Tasting Wine for Charity

Steven was part of hosting a fundraiser for CHOC at Downtown Disney. It was a sort of progressive appetizer and wine tasting experience. Steven was able to get tickets for me and guests so my sisters came along, minus Gretchen and plus Sam( she is definitely at sister status). And of course Sarah! We had a great time and I have to admit I am extremely proud of the set up and decorating that Steven had done for the event. By far the ESPN Zone was the most beautifully decorated stop of the evening. Good job babe! And thanks for the fun evening out!

A concert and a visit

We have lots of visits. I like that. I think it is important. I am thankful once again for the opportunities we have because of our decision to homeschool. Sydney is with us, serving, loving, visiting and just plain old playing with our families, friends and neighbors. It brings me tremendous joy. The bonding is deep.
The visit from the silly photos above ( a decent picture was not to be had by these four that day) was out to Fontana to spend the morning and afternoon with my childhood neighbor for almost twenty years. She and her husband and son live out there and had invited us to a mini Jana Alayra concert at her church's moms group. If you have never heard of Jana Alayra you definitely need to check out her website Janaalayra.com . She is a great resource for kids music and actually adults too. Anyway, we are very thankful to Desiree and Jacob for inviting us. It was a treat!

Visiting Situ

We were blessed enough to be given a free stay at our time share a couple of weeks ago, so we packed up and headed out to Las Vegas. This is a double blessing because not only did we get a great place to stay but we also visited with my Grandmother, Situ. Our Vegas trips are not like most I am sure. We have a ton of fun when we go there but probably not like most people. Thankfully my Husband loves to serve his family by way of giving us gifts and surprises. He always researches family friendly, fun and sometimes free things to do while we are there. This time we had a great time bowling as a family and a wonderful picnic dinner with Situ at a park that she loves. I got a special surprise as my sneaky husband called in a favor and got us tickets to see Penn and Teller. And we enjoyed a super delicious seafood dinner buffet. It was a great date night that was long overdue!

Super Savings Saturday

Click on photo for a better view


I am missing one more photo of my "goods" for the week. I have a finicky i- photo program that likes to protest every month or so when I am downloading. Who knows, it is probably the operators error. I'll just keep blaming the machine though. Anyway, the missing photo contains four bottles of CVS baby lotion, four bottles of softsoap, two bottles of children's claritin, an aveeno moisturizer, an aveeno cleansing bar, one bottle of skintimate shave gel, one mitchum deoderant for women, three boxes of one a day complete multivitamin drink mixes, two tubes of colgate sensitive toothpaste, two bags of CVS chocolate covered nuts, one dove skin vitalizer, two dove skin vitalizer refill packs, one package of CVS diapers, and one package of CVS wipes.


Again this week I went over. I sort of knew it was going to happen as I found myself splurging quite a bit. (hence the chocolate cake I purchased for Jess and I to share. Totally worth it though!) I also was less organized this week in the areas of time for shopping , coupons clipped and list/ deal scenario preparation before walking into the stores. A few times this week I knew I had coupons for things but they were yet to be clipped so I had to eat the savings I would have received on those products. I also bought a lot of extra candy, all of it was extremely discounted and some free, but that did add to my extra expense. The candy is for Steven to take to work and share with all of the employees at the end of some of the extremely long and exhausting shifts. So, well worth the extra spending.
Before sales, coupons, extra bucks and register rewards, My total was $ 267.50 ( actually this number is off by just a bit. I couldn't find one of my receipts so I went to my online banking to get the exact money I spent there. I just don't have the original amount it would have been. Therefor my savings are actually higher than what I am able to calculate. Another casualty of my lack of preparation and organization this week.) My actual out of pocket cost was $94.38. I saved 65% this week. I am still happy about that but I plan to head out with a calculator next time and spend more time on prepping. I already caught myself up by clipping all the coupons I had. So this week I am starting off right.

I have to keep putting my new grocery saving adventures into perspective. A family of five, in Southern California, living on a modest income, spending $80.00 a week on groceries is not that bad. Ultimately I have a goal of only spending $60.00 a week lurking in the back of my head. I plan to challenge myself with that soon. But I know I've got a lot of work to do in the weeks ahead. I hope your grocery saving stories are getting better week by week. Let me know. It is fun to plug through the things we all need to accomplish together, all the while glorifying God in all things. That is the reason. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Disneyland

We spent the morning and afternoon at Disneyland on Thursday. Our family hasn't been there in at least six months. Some of you may think that sounds like a recent trip, but for us it has been eons. We loaded up and headed out ready for tons of fun. Sydney finally made it on Space Mountain. Calvin stood as tall as he could but came up an inch too short. He is determined to eat extra vegetables in order to grow just tall enough before the Summer ends. Upon exiting Space Mountain I asked Sydney if she wanted to go again. Her response: "Um, I think maybe when I am six or maybe seven." I guess it was a little out of her league. She is happy to stick with Gadget"s Go Coaster for her present age of five. It seemed a quick trip but we enjoyed ourselves. Baby by the end was falling over with exhaustion. She actually fell asleep in The Tiki Room! One second she was clapping and dancing all around, the next her head flopped back onto my shoulder and she was out. Even amongst the singing birds and flowers and chanting tiki poles. She is a funny one. Oh the ease of the third child!

Super Savings Saturday

Not pictured due to consumption or my forgetfulness:
Three more chocolate bunnies, one more bag of hershey's bliss chocolates, three bags target brand fruit snacks, one more tube of aveeno, one more gallon of water, three boxes of tissue, one frozen popsicle maker and four bottles of sobe life water

So this week I feel like I got way more for my buck, but I did go over a bit. Only $1.81 though! Not bad. It has been fun keeping track of what I am spending. Before coupons, sales and extra bucks my grand total was $283.56. My total out of pocket expense was $81.81. That is a savings of 72%! Now my goal, in conjunction with saving money on groceries, is to plan a weekly menu that I can stick with. Right now I am planning my menu for the following week based on what I have in stock and what I picked up during my shopping this week. Still working on that one though. Have a great week! Anyone else have any super savings ideas they want to share? Please do. I am always looking for new and helpful ideas!

Baking Day Part 2

Calvin enjoys the "manly" part of baking. Kneading the dough is hard work and he wants to be a part of it. At some point I think he may have been using his head in the kneading process, totally unauthorized by Mom. But, I guess you do what ever it takes to get the job done! So we can say today was a success. Rolls and muffins were baked and enjoyed.