Binkies and Briefcases

Literally.

I. Love. Pennsylvania.

This morning the kids and I met my friend Tabatha and her little one at Brown’s Orchard to go cherry picking. I’d never actually had fresh cherries before (gasp!) so I was especially excited.

They did not disappoint.

We had a lot of fun frolicking in the field (once we figured out which tress were the cherry trees, lol) picking cherries, and then eating lunch in the quaint little cafe. As a pregnant woman who frequents a lot of farms with potty training toddlers in tow, I was especially appreciative of the clean restrooms and just indoor plumbing in general in the market.

Of course Nicholas was not afraid to get his hands dirty.

The kids clothes got ridiculously stained with cherry juice, but isn’t that the point of clothing the children, to give them a canvas for collecting memories from their adventures? I think so. Plus, I’m not the one who does the laundry at our house. 🙂

Abby couldn’t quite grasp the concept of “Eat from the tree.” (She would have made a great Eve.) She only wanted to eat out of my bowl or the gross ones on the ground.

Kooper was unimpressed. Poor Kooper, Abby kept calling him Clifford (as in the Big Red Dog) and Nick kept calling him “Zoo Keeper.” We’ll have to practice his name a little more.

Have you been to a local U Pick farm this year? I’m kind of obsessed with them, myself.

I know this isn’t an original idea, but I still think it’s pretty cute.

Remember these towels I got for free yesterday by using my Kohl’s cash from a previous purchase?

Well, I turned one of them into a beach cover up for the kiddos. The other one will have to wait a minute (or a week) because certain little bodies were getting restless, plus working with terry cloth makes a HUGE MESS!

I just folded and traced different parts of a shirt and jacket to get the pieces and sewed them together, but if you like working with patterns, you can buy one over here at the Peek-a-Boo pattern shop.

Here is Little Miss modeling her brother’s robe because he was far too busy pretending to be Flynn Rider (from the movie Tangled) to cooperate.

If you need a size 3T or larger, I recommend buying two of the same towels because I didn’t have as much of the finished edge as I wanted and I would have preferred to make this a little larger for Nick. It’s really bugging me that I didn’t have enough of the navy trim from the towel to do the collar. But not enough to fix it. I might go back later and add ribbon or something I have on hand. 

I like it much better from the back.

At least from back here you can tell I was careful to get all the stripes to line up. (for once)

I didn’t bother adding any zippers or buttons, the front just overlaps itself and folds closed. I might go back and add some pockets for the cuteness factor, but probably not because my kids would most likely use pockets for carrying lots of extra sand.

It’s not perfect, but it was free, so I’ll take it. 🙂

I am super excited about my thrifty finds today!

I managed to take the kids to the theater to see a movie, buy fabric for a new sewing project, and take the kids out for a special treat and I only spent $3.

How?

First of all, did you know that Regal Cinemas all over the country have a special family movies program on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings during the summer? In the past it has been free, but this year they are charging $1 per person and donating some of the money to charity. It’s pretty great. A perfect rainy day activity (actually this rainy day actually turned out to be quite lovely) and since it’s so inexpensive I don’t mind if my little ones can’t make it through a whole movie, although this time they did.

You can click here for more information.

While we were at the theater lots of local businesses were there doing promotions, since it is such a popular family event. PNC bank gave my kids free coloring books and crayons, and Chick Fil A gave them a coupon for a free brownie.

Our theater is in the mall, so after the movie I headed over to Koh’ls and used my $10 Kohl’s Cash coupon from a previous purchase to get two terry cloth bath towels that I’m planning to turn into robes for the kids. The towels were $9.99 each and on sale buy one get one free, so I spent $0. Awesome!

If you want a pattern for a kid’s robe you can get one here. I’m not planning to use a pattern because they make me frustrated and nervous, so I’m just going to cross my fingers and wing it. At least I won’t be out any money if the robes turn out awful.

I think they will be pretty cute.

And you sure can’t beat that! I love you, Kohl’s. Thank you for moving into our neighborhood.

After our stop at Kohl’s we moseyed next door to Chick Fil A and cashed in our free brownie coupon.

It was a great morning and my kids had no idea that their mother is a cheapskate. 🙂