Three Kings Day on Tech-Free Thursdays

Epiphany - Three Kings Day January 7th 2011

The Epiphany just happened to fall on a Thursday this year, so that was the theme of our Tech Free Thursday this week. I did some research to find some good ideas, as I didn't have any gold, frankincense or myrrh laying around to show the kids. I found a great blog Motherly Loving that had some great ideas that we used. She included blessing for your house and the blessing for the piece of chalk that you use in the blessing. I remember back in Grade School doing this blessing throughout the school classroom doors. I had forgot about it. I remember dressing up as "kings" with two of my friends Kit and Jean and going around to all the classrooms with the chalk and blessing the doors. I know I have a picture of us three dressed up somewhere in my house, and searched for it, but was unable to find it. When I do, I will scan and post it. I think it would have been fun to show my children too.


Here is Ali doing the blessing over the front door of our house. I went onto Nick.com and found more Epiphany ideas including making your own crowns. I printed the ones that you can download from their site, but was not the happiest with it. So we cut them out and covered them with tinfoil and added our own decorations to them.


Matt did the blessing over our mudroom door, which lets face it, is the most used door in our house. We tried the Lamb's Wool recipe on the Motherly Loving blog, but I have to admit, we didn't care for it very much. But it made the house smell real good with the baked apples.

Timmy, being a little shorter than his brother and sister, got to bless our patio door to the deck. He was not tall enough to write above the door, so he stood on the chair and blessed the side of the door. We kept telling him that this is the only time he will be able to write on the walls. Other Epiphany ideas I read about were spice cakes. I just happened to have a box of spice cake in the house, so we made that up also. We hid a Hershey Kiss in the cake for the prize. When cutting it up the boys were so excited to see who was going to get the chocolate, because that person is blessed with good luck throughout the following year. Jeff ended up getting the chocolate, and was hoping that the good luck would start right away.

This was a wonderful night filled with many different activities all centered around the three kings finding the baby Jesus. This is a tradition that we will be doing every year from now on.

Electronic Free Thursdays - Sledding

What do you do after over 16" of snow falls the weekend before? Why you go sledding on your Electronic Free Thursday!

We were lucky enough to finally get a good snow fall in the Twin Cities over the past weekend. Sure everything came to a stop for awhile, but it made for great sledding conditions. My daughters Girl Scout troop was planning a family sledding adventure, and we went to enjoy the crisp 12 degree night.

All the kids had a great time on the lit sledding hill in the neighboring town. We even ended up the evening with a bon fire, smores and hot cocoa. Little chilly at the end, but my kids said that they had a blast. It was nice to do a physical activity rather than a Christmas craft during the month.

I have attached a video for you to see just how crazy some of the kids are. What a great time, but the snow won't stay around too long. After a good snow fall everybody heads out to the hills, and it gets warn back down to the grass pretty quickly. Glad we had the opportunity to get our sledding in.

Electronic Free Thursdays

We finally got into a groove of doing our Electronic Free Thursdays!

We planned to start at back to school time, but with two boys in football and my daughter in tennis, there wasn't a free evening that we were all home at the same time. So in comes December. What a perfect time to get Christmas crafts and projects done around the house!

This past Thursday we did paper ornament crafts:

These are the finished projects, Origami Paper Wreaths and Paint Sample Balls.

Paint Sample Balls what you need:

8 Paint Samples (large & solid colors)

Large circle punch, or a circle cutter

Tacky Glue

Clothes Pins

Start by cutting all eight paint samples into the largest circle you can by either using a punch or circle cutter. Then on the back sides take a dull exacto knife and score a triangle into the back of them. I did not measure, which is why ours didn't match up perfectly, but I didn't mind. Fold the triangle parts up to make flat areas for gluing. Start gluing one flat section to the next clothes pinning along the way. We found that two clothes pins per side worked the best. Glue four sections together to form a bowl, then do the other four sections together. It is then easier to just combine the two bowl shaped pieces. Let them thoroughly dry and glue in a ribbon for hanging, or just place them on the branch. Each one will be unique depending on the paint colors that the kids pick out.

