Thrifty Bay Area Fun at Hiller Aviation

This past weekend my 4yo Monkey had a play date with one of his friends. The other Mom is a teacher and is always "in the know" about cool, fun, educational places to take our kids. So while we have done play dates at our homes many times, we often get out and do different stuff also.

We went to check out Hiller Aviation Museum located in San Carlos, CA. Children 4 and under were free, so we didn't have to pay for the kids. Adults are normally $11, but there is a printable $1 off coupon on their website. However, the other Mom had purchased a Groupon so she paid for me and I drove. I am not sure what the deal was that she got since she paid for me to get in I didn't want to ask too many questions. But if I know Groupons the way I do (and believe me, I know them well) I am sure we got a great deal!

The museum was pretty cool. And it was great for our youngsters who have short attention spans. The museum covers the first 100 years of aviation. There were many models of old and new planes...all types from commercial to pleasure craft, from jet to helicopter. Everything from a simple glider from the 1800's to a Boeing spy plane from the 1980's. They had several exhibits that you could actually enter - so the boys got to sit in real pilot seats in the cockpit! There were a few things that were a little beyond them, such as the whole upstairs section with computers with flight simulation software and another video game-type thing downstairs, but there was a lot for the younger set. A whole seating area (747 seats of course) with some toys and ride-on planes for toddlers, and tables for them to enjoy their snacks.

There was an outside area that was fenced off that overlooked the San Carlos Airport. The boys ran around out there and blew off steam after eating their lunches. The museum is not that large, so the boys were inside and outside a few times, and also in the gift shop where there were a lot of tempting toys. We got a lot of cute pictures of them. I would definitely recommend it, especially if your child loves aircraft!  I can see us going back when the boys are a little older and can understand the meaning of it all a little more. We spent about 1.5 hours inside and another 30 minutes watching the boys play with the new toy planes we got them outside. It's a great place to go if you are looking for something that is not going to take up your whole day, especially if you have a child that might still nap for part of the day. It wasn't very crowded even on the weekend which was a plus as well.

Rearranging My Mantle

Quick update - using exactly what I had, I rearranged my mangle after purchasing this cool red lantern/candle holder from TJ Maxx last week. Looks much better, don't you think?

Mantle Before

After

I think having the candles grouped together in the center just makes it seem stronger whereas everything was weaker all spread out evenly the way it was. I will be on the look out for a few darker things of various heights to add to the mix. Some day my husband and I want to redo the face of the fireplace and add a darker wood mantle. That will be down the road.

Have a great Tuesday!

I'll Buy My Own Spring, Thank You

I guess I will put down roots here!

I came home from work today and started unloading some of the items I bought for the house today at TJ Maxx. This winter seemed especially long, and I wanted to brighten it up a bit since it is STILL raining. I wondered to myself if everyone does this. I always like to change the scenery by buying new accessories, moving things around a little. A couple months ago, I rearranged my furniture in the great room. I think it has been in the new configuration before, but I needed a change. Places like TJ Maxx or Home Goods have such great stuff, especially if you don't want to spend a lot of money.

The room doesn't get a ton of natural light except for the morning. We have huge windows, but they also have shutters on them, and outside the window are some tall trees. The color scheme I originally went with is tied into this rug below. Our style is kind of a Napa Style-meets-Pottery Barn sort of look. These are colors I love, as they are so warm and homey. Rust red, mustard, olive green and browns. Sometimes in the spring and summer I wish I could brighten it up, but don't know how.

Probably should have vacuumed it first, oh well

I decided to make some really bold moves by getting accessories with the right colors, but just a bit lighter, and A LOT brighter, and adding a little white into the mix. Here are the pillows I bought below - just the ones with the prints, I have our existing pillows behind so you can see how they compliment each other and what we have to work with. I am not normally a "print" person, especially not a "floral" person, so I don't see these having real staying power here, but at least through the summer. They definitely achieve what I was striving for.

Here are also some darling little pots I bought at Walmart a couple months back, I put 3 of them in our kitchen garden window. They really do add brightness and life into the house!

I also picked up this adorable metal candle holder, which comes with an LED candle inside. Not sure if its going to stay here, with the green candles I got at Ikea recently and the cute little potted plant my Mom brought over the other day. Red and green is a funny combo, it seems ok in patterns but when placed near each other in solids, not so much.

This mantle decor is currently a work in progress.

I realized today that I have lived in this house longer than I have lived anywhere since I left home for college in 1987. My husband and I got married in 2004 and moved here in 2005, so that makes 6 years. Isn't that just CRAZY? I guess this wild child is finally putting down roots.

