Everyone loves Ice Cream and Firemen!

We headed over to Baskins Robbins last night to hook up their .31 cent/scoop ice cream!  We had a good time, and so did our kids, as you can tell from the pictures!  After we all had our ice cream (3 scoops for $1.01!!), we tried going in for some more, since we heard that you could have up to 3 scoops per person, and we were denied.  We contemplated going to the other Baskin Robbins in town, but quickly realized that the boys probably had enough with one scoop.  

We checked out the fire truck they had at Baskin Robbins and also got a free fire hat for both the boys.  It was a fun night out!

Gardening Updates

Here are some updated pictures of all the free plants that I got off of Craigslist.  The first picture is of Zebra grass that I will plant after all this rain is gone.  But the other pictures are of all the plants that are around our home. 

The top right photo is of Daffodils that I planted by our fence.  

The left middle picture is actually of an Azailia bush that was hiding behind other bushes in the front of our home.  I transplanted it, and it's doing great!

The middle right picture is of Daffodils and Lilies that I planted by our mailbox.

Bottom left picture is of the tons of Hostas that I planted by our deck as well.  They need part shade, so there was hardly any grass growing in that area anyway, so I made it a bed of Hostas and some Peonies.

And bottom right is a photo of our backyard deck with flowers of Lilies and other random flowers that I don't even know what they are yet! 

Zechariah's "new" bike

Check out Zechariah's "new" bike that we bought off of Craigslist for $25.  I saw a little boy Zechariah's age riding this exact same bike at the park the other day and thought it should be time we taught him how to ride a bike.  

He likes it, but hasn't really ridden it more than 5 seconds.  I don't think that he understands how to pedal.  I'm sure it will come in time.   But, since I was on the topic of bikes, I thought I'd post a picture of his "new" bike. 

Free Bike

As the boys and I were driving to go grocery shopping, I saw this bike on the side of the road, on a pile of sticks.  Thinking that someone either left it out in the rain, or it was going into the garbage.  So I figured that if it was there when we drove back home, that I would check it out.  Turns out it was still there!  I stuck it in our car and drove the rest of the 2 blocks home with our trunk wide open. 

I thought about selling it on Craigslist, but I figured that our boys could totally use it when they get older. So it will hang out in our garage till the boys get a little bigger. 

Freecycle - Free Toddler Clothes

I was just browsing Freecycle, because I have the posts sent to my email address.  So when I saw that someone had 3 grocery bags filled with Boys Toddler clothes, I jumped into the car to see if they were still available. There was even a dress-up Fireman outfit!  We are totally filled to the brim now with clothes for our boys!

Weekly Grocery trip

This week was a speedy trip with my tow little boys in tow.  Went to Walgreens for some .08 soup, and then onto Aldi, County Market, Shnucks, and then IGA.  The Texas Toast Croutons I got for .50 a bag!  We stayed under our $40 weekly grocery budget, so I'm looking forward to planning some meals out of the items we got.  

Weekly Grocery trip

We had an extra $11 left over from last week's grocery spending, so this week we spent around $50 on groceries.  The strawberries are my favorite deal...they were only $4 for 4 lbs!!

Also the Luvs Diapers were on sale for $9.99 and I had a $1 off coupon.  

This week we'll be having these meals:

African Pineapple Stew

Pasta Salad

Faquitas (never made from last week)

Chicken and Bowtie Pasta with Peas

Chicken Soup (we have lots of chicken broth in our pantry from the winter)

Spaghetti

Walmart Trip

The boys and I ran to Walmart this morning before our trip to the mall, and here's what we got!

I had a couple $2 off coupons for the V8 Juices, so those were around .99 each. YUM!  The yogurts were cheap too because we had some coupons as well.  And the taco seasonings were free because of coupons.  The Pringles were .50 each.  We paid full price for the rest of the items, including the new undies we had to get for our eldest. :)

Total spent: $16.78

Free Flower Bulbs

The other day someone had posted on Craigslist, that they had some free flower bulbs in their yard that they were wanting gone.  So, I replied, but there were others ahead of me who had contacted him first.  So a couple days later I got an email saying that those people had not shown up and that the bulbs were mine for the taking!  I was so excited that I went later that evening with my little helper, Zechariah.  He mostly splashed in the puddles and threw rocks in them.  So above is my stash of free flower bulbs, made up of hostas, dafidols, peonies, day lilies, and a few others that I'm not sure yet what they're named.  

Free Movie Monday

For those of you who have a REDBOX nearby, use this code to check out a free movie!