Origami Paper Wreaths what you need:

2 sheets of 12X12 scrap booking paper

Glue

Paper cutter

I didn't take individual pictures of how to make these, but they are basic origami triangles. I learned how to make these from Martha Stewart with On Demand Programming. You can also see how to make them from this You Tube video. She very nicely shows you the same fold that I taught my kids. I was unable to find the directions on Martha's webiste, but be sure to check OnDemand if you have that service.

These were the favorites of myself and the older kids. My youngest found it to frustrating and ended up just cutting our leftovers into smaller pieces, keeping him busy.

All You Magazine for only $15/year

Have you learned the greatness of the All You magazine? There are so many coupons in every issue, it will pay for itself in the first issue.

Click here and order a year subscription for just $15 a year, which breaks down to just $1.oo an issue. Or order 2 years for only $25.00, that is 67% off the cover price! Plus every time you order a subscription to any magazine, it helps my kids school! They have been going through so many budget cuts the last four years, that this is the easiest way for them to get new supplies for their school. There are over 600 different magazines to choose from, and you can renew a subscription that you already have too.

Thank you for helping them out.

Pampers Points

Here is a list of Pampers points to use on the Pampers web site. I personally don't have any kids in diapers anymore, so I took all of these codes, entered them and took the 200 points and just donated them to UNICEF. They will use the donation to help give vaccinations to pregnant women in third world countries. I don't plan on keeping up with my Pampers points, so I figure might as well put them to good use. If you don't have little ones in diapers anymore either, might be a good way to spend 20 minutes to help other women around the world.

Codes:

GTGPLAY2USA2010

GRATUIT89102009

GROWWITHVILLAGE

JOINTHEFUNGTG09

JUSTBECAUSE2009

OHAMANDAAWGTG08

STARTEARNINGNOW

THRIFTYMOMMYGTG

WELCOME2GTG0809

WELCOME2VILLAGE

WELCOMEBONUS089

XKCMYXFVD96VXVK

How Far Do You Go to Protect Your Kids?

I know I personally would die for my kids, that is just the way Mothers are. But how far do you go when your kids are being bullied on the bus to school?

Here is the situation. My oldest son is being tormented by a (very manly) girl on the school bus to and from school. In September they were holding interviews for the two bus patrol positions. Three kids signed up for the job. My son, one of his best friends and this girl. The two boys got the job, and she started on her rampage. Now remember they are all on the same bus, so she lives in our development also. She and her little brother had spent almost every night in our backyard with all the other neighborhood kids playing football and other sports. Everything was fine until the whole bus patrol thing came up.

When the boys got their vests the trouble started. She would run to the vice principal, who is in charge of the patrols, and say that he wasn't doing his job and she should get it. It went so far as her mother coming in to complain about him. Now I do know my son isn't perfect, but he is a rule follower. If you are standing on the bus, he will give you a warning. And I think he was turning her in at least once a week for violations. My advice to him at that time was to have the other boy write her up for awhile to take the pressure off of him. It worked for awhile.

Now this week she has most of the older kids singing a rhyme about him. He has a name that is very easily rhymed with, and that does not help at all. He is a very emotional child and has been since he was a toddler. But I can't handle him coming home from school crying every night anymore. He wants to quit being a bus patrol so she will stop. Personally I feel that that would be like accepting defeat, and I don't think that it is a good option. This is why I need some advice from my readers, who are mostly Mom's too.

Do I go to the Mother of the girl to ask her daughter to stop? I do not know her parents at all, so there is no connection there that would make it easier. Or will this make it worse in the long run?

Do I go to the Vice Principal and ask him to talk to her? Or will this make it worse?

Do I let him fight his own battles and hope it works out in the end? Or will it just get worse for him?

I want him to be able to handle his own situations without stepping in to solve his problems all the time, but this has been going on since October.I don't want him to become afraid to go to school, or become depressed. I want to help him, but want to do it in the best way possible without hurting him in the long run. I know that things will be different next year on the middle school bus. He will have his best friend and older sister on the bus to watch his back for him. But I need the rest of this school year to go better. Have you guys come across this with your children? What did you do that worked or didn't work? What about the bullies in your childhood, do you still remember them? I don't want this to be a bad memory of his childhood. I just want my kids to be able to go to school without being teased so that they can get a good education and make a success of themselves in the future. I know he will survive through this, but want to be able to teach him how to handle himself with bullies. She is in the same grade as him, and will be in school with him for the next 7 years. That is why I am turning to my fellow bloggers for advice. Please comment if you have any suggestions, and maybe we can nip this bully in the bud together!

