The rest of the story

Our weekend turned out really nice.  After our wonderful Saturday, Sunday we got up and went to church and then went out to Krazy City in the Tri-County Mall.  We went in and bought our points and then went to Skyline for lunch.  We went back and played games and rode rides for a few hours.  The kids loved it.  I haven't laughed as hard as when the kids rode the dropping style ride.  Oh their faces were hilarious!!  They loved it and rode it a second time.  The also loved the Tornado!!  We played mini golf and bowled and we won lots of tickets in the games.  It was lots of fun.  After that we went home and Steve downloaded Enchanted on his Xbox and we watched that in our theater.  I didn't enjoy that movie very much.  Some of the themes were just not what we encourage in our home.  But it was something "Abby wanted to see, so we watched it.  Then we had our usual Sunday dinner of spaghetti.  

Monday we stayed home until lunch time.  Then we ate a quick lunch and went to Ikea so I could get some storage tubs, they have the best price on tubs for kids rooms.  Then we went to see Prince Caspian in the theater.  We finished the book Monday morning.  I have to say, that this movie was a whole lot different than the book.  The first movie had a few differences here and there, but this movie was very different.  In fact, if you have seen the movie or plan to, I would suggest reading the book, because so much is left out in the movie.  I don't know how people can follow the movie without knowing all the things that happen in the book.  I was a little disappointed with that.  Especially since they added a whole other battle scene to the movie that was not in the book, instead of maybe adding more of the actual story.  The movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes long, but I didn't feel it at all.  I did enjoy the movie, but I liked the book much better!

I think we're going to take a break from Narnia for a little while and I think we're going to read Treasure Island next.  We do want to finish the Narnia series though, there's 7 books total and we have 3 more to go.  I just want to change it up a bit now.  

So anyway, after the movie, we came home and Steve took the kids down to the theater and they watched a Star Wars movie and I went to CVS and Kroger and then came home and we had dinner.  It was a very nice weekend, I'm sad it's already over!!  I can't wait for the 4th of July weekend, we're going to Gatlinburg for Steve's family's get together!!  Very exciting!  

Our Saturday

Today we started our holiday weekend with a day at the park. We visited a park about 20 minutes away. The park is kind of small and they were doing some sort of frisbee golf tournament in one part of the park, but there was this huge field surrounded by trees, with a playground at one end, that was virtually empty. We laid out a blanket on one side in the shade, had a yummy lunch, played a little baseball, the kids played on the playground, and Daddy read to us from our Prince Caspian book. It was so quiet and peaceful and just wonderful. The weather was so great too. Just when the sun started to get too warm, a nice cool breeze would come by and cool you off. We really had a great time there. Then we drove about 5 minutes away from there to Ft. Ancient Indian Memorial Park. We walked a couple of the trails, one that was very steep down and back up. That was a tough hike!! We saw beautiful views and the Little Miami River. That park was nearly empty too. It was kind of nice to have these wonderful places to ourselves!! After that we came home and grilled hamburgers for dinner, then everyone took a bath and now the kiddies are sound asleep. It was a wonderful day. Hopefully tomorrow and Monday will be just as nice!!

This is the view from one of the trails at Ft. Ancient.  In the way back you can kind of see a bridge.  That's I-71.  It was a beautiful view!

The kids climbed up a big ladder and I took their picture!!

Daddy reading to us!!

Abby practicing with the big red bat!!

I love this picture because at the same time, Noah is catching the ball Daddy threw him and Abby hit the wiffle ball with the big red bat and it flew across my field of vision!!

Noah's turn with the big red bat!!

Our picnic lunch!

T

An update

Well the new blog is coming along nicely.  I just hope I'm able to put up enough deals to keep people happy!!  This week I gave too many away here on this blog and I'm having a hard time finding new ones to put up!!  Oh well, from now on, I'll know better!!  

I'm also trying to finish up my garage sale items.  I have about 75% priced and ready to go.  Just a few more to go.  I hope I can bring in at least $100.  That's my goal and considering, I'm counting the $40 I sold a stroller to Sonya for, I'm almost half way there!!!  

