Sorry if we are tacky like Gorilla Glue...

Yeah, I'm still too lazy to post my pics. I might get to it later today. Something for you to look forward to!

Well, Rick and I have been thinking over the state of our kids' rooms. Basically they are full of toys. I'm not sure how we accumulated so many so quickly! But we are really hesitant to buy them more - there's just no room! And I don't want to get rid of any to make more room - we have nice toys and they will be great for Lauren and Nathan as they get older. So here is what we think... (please don't be offended)

We would like to get our kids (and to have them receive from others) more disposable gifts. Things that are meaningful but don't add to our clutter. I'm challenged in the "keeping things tidy" arena as it is and it's like stacking the deck against us (since Nathan seems to really dislike cleaning too) to give us more things. Whew, I've admitted it! Yeah, I'm not really a true member of Rick's family since most of his siblings are crazy neat. But that's OK! I'm good at other things right? A little ying to their yang (or whichever way it goes - one is chaos, the other order I think). We can't all be the same (keep rolling here with the justifications!).

Anyway so we thought that maybe, if you are planning on gifting something to our little tykes, that you might contribute a little differently. For example, we would love our kids to participate in sports. But we really can't swing that financially. So maybe you could take whatever $ you were thinking about spending on a birthday or Christmas gift and go in with us for soccer, ballet, gymnastics or something. (Have I totally offended anyone yet?)

I talked this decision over with my mom and she was (or she faked it) happy to oblige us. This year she is sponsoring :) Ashlyn's gymnastics class. I signed her up this morning. It's only a little over a month, but I think it will be so fun for her! She knows what she's getting since we had to ask her opinion of the class that she'd like to sign up for but she is so thrilled! I wanted to do something for Nathan too, but I've missed out on soccer (the spots filled quickly) so I'm aiming for the next set of sessions - they start sign-up on Aug. 4th and I'm thinking (and so does Nathan) that we will go for basketball. Maybe Ashlyn would like that too but we'll have to see how our budget goes. I'd like to put them in a different class each session and give them a little exposure to a few different things. Then they can pick a fave and we'll do a bigger commitment to "their" activity. Maybe by then our annual raises will pick up the slack! Btw - it is so unfair that groceries and gas go up and up but our income stays the same. Ugh.

Or maybe instead of sports, a membership to the zoo or aquarium (yeah - that's stretching it a bit, those are spendy) but we're not thinking that you will bankroll the whole she-bang, just take whatever you were going to spend and maybe put it toward something different.

So that is what we're thinking for right now. Do you hate us? There was a big "discussion" at PYP this summer about how rude it was to include registry info on a wedding announcement. I was surprised to see that it was completely offensive to quite a few of the ladies there! Having received so many random things for our wedding, I am very grateful to receive registry information - it lets me know what the couple are in need of and what colors they are going for if I want to make something more personal for them. So maybe I am just a tacky person!

Ok - I've summoned up my courage and told you our plan. Hope you don't hate us!