Meal Planning Monday...with bonus coverage!

What a great weekend! After everything settled down from this little incident, the rest of the weekend went off beautifully!

Saturday morning while daddy worked, the kids and I went to Wells Fargo to open savings accounts for each of them. I couldn't remember if I told Kyle that we would be there at 9 or 10:00...so at a little after 9 we showed up. He wasn't expecting us until 10! We waited. At first, all was calm. Then Brock became a little more comfortable with his surroundings. He became a little more brave. He became a little more loud. He is now terrified of the monster in the vault who takes little kids that are being too loud in the bank. Don't judge me! The rest of the time we were there he sat like an angel. Almost.

We hit the store quick after that and spent the rest of the afternoon watching football and  hanging out at home. It was a fantastically chilly day so I had the windows open and the fireplace on. Yes, that makes perfect sense! I watched the Cyclones lose to K-State at Arrowhead. Again. Then I worked on this:


Fall Wreath

 

Fall wreath up close

I had seen a few fall wreaths that I really liked, but they ranged anywhere from $50 - $80. The old me would have taken that, divided it over the years of enjoyment, somehow made the wreath really only cost $1.29, snatched it up and moved on. BUT, the new, thriftier me, could NOT justify spending that much on a wreath. So, with some inspiration from Thrifty Decor Chick, and a little help at Michaels from Mikki, I decided to make my own.

Foam circle (yes, that is the technical name): $5.99
Packages of leaves: 5 @ $.99 each
Package of hot glue sticks: $2.99 (that package will last me months, if not years and I've already used it to fix a broken picture frame!)
Total cost = $13.93

For my first time I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Someday I might be brave enough to make a bigger one! But for now, this cute little guy fits his home in our living room just perfectly!

Sunday was a big day! Maycen's 7th birthday party with the family was to start at 3:00. Before that we just had to:
Bake a cake
Clean the house
Eat Breakfast
Eat lunch
Go to the store
Find Brock shoes (he wears an 8 1/2...I'm convinced the entire state of Iowa is out of that size. We are no longer looking for cute shoes...any will do!)
Oh, and Maycen had dance from 11:30 - 12:30....

...and Paul had to work until 2:00!

No problem! We got everything done (thanks Grandma for picking up some shoes) and I was braiding my still wet hair when our first guests arrived! Of course Maycen was excited and Brock was bouncing off the walls! She opened gifts and got everything she wanted and more including: a new bike, the new FurReal pet dog (she wants a real one, daddy says NO!), Zhu Zhu Pets DS game, clothes and more. She is a very lucky little girl! Then we had cake and ice cream:



My beautiful "baby" girl

The last guests left just before 6. After a quick supper and baths both kiddos collapsed into bed around 7:30 and Paul and I spent the rest of the night relaxing on the couch. With the windows open and the fireplace on (because it makes perfect sense)!

Now for "Meal Planning Monday":

Monday: Turkey sloppy joes (that we didn't have Friday night) and pasta salad

Tuesday: Birthday girl's choice! Right now she is leaning toward Chicken Parmesan. I keep hoping she'll change her mind and want to order out!

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner! Pancakes & eggs!

Thursday: Hamburgers on the grill

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: I'll be at the ISU/UNI game so daddy is on his own!

Sunday: Lasagna

This weather makes meal planning tough. I'm craving some "cold weather foods" that I just can't get myself to make when it is hot (88 degrees today????). I'm ready for fall to be here and stay!

What cold weather foods are you anxious to make?