Challenge Complete

CHALLENGE CONCLUDES: Today was our last day of participation in the United Way of King County's Hunger Challenge Week.

This is our second year doing it, and once again, we found it to be a very valuable experience. It really reminds you that everything that passes your lips has a price tag attached.

One thing I noticed this go round is that grocery prices in general have gone up since last year. That means I have to be an even more careful consumer than ever. Shopping the Grocery Outlet, buying stores' weekly doorbuster specials - and little else! - and planning menus ahead all help.

The Challenge helped the kids hone their math skills and gave them great practice using coins to paying for things, which is awesome.

Today, we got off cheap for lunch - all four of us had already expensed leftovers for lunch. I figured that freed up enough money for the kids to enjoy an ice cream treat this afternoon. But they had to earn it. We walked all the way to Magnolia Village and back for it. It's not terribly far - just 15 blocks or so - but about half of it is scaling pretty steep hills.

On the way there, the kids climbed the steps of the dilapidated old Magnolia School. According to Wikipedia, it was open from 1927 to 1984 and it was home to the African American Academy from 1993–2000. Interesting. I'd never heard that before.

And I wonder what Seattle Public Schools will do with the property. It's worth a fortune. Hopefully they won't be stupid like they were with the Queen Anne High School property, selling it for a song and letting a private developer make a killing on it. And hopefully they won't be stupid and sell it to the low bidder, as was the case with a property on MLK, which was sold to a church group with whom then district Director of Facilities Fred Stephens had strong ties. But I digress. ...

Once we got into town, we went to Cookies and Cream. CJ chose an ice cream sandwich; Bee had a coconut ice cream cone. Both treats looked really tasty.

On our way back from the Village, we stopped at "Hilltop Play Park" (Ella Bailey), of course.

Family Total for the Day: $13.06
CJ's Daily Total: 4.65
PopTart = .12
Grapes = .40
Leftover hamburger = 0
Goldfish = .17
Ice cream = 3
Hot dog, bun & Cheetos = .41 + .45
Annabelle's Daily Total: 4.50
Grapes = .40
Leftover chicken = 0
Apple = .44
Ice cream = 3
Hot dog & Cheetos = .21 + .45
Christian's Daily Total: 2.74
Coffee = .30
Eggs (.16) + Cheese (.10) = .26
Leftover chicken = 0
Cashews = .50
Hot dogs, cabbage & onion = .63 + .05
Beer = 1
My Daily Total: 1.17
Coffee = .30
2 Eggs = .16
1 piece of bread = .17
Leftover burrito = 0
Hardboiled egg = .08
Hot dog + bun, cabbage & onion = .41 + .05

STORY TIME: Our reading today was a short chapter book called "Five Creepy Creatures." Not great literature by any means, but a fun little collection of just a tad spooky stories. The first one featured a brother and a sister, so I used CJ and Annabelle's names. They liked that. :)

BACK TO THE BEGINNING: We started in on the kids' new math books today. They were actually excited to write their names on them and get started.

"Do you think we could do the whole book today?" CJ asked. I told him I thought that would be possible, but it wouldn't be much fun and it's probably not the best way to really learn the concepts.

BONUS SHOT: Bee getting in some gaming before our school day started.
ONE MORE THING: Tomorrow is Earth Hour 2011. We participated last year and will be doing so again this year, turning our lights off from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night.