Paying Kids for Weekly Chores

How come getting kids to do simple chores for cash is so hard? Do your kids do chores for money? What tricks have you used that work, and which ones really didn't work?

We are trying something new at our house this week. I have to admit I stole the idea from the Duggar's book (that my husband got me for Christmas). Now you can say whatever you want about the Duggar's, but seriously, they must be doing something right. They have 19 kids and they are all well behaved and their house seems to run much smoother than mine. So I am going to try a few of their suggestions in their book and see if they will work for my family.

What we are trying is having the kids do their chores, but instead of paying them cash every week, we put it into a "Mom & Dad Checking Account". I had extra checking registries and gave each child one of their own to keep track of their cash. I showed them how to enter it into the registry with the money that I already owed them for chores and babysitting. I printed out blank check and deposit slips from here so that they can make deposits from birthday money and such. And they can then write me a check if they want to buy something.

I am hoping that this accomplishes a few different goals. One, the learn how to balance a checkbook. Two, they learn to save up their money before buying something. Three, they will know where their money is at all times and not losing it in the laundry or in their bedrooms. And finally, I don't need to always have cash on hand to dole out to them every Friday (our payday).

I am also thinking that I will make them their own personal cash cards out of old Target gift cards. That way they will need to remember pin numbers and not lose their cards if they want to withdraw money.

So far the first week of implementing the new bank, the kids are faster to do their chores and babysitting when I need them to. They happily run to the drawer where their registries are and add the amount into the balance. My five year old told me about five times today how much money he has in his account now. He even offered to buy at McDonald's because he would still have enough money left over to buy the things that he wants.

I am just hoping that they continue to do their chores!

Living Green Expo this Weekend!

It's that time of year again. Time for the Living Green Expo at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds this weekend! I LOVE this free expo. You can always find something new that you haven't seen done before. Try new organic foods, and make you think differently about the little things that can make a huge difference. I plan on being there on Sunday, so if you see me, be sure to say HI.

The annual Living Green Expo is a free, family-friendly event that inspires people to lead healthier and more sustainable lives.


May 2-3, 2009
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Minnesota State Fair Grounds (Saint Paul)
Free admission Getting There: Directions

Ride FREE to the 2009 Expo with a Go Greener Pass from Metro Transit.
Plan your route
Download your Go Greener Pass

Photo Coupons

Here are a few great photo coupons thanks to Karen.
Spring is always a great time to get new pictures taken.

JCPenney Portrait Studio
Free 8x10 portrait and free sitting fees
http://www.jcpportraits.com/coupons/coupons.html
Expires 5/30/2009

Target Portrait Studio
Free 8x10 portrait and fee sitting fees
http://www.targetportraits.com/coupons/coupons.html
Expires 4/30/2009

Flash Digital PortraitsFree framed 5x10
http://www.flashportraits.com/Promotions.shtml
Expires 5/22/2009

Easter Basket Challenge

Here is my personal results from the Easter Basket Challenge. I took pictures off all three kids baskets, and priced out what they each got and how much I ended up spending on them.

Ali's basket: Basket - $.99 90% off clearance Target last year
Tank Top - Free Aeropostale coupon
Shorts - $1.94 clearance at Target
2 Goody hair elastics - $.12 each at Wal-mart with $2.00 off coupon
Small chocolate bunny $.33 3/$1.00 at Wal-mart
Wind up bunny - $1.00 section at Target
Peeps - $.88 Wal-mart
Giant cookie - $1.00 Wal-mart
Bottle lotion - $2.00 - Cub Foods with coupon
Laffy Taffy - $1.88 Wal-mart
Chocolate Bunny $2.99 - Target
Total for just Ali - $13.25