Monkey wanted to take blog pictures too, with his Fisher-Price

Do you ever rearrange your furniture or change accessories just because you feel like it? You would think that with all I have going on between kids and work it would be the last thing on my mind, but strangely, I think about it all the time!

Save Me, Jillian!

My latest fitness attempt!

Last week I went to Target and found Jillian Michaels' latest DVD Ripped in 30 for $10! I have done her Yoga Meltdown in the past, but got it through Netflix, and had to return it after I did the workout a couple times so I could get more movies. Yoga Meltdown was $9! I vow to do Ripped in 30 all this month, on the days I am not running. I am really hoping for some results. Summer is coming...which means pool season...boating, shorts, bathing suits and what not!

So I posted on Friday about Bad Office Food. It happened again. Yesterday was my bosses birthday, and we had Noah's bagels in the morning. I never go to work without eating at least a small breakfast, but I had no problem tearing into the bagels like it was my birthday. I had 1/2 a sesame, and 1/2 a blueberry bagel with cream cheese. My thought was, it's a treat. Carb overload.

Lunch time came and we ordered in from this awesome BBQ place. As you know, I usually bring my healthy lunch to work every day...so again, this was a treat! There were really no healthy options at this place, so I went for it - Prime Rib Dip sandwich - it was soo good. A little bit of slaw on the side and a few fries and 1 onion ring. Needless to say, I had food coma! We were celebrating someone's birthday after all, I couldn't be rude! I realize I have no one to blame but ME.

I really knew I had eaten too much when I wasn't even hungry for dinner last night. I did have a glass of wine, which was much needed after my gnarly commute home. Food-wise, it was a bad day. I admit it! I effed up! No self-control whatsoever.

This morning I did Ripped in 30, and loved it. Each week the work out changes, and gets progressively crazier and more intense. Bring it on! Just what the doctor ordered....with a side salad.

How do you change your fitness routine once summer is on the horizon, if at all? Hope your week is off to a great start!

Bad Snacks At the Office

So I continually strive for healthy living, but I use the term strive loosely. You know the saying about how you should reach for the moon, so that if you don't make it you might land on a star...blah blah? That saying really defines my relationship with food. I guess I always like to factor in a little failure for myself when it comes to diet. It's hard enough for me to try to be really good at the important things, like my family and work...I need some slack somewhere right?

So at home, I eat pretty well. I don't buy a lot of crap. Not even for my kids. Especially not for my kids. I do my best to prepare good lunches for me to bring to work, and that includes snacks. Sometimes, this is an EPIC FAIL. If I don't bring snacks to the office, there is nothing to snack on unless I go out and buy it. Every once in a while, someone will be out and about and pick something up, or worse yet, bring something in from home that they have mass quantities of that they don't want hanging around their house. The holidays were insane with all the goodies that people brought in.

Your spouse said, take it to work! They'll eat it! We did.

My job can be tedious sometimes, periods of intense focus lead to moments of cagey hunger, or just the need to divert my attention to something fun or more interesting, anything else...which is typically food. I have no willpower. That is why I don't buy any bad food for my house. So when the "bad stuff" shows up at the office, I eat it.

I TOTALLY wish we had this at work every day. No lie.

Yesterday afternoon, I caved and I dug into the huge snack/chip selection that our office manager brought in. Nobody made me, everyone was crunching on them and I couldn't resist. I had eaten a pretty healthy lunch, and was tempted by the sound of the munching and crunching and the crinkly bags. Thank God they were the little bags, something like 90 calories...of Chili Cheese Fritos. I actually tried NOT to read the ingredients when I ate them. And I only ate one bag. And a few of the Cheetos from another bag. This was a good day. There have been other times when someone has brought in a bag of pretzels, trail mix, flavored popcorn, M&M's and everyone comes sniffing around. Once the bags are opened, we continue to chow down until they are empty. It's really quite comical actually. I forgot to mention that our office manager brought in one of those huge cartons of Goldfish Crackers Wednesday afternoon. I had a few handfuls of those too. I when I left the office Wednesday, I bet they wouldn't last thru Friday. As of 5:30 Thursday when I left, there were only less than a quarter carton left, and I worked from home today so I'm not sure of the outcome. This damage was done  by 5 people. Adults too! No snack is beneath us. We will literally eat anything.

Devoured. By 5 grown people. Seriously.

Well, almost anything. Let me tell you about the snacks from the Asian grocery store. But I'll save that for another time.