3 Birthday parties, Camping, and tying down the Trampoline!

We went CAMPING! And by “we” I mean, Jill & Aaron, Me & Joe, Claire (7), Emily (6), Ava (2), Julia (22 mo.) and Holden (4.5 mo.). It was super-fun! We headed down to TenCamper State Park in Oklahoma for our 4 day, 3 night adventure. Though it was indeed called Tenkiller, Jill wouldn’t come along unless we called it something less scary. So . . . .TenCAMPER was born! No, I’m not pregnant – there were actually only 9 of us camping. The last time we went camping (I was pregnant) Jill didn’t seem to have any issue with Devil’s Den State Park but I guess I can see how Tenkiller is more scary than the Devil. Whatever.

Despite the State-wide burn-ban, we camped, made s’mores and Emily had her 6th Birthday Party in the woods! We “roughed it” in our 3 bedroom cabin and though we’ve had to defend our position of camping in a cabin to more folks than one, we stand by our claim! The fact is, 2 sizes of diapers, 2 sets of bunk beds, and a pink potty seat is as much camping as a family traveling with 5 kids needs. EVER. Oh, did I mention the tiny, cute infant who nurses every 3 hours? You can set your clock to it. (As long as you’re in a cabin, that is – tents don’t have clocks.)

Aaron had enough of the fun and flew home to the comforts of his own bed (actually work called, but you get the idea). Jill and her 3, and me with my 3 (Joe included) headed north to KC. Dad came down on Monday followed by Mom the next day. I left for Chicago at 4am on Monday morning and missed Emily’s real birthday – I SUCK. Luckily, she was having too much fun to notice I was gone. I got home just in time for everyone to leave. Dad whipped the house into shape just in time for Joe’s dad and Jade & Anna (2 of our 3 MN nieces) who arrived on Friday evening moments after we got home. Luckily, they came bearing gifts – about 40 pounds of Chinese food included!

Em had her third 6th birthday party on Saturday at the Roller Rink – I would recommend holding off on the roller-skating until your kiddos are a little older. Say, oh 14 or so. LOL! Anyway, thanks to all of you for coming . . .camping, cooking, skating, all of it. I love you! Oh, and I had to tie down the trampoline tonight because of the crazy strong wind! Last time it ended up in our big maple tree! Uff da!

My trip to Walgreens...saved 84%!!

Can't resist...I didn't do as well as Jennie I'm sure, but look at this!!

4 Jumbo packs of Huggies
2 packs of Huggies wipes
2 boxes of NutriPals fruit bars
5 Garnier hair products
1 RightGuard deoderant
1 French's mustard
2 packages of Revlon emery boards
1 Walgreens coloring book
1 pack of Duracell hearing aid batteries (16 count) for my Grandma
2 cans of Pringles

I paid $18.91 for all of this which had a total value of $119.66!!!

Vaccines...

As I mentioned at the end of my post from yesterday, Holden had his 4 month check-up yesterday. He received 2 shots as well as the oral Rotavirus vaccine. While I firmly believe that kids should receive their vaccines, I do understand the debate that's out there. I feel really lucky to have good health care (although we have really bad insurance that doesn't pay for hardly anything) for my kids. I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about vaccines. This is what I was thinking yesterday:

On Ava's two-year birthday last summer she got sick. It was while we were on our annual month-long visit to our family in Minnesota. She got sicker and sicker and her fever went higher and higher and she had no wet diapers for hours and hours. Finally, I was near panic and took her to the ER. Turns out she had Rotavirus and pretty much the only problem was that she was seriously dehydrated. She spent 3 days and nights in the hospital (pic of Aaron holding her in the hosp, which we did pretty much round the clock). It wasn't that scary because I knew that as soon as she had enough hydration, she'd be fine with no long term problems. After she got out of the hospital, she was fine. It took her about a week to return to her normal self. We did have 1 day in there when we thought we might have to take her back to the hospital, but she rounded the corner and recovered fully.

This long story just to say...I'm really glad Holden was able to get the Rotavirus vaccine (they weren't doing it when Ava was tiny).

I'd love your comments and viewpoints on the vaccine controversy.

Super Cheap Cereal!

Jill again...well, I know that this is not a blog dedicated to shopping tips, but I just can't resist one more entry about the great deals out there this week! I just returned from a quick trip to my local grocery store, Tom Thumb, because they sent out a mid-week circular announcing new sales that start today. Buy 5 boxes of Kellogs Corn Flakes or Quaker Life cereal at $1.99 AND receive an instant $5 credit on the shopping trip! Doing the math, that makes each box $0.99! Then I had 2 coupons for $1 off 2 boxes of Life cereal making my grand total for 5 boxes of cereal....$3.00! If only every trip out of the house could be so gratifying!

P.S. Holden went to the doctor today and weights 14.5 pounds (40%) and was over 25 inches long (70%). He's getting so BIG!!

Coupon Crazy!

Jill here - I'm fairly new to the underground world of super-couponing, but everything I know I learned from Jennie! I've learned that really there are 2 keys to successful saving: clip LOTS of coupons AND study the weekly ads from the newspaper. Here are the results from my two shopping trips this week:

Groceries: My family does a big grocery shop once a month and then we get a few things here and there as we need them (like produce and fresh bread items). I knew that we would go to the grocery on Sat morning because there was a $10 coupon in the Tom Thumb weekly circular that expired on Sat, so that was a given. I also had my quarterly $5 coupon to Tom Thumb in the passbook. With $15 guaranteed savings, I studied the circular like crazy to get the scoop on meat prices as well as BOGO or other great sale items. Then I went through ALL of my coupons and matched them up with the great deals offered by the store. In the end we spent $153 BUT we SAVED $136 (48%) with coupons and in-store sales which is FANTASTIC for us!

CVS: I was so happy with my shopping at CVS this week that I actually took a pic of the stuff I brought home! I got 6 Dawn dish soaps, 2 boxes of Glucerna snack bars, 2 trial size Act mouthwashes, a Gillette Fusion Gamer razor and a package of SweetTarts (Claire was with me). I had coupons for every item except the mouthwash and candy. I used $4 in CVS Extra Care Bucks and paid $0.02 cash for the entire purchase. In addition, I got $6 in CVS Extra Care Bucks back to spend next time! Can't wait to see what's in the CVS Sunday circular this week!