Matt's Basket: Basket $.99 Target clearance

Tag spray - $1.25 - Cub Foods with coupon

Big bag of Pony Beads Kit - $3.99 Wal-mart

3-pack Golf Balls - Free with coupon to local store

Bag of Tees - $1.99

Cadbury mini eggs - $1.88 Wal-mart

Giant Cookie - $1.00 Wal-mart

Mini Chocolate bunny $.33

Wind-up bunny $1.00 Target

Big Chocolate bunny $2.99 Target

Peeps $.88 Wal-mart

Aeorpostale hat $4.97 - 70% clearance

Matt's Total - $21.30

Timmy's Basket: Basket $.99 Target

3-pack Play-do - $1.88 Wal-mart

Giant cookie - $1.99 Wal-mart

Addition Flash Cards - $1.00 Target

Stuffed bunny - $1.00 Target

Small chocolate bunny $.33

Wind-up Bunny - $1.00 Target

Bubble Wand - $1.88 Wal-mart

Giant Chocolate Bunny - $2.99 Target

Peeps - $.88 Wal-mart

Giant Cookie - $1.00 Wal-mart

Bag of peanut butter cups - $1.88 Wal-mart

Timmy's Total - $16.82

I will post pictures on Monday with what the Easter Bunny does to our house in the morning. It's pretty funny, and the kids enjoy it more than the actual candy I think.

Cheap Way to Dye Easter Eggs

My family has been dying Easter eggs in this fashion for about four years now. I have to be honest, covering the kitchen table in newspaper, digging out old coffee mugs, and soaking color tablets in vinegar does not sound like a good time to me. Plus that much vinegar makes the house stink for a couple of days. A few years back I found out how to "Tye Dye" Easter eggs, and we have been doing it ever since.



All you need is a sink, a strainer, hard boiled eggs, vinegar and regular food coloring. Start by hard boiling your eggs, and let them cool completely before coloring. In a strainer over the sink place the first egg. Cover the egg in vinegar. Vinegar is so very cheap, and we all have it in our house already, don't be afraid to really cover the whole egg. Be sure to do it over the sink for easy clean-up.

Add drops of food coloring, one by one. You can do just one color, or multiple colors. Experiment with colors.

When you have all the colors you want, slowly and gently wiggle the egg in the strainer. The more you wiggle it, the more the colors will blend. The less wiggling, the more of a tye dye look you will get.

My older kids do everything but covering with vinegar. They add the color and wiggle the eggs. They also rinse the strainer between eggs to not mix the color to much. You must rinse between eggs, or they will all come out muddy looking.

Ta-da, tye dyed Easter eggs. This way is neater, just rinse it down the sink. Quicker, it took us about 30 minutes to do 24 eggs, 8 per kid. And I think they are more unique than regular eggs dipped in cups. You can still use the crayons to write on them, or rubber binders to make stripes. This is mostly just a different way to do the actual dying. Plus you don't have to spend the $4.00 to buy the dye kits anymore!

Our short video of wiggling the egg.

How do you dye your Easter eggs. Do you have a new way for us to try next year? Leave a comment and share.

Free Online Kids Video Game to Try Out

MomSelect is looking for moms and kids to test out an awesome online experience for kids. By taking part in this program, your kids will be given free access to a new kids' website, not yet available to the public.

Focused on the animal kingdom, this online game is not only entertaining but teaches positive lessons about nature and cooperation. Moms will feel comfortable with the safe and secure nature of the online world and the educational aspect of the activities, while kids will love rescuing and caring for the baby animals they encounter during their gameplay.

If your child would be interested in being part of the first group of kids to experience this exciting website, we'll send you a unique access code. The code will be valid during the entire site sneak peek testing period (approximately 4 weeks) and your child will be given special benefits and access within the site. After testing out the site, we ask that you fill out a brief online survey with your thoughts regarding the site. Your feedback, along with the thoughts of your children, will directly impact the final product launch.

And as a thank you for your insights, we'll be holding a drawing among survey respondents - 3 lucky moms and their kids will each win a $50 Target gift card! By participating in the sneak peek testing program, we ask that you: • Visit the site with your child to get a sense of the website • Encourage your child to play as much as possible during the sneak peek testing period • Fill out the online survey within the requested time period*

To be eligible for this program, you must have at least one child in the 7-12 age range.

You can go to their registration page here to sign up your children. I have signed up my two kids. They are always willing to try out a new web site.

Bragging about my Kids

I just have to take this time to do a little more bragging about my kids. As many of you know the two older kids are in competition dance. As you are driving them five days a week to classes, spending oodles of money on gas and food, not to mention how expensive it is just to be able to dance. You start to wonder why you are doing it all.

