Mailbox Monday!! Weeks of 1/3/11-1/16/11

It is Mailbox Monday!! Check out the ton of goodies I got this week....all for FREE!!!!

Stayfree Ultra Thin Pad

Build-a-Bear Workshop Catalog and coupon

It's Who You Know Book by Franklin Graham

Charity Bracelet

Hyper peptide Anti wrinkle Dark Circle Concentrate

MOPS Pack (I got this for joining my group this year) Earth friendly bag, car sticker, 3-in-1 magnet, luggage tag

Paralyzed Veterans of American Purse Calendar w/pen

Golf Pride Golf Club Tour Wrap

Let's Have Fun w/Fire Safety Coloring Book

Sesame Street Color and Learn Fire Safety Book

The Quotable Chesterton Book (Booksneeze)

Karo Best Cookies & Bars Cookbook

Planet Protectors Club Pack filled with Coloring Books, Activity Packs, Stickers, etc..

American Baby Issue (free subscription)

Seventeen Magazine Issue (free subscription)

Soap Opera Digest-2 issues (free subscription)

Kodak Purse Book, 14 pages (FREE + $1.99 s/h) I was extra happy about this one :) I went to their website, uploaded 14 photos and they printed them on the pages. I titled it "Our Home Away From Home" and included 14 of our beach photos from this year.



Matlyn's 1st Beach Trip!




Just showing how nice it turned out. Love it!!





If you get this book on a regular day, it costs $9.99 + s/h!! What a deal I got. I hope some of you took advantage of this freebie when I posted it on Facebook :)

Would You Care For a Spot of Tea?

For our "Family Fun Box" activity for the week, the slip marked "Tea Party" was chosen. Like her brothers, I wasn't thrilled with the idea when Kaplyn added this to the box. In her mind, she expected us all to dress up in our fanciest hats, while sitting indian style in her bedroom with imaginary tea poured into her Fisher Price tea set. So, being the mom I am....we had her tea party, with some other ideas involved ;)

I made tea cup invitations with all of the information listed:

Then, the table was set! Using my wedding china, we served mini cakes, cookies and our version of tea (ginger ale and white grape juice)












The first to arrive was a debutante! Kaplyn









An Out-of-Town Businessman...Cameron (check out the pinkie)








Uncle Sam paid us a visit...Genin








A military soldier.....Reiner (we had to tell him about his elbows on the table)








A Train Engineer who stopped by after work...Brandis.









Don't forget our "mini" debutante who crawled in for tea...Matlyn :)







Kaplyn was tickled with her "Family Fun Box" pick. We all had a great time :)





Next week's activity: The Spring House

Weekly Grocery Wrap Up....I got all of this for less than $20!!!!

I was heading to Walmart in Washington today so I decided to make a quick glance through the Shop n Save and Giant Eagle ads for some good deals. I lined up some sales with some coupons and here is what I ended up with :)



Birdseye Steamfresh Broccoli- .60
Birdseye Steamfresh Broccoli- .60
Bagel Bites- $1.00
Bagel Bites- $1.00
Superpretzel Jalapeno Bites- $1.00
Green Giant Box Vegetable Broccoli & Cheese- .60
Green Giant Box Vegetable Broccoli & Cheese- .60
Green Giant Box Vegetable Broccoli & Rice- .60
Green Giant Box Vegetable Broccoli & Rice- .60
Green Giant Box Vegetable Normandy- .60
Green Giant Box Vegetable Normandy- .60
Kleenex Tissues- .66
Kleenex Tissues- .66
Kleenex Tissues- .66
Hamburger Helper Mexican Crunchy Taco- .50
Hamburger Helper Mexican Crunchy Taco- .50
Hamburger Helper Mexican Chili Macaroni- .50
Hamburger Helper Mexican Chili Macaroni- .50
Hamburger Helper Mexican Italian Cheesy Shells- .50
Similac Sensitive 1 quart- .84
Similac Sensitive 1 quart- .84
Good Start Gentle Plus Concentrate 13 fl oz- .13
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Dora the Explorer- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Dora the Explorer- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Dora the Explorer- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Dora the Explorer- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Disny Princess- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Disney Princess- .25
Campbell's Original Spaghettios Disney Princess- .25
Pillsbury Simply Buttermilk Biscuits- .50
Pillsbury Simply Buttermilk Biscuits- .50
Ken's Steakhouse Lemon Pepper Marinade- .66
Campbell's Select Harvest Italian Sausage w/Pasta & Pepperoni- .50
Campbell's Select Harvest Slowroasted Beef & Vegetables- .50
Campbell's Select Harvest Light Maryland Style Crab- .50
Campbell's Select Harvest Light Roasted Chicken w/Italian Herbs- .50
Blistex Raspberry Lemonade Blast- .50
Blistex Raspberry Lemonade Blast- .50
Renuzit Aroma Adjustable Apples & Cinnamon- .00 FREE!!!
Renuzit Aroma Adjustable Apples & Cinnamon- .00 FREE!!!
Renuzit Aroma Adjustable Apples & Cinnamon- .00 FREE!!!
Finish Quantum Powerball Dish Detergent packs 10 ct- .00 FREE!!!!

