The Webers Go Green!

It was a rather inspirational Earth Day for us. Actually, everything we did was discussed awhile ago, but being Earth Day this Sunday, we decided to actually make some changes. Daniel and I have been watching Planet Earth, which is a really great series, and has made us realize a little more how important our planet is. While Daniel thinks we are going to be twinkled before we destroy our planet completely, we still want to preserve it for our children.

The biggest change for us (mostly because it was the most costly) was changing out all of our light bulbs. Our 60 watt lights now use only 9 watts. Each light bulb should last 7 years. So hopefully we will not only be helping the environment but also saving a little on our electric bill.
Here is Ellie posing with one of the compact fluorescent light bulbs. She really wanted to help dad replace all the lights.
Mom and Owen mostly followed the team of daddy and Ellie around with spare light bulbs.
We have decided to do a few more things to do our part. We are going to start doing some recycling. Our trash people don't do recycling so we will have to bring it to the place ourselves. I was saying to Daniel a couple of weeks ago how amazed I am at the amount of trash that just the four of us have, so hopefully this will reduce the amount of garbage we have. Sometime this week Ellie and I will run go get some trash bins and label them-- ALUMINUM, PAPER and PLASTIC. I think I am also going to look into seeing about recycling our yard clippings. We'll see.
We have also decided that after we use up our current cleaning products (can't be wasteful now!), we will start using some more environmentally friendly cleaners. We have already gotten some all purpose cleaner, hand soap and toilet bowl cleaner that are all eco friendly. While they are a little more expensive, not as much as what I thought they would be! I will have to let you know how they work when I use them.

Ellie and I have started doing crafts more often. We have done them sporadically here and there, but I have a whole craft basket of things that she can do put together now. I went to Hobby Lobby and Garden Ridge and both places have a lot of little things that kids can put together, paint, or create. Since Ellie is at that age where she needs to constantly be doing something with her hands, we are trying to get her to do more where she can use her imagination and create things on her own.

Owen and Elise have both been sleeping REALLY horribly lately. We are thinking that Owen is just his teething, but I am not so sure. He does have more bottom teeth coming in. (Looks like he will have 4 bottoms before he has any tops!). When both don't sleep you just start thinking that perhaps it isn't the child, but the parent that is the problem. I have faith that Owen will get back to normal soon though. I think Ellie is just going to have to grow out of it.
Beginning in June, Ellie starts Ballet! I am so excited about it. She does her summer ballet program in June and then doesn't have anything in July and then in August starts up again at a new place. Of course, I am geeked about it! Daniel and I are both really excited to see her all dressed up in her leotard, tights and ballet slippers! The place that she starts in August is year round. It looks like a really good place and I am excited because she will have recitals and everything! It has been fun looking for ballet clothes for her since she wears the smallest size. She is going to look SO cute. The summer class she is taking is strictly ballet and the year round class she is taking is 45 minutes of ballet and 15 of tumbling. She will be attending class twice a week.