Poor Noah, he's had 2 games already cancelled for rain, and it looks like tonights will be too.  Now he has a game on Saturday and then a make up game on Sunday and who knows when this one will be made up.  His team is still undefeated though!  They had a really close game this past Saturday.  It was only 5-4 and the other team was ahead most of the game.  But they pulled it out in the end.  

Mother's Day was very nice.  Well on Saturday, we had our parents over for dinner.  I ended up getting them both a nice flower (a rose bush for my mom, and a potted plant for Steve's mom), and I made them photo books at CVS with pictures of their kids and grandkids, with words written by us.  They loved those.  I also gave them goody bags filled with my coupon finds.  I only gave them those as a little extra, not actually the gift.  It was a very nice dinner and everyone was very pleased with their gifts.  On Sunday, I woke up to my babies shouting Happy Mothers Day and then presenting me with their homemade cards.  Wow, their cards  blew me away.  Abby's had a picture of me and her on two seperate boats and we were both sad and then on the other side, we were in one boat together and very happy.  She thought of that on her own, I thought it was so creative!!  Noah's had me and him, wearing shirts in our favorite colors, standing together with a big heart between us, and he put "To the best mom in the whole world" on the front.  He dotted the i's with hearts.  I just thought they were both so creative and cute!!  When Daddy took them shopping, a miracle occured, they agreed on the gift!!  So one of them suggested a big soft pillow and the other said, yes a big fluffy purple pillow, so that's what I got!!  Purple is my favorite color, so they always look for purple stuff!!  I've been using it in bed ever since.  It's the best pillow ever!!  I also got to choose our lunch and since we're trying to save money for different things, I chose to just have Long John Silvers.  I love that place and the rest of the family doesn't like it so much.  They all seemed to enjoy it while we were there though!!  Plus the closest one to our house is about 20 minutes away, and that's pretty far to go just for some Long John's!!!

So that's about it for now.  I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Abby's dance photo

We got Abby's dance pictures back today. She looks so cute!!

Alright!!

Ok, I started another website for deals, here it is:  http://thriftyinthecincy.blogspot.com

We'll see how well it goes.  Hopefully I can keep up enough content to keep people checking it.  We'll see.  

If you find any deals please either email them to me or post it there for us to share.  Thanks!!

Some deals of note...

Check comments section for more deals and deal ideas!!!


Meijer has a great deal on Ortega Taco products. Right now they are on sale for half price. That makes the salsa 1.18, taco seasoning .34, and taco shells (12 pack) .84. They have other products as well, these are the ones I purchased. We also have coupons for .75 off 2 products which is doubled to a dollar. So last night I bought (in 3 transactions so all coupons would double), 4 salsas, 4 seasoning mixes and 4 boxes of taco shells and paid a total of 3.44. That's an awesome deal!! Just be careful not to put 4 of the seasonings in one order alone because you probably won't get the full amount of the coupons because Meijer's system doesn't allow overage. I always put 2 seasonings and 2 shells in an order (I did that twice) and then the 4 salsas in another order, so I got the full $1.00 off for every 2 products.

Other good deals;
Nesquick chocolate or strawberry syrup for milk or toppings is .70 after sale and coupon

Meijer veggies are .39 after coupon from http://mealbox.meijer.com/index.jsp (click on specials and you'll see coupons you can print)

Meijer frozen fries, hashbrowns, etc.. are 1.00 after coupon from mealbox

Family size bags of Meijer potato chips or tortilla chips (you'll need those for that cheap salsa!!) are 1.00 after coupon

If you buy 3 6-packs of Jello pudding, use three .50 off 1 coupons (two will double to 1.00, one just .50) equals 2.50 off, you'll get a free aerosol can of Cool-Whip (new aerosol can), plus you'll get a coupon for 2.00 off your next order that prints out at checkout. So you pay out 5.00 for three 6-packs of pudding and a can of whip cream and then get back 2.00. Decent deal.

Barilla plus pasta is on sale for 1.50

Kellogs cereal is half off. There may be some printable coupons for this. I had one for raisin bran, so I got a big box of it for .74.

I'm still checking Kroger deals. I know that Quaker Rice Quakes will be .50 each after coupon and the Post Cereal deal seems good, I don't have any regular coupons for that, but I'm checking for printable ones.

