Happy Thursday

We had a good day today. I dropped off Olivia at preschool about 9am then picked up Diane (my mother in law). It was just Austin and Ashley with us. The drive to Helensvale is only about 20 minutes so Austin played with his toys and ate only half his snacks by the time we got there.

In Helensvale we skipped the park thing. Austin didn't remember and Diane didn't mention it. Instead we went to a quilt shop that Diane wanted to go to. What a joke! Sorry, I can say this b/c she also thought it was awful. The store was tiny and mainly consisted of tables, not fabric. There was like 4 bookshelves lining one wall then a few smaller shelves on the opposite wall. Poor Diane. She loves to quilt and this is the selection. Ha. Obviously, I won't be quilting here. You also have to realize, things are so much more expensive here it's ridiculous. Maybe that is why they can't have a big inventory, I don't know. The cheapest fabric they had was $15 per meter. That was plain, solid colors. They had about 50, I will give them that, but the rest of the selection was pathetic. The other fabrics (Moda, Debbie Mumm, etc) are about $19-26 per meter. How can anyone afford to quilt and sew here? My goodness. Diane bought a few pieces she needed to finish a quilt and we gotta outta there in a hurry.

Next, we drove up to IKEA since they're having Clearance sales. Ashley and Austin were so good. By this time we'd been in the car about 45 min or so and Ashley hadn't made a peep other than to coo and gurgle happily. What an angel. Austin played his Leapster and colored. All he wanted was to get a donut or go to McDonald's. I was hoping that the Ballroom at IKEA would have an opening but in all of my visits, I have never found it available. A bit disappointing. I should have realized during school holidays it would be full. The max is 10 kids. We didn't even bother adding our name to the long waiting list. Austin walked around with us and was pretty good. Ashley was in the Bjorn so she was quite content. I mainly needed a lamp for my office area, but was also wanting a chair to put in Ashley's room. I was hoping the lime green kids table and stools would be on sale but no luck. It was still $69 plus $10 per stool. Maybe next time. I don't really need it, I just like it. I ended up getting some kids' plastic forks and spoons, boxes for storage, mouse pad and placemats. I also bought Austin two $1 soft toys which he lost before we got home. Seriously. Both of them.









On the way home, we stopped at the Hyperdome in Logan ( a huge shopping mall) for lunch. We just had McD's since that is what Austin wanted and they have some decent deli sandwiches. Austin was content with his Happy Meal and Cars toy. (that he didn't lose, surprisingly) We let him play on an outdoor playground, although it was a bit chilly. Ashley was asleep by now. We walked around the mall and Austin lost the toys somewhere along the way.

It was so nice to have one peaceful day with no arguing, fighting, whining or threatening. Aaaaah. Preschool is SOOOO worth it. In other good news, Jared is back in about 36 hours. Yah!