Last weekend the kids did a new competition, and I remembered why I put forth all the money and effort.


They made the same dance team this year, so they are in all the same dances. That really helps when taking pictures, as they always match and look so nice. This is their tap costume. The studio made Chuck Taylor's into tap shoes for the kids. Expensive, but oh so cute.

This is their jazz costume. They do real good at this dance. It is my favorite of the year so far.

During the awards, they pulled out a few kids to award them with a special "Parade of Stars award. With this award they can come and dance at their nationals for free and do a special opening number. Ali got chosen out of their jazz dance. She was completely shocked, and I was so very proud. She is not doing a solo this year, so for her to get picked out of the group dance was a real honor. The above picture is on the competitions web site for the rest of this year.

So, this is exactly why my husband & I drive 40 minutes one way, five days a week to let our kids dance. I am so very proud of both of them, they look so darn cute, but maybe I'm a little bias.

Easter Basket Challenge

I know that Easter isn't just about eggs and tons of candy, but my kids would be shattered if they did not get a visit from the bunny. Every year I make their Easter baskets up from different thing I have collected throughout the year. Each child has a basket that is filled with unique things just for them. Only one year when we were getting back from a family vacation the day before Easter, have I ever bought one of those huge pre-made baskets. I enjoy the ones made with love in mind.

So this year I am posing a challenge to all my readers....an Easter Basket Challenge. Keep track of how much you are spending on one of your children's baskets. Try to keep it as low as possible. When the baskets are complete, take a picture of it and compose a list with costs of the contents. E-mail it to me & I will post them to share with everybody. I think it will be fun to see how everybody else does there baskets.

I already have the baskets (bought last year at 75% off) and a few stuffers. But Easter is only 50 days away, you better start thinking! You can leave comments as you go to keep everybody informed on how you are doing. Or post pictures on your blog and let us know they are there.

Happy Easter!

Free Say Yes to Carrots Lip Balm

Thanks to Money Saving Mom for this great lip balm deal. I went to Walgreen's today to get two tubes. I figure since they are called Say Yes to Carrots, I would put them into Ali's Easter basket. They even had a carrot flavor. I can't decide if that would be gross or tasty. Below is a copy from her post, by the way, I used Valentine's candy for next year as a filler.

Walgreen's has Yes to Carrots products priced at 25% off this week, making the lip balm approximately $2.76. Stack this $2/1 manufacturer's coupon with this $1/1 Walgreen's coupon to get free lip balm.

Note: because the coupons will take off $3 and the price of the lip balm is only $2.76, you'll likely need to throw in a cheap filler to enable your order to ring through properly.

Moment of Clarity

This past Sunday night I had a clear moment of clarity in my life. Oprah would probably call it an "A-ha" moment.

You see last night, Sunday, was my oldest son's 10th birthday. Being my only child to have a winter birthday, we normally go somewhere for his parties. There is nothing worse than a houseful of young boys, and it being to cold outside to tell them to go outside and play.

So this year we took four of his closest friend to a local hotel that has a big water park inside of it. All the boys behaved, and had a great time burning off their winter energy. I, on the other hand was dreading squeezing into my five year old bathing suit, in my overweight body and winter pasty white skin. Lets face it, I am always pasty white, but it tends to look worse in the winter, under florescent lights.

When I was a child growing up, my family always went camping for a full week in the summer at Jellystone Park in Warrens Wisconsin. It was always the highlight of the summer. We went with my cousins and friends of the family. We normally totaled about five families. Back in the day, when the campground was MUCH smaller than it is now, the big attraction was the water slide. It only opened a few time during the day. And for something like $5.00 you could go down the water slide as many times as you could in half an hour. Trust me, when you are 10 years old, you can run up the stairs alot faster so you can go down the slide at least 20 times. The picture above is the actual water slide at the campground.

So having Matt's party at a water park, I was excited to go down a few water slides. I hadn't been to a water park for about 5 years, the last trip being Hurricane Harbor in Dallas. Well finding a tube was next to impossible at this park, so I decided to go down the one slide that you don't need a tube to go down. I calmly walked to the top of all the stairs with the other little kids running past me as fast as they could. Waited in line for my turn, asking the kids if this was a fun slide or not. They all told me it sped up about half way through the ride. I told them that if they hear screaming through the top of the tube, not to laugh at me. When it was my turn, I took a deep breath and shot my self down the tube as fast as I could.