The Nesquick chocolate milks are free after coupon (yummy!!!)

I'll let you know if I find more there.

At CVS, Colgate toothpaste is free after coupon and ECB. They are 2.99 (the 4.0 oz Advanced Clean, Whitening or Fresh), we have coupons for 1.00 off and then they give back 2.00 in ECB's and it's limit 5.

I found a good filler to reach a $15 total is Rolaids. They have some packs that are 2.49 and then give back 2.00 in ECB's so you only have to pay .49.

The Schick intuition razors are also free after the 4.00 coupon we have and the 6.00 ECB you get, limit 1

Remember to try and seperate your toothpastes in a few different orders, so you won't get one big ECB, but several smaller ones. That's all for now, have a great week!!

Error

The new Barilla coupon is apparently .50 off 2, not 1 like I originally thought. Sorry. It'll make the pasta .75, not .25. My bad!!!

Aren't They Cute!!!

I found these pictures today as I was looking for pictures for a Mothers Day project. I thought they were so cute!! It's from Gymboree.

I also wanted to tell a good deal real quick. At Kroger (they extended it Sonya) Barilla Whole Grain pasta is on sale for 1.25 and we got coupons this past weekend to get $1 off, so they are a quarter. Also Barilla has a new style of pasta called piccolinni or something like that, that is also on sale 1.25 and this coming weekend we'll get coupons for it to make it .25. We also have coupons for hungry jack potatoes that are doubled to .70 0ff and the small one serving packs are marked down to 1.03, so they'll be .33. They also have the small lunchables (not with a drink) and the 2pack lunchable jr's on sale for .99 and we have coupons for $1 off 3, so they'll be like .66 each. That's a great deal for the jr's because you get two for that price and they'd be great to take on a day trip or to the zoo or whatever for the kids to munch on ( I ate one yesterday myself!!). That's all I know for now. Have a great day!!

Dental Musings

Why does it seem like the Spanish Inquisition when you take your children to the dentist?  Do they brush 2 times a day???  Well, uh, no not always two, but definitely once before bed time.  Do you help them brush???  No, not usually, they seem to do it pretty well by themselves.  Do they floss???  No, not really.  Do they eat lots of fruit snacks or fruit roll up???  No, I wouldn't say a lot, but every now and then.

Geesh, they can turn the most confident parent into a weeping mess!!!   I knew I was in trouble when they pulled out the floss and Abby said "what's that??"

But hey, no cavities (none yet for either child) and I keep bringing them in every 6 months like I'm supposed to, so they haven't won yet!!!

Noah's a purple belt!

These are some pictures from Noah's karate test. He passed!! They even tested him with the teen/adult test and he got a B with that!! We're so proud of him. He's now an adult (or teen) purple belt.

The testing.

The belt ceremony.

The new belt on and ready to go!!

So anyway, I wish I could get rid of this dang cold!! I'm so tired of coughing and blowing my nose!!

Where my parents live they are doing a huge city wide garage sale (they do it every year) and I"ll be setting up at their house for that,. I don't have a ton of stuff to get rid of, but it will definitely help with my decluttering!! I'm hoping to make a little money to add to our Disney spending fund!! So I'm washing clothes, labeling things and making sure everything looks it's best so I can definitely sell it!!

We pulled out every single stuffed animal we own and put them all in a big pile in the living room. As you can see, we need to do something about this. Unfortunately as we went through them, either Abby was attached to one, or Noah, or me, or even Daddy!! We only ended up getting rid of 2 trash bag fulls and still have tons!! I've decided we're going to allow them to keep a certain number upstairs to play with (Noah 25, Abby 40) and since we really have a large storage room in the basement, I'm going to keep the rest of the animals down there and they are welcome to go down and trade one in for another one at any time. So that way I don't have as many all over my house like before. Hopefully that will help. Noah never takes his out of his room, but they are Abby's absolute favorite toy, so she takes them everywhere and they wind up in every room, so hopefully this will help with the amount she can leave around the house!!



So that's about it for us this week, finishing school and working on the garage sale! Hope everyone has a great week!!