Sunny Saturday

This morning we woke up and watched cartoons and then decided to get out and enjoy the day instead of being cooped up inside all day.  We went and checked out Charming Charlie’s, which is an AMAZING jewelry store that Liz told me about.  They have everything organized by color.  They have some awesome purses and adorable shoes (too bad the shoes only go up to a size 10 and I wear a size 12).  I wasn’t able to really look around as much as I would have liked, b/c Autumn kept wanting to touch everything.  But, I did get some cute turquoise earrings that were on sale for $2.  When I went to pay for them, the cashier told me the total owed was 54 cents (with tax included)!!!  I guess they were have 75% off all clearance.  I was so happy to get such a surprising and sweet deal.  Since Autumn was full of energy, we decided to walk around the shops.  There were these statues of horses that she kept running around and under.

There were these cool blown up sized food labels painted on the wall.  She liked looking at the huge watermelon.

There were also these little duck statues that looked like they were walking out of the stream that ran through the shops.  She even sat down on the backs of them and pretended to ride them like a horse.  She loved being able to walk around and be out in the sunshine.

They had these cool quotes on the wall.  I liked what they said:

“Those who are HAPPIEST are those who do the most for OTHERS.”
~Booker T. Washington

“If you judge people, you have no time to LOVE them.”
~Mother Teresa

In our walks around the shops, we discovered this huge and awesome fireplace.  I love the detail of the leaves and vines.  They had some comfy chairs and couches around the fireplace.  I sat and took pictures of Autumn while she ran around and explored.

She loved going up and down these stairs over and over.  Then she realized she could go under the railing and climb up on the platforms that had the pots full of beautiful flower arrangements.  I thought I would never be able to get her to leave, but she needed to go potty so we jumped in the car and ran to Target.

We found these rockin’ sunglasses for only $1!  Autumn is always complaining about Mr. Sun getting in her eyes, so when I saw these for just $1, we had to get them for her to wear when we’re in the car.

Mom called to see what we were doing and said to come meet her for lunch.  We went to our favorite Italian restaurant and Nick came and met us there, too.  You know you go to a restaurant when the owner comes over and says hi and asks if you’re getting “the usual.”  He’s a really nice guy and is always good to us.  Mom always get the chicken aristocrat, which is this thin chicken cutlet that has breaded eggplant on top w/the most amazing cream sauce all over the top of spaghetti noodles.  It’s heaven on a plate.

After stuffing ourselves silly, Autumn & I wanted to go work off some of the calories we just ate.  So, we went to the park.  It was 60 degrees today w/ a light wind.  We’ve had so much cold weather and snow lately, that everyone was outside enjoying the sunshine.  Autumn went up and down this slide at least 100 times.  Then she saw some kids flying kites and ran over to check that out.

The best part, though, was when this little kid came over w/ his football and started throwing it to Autumn.  She never caught it, but would run after it and throw it back to him.  I LOVE this action shot I got of her running across the playground w/ the football.  She’s a girly girl through and through, but she loves football…just like her Mama.

We finally came home after 2 hours at the park and Autumn took a nice long nap.  I just blogged for a while and watched some TV.  When she woke up, we had our leftovers from lunch for dinner and then watched some of the Olympics.  Autumn was a big girl and went potty in the toilet again (she’s pretty much potty trained now except for at night).  But, we both wanted an excuse to go get frozen yogurt so we said we’d go b/c she went potty in the toilet like a big girl.  We went to Yogilicious instead of Yogurtville this time b/c I wanted avocado frozen yogurt.  I LOVE that stuff.  I got 1/2 avocado and 1/2 raspberry, b/c Autumn insists on eating pink “ice cream” w/ her pink spoon and I have to eat the other color.  We make a good team.

After our frozen yogurt, we wanted to walk around a bit.  They had a sitting area (like the other place we went to this morning) w/ a nice fire so we went and sat by that for a little bit.

Autumn didn’t want to sit still very long, so we continued our walk.  We went over to Ross to see if they had any cheap stuff for the house, b/c I hadn’t been there in forever.  And as usual, Ross did NOT disappoint.  We found this cute St. Patrick’s Day decoration for the front door for only $3.

Then we found this cute flip flop wall hanging w/ hooks for me to hang my car keys on for only $2.  If fits w/ my Hawaiian themed kitchen.

Next up was this cool S-shaped tea light holder to put in the middle of the formal dining room table.  It will be fun to use some night for a fancy dinner.

The final find was this cool piece of artwork for only $9.  I’ve been looking for some big metal art to hang in the formal dining room, b/c there is such a big wall that needs to be filled.  Most of the ones I’ve seen are around $30.  So when I turned this around to check the price and saw $9, I knew I had to have it.

Usually Ross never has good dresses that are long enough for me or that aren’t sleeveless.  However, tonight I hit the jackpot and found three of them that are perfect.  Stacy & Clinton from What Not To Wear would be so proud of me if they saw the dresses b/c they fit all the rules…they have a high and defined waist, they float away from the body, and they have great prints that are very flattering on my body.  It was an extremely successful (and unplanned) trip to Ross.  I’ve always loved that place and today I love it even more.

We came home and Autumn kept saying, “I wah pie.”  I thought she was saying, “I want pie.”  But, she was really trying to say, “I watch Pride,” (as in Pride and Prejudice).  So, we put our awesome finds away and are now watching Pride.  It’s been an incredible day and just reinforces to me how excited I am for Spring, b/c it’s my favorite season.  Although, I’m going to have to be careful when it starts getting warmer and make sure I wear sunscreen when I’m outside b/c I got sunburned on my face and arms today w/out even realizing it.  But, it was totally worth it for all the fun we got to have in being outside today.