Back To School!!!

I'm not sure who was more excited this morning, me or Savannah, that WEE school started again today. Although I have to say it's not the same dropping her off with teachers we're unfamiliar with, I'm sure she's going to have a great year. Here's to another fun year of learning. Dave had to leave really early this morning for work, but made sure to remind me to take this annual picture of Savannah on the bench outside of WEE school. It's amazing how much she's changed in just one year (see last year's picture 9/7/07 post).

Savannah's First Trip to Atlanta

On Friday we packed up and headed to Atlanta (or Hotlanta as my friend Marie calls it) for a visit with Grammy and Papa. Dave, his dad, and Brian had tickets to the Clemson game at the Georgia Dome so we decided to spend the weekend there as we had several birthdays to celebrate too. Savannah did awesome travelling and we didn't have to get the TV out even once on the way down or back!!
We arrived and were immediately greeted by Dave's old bouncy horse. I had been warned that this horse was coming back to Charlotte with us, and although I'm stilled not thrilled about having it here, Savannah LOVES it. Both she and her cousin, Alyssa, gave horsey a workout this weekend. Now he's in the middle of our living room and Savannah begs continuously to ride "horsey". She even kissed him good night twice tonight!



Here are the girls helping Grammy make blueberry pancakes Saturday morning. Notice Savannah is already wearing her Clemson colors. Grammy must have some magical powers in her garden because Savannah ate tomatoes right from the garden and then ate homemade pancakes. Way to try new things, Savannah!



Here are Savannah, Grammy and Papa at the park. We visited the nature center and then headed to two different parks to let the kids play. Savannah loved seeing the ducks although she was mad that she couldn't get "feet wet".



Can anyone say, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"? Obviously the big loss for Clemson didn't upset these two as they had the time of their life. Alyssa and Savannah were great roomies this weekend. Savannah got a brand new air mattress with bumpers (a definite for travelling with a toddler as it easily deflates and is small to carry) and she loved sleeping in her new bed! Alyssa slept on the bed and Savannah in the floor. I heard them having many early morning "conversations".

We had such a fun weekend and enjoyed every minute of family time! Thanks Grammy and Papa for a great weekend! Now were back in CharHOTTE as our one year old air conditioner is broken . . . hopefully it's still under warranty!

Much, Much Fun

I'm almost afraid to brag about this, but yesterday just as my student arrived for tutoring Savannah woke up from her nap, screaming. I just knew that meant she was going to sit in front of the TV for an hour while I tutored, but amazingly enough, she played in the living room the entire time and never once even came to bother me or ask for the TV to be turned on.

I decided to test my luck again today when she had her best buddy Jack over to play. They immediately started playing in the living room and so I left them to do some work on the computer. I heard many laughs and "conversations" so I knew that they were safe and having a swell time. This is a picture of what I found when I went to give them a snack. Before becoming a mom this would be a disaster, now it just means that two toddlers have had a blast! I'm thoroughly enjoying Savannah's new found independence and am learning to deal with the mess.

"Nap" Time

For the past few days after putting Savannah down for her nap at 2:00 she has talked, played, read, etc. for about an hour before finally going to sleep. Today I finally decided that is just her own way of having some quality room time . . . and that it's okay if her room looks like a tornado hit when I go to get her up from her nap. So when the noise finally ceased this afternoon, just a few minutes ago, I went upstairs to check the monitor and didn't see her in the bed. I quickly went in the room and found her sound asleep. I couldn't see her because she was hidden by her big blue princess chair (that I'm sure she sat in for quite some time IN the bed). Along with the chair in the bed there were about 8 books, her entire play jewelry box dumped out, the womb bear that was beating as loud as it would go, and a few other nice stuffed animal "fiends". I ran for the camera and laughed, what else would a mom do?!

If It's Still Working . . .

Then don't change it! So I sat down last night and really tried to reorganize my coupons into the new binder. After getting all of the separaters and blank baseball card holders inserted, I realized that the slots just weren't big enough. So, I trekked back to Staples at 8pm last night (with every other mom in Charlotte) and exchanged the baseball card holders for diskette holders. These were $1+ per page so I wasn't exactly thrilled about buying over $20 of them. Anyway, long story short, I came home and started trying to reorganize the coupons into the slots and well, this just isn't going to work for me.

Dave looks over beside me on the sofa and says "You're just an old fogey, not wanting to change." After realizing that wasn't very nice he explained that he could call me old because he was even older. . . okay, point taken. So for now it's back to the trusty, old, worn, but faithful coupon organizer.

A Little This and That

The rain has finally come! Thank you Lord! We've already lost a few more plants because I can't seem to water them enough. Hopefully this extra rain will bring them back to life. Although it's quite inconvenient to deal with such rainy days, I'm very thankful for the rain. We had to cancel a playdate at the park today, but that just freed up some time to venture out to do some errands . . . and of course an hour at Charlotte at Play for Savannah.

We started at the mall where I bought Savannah two new pairs of shoes (Stride Rite B1G1 half off), then ventured to Victoria Secret (free panty coupon), next we went to New York and Company (huge sale + 30% coupon + gift card, thanks to Dave's parents). Then we made yet another trip to REI for some Crocs. They are having a huge summer sale and I've been twice to buy shoes for Savannah, gifts, and of course to eBay!

Then we headed to Charlotte at Play. I couldn't believe my eyes when we arrived and there was a huge sign on the door saying that they were on "wait list"! Are you kidding? By this time Savannah was practically chanting "char at pay" so after circling the building twice trying to find a place to park we finally made it inside. Thankfully we only had to wait a few minutes and then they let us in.

After that we made yet another stop for errands at the Arboretum. We hit Rite Aid, Bath and Body Works, and of course Wal-Mart. Now I finally have all of the supplies needed to reorganize my coupons into a 3 ring binder. I'll post before and after pictures. It makes me a little nervous to let go of my trusty coupon organizer, but it seems to be the newest trend (Donna, Nancy, Kristin, Melissa) so I'm going to give it a whirl.

One final thing . . . we were in Chick fil A over the weekend and they had flyers posted advertising their Raving Fan Week. Who doesn't love CFA, especially when it's FREE?! Be sure to stop by the Arboretum for some yummy free chicken next week. Here are the details:

Monday 9/1 (10am - 10 pm) FREE 3 count chicken strips for customers in football attire ~(12pm - 2pm) sampling milkshakes, CFA prize drawings, coupon wheel, etc

Wednesday 9/3 (6am - 7am) FREE chicken biscuit ~ (7am - 8 am) FREE chick n mini ~ (11:30am - 1:30pm) sample chicken salad sandwiches and get a FREE coupon ~ (3pm - 4pm) FREE milkshake to first 100 customers to arrive at 3pm dining in

There's more for Thursday and Friday too, but I'm too lazy to type it all!

As Jo Dee Messina would say, Bring on the Rain!

Bye, Bye Broom!

This is my newest favorite item! When searching online for rebates and coupons I came across a rebate to try this new swiffer for FREE! Now I have used swiffer dusters in the past and honestly haven't been that impressed, but this new and improved vac is awesome! It not only has the swiffer component picking up hair, dust, lint, etc but it also has a vacuum built in! I have used it several times after dinner and it has made cleaning the kitchen floor much more manageable. See you later broom and dust pan!

As for happenings around the Bachmann house, we've been staying busy these last few days before school and tutoring starts again. Savannah is loving her My Gym class on Mondays and now that she is well again we're back into the routine of going to aerobics at church too. We spent today at the pool with one of Savannah's (and mine) favorite people and tomorrow we have a play date planned for the park! Thursday is the open house at WEE school. It's always hopping around here!