 40 in the first level of books, progressing rapidly.  I never have to hound him to practice and I might even go so far as to say it's one of his favorite activities.  I'm sure that may change at some point but for now, we are both enjoying his lessons a great deal.

Here's a video of Liam playing Dinosaur Music Night.

Paint Nite

Last night I had the pleasure of learning how to paint, along with my friends Kate and Jill.

The event, Paint Nite, was held at an upscale Plymouth restaurant.  An instructor guided us through each step of the evening's featured painting,"The Piney Cardinal."  Combined with some great music and the instructor's sense of humor, it was a perfect way to spend our monthly Girls' Night.

In fact, it was so much fun that we've already bought tickets to do it again in June and August to celebrate our summer birthdays.

My family was quite impressed with my artistic abilities.  Dave even dropped my painting off at the framer's shop today to get it framed.  If this keeps up, we may need to build add an art wing onto our house!
 

Step 1: The sky

Step 2: Branches

Step 3: Pine needles

The final step (and the one that caused the most anxiety for all of us!): Adding the cardinal

Kate and I

Kate, Jill and I with our completed masterpieces