I can’t tell you how much fun my kids had with their “old” cousins.
We REALLY enjoy our breakfast at a unique restaurant
Zach also enjoyed an awesome playground. The girls choose to stay and bake with Michelle instead
An Zach also got a ride on the carousel while we were at the American Girl Store
One of our special events included in our quick trip to Atlanta was a trip to the American Girl Store and Bistro. We actually ate deserts at the Bistro. Of course we left our dolls at the hotel but the Bistro had dolls and chairs to share.
Kendall purchased a dog for her doll along with a hat and hangers. Kendall was able to bring both the tea set for her dog and the borrowed doll home to have another tea party.
Lily purchased an outfit, cook book and apron/mit set for her doll. She said the chocolate flower pot was the best ever!
Kendall was the most happy and excited I have seen her in a long time. She was in heaven, baby dolls, stuffed dog, tea party, ice cream and root beer. Just enjoy the smile!
There is no doubt in my mind how blessed we are as a society, a country, a family and even personally. I could list a million things that I am thankful for but does that make me any better of a person or blogger. I personally don’t think so. I know I am blessed and I need to use gratitude every day all day and not just one day a year. So instead of a list of things I am thankful for, I am going to tell you some special event and things that are happening in my life.
We are currently in Sandy Springs Georgia which is just outside of Atlanta. Both the older girls have work commitments so it is just Matt, myself and the not so little kids. We spent today with Matt’s sister, her family and Matt’s Dad. The kids had a truely special treat by going to “Legoland” with their two older cousins this morning. They really enjoyed it and I honestly could not be sure who had more fun the big or little kids. The rest of the day was spent enjoying conservation and tine with family that always loved not always close enough to share with.
I am also extremely grateful for a daily devotional given to me by my sister in law called “Daily Gratitude”. I can’t wait to start getting a daily reminder of who and why I am blessed.
The plans for tomorrow are very vague at this point but I do know that we have “Afternoon Tea ” schedule at the American Girl Bistrow, my girls are so excited and so am I.
I will not be able to shop at CVS on Thanksgiving or Black Friday because we are out of town. But I was able to make a quick but thirty trip today.
I managed to save 81% or $21. I also grab some needed soda for myself. Total spent was $4.73 or less than the price of 3 2 litters.
Have you found any great deal yet?
I will admit that I have been doing quite a bit of shopping both online and some in person the past week. Last weekend, I ordered the girls some new boots. Kendall needed a new brown pair and both needed black boots to wear to cheer competitions. I found a decent sale at The Children’s Place. This weekend OLD NAVY has a good sale on jeans, Kendall does not have enough jeans to wear for a week so I ordered both girls a couple of new pair. The best part of both of these is that I shopped online and order through a link on Swagbucks so should receive back money on both. I did not pay shipping on either.
I went to Harris Teeter on Thursday and spent $90, I was able to save $160. This was a very planned trip that included 10 cases of diet coke and 3 6 packs of bottles. Everything I purchased was on sale or a rain check and my saving average was right at 60% so I count it a win.
I have been finishing up my Christmas shopping. Today on Shutterfly I order a calendar and a couple of other small gifts. I also used a cartwheel at Target for 30% off toys which was in addition to 5% off and free shipping for using my Target card.
I am extremely happy to say that I need to order one additional calendar and purchase a gift card which will be the official end of my shopping for the year.
I wanted to share some of our pictures.
The whole gang….
Now some for the kids…the ladder is my FAVORITE!
Everyone loved the Tire swing..
Finally happy middle school girls…
I finished in one and half days! I am thinking that the ladder may have speeded up the process especially with all the electric cords. I am so excited at how it turned out this year!
Picture overload!
The ladder!
opposite side or I like to call it the farm!
Individual shelf of the farm. Lily LOVES the flamingo house and I am really amazed at how pretty it turned out.
Now some closer pictures of the ladder. Each level represents a different scene but together they make a mountain!
This is an awesome time of year to be shopping and I really do enjoy getting some great deals. I am going to share a few of these deals and other suggestions to help you save today as well.
First, if you are shopping on-line be sure you check and use the places that offer cash back. We needed to purchase some new sheet last weekend, so I check out the sales at JCPenny’s. I ended up going through Swagbucks to make the purchase so I was able to grab 3 sets of sheets and 4 shirts for around $115 including shipping. I will also be receiving over 800 swagbucks with no real extra work.
I made some last minute trips out Friday night to Dollar General and even texted Amanda to make a stop for me. The reason a sale on Hot Wheel and Matchbox cars. The sale was Buy 1 and Get 2 free. Which made each of the cars thirty three cent. This is an AMAZING deal that I have scored one time before. I was able to grab 100 cars in three different stores. We hide some of the cars and placed the others in a gift drawer. Zach decided he needed some new cars and offered to purchase them from the gift drawer. I am so glad we got extras. I do have plans to use some of the cars as gifts for my church group in addition to they make cool birthday gifts.
I have also taken advantage of sales online at Bath and Body Works, The Children’s Place and JCPenny’s again this weekend. JCPenny is currently running their black Friday deals on-line which is a huge sale.
Finally, I am using my CVS card to purchase items. Here is a picture of my trip today.
I used $14 on the gift card leaving me with another $10. I saved $45 or 76% prior to using the gift card. I am so happy to be able to use free money to buy things we all need!
This has been a day of beginning and ending for savings around my house. First I will share the beginning. We are planting fruit trees as part of our landscape. I ordered a set of six fruit trees of dwarf size to plant in the back yard. I specifically picked the dwarf size in order to use them as a bounder. They don’t look like much now but hopefully in five year we will be able to harvest and enjoy some fresh fruit. In case you are wondering we chose two apples up front, followed by two pear, a cherry and peach tree. The big debate is now do we add one or two more to complete the border.
So now we are at the ending, the weather has really started to feel fall like here. During the past week we have several nights that have gotten cold enough for a frost. Tonight, Saturday, the forecast is for a hard freeze. The girls and I went ahead and harvested all the remaining green peppers and tomatoes from our garden and pulled up most of the plants for the compost pile. I am hoping that the tomato will ripen in our window sill over the next week or so. The green pepper were chopped with some being frozen for soup and other left to use during the week.
I have been doing some shopping over the last week and will plan to share all my deals in the next couple of days.