Grand Total= $19.90!!! I got all of this for less than $20

Book Review: The Quotable Chesterton

I recently received from Booksneeze.com, a complimentary issue of: The Quotable Chesterton, The Wit and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton in exchange for a review.

I am including a small excerpt of the book summary written on the back of the book:

G.K. Chesterton was a literary giant of his age. With an exceptional intellect, he wrote about history, politics, economics, philosophy, social and literary criticism, and theology. He published essays, novels, biographies, short stories and poetry, and the Christian classics Heretic, Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man, which C.S. Lewis credits as instrumental in his conversion to Christianity.

My Review

What drew me to this book was the idea of it being chock-full of quotes by a brilliant man. He covers almost every area with a quote and the author of this book, Kevin Belmonte, has captured them and placed them in alphabetical order. I must say, however, that this book was not at all what I expected. I thought I would smile, laugh, maybe even just think...hey, I never thought of that before. Each quote I read confused me to no end. I consider myself to be very smart in the literary field, but he had me questioning my intellect and I do not like that feeling. The author did help the boredom of the book by at least placing the quotes in alphabetical order based on the topic. That way, you could at least try to skip around to something understandable or at least interesting. I found two, possibly three things that I understood in the entire book. You cannot just read through this book...it takes a lot of thought. I do not recommend this book unless you have a lot of time to sit and ponder what you read after you have read it.

Disclosure of material connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the booksneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonals in Advertising".

Snow Day :)

The kids and I had a great time during our snow day yesterday. After I shoveled a path to anywhere...we were able to play in the snow :)

Sledding

Snow Angels

After all of that snow fun, we had hot cocoa and snow cream!

Here is the recipe :)

Ingredients:

1 gallon snow (1 large mixing bowl filled with snow)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups milk

Directions:

When it starts to snow, place a large, clean bowl outside to collect the flakes. When full, stir in sugar and vanilla to taste, then stir in just enough milk for the desired consistency. Serve at once.



After we finished our sweet treat, we made our own "homemade" snow globes.

Things you will need:

Clean baby food jar
Strong glue
Small trinket
Water
Glitter or plastic confetti (we used gold glitter)

The kids search for the perfect trinket for their snow globes

Glue your trinket to the inside of the baby food jar lid

Put about 1/2 teaspoon of glitter or plastic confetti in the baby food jar. Fill the jar ot the neck with water. Once the glue is set under the trinket, run glue along the rim of the jar and turn the jar lid over the correct way and attach to the glued rim. Turn the jar upside down and shake...voila! A homemade snow globe!!



Cameron chose a small rubber frog, Genin (2 military people), Kaplyn (flower pot eraser), Reiner (train eraser) and Brandis (firefighter)

One big "snow" themed day!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Motherly Instinct

Project Cleanup! Week 8

Week 8 and still cleaning out! This week, I went with one cabinet in the kitchen...the dreaded plastics cabinet!!





1-12: Eat n Park Plastic Cups
13-20: Olive Garden Plastic Cups
21-25: Finding Nemo Plastic Cups
26: Tiki pink Mug



Kaplyn got this mug at her 6th Birthday Luau party. It had its turn with Kaplyn for a while, but during the last 6 months, it has been hiding out all the way in the back of the cabinet amongst the leaky sippy bottles. You can just tell by the look of his face that he is done.


27-28: Halloween Cups
29: Bag of plastic knives





Who doesn't have a ton of knives just laying around waiting to be used?!!!



30: Sandwich Keeper
31-35: Various Sip Bottles
36: Coke Sip Bottle
37: Hello Kitty Bottle
38: 1 Quart Plastic Measuring Cup






39. Infantino Baby Toy
40-44: 5 playshirts (Kaplyn)
45. Football





I must not be feeding these kids enough. There is always a bite or two out of the spongy sports balls in our house!


46. Wimpy Doll
47. My Favorite Book
48. Not just spaghetti and meatball cookbook





No offense to the contributors of this book, but I have tried for 15 years to cook out of this book and only found one good recipe. The whole idea of these fundraiser cookbooks is to send in recipes you can actually do, not recipes like you can find in any expensive cookbook out there. Maybe someone else will get more luck. Quick tip: Keep around plenty of Oleo!!

49-51. Fake Grapes







These grapes were never part of my decor!!! I bought a bread basket at goodwill and these were a decoration sprouted out of it! Have you ever seen real grapes that look like this? I haven't....

52. Superbabies Dora the Explorer VHS (tape ruined)
53. Drive Me Crazy VHS
54. Great Balls of Fire VHS
55. Just Married VHS
56. Dirty Dancing VHS
57. Stuart Little VHS

All items will be distributed to the following places:

Mission: 1-12,13,20,21-25,29,31-35,40,44

Yard Sale: 26,27,28,30,36,37,38,39,46,47,48,49-51,53,54,55,56,57

Trash: 45, 52

That is 308 items cleaned out to date!