Day 1: Summer Vacation

My sweet wonderful little angels have been on summer vacation since 3:00 yesterday. Today I consider Day 1. So last night we had a "chat." In the less than 3 hours since school had let out they had already had a knock down drag out fight. So I let them know that we could have a fun summer going and doing fun things or we could stay home until they learned how to behave like civilized human beings. Truthfully, I am just hoping for a resemblance to human rather than a couple of wild boars.

Four hours in: We are preparing to go see Up. My instructions were simple. Get dressed, clean up, eat lunch.

Get Dressed: My son wins that one. My daughter who changes her clothes 2,997,634 times a day has better things to do. A chat about her choice and she quickly gets dressed. I wonder if I will actually have the courage of my convinctions to make her go out of the house naked one day.

Clean up: Despite the occasional screams of "He's not helping!" "She's getting a drink!" They did pretty good in this department.

Eat lunch: Mac and Cheese. This one was quite easy for them. My daughter's biggest struggle is to stop talking long enough to actually put the food in her mouth.

Yay - we get to go. I know at some point I will have to let them fail in getting ready. That is a major weakness I have as a mom. Letting them fail to get ready so we can go somewhere. I don't want them to miss the activity and probably more importantly - I don't want to stay home and listen to them cry when we could be doing something fun. Maybe next week I will plan a fake activity and let them fail on that one!

What was I thinking!?!?

I must give you my apologies. I lied to you yesterday. At the time, I really thought that if given the chance to go back I would do everything the same...but I spent the day cleaning out the garage and it was full of a ton of stuff that I honestly can't imagine what I was thinking.

I hate to camp but yet convinced my husband that when we went on his family camping trip we should buy a two bedroom tent and then we would have it forever and our kids could go with us once we had one. We used the tent once - 10 years ago. Its still in the garage.

I went to the Wilton Cake Outlet sale and bought 15 cake pans and various other supplies after all I was about to be a mom and surely I would be baking homemade cakes for my sweet little angels for their birthdays. Most of the pans still have the labels on them.

There were blinds not hung, storage benches not put together, books never read, golf travel bags never used and the list goes on and on.

I have been trying really hard in the past year to ask myself "Do I really need this?" before making a purchase and that seems to help. So if I could go back and talk to the 25 year old me, I would teach her that simple little phrase.

But alas I did not use that logic so here's hoping someone on Craigslist is waiting to go camping, travel to an exotic golf destination and make their kids adorable birthday cakes!

I GOT A COUPON!

I remember sitting at my wedding shower with my best friend opening a present. I had just opened a place setting of my china, in fact it was my first place setting of china and I was so excited. She and I opened the china and everyone oohed and aahed over it. We wondered, how had our lives in a few short years gone from the sorority girls excited about a weekend party to being so excited over china? We had a good laugh over how our priorities had changed!

Fast forward 11 years.

In the mail today, I got a Kohl's sale flyer where you peel the stickie on front to reveal your discount and I squealed in delight to find a 30% off coupon! WOO HOO! Just in time for Father's Day! I might even squeeze in some early Christmas shopping!

Oh if the 25 year old single me could get a good look at 36 year old married me, I think she would have a great laugh at my expense! I check the Sunday coupons at taylortownpreview.com ahead of time to see if I need to buy a few extra Sunday papers, I shop Christmas clearance sales for next year's gifts, I can't remember the last time I saw a movie not released by Dreamworks or Disney in the movie theater and a 30% Kohl's discount was pretty high up on my highlights for the week!

Ironically though, if I got the chance to warn 25 year old me about all the changes about to come, I wouldn't tell her to change a thing!

Let's talk about Birthday Parties...

My daughter recently went to a party and came home begging to have her party at the Mini-golf course. I went online to check out the details and found the party she had just been to was $300!!!! Unfortunately for my kids I am too cheap to throw each of them a $300 party.

Last summer I combined their parties since their birthdays are just two months apart and had it at the local bounce party zone. I have to admit that the lack of effort the party took on my part was AWESOME but they didn't like sharing a party and by the time my daughter's real birthday rolled around 2 months later she wanted a party on her REAL birthday.

