Backyard Bible School

Ready to begin.

Last week was the end of swimming lessons and baseball for Jackson and Raina. I don't want the kids to get a case of the I'm Boreds, so we had our own backyard Bible School this week. We listened to Bible stories, acted some of them out, did projects, had snacks, and watched Veggie Tales movies. The stories we learned about:
Monday--The Good Samaritan/Love your neighbor as yourself. The kids took turns being the Samaritan who helped the injured man.

Jackson bandages up Raina.

Tuesday--David and Goliath/God is with me. Jackson read us the whole story out of the Bible
Wednesday--Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego/God protects me. Did a cut and glue (stick) project of the three men and the angel in the furnace.

Working on a project.

The finished projects, going on the refrigerator.

Thursday--Creation/God created the heavens and the earth. We made creation books, drawing and using stickers to show what God created on each day.
Friday--Joshua and the Battle of Jericho/Nothing is impossible with God. We built a wall out of Mega Blocks, marched around it six times, and destroyed it on the seventh time. Then we ate popcorn and watched Josh and the Big Wall.

Replenishing the Pantry

Since we ate out of the pantry last week, it was time to head to Super One today. I left Jackson and Remy to hang out with Barry at the office and took Raina and Ollie with me. It wasn't a great week for sales, but I did get some good deals.
For FREE:

Bear Naked Granola (used the 2nd free coupon they sent me)
Uncle Ben's Ready Rice, coupon to try for free (except when I checked my receipt this coupon didn't come off; I'll have to get reimbursed next time I'm there)
Diet Coke 2 liter, was on sale for $1, had a coupon for $1 off "soda" when you buy 3 packs of Orville Redenbacher popcorn (I'm not a Diet Coke drinker, but I'm planning a Diet Coke/Mentos experiment with the kids soon)
Other deals:

The Orville Redenbacher popcorn was $1.50 per box, I used $1 off 1 and $1 off 2 coupons, so $2.50 for 3 boxes, or $0.83 each
The Hefty One Zip bags were $1.88, I had three $1 coupons, so $0.88 each
Goldfish were $1.67-$1 coupon=$0.67
Fisher mixed nuts were $2-$1 coupon=$1
Fisher sunflower seeds, still $1.29-$1 coupon=$0.29

Peter Pan peanut butter was $1.95 each, used 2 $1 coupons=$0.95 each
Store brand ibuprofen was buy 1 get 1 free at $2.99, so $1.50 for 50 caplets

Dole 5 pound bags of potatoes were buy 1 get 1 free at $2.47, so $2.47 for 10 pounds of potatoes

And some treats--Breyer's ice cream pints were buy 1 get 1 free at $1.99, used $1 off 2 coupon making them $0.99 for 2, or $0.49 each
Snickers and M & M ice cream bars were 2/$5, I used 2-$1 coupons making them $1.50 per box.

Eating from the Pantry

Some weeks I either don't make it to the grocery store, or don't need to go. On these weeks, we eat what is in the freezer/fridge/pantry. Last week we had:
Twins Grill Pack (has steak, chicken and pork chops), salad and watermelon
Dill crusted salmon, baked potatoes, green beans
Hillshire Farms smoked sausage, rice, mixed veggies
Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots
Chicken nuggets, leftover mashed potatoes, fruit (hey, Barry was out of town--gotta please the kids once in awhile!)
Pizza
Homemade vegetable soup
So on those weeks when you can't get to the store, or don't want to break your budget eating out, try eating from YOUR pantry!

Seven Months

Ollie is seven months old today! Still not crawling, but up on his hands and knees a lot, and can get himself to sitting from that position. He's becoming more interested in baby food, and likes Cheerios and Gerber Puffs. He has two teeth on the bottom. It's so cute when he laughs!

Wednesday

We took a little family hike at Gooseberry Falls on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the pictures are still on the camera. I say little, but we took the loop trail with lots of steps--it rivaled and passed the number of steps we took at the Lake Vermilion cabin, I'm sure. My legs were sore for two days.
Since we were halfway to Two Harbors, we did a family grocery shopping trip. Shopping with the hubby always brings my total savings down as he buys things not on my list, but we still saved 32% ($72.97) with sales and coupons. We got a rotisserie chicken and were going to eat in a park, but it was so windy that when Remy let go of the paper plates I asked him to hold, they were across the parking lot in no time. We brought the food home instead (including a rhubarb raspberry pie from Betty's Pies).
Shopping trip highlights:

General Mills cereal was 4/$10, with a $4 store coupon when you buy 4. I used $1/2 Chex and $1/3 coupon on the other 3, so the total was $6.50 for 5 boxes of cereal, or $1.30 each.

Ragu was 2/$3, and I had $0.60 coupons for the Margerita (pizza flavored) variety, making each jar $0.90. Wacky Mac was $1.29-$0.75 coupon=$0.54.

JUST ADDED:
How could I forget my freebies? Bear Naked granola and Crystal Farms Better'n Eggs, both free with coupons I got for emailing the company.

Pamida double coupons:

Degree trial size deoderent and Suave deoderent were FREE after doubled coupons. No overage, they only double up to the price of the item.
Mentos gum was $2.09-$1 coupon doubled=$0.09 each
Pledge wipes were 2/$6 on sale-$1 coupons doubled=$1 each (regular price $4.79!)

I also got three tea bags from Yogi Tea in the mail this week:
Green Tea Super Anti-Oxidant, Himilayan Apple Spice, and Green Tea Goji Berry. Now if I could just find the coupon for a FREE box of tea they previously sent me.

Earlier this week, I picked up a couple things at Zups with coupons I've been watching for the right deal to use. One coupon was FREE (up to $2) sugar when you buy 10 packets of Kool Aid. Sugar was on sale for $1.99 and Kool Aid was 8/$0.99, so four pounds of sugar and 10 Kool Aid packets were $1.24.
I also had a coupon from Bar S for $5 of their products for FREE. I didn't want to buy hot dogs as there are plenty of hot dog deals all summer long, and we don't eat them often. Zups had the bacon on sale 2/$4 this week, so I got three packages for $1 after the coupon. We had BLT's that night, and have some bacon in the freezer for breakfast another day.

Lake Vermilion Highlights

Playing with Rosie


Fishing

Grandpa and Grandma

Beautiful scenery

And more!

Catching Up

Last week we were up at Lake Vermilion for several days, so I've been catching up on laundry and unpacking. Every vacation requires some special food for the trip, so my pre-vacation grocery trip yielded only a 36% ($92.06) savings on sale/coupon items. Some of the deals:

I had a raincheck from a couple of weeks ago for Kemps ice cream sandwich 6 packs for $0.99 each, and they were finally in stock again. The Bic razors were still on sale for $2.50, and I had 2-$2 coupons, making them $0.50 each. I had a coupon for a free 64 oz. Old Orchard Healthy Balance juice from doing a survey on their website.

Chicken drumsticks were $0.99 when buying three Kraft shredded cheese for $2 each or three Kraft dressings at 3/$5 (also used 1-$1 coupon on the dressing).

Kraft macaroni and cheese was 5/$3.33. I had a coupon for buy 3, get 1 free, but I guess the cashier didn't want to figure out the math. Instead of taking off $0.67, she took off $1.49, making each box only $0.30 instead of $0.50.

Geisha tuna was $0.44 each.
Finally, if you bought Sara Lee hot dog buns and Ball Park hot dogs, you got a free seedless watermelon.
I had a coupon to try a DiGiorno Flatbread for free.
I also bought some more Fisher sunflower seeds (they're $1.29, I have lots of $1 off any Fisher product coupons).