Recognition is Nice.......

My friend Patty over at ReasonsForChocolate presented me with this award a few weeks back. I am afraid this post is a bit delayed. Family has taken my time this summer....as it should be. :)

Thanks Patty!

A Birthday Remembered....

On July 15th, our C-Sunshine obtained the status of "double digits". She turned 11. Eleven years that have just flown by. It seems like yesterday that she was organizing all of her toddler toys by color and size. This was a definite precursor to good things to come and the fact that she is a type A personality living in a type B house. :) (Although we do have some type A tendancies).

C-Sunshine spent her actual birthday having a special lunch at Panera Bread just with Mom, with her family going to see Toy Story 3 at the movies, and returning home to eat a yummy dinner and a birthday cake and ice cream. The following day, she had a "Movie Star" birthday party with a few friends. They made a movie upstairs and then we had the "Premier" when the mom's returned along with an award ceremony. It really was a lot of fun and a day enjoyed by
all.

I am so very proud of my C-Sunshine. She is a sweet, smart, faith filled ray of Sunshine.

A Free Ride - Possible?

My parents so graciously gave us a free week at the beach in Florida during September. A timeshare that they don't plan to use, right on the beach. What a blessing. Since our "extra" income has been somewhat limited, or eaten up by emergent needs lately, we don't have a lot to spend on the luxuries such as vacation. That sparked an idea. We already earned free tickets to Disney World through their Give-A-Day-Get-A-Day awhile back. The girls and I were talking and wondering if we could pull off going on vacation.......FOR FREE. So far we had a free place to stay for a week right on the beach, free one day tickets to Walt Disney World (a two hour drive from our beach place by the way). All we need is food and gas money and maybe some cha-ching for our pockets.

Well, recently a good friend explained how to coupon shop to me and I have been on a shopping trip or two. But, fell out of the habit rather quickly. We decided to get back in the habit and to bank all of our our "free" items from the "BuyOne, GetOne" deals out there. A few days