here we go again

• I am sure I will be no better at blogging regularly, but here is a little update.
• Madeline finished the standardized testing this week which she was totally dreading. Of course it was nowhere near as bad as she thought it would be.
• Caleb and I have been making regular trips to the library. He is becoming very interested in dinosaurs and loves to listen to books about them. We went to a local science museum over spring break and saw several dinos. I think they both liked panning for gems more though. I liked the planetarium, but they weren't as impressed with it.
• Caleb is quite precocious these days and thinks he is soooo smart and ALWAYS right. Today he told me he was smarter than me. I told Dan about that at dinner and he asked Caleb, "Are you smarter than Mommy?" Caleb said, "Yeah, everybody is." Gee thanks Caleb. You just lost your jellybean supplier.
• This past weekend we took the Whistlestop Train Ride from Canton to Woodstock (that somehow took an hour). There was supposed to be a festival at each end of the ride, but not so much really. We did have a yummy lunch and I finally found some Mad Libs for Madeline at a little bookstore. I thought she would get a kick out of those. She has been liking them and Sudoku, too. She is quite the bookworm lately. She went through six chapter books over spring break and is passing the tests over the books with flying colors so I guess she is comprehending it. I love the Ramona Quimby books and she does too. I think she only has one or two left though. I always hate to be at the end of a series I like so much.
• Both of the kids have really been enjoying playing on the hill beside our house. There are lots of pine trees, but they are able to make paths and find small areas for their "club". They dig for rocks and bang the rocks until they crumble. Caleb is suppose to be Madeline's secretary and collect the rocks. He said he will do that as long as his friends aren't here!
• I have been doing the "Coupon Mom" thing for the past two months and am saving lots! I feel kind of bad for never using coupons before. When I did, I never felt like I was saving that much. The "new" way to do it matching them with sales and buy one, get one deals makes a huge difference. I get so excited when I come home with a new bunch of stuff that I got good deals on that I make Dan come downstairs and ooohh and ahhhh over how amazing it is. Today I spent $47 at Publix, but saved $58! Dan was very impressed! It is strange too that I have always viewed Publix as the most expensive grocery and it is without using the deals. But with the deals, it is definitely the cheapest. The other thing is I only get stuff we would actually buy anyway. It isn't just weird stuff that I get because it is on sale. Anyway, I know how interesting that is to everyone.
• We did our usual southeastern tour for Easter and there are a couple of pictures above. With spring break being the week before instead of after Easter, it makes Easter Sunday so rushed for us. I hate sending Madeline back to school so worn out, but I guess that is just the way it is.
• I can't believe the school year is almost over. I think the year goes a lot faster on this side than the teacher side! I am starting to work on teacher appreciation week things for PTA and need to work on the end of the year party.