Giveaway Winners

The winners of the All Detergent coupons are:

Ashely from Lil Blue Boo and
Carol from Frugal Finds

Congratualtions, ladies! Email me with your address and I'll get your coupons in the mail.

Back With A Giveaway

I've been pretty scarce lately trying to establish a little bit of a routine for summer and blogging is on the back burner. I say I'm going to post everyday and then it is 12am and no post. So today all the kids are sleeping. Yep, even Gabe and Zane. We've had some really late nights the last week or so. So I am back (at least today) and I have a GIVEAWAY!


The wonderful people at Mom Select sent me a 96 load All Detergent to try and guess what?
Two coupons to giveaway to you. So if you leave a comment, you have the chance to win a coupon good for free laundry detergent. This detergent is great. It smells great and I love the bottle that it is in. So leave me a comment before Sunday June 28 and you could win your own All Small and Mighty.

Big Camping Party

The kids were supposed to camp out Friday night at our neighbor's house but it rained and stormed so much that they didn't get to. So they decided to do all the camp out activities they had planned on Saturday night without the actual camping out. We had a blast.

We got there at 6 after being in our pool all afternoon and went straight in their pool. Their pool has a slide and Maci Clare loved it. She would shoot off the end like an airplane. Because she is so little she flies.

We had hot dogs and chips and cookies for supper. Very Yummy. My mom made all the chili for the hot dogs so they were great. Her chili is the best.

Right after we ate, the kids were told a story about some rare bird (not sure because I didn't really hear the whole thing) and then sent off on a nature hunt. Of course, Jack found a "kicket" (cricket) and put it in his bag. He never bored of the nature hunt. He loved it.

Then the water games began. They had several water balloon relays and other water stuff. Girls against boys, of course. Then they all ran for the pool again, while our neighbor started a fire.

We ended up sitting around the fire telling silly camp fire stories until about 10:15. It was so much fun. But my kids were exhausted. We threw them in the bed and gave them showers this morning. What an awesome way to spend the first weekend of summer. (BTW, this was Bible School Kick off for my dad's church.) So we are off to VBS every night this week.

Fishing Rodeo

Our local DNR sponsors a fishing rodeo every year. Saturday was the day. We met 2 other families and headed out about 7:45am on Saturday morning. When we arrived there was a long line to stand in but it moved really fast. The kids were so excited they didn't care.
They gave every child a brand new Zebco Rod and Reel and a reusable bag full of goodies (stringers, book covers, candy, etc.). Then we had to fill out post cards to fill out for random door prize drawings. As soon as we had our rods we headed to the tent to get bait and have the boy scouts put on the hook and sinker.
This is Jack waiting patiently for his rod to be put together. He is holding a cup of corn but you can't see it.

The big boys took off with their friends to fish. But Jack and Jim stayed right there together to see if they could catch something. And they did. Jack was so excited.

Maci Clare and my mom hung out with her friend Caleb and his mom. They didn't get much fishing done but they sure had a good time chasing each other around.

After fishing for about an hour and a half, we headed back up to have a hot dog. Everything was free. We ate hot dogs, chips and any kind of drink you wanted. Then Pet Dairy was out there giving away ice cream. I want even tell you how much ice cream we ate. Especially me and Maci Clare. We headed home about 12:30 with 4 new fishing rods, 4 goodie bags full of stuff, and full bellies from all the free food. So this was a completely free morning and we had a great time.

Official Start of Summer

We finished up the school year this week. On Monday, we went to Jack's end of the year program at school. I have several pictures but there are so many other kids in them I decided to just post this one of my kids.The 3 year old theme was "He's Still Working On Me". They did sing that and "God Made Me". They said 3 scripture verses and one little poem. Very cute.

On Tuesday, the awards at the elementary school.
Gabe: All A Honor Roll for 4th 9 weeks, All A Honor Roll for the year, Reading Award (highest number of Accelerated Reader points=272), Citizenship Award, 1st place ribbon in Field Day Football Throw, and 2nd place ribbon in Field Day Football Punt

Zane: All A Honor Roll for 4th 9 nine weeks, All A Honor Roll for the year, Reading award (highest number of Accelerated Reader points not sure how many), participation ribbon for Field Day (they don't compete until 3rd grade)
So we came home with loads of medals and prizes.

The last day of school was celebrated on Thursday at 11:00. I did get to go up and share the excitement of the last day. I love hearing all the kids streaming down the hall and out the door into the excitement of summer. My children woke up to t-shirts designed and made by mom.
They loved them and wore them to school. It was raining, as it has been for days, but that really didn't slow us down much. The plan was to swim. But because of the rain and thunderstorms we couldn't. I put this banner up before the kids got home and as we drove by they could read "Welcome to Summer."
After school we went to our favorite pizza place, Pizza Inn, and had pizza with dad. Then we signed Zane and Gabe up for football. We spent about an hour in the library picking out movies and reading books on the floor. We did bring a few books home. The kids' goal for reading is 21 hours so we plan to get lots of books throughout the summer.
Our neighbors and dear friends from through the wood, Julie and Johnny, came over after dark. The kids played a loud and wild game of dodge ball in the living room while they were here. They went home and told their mom they could see why I needed a night out every once in a while. LOL
We are working on a list of summer activities and things we want to work on through the next 3 months. I also made a Summer Boredom Blasters Jar with loads of activities that we can pick out when we don't seem to have anything else (which won't happen often).

Yesterday was our organizing and cleaning up day. We all worked on the house all morning. It was raining again. After we finished, we played a game of Hide and Seek. It was really fun. That lasted for about 1 hour.
So we are ready for our summer fun to begin. And it did this morning. I will post about that tomorrow.

Frugal Teacher Gifts

I always give our teachers something at the end of the year and this year is no different. Tomorrow is the last day of school and I have been using all of my brain power to try to come up with a frugal but nice teacher gift. This is going to sound really unappreciative but I really hated to get Dollar Store Junk that I couldn't or wouldn't use. You can only sit so many #1 Teacher trinkets around your classroom and I really didn't want them overflowing into my house. With that being said, I really like to get a teacher a gift that he or she will use or enjoy. I usually get gift certificates to Bath and Body but I just haven't had time to go to Greenville. So this is what I came up with.

I bought Dollar Tree crap and made it better. The pots were these ugly yellow terra cotta pots with big ugly flowers painted on them. I spray painted them black and hot glued the pink and black ribbon on them. This morning, I found the flowers (Begonias) at the flea market for a dollar each. And the other is Amish Friendship Bread made with chocolate pudding and chocolate chips wrapped in aluminum foil and tied with twine. They will also get a handwritten thank you note from Gabe and Zane. Who doesn't love Chocolate and flowers? And it was a lot cheaper than gift certificates.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

My baby boy is turning 4 today. It's hard to believe. It just seems like yesterday we were here.

And now we are here.
Unbelievable! Happy 4th Birthday, Jack!