So this summer I decided that since I love a good project, I will plan a party for my son that won't break the bank but will require a little more effort from me. After all, I spend hours planning everything in my life, surely I can put a little effort into celebrating the birthday of the cutest little guy I know! Plus, we have already had a lot of fun coming up with ideas and finding items for the party. Planning is well under way for the August event but like anything in life - the better you plan, the more money you will save!

He has chosen a Star Wars themed party and we will be planning lightsaber training, an obstacle course and all kinds of fun games. I will be sure to keep you updated as details emerge.

Today I got a coupon for $10 off $30 at Party City which came in handy for the party supplies and I even splurged a little since I was getting $10 for free! Here's a link to the coupon. http://www.partycity.com/emailblasts/090604/090604.shtml Hopefully someone will find it handy while planning graduation and summer parties!

I LOVE my rewards programs!

I recently joined Mypoints.com which offers you reward points by shopping, reading emails and other activities on their site. In less than two weeks I have earned a $10 gift certificate and am on my way to a $25 one. There are high points given by travelocity and other travel sites. So if you travel a lot, this is a great program as it gives high points when you click through them! (If you want to join mypoints there are referal bonuses so I would love to send you the invitation if I inspired you to join!)

Today they sent me an email for TGIFridays BOGO coupons! http://www.tgifridays.com/promos/JuneBogo.aspx?source=prospect This is a good excuse to grab a friend and head out to lunch or dinner!

Another rewards program I like is Sunshine Rewards. I like this program because you can earn Disney Dollars and who wouldn't like free money for their trips to Disney?http://www.sunshinerewards.com/signup.php?r=9220

The best part of my day today was a market research study I did at my house. Two women came here and interviewed my and I made $140!!! It was by far the easiest money I have ever made. I found the info on Craig's list so be sure to check on there for opportunities like this!

Kudos to Miley Cyrus!

I have been contemplating what to write and just read about Miley Cyrus' latest tour announcement and decided that as a budget-conscious mom I had to give her kudos.

Today Miley's latest tour was announced and it turns out that her concert will be ticketless. This means that you can only enter the concert with the credit card you used to purchase the ticket. In other words, no scalpers allowed! Tickets for her last tour went upwards of $1500! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! What self respecting parent would pay this type of money to take their child to a concert?

I am proud of Miley for standing up and saying that isn't okay and taking the steps to prevent this from happening again. She wasn't profiting from those tickets and it is nice to see her standing up for the millions of little girls who adore her. Many will actually have the chance to get tickets at a reasonable price!

The concert is the week of my daughter's 8th birthday so it seems like surprising her with tickets is a great idea and since I won't be paying $1500 for my tickets - I will have a little extra cash for a t-shirt at the concert. Smart business move!

I'm all about the free this summer!

School is out in one week and I am scouring for ideas to keep us busy this summer that won't break our budget! Every summer we come up with grand plans of things we want to do and somehow I blink, it's August and we haven't done anything! So this year, I am trying to be proactive by putting events on the calender and finding activities ahead of time so we can have a plan and stick to it (or at least try to!)

Regal Cinemas is offering free movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx
Of course, American Girl Kit and Clone Wars are the same week and we already have Wednesday morning commitments so we will have to pick one. I am sure Clone Wars will win since we already saw Kit in the theater and luckily my daughter loves Clone Wars as much as her little brother.

We are also signing up for free bowling. http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ My kids love bowling and it will be a perfect rainy day activity or afternoon's that are just too hot!

We will also plan a day or two at the YMCA swimming pool each week. My kids aren't strong swimmers and I hope regular time at the pool will help them gain the confidence to start swimming better.

We bought a $5 County park pass so we can go the parks and play on their playgrounds and go on "hikes." In addition, one local park is offering Friday night movies under the stars so we can picnic and watch a free movie! Sure, we have seen the movies before but I could watch Cars a zillion times and still laugh everytime!

So what are your ideas for free or cheap summer fun? How do you plan on keeping your kids busy this summer?