Throughout this 20 second ride I came to four different conclusions.

#1 I am way to claustrophobic to do small tube rides.

#2 They are making water slides much faster nowadays.

#3 I feel the fatter you are, the faster you must go.

#4 I am way to old to do water slides any more.

When I got to the bottom of the ride, Jeff and Timmy were waiting for me to see how it went. I actually made Jeff put his hand on my chest to feel how fast my heart was racing. My hands didn't stop shaking for at least half an hour. It was a real adrenalin rush, but it was also the only water slide I did the entire time I was there. I figure I did one to prove that I can still have fun, but once was enough.

Today I am headed off to a snow tubing place to join up with my daughter and her friends. Hopefully I will fair better in a snow tube than I did with a water tube. Only in Minnesota can you do two different tubings in two days. I'll let you guys know how it goes, wish me luck.

Valentine Coupons to Print

These were always the most fun to make as a kid. If you have a computer and printer, they are cheap and fun to make. Make them for your kids...husband...friends...whoever. Just remember to have fun with them!

Here are some different sites to print off your coupon books:

About Homeschooling

Activities for Kids

Valentines Day A to Z

Valentines Games you can Print & Play

Family Fun "Check Blank" coupons

MSN's Printable Coupons

Show-Off on Saturdays

Since I did not do any real shopping this week, I will show-off about my kids today.

My daughter has been dancing for 9 years now, and my oldest son is on his third year. Last Saturday I got up at the crack of dawn and drove them downtown to their first dance audition. It is for the Moscow Ballet Great Nutcracker in December. Well after an hour of learning and showing what they learned they came out with their results.

Now I have been telling them that just trying your hardest is all you can do. I didn't know how many parts their were or how many kids would be showing up. I am pretty bias towards my kids dancing, and of coarse think they are the best in the whole entire world. What Mom doesn't think that way! I was just trying to warn them about rejection when auditioning.

Well, Matt came out first with a part as a Party Guest. You know the people at the beginning Christmas party where Clara gets the Nutcracker from her Uncle. That will be him at the party. He is excited due to having a special part with him and a girl partner and another couple too. There were only two boys that showed up!

More and more groups came out, and Ali was not in any of the groups. My stomach was starting to hurt. What if Matt gets a part and she doesn't. Dance has been her everything for 9 years now! When she finally came out, in the last group, she was announced as a Russian Toy. It is the exciting music when the toys from different country's all dance. It is just her and one other little girl who got this part. She has already learned her whole part and is very excited about it.

Some of my dance friends have been asking how to get tickets to see this particular dance. Here is their website, I have not purchased tickets yet, so I don't know the prices. At least with the two kids in it, I only now have to buy 3 tickets.

So that is my show-off for the week. They have made me so proud, and the best part is that they are proud of themselves for trying and succeeding.

Wow....Life Changing

Two pretty amazing things happened in our house last night that will change our family forever.

No, I am not pregnant!

#1 Both Ali & Matt got contact lenses. I brought them in to get a new eyeglass prescription, and when the question about contacts came up, I left it up to the kids. We had talked about them, I just thought we were going to try to wait until middle school (they are 4th & 5th grades right now). They both seemed excited to try them out, so we went for it. The very patient and nice Doctor put the first ones in their eyes, and they fell in love with them, smiling from ear to ear. They were both able to take two out and put two back in within just 5 or so minutes.

So it is official, my kids have grown up. They are both wearing contacts, and hopefully all will go well with them when they need to get them in before school.

#2 I learned how to make homemade bread. I have made bread from scratch before, but to be honest, it was never very good. I made it to Savers on Labor Day for their 50% off sale. After I was finished looking for clothes for the kids this blog I read at Leaving Excess popped into my head. She said that you should pick up a bread maker second hand. "I am at a thrift store" I thought, "let's see if they have any". Well they had one, it was marked $14.99 so I paid $7.50 for it. The best part is it was brand new. The outside was dirty from sitting on somebody counter top, but the inside had never been used.

I bought a box bread machine dough to try first, and it turned out pretty good. So I cleaned it up and tackled a real recipe for oat bread. It was wonderful! I could have eaten the whole loaf if nobody was around. Here is the recipe that I used.

So not major life shattering, but both were a big deal in our household last night. The kids look funny without their glasses, and I will be making homemade bread every other day now. Funny how life troughs little curve balls at you, but they are fun to catch.

Minnesota State Fair (on a budget)

The end of summer ritual in Minnesota is a yearly visit to the State Fair. Only there can you walk around eating everything imaginable "on-a-stick". You take in probably a months work of calories in just one day. But boy is it worth it! This year, being the coupon hound I am, decided to visit the Fair on a budget. It worked out great, here is how I did it:

First of all we got free admission into the Fair. How? By volunteering four hours of our day and working at the Little Farm Hands booth. Kids ages 3-10 get to pretend the are farm hands going through the stations. It is free for the kids to do, so it gets quite busy. We volunteered with my daughters Girl Scout troop for their service hours. I started out with the boys at the tractor area. Matt liked telling kids that were to big that they could not ride the tractors. Timmy was inside the shed handing out cool green John Deere tractor hats to the little kids, he really enjoyed that! Later on we got to move into the Garden and help little kids harvest plastic vegetables.

Ali was off with one of her leaders and her daughter. Yes, if you are paying attention, that is Michelle from the Leaving Excess blog! Ali and Alex have been friends since 1st grade. They were also excited to learn that they are in the same homeroom this year, and their desks are next to each other. They were in charge of the stroller parking lot. Later they got to take on the Chicken Coop and help the little kids feed the "chickens" corn and collect eggs. So for a little volunteering with friends, we got free admission (Savings of $38) and everybody got a free t-shirt too.

After volunteering, the rest of the day we spent at the Fair. We spent lots of time in the Eco-Experience building. It is dedicated to sustainable living through recycling, water usage, alternative energy, buying local produce, green building and climate change. I LOVE THIS EXHIBIT! We got there just in time for the kids to be part of a kids sing-along about recycling. The kids go to jump up on stage and help the singer "recycle" the trash she found in the forest. The funniest part was when she asked what we should do with our old toys in stead of throwing them in the trash. Everybody answered, give to a friend, donate etc... but Timmy raised his hand and answered "Sell it on EBay!" I laughed so hard, I guess that little 4 year old is paying attention. Plus, besides being part of the show, we got our family picture taken about using reusable bags, and received 5 reusable bags! The kids stamped their earth passports and each got a compass (could have used that camping!)

Walking around the Fair we also received 5 more reusable bags, pens, pencils, water bottle, Frisbee, chip clips, cinch sacks, pet food t-shirt, 2 tubes Loreal mascara, Loreal Vive trail shampoo & conditioner, Twins poster, rulers, bracelets, and other small trinkets...all for free

But the best park of the Fair in my opinion is the food. I pre-bought 2 coupon books (Blue Ribbon Bargain Books) at Cub Foods before the Fair started for just $4 each. We figured between the two books we saved at least $50 on food alone. We ate (or shared): foot long hot dog, cheese curds, mini doughnuts, pancakes on a stick, meatball sundae, Italian sausages, 4 pops, pepperoni pizza bread, taco salad, quesadillas, meat sticks & corn fritters. See what I mean about consuming so many calories in one day. We also brought along our own water bottles that we refilled every time we passed a drinking fountain. (Savings approx $50)

The kids favorite part was the rides. We did not do any rides at the Anoka County Fair, so I promised we would at the State Fair. I also pre-bought ride tickets at Cub Foods for $10 for 20 tickets. At the fair they are $.75 each. Each kid got a sheet of 20 tickets to do any ride they wanted. They all picked their own, and had a great time. Ali was looking a little green at the end, and ended up giving Matt her extra tickets after three rides. (Savings of $.25 a ticket or $15)

Plus we also used a free park and ride bus, and didn't have to fight the traffic parking at the Fair or pay for parking (Savings $5)

So the way I look at it, we pre-spent $38 for coupons and ride tickets, spent $60 on food and saved $108 at the Fair this year, ate like pigs, and came home with tons of free stuff to boot! I just love the Minnesota State Fair!