And once a year for the last four years, I am rewarded for my patience, in the form of an intercepted tax return. The thing about this is you never know when you're getting it, you never know IF you're getting it, and you never know how much it will be if it shows up. It's kind of like playing the lottery. Every year, though, it has come in early March. Well, you don't need me to tell you it's way past March. I had given up mid-April that I was going to see ANYTHING this year. And, while we occasionally would say 'well, if we get the tax return... (insert something awesome we could do/buy)' that had pretty much stopped the last month.
So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, checked my email and had a deposit alert on my child support debit card-- for $1584.00. I had to rub my eyes and make sure I was seeing correctly. It's Asa's day off, and he was snoozing away, but I didn't even think about it, I had to wake him up to let him know. It's ALMOST worth not getting it consistently the rest of the year. But, I could also go for getting both, and would for a bout 5 more years at that rate. Either way, today is a good day.
But, it was 1950's day too, so we decided we'd have the boys do some things before we told them, and then we'd take them out to lunch. First up: Truffala Tree Pencils, in honor of Dr. Suess publishing the Cat in the Hat.
We also talked about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Calib and Peyton did some worksheets while Hayden did a coloring page.
Of course we had to give a nod to NASA, which was founded in 1958. Thanks to the nasa website for these AWESOME printable space shuttles we put together. We're going to try and rocket them off on Saturday. I actually need some things from Lowes for this project, and we don't have one around here (it takes like 25 minutes to get to the closest one), but Hayden has a build n grow class there Saturday morning, so I figured I'd pick it up then.
But these are very cool, the pictures don't give them justice. They probably would have been favorite part of the day worthy, if you know, I hadn't gotten that awesome email today. (That was my favorite part, in case you were wondering)
Then we told the boys about our new found fortune. They were pretty excited, and we all headed out to lunch, something we hardly ever, ever do, unless it's a special occasion. We didn't spring for anything out of the ordinary though, we went to PDQ where we can all eat for around $30. So yummy!
After PDQ, Hayden had a summer reading club event at the library- and boy was it packed. The theme was 'summer snow party'.
He made a snowflake and a couple different snowmen. I need to record all the books he's been reading online so he can collect his prize next week.
The boys knew it was happy hour at Sonic as we were passing by and asked if they could have half-priced slushies (something I often take them to do when we go to events at the library). I figured at 60 cents a slush,we could spring for it.
Then we went out shopping. I took me five hours to remember I wanted a Dyson. This may sound crazy, but it really did. When we had talked about maybe getting the tax return, months before, I said a dyson would be the first thing I bought. It wasn't until we were talking about how Peyton tried to vacuum the whole house the night before did it click. (I say try because our old vacuum is dying, and hardly picking up anything.) I was pretty sure Target with our red card (5% off everything) would be the best place to pick up the Dyson, and after some nosing around online and discovering it was$100 off, we decided this was the one.
We also picked up some shorts for Calib, I had a coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase of men's clothing, so that was great timing. He ended up with two pairs of shorts, a shirt, and a new swimsuit. We also got a roku for our room, because the laptop is no longer reliable for watching netflix on. Something we were hoping to get next payday anyway.
When we got home we learned a little more about the 1950's-- Legos were first sold in the 50s! I had seen on pinterest, kids making flags out of legos, so I decided thats what we would build.
While the boys worked on flags, my awesome husband worked on dinner. He didn't even complain that Porkchop cried the whole time while laying at his feet thanks to our massive afternoon thunderstorm. (It rained off and on all day here- but we didn't let it bother us!)
Hayden did a great job making Lithuania's flag.
Calib went with Estonia.
And Peyton took on a bit more of a challenge with Sweden.
Calib's Italy was pretty cool though.
Hayden also made Russia and Switzerland.
I think Switzerland was my favorite.
Of course the 1950's also gave us things like TV dinners. I couldn't just buy TV dinners though, we had to make one. Asa made us all Salisbury Steaks and mashed potatoes, while I contributed the veggie and brownie.
And we had a showing of a 1950's movie: Peter Pan!
Hayden's projects look pretty cool all dry, so I snapped a picture to share.
And then Asa and I went out to surprise the boys-- with a Wii U! We were going to get one for Peyton's birthday. He's been begging for one, and told us he knows it's way over what we spend for birthdays, so he would give us all of his birthday money for one. I told him I couldn't let him do that (but the plan all along was to get one anyway). So, I told Asa maybe we should just bite the bullet now and get it for him, and then just get him a game on his birthday. Either way he was thrilled. But, when we got home, Calib immediately asked if I would take him out to buy Mario Kart 8 with his birthday money. So, I made yet ANOTHER trip to Target today. Good thing it's right down the street!
Also on our Target purchases today: a huge stocking of my bathroom cabinet. Right now Target has $5 off a purchase of $15 or more on all bathroom products. But, they are also giving out $5 gift cards when you buy 3 of certain items. So, take my mouthwash for example. They were $6 each, so it came out to $18, but then we had the $5 gift card and the $5 coupon. So now- you get three for $8. BUT wait! There's more. Then I had $4 off 2 coupons, and $1 off one. So now, they're $3 for 3 mouthwash. That basically happened with everything I bought. And it was awesome. Fully stocked, for like ever.
On the Hayden ear front, he's doing much better. He kept saying we were celebrating his ears feeling better. A couple more day of drops, and we'll be all good. Today was his 'allowed to swim again' day though, but it stormed most of the day. Maybe tomorrow, although we have a lot on our plate for tomorrow (no pun intended-- you'll see what I mean tomorrow)
And here's the 1950's highlights on the board.
It's been an awesome day around here. We're all happy campers around here. It's been a very, very good day. I don't need money to be happy (as evident of every other day of the year), but it sure is fun when you have some extra to spare.
Next up: We're headed to the 1960's!
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