J89LA2- 4/13/09 only

DVDONME- free

DVDATWAG- free at Walgreens

REDBOX- free

ALBERT03- free at Albertsons

3FREZER5 or GEFREEZ3- Free at Giant Eagle

JKZT4RG- Free

Resurrection Rolls

As I was thinking about how to explain what Easter really is to our little ones, I came across this recipe to explain to our kids about Jesus' Resurrection.  Check it out!

http://aswewalk.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/sweet-sabbath-resurrection-rolls/

Salvation Army Thrift Store

We usually don't head over to the North side of Champaign very often (where the mall is), so we got a chance to visit the Salvation Army Thrift Store.  The boys and I had a lot of fun checking out all the toys we don't have at home.  We ended up coming home with these finds:

Find #1 - A bunch of plastic food that cost us $6.50

Find #2 - Fisher Price Storytime Chair $5.00 (retails for $35!!)

Find #3 - Zechariah had to have this Fisher Price Fire Truck - $3 

Find #4 - Gymboree 2T lined spring coat - $3

Find #5 - Bag full of toddler Forks and Spoons - $2.50

So our total came up to $20.50 (including tax).  I have been cleaning out and selling some of their toys, so I felt it was okay to bring home some new toys.  That's my motto, if you buy something you either have to give something away or sell it.  Overall, I thought it was a fun filled day shopping with the boys!

Free Coupon Booklet

Click here to receive your free coupon booklet from Simple and Delicious.  Included in the booklet is a free bottle of Hunt's Ketchup!

Thanks, moneysavingmom.com, for this freebie!

County Market, Schnucks, IGA, Big Lots Groceries

Sorry this picture is kinda off, my little helper was sitting where I usually take the picture! :)

I thought I did pretty well this week in staying under our $40/week grocery trip.  It's a fun challenge to see what I can get and see what we can make for meals.  I was mostly excited about the Eggs, because we got a dozen for FREE because I bought 4 Pillsbury items.  So I used some coupons for Pillsbury items, so our eggs were pretty cheap.  I got the egg deal at County Market. 

Our meals this week can be:

Pizza's (my mom's recipe from scratch)

Quiches

Pesto Pasta

Stromboli (we had this at our Bible Study and it was AWESOME!)

Egg Noodles and Chicken

Beef Fajitas 

Garage Sale Finds

I love to go to Garage Sales! Sometimes I find great things, other times they're a flop. But today I found some GREAT items! First I looked on Craigslist to find the certain garage sales that were of my liking, and then off I went! (of course found a sitter for the boys).

Today I was so happy to finally find a wagon that I'd been waiting to find used!!! It was from a family who is moving to Switzerland, and her price was .... $10!!!

Here is Silas taking a ride in it for the first time! He loved it!

Another great deal that I found was this extended train track for only $8!!! Our oldest son was so excited to see the huge tub of trains that I brought home!

So today is a very exciting day with the awesome finds at garage sales!!

Where's the Milk?

You may have seen my weekly grocery pictures and wondering where the milk is?

Yes, we go through about a gallon of milk a week, maybe even two. And I suppose you were wondering where that comes from since it's not in my weekly picture. We are fortunate enough to qualify for the Women, Infant, Children (WIC) program here in Illinois. So we get coupons to get stable foods like milk, eggs, cheese and cereal to feed our family. And I must say that it's very much appreciated. We signed up when we found out that we were pregnant with Zechariah, our first born, and have been on the program ever since.

So if you've never heard of WIC, you might want to check it out! Just click on the link above and read up on it.

Weekly Grocery Trip

This week was entertaining going shopping, because I usually go by myself when the kids are napping. But this week we made it a family event. We loaded up the kids, and then went over to Great Grandma's to pick her up to go shopping as well.

First we went to Aldi's to pick up some stable foods. Then we headed over to County Market for some heavy-duty shopping. Jason was great and helped Zechariah make frequent trips to the free cantaloupe sampling table, while I shopped with Silas and Great Grandma.

The trip took a little longer than expected, so I saved my IGA shopping for the next day. So there are a couple of things that I didn't get in this picture because we had already used them up. Oh well.

So this is the picture of this week's $40 spendings on groceries!

Saving Water

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!  

My creative husband thought of this idea about a year ago now, where we save the bath water after our kids take a bath.  It's brilliant!  We fill up the bath tub, scrub down the boys, let them play till their hearts content, then afterwards we scoop up the water, store them in jugs, and then reuse the water by filling up the toliet tank whenever we flush.  Wow, that was a long sentence!  

We save money on our water bill by not having our toliet take so long to fill up.  I guess we just speed up the process.  And this way we're teaching our kids how to recycle, reuse, and reduce.  So I challenge you to try to save water in some way or another.

My Boys

My boys are growing up so fast!  Alot of people have asked me if Silas is walking yet, and today I can confidently post that he is walking!  He is so proud of himself too when he gets where he wants to go.  And we're so proud of him too!

Zechariah is learning so much and soaking up everything that we do and say.  He loves to sing now and learn new songs.  We went to storytime today at the library, and he was so excited when the group started singing a song that he knew!  It was fun to see his reaction!  So here is our star singing the ABC song, with the help of his brother: