Snippets of Summer

We started out the week on Monday by signing up for the summer reading program at the local library. The kids can earn small prizes for reading and do fun craft activities at the library.

Back from the library with their bag of goodies

On Tuesday, Raina lost her front tooth. How cute is that?

I went grocery shopping on Wednesday with Raina, Remy and Ollie (Jackson was out of town with Barry). I've found the best way to shop when I have the little boys with me:

Apparently, I can't get both boys . . .

. . . to look at me at the same time!

Tuesday and Thursday the kids have swimming lessons. Swim caps are required at our pool:

Jackson and Raina are on their own, and then I take Remy and Ollie in for Aqua Tots. One of their favorite things to do is sit on the edge of the pool and jump to me. Except on Thursday, I had just caught Remy when Ollie jumped in before I was ready to catch him. My heart skipped a beat, I let go of Remy to grab Ollie, then grabbed Remy again, and it was all over in a second or two. Neither boy was upset or choking on the water, but it was a little scary for those seconds.
It wasn't the worst part of the day, though. We changed out of our swimming suits after lessons and were just about ready to leave when I heard Remy start crying. His finger got stuck in the locker room door, and he was bleeding all over the place. Thankfully another mom I know called the EMT, took care of Ollie for me, gave me a rag to hold on the bleeding finger, and was a calm presence in the chaos. Barry was home and got to the school in a few minutes, just as the EMT arrived. She wrapped his finger up with gauze and suggested we take him to the local clinic where they would be able to x-ray and assess the damage.
The x-ray showed a small fracture on the very tip of the finger, and because it was an open fracture (skin was broken), they sent us on to Duluth where they're better equipped to handle young children.So I left the other kids home with Barry and took off with Remy. At the ER, the doctor said his fingernail was only hanging on by about 10% and would need to be removed completely. The side of his finger was also cut pretty deeply. He had stitches there and along the nail bed where the nail ripped off. They had to numb his finger with lidocaine (injection) and the nurses did a great job distracting him with stickers, a popsicle, bubbles, and a glove blown up to look like a turkey. Remy entertained them by saying, "Mom, get me out of here," and when we were ready to go and he had all his treats in hand, he said, "It's my lucky day!"
I have to keep his finger bandaged and try to keep it clean and dry. Stitches will be removed next week Friday. It only seems to bother him when I have to change the dressing.
It was a tough afternoon, and I'm so glad he's handling it so well.
Jackson had his first baseball game, also on Thursday so I couldn't watch, but his team won and Jackson had a couple hits and also scored two runs for his team.

Ollie is as busy as ever. On this day, he tried to climb into the cabinet.

Kohl's Clearance

Raina needed some summer clothes, so when I heard about Kohl's clearance sale online, I found some things for her: plaid capris and matching green shirt and a butterfly skirt. These three pieces were just over $11 when I used a discount code from retailmenot.com. The original retail price for all three items was $48, so I saved 77%.

Garden

We've already harvested the first radish from our garden. It's not super impressive, but it looks like we'll get many more. The only thing that hasn't sprouted is the spinach--maybe I got a bad batch of seeds. We've had plenty of rain the past few days, so hopefully we'll get lots of sun this week.

Finally saved over 50%

The whole family took a drive to Two Harbors, so I had to pick up a couple of things at Super One. I spent $16.50 and saved $19.37 or 54%.
Normally $16.50 would get me this:

But I got all this:

Kemp's Select milk on sale for $2.49, used $0.75/2 coupon=$2.12 each
Land O' Lakes o.j.=$3.33
Cruz corn tortillas=$1.49 each
Can of tomato soup=$0.67
Lime juice=$0.98
Coffee Mate creamer on sale for $0.99, used $1/2 coupons=$0.49 each (Great deal!)
Bag of grapes on sale for $0.97/lb.=$1.80
Bunch of bananas for $0.69/lb.=$1.77
Two loaves of 100% whole wheat bread, not made with high fructose corn syrup=$1.50 each
(Not pictured) Two gallon water refills=$0.39 each
I also used the $5 coupon I got last week for buying Con Agra products.

Last Week's Grocery Deals

With the kids done with school for the summer, I needed to stock up on groceries. Hoping not to break the bank, I looked for the best deals. I saved only 35% or $103.54, but that included Raina's birthday cake. Without the cake my savings would be about 37%. Here are the deals:

Store brand hamburger and hot dog buns were $1.00 each. I put them in the freezer to pull out as needed in the next few weeks.

3 Musketeers were $0.50 each; I used 2-$0.25 coupons making each candy bar $0.25.

Oscar Mayer beef hot dogs are regularly $4.19. I had a FREE coupon from a Kraft foods promotion. The cashier almost wouldn't take the coupon because FREE coupons are commonly fraudulent, but another cashier said she'd take the heat if the cashier got questioned about it.

Creamette pasta and Bumble Bee tuna were $0.33 each.
Sargento cheese was $1.66. I had $0.75 coupons for the reduced sodium variety, making each package $0.91. I did notice that this variety is 1 3/4 cups instead of 2 cups.

Old Spice deodorant was 2/$4; I used a $1/2 coupon making each one $1.50.
Colgate was $0.99. I used 1 $0.50 coupon, making each one $0.74.

There was a catalina deal on Con Agra foods to get a $5 coupon toward your next order when you buy $15 in Con Agra products. Figuring in $5 divided by 7 types of products equals an additional $0.71 off each product:
Banquet chicken nuggets--$4.44-$0.71=$3.73
Banquet pot pies--6/$3.75-$0.71-$0.60/6 coupon=$0.41 each
Reddi Wip--$1.77-$0.71=$1.06
Pam--$2.50-$0.71=$1.79
Wesson oil--$2.88-$0.71=$2.17
Hunt's spaghetti sauce--$1.00-$0.71=$0.29
Hunt's tomatoes--$2-$0.71=$0.65 each
I forgot my grocery list at home, so I had to call Barry to make sure I had $15 in products. I'm lost without my list! Surprisingly, I didn't forget anything important.

Not pictured:
Gold'n Plump chicken breasts, 20 oz., on sale for $3.99, used $1 coupon for 2 packages=$3.49 each
Gold'n Plump chicken thighs, 20 oz., on sale for $2.99, used $1 coupon for 2 packages=$2.49 each
Morrell Off the Bone ham for sandwiches, on sale for $2.99, used $1 coupon=$1.99
Popsicles were on sale for $0.99 each

Finally, Zup's (our hometown grocery store) had a smokin' cereal deal last week:
Buy $4 Kellogg's cereals for $12, get 3 free, plus get a free gallon of milk. I also used 2-$1/2 coupons for Rice Krispies and a $1.50/3 Kellogg's cereal coupons, and I would have bought the milk anyway. Altogether, with sale prices, coupons, and free milk figured in, each box of cereal was $0.64. They also had store brand cheese (shredded or block) for $0.99 and a store coupon for $2 off 3 dairy products, making each package of cheese only $0.32!

Birthdays and Graduations

We've had a few special occasions in the last few weeks:
Jackson turned 11 on May 17.

Raina turned 6 on June 5.
Raina graduated from kindergarten.

In Raina's kindergarten classroom.

The school had a program for K-6 with the kindergarten graduation and academic awards for 4th-6th graders. Jackson got and award for excellent achievement in math and a phy. ed. award that the teacher said was given for consistently playing fairly and with integrity/not cheating.
It makes a parent proud to see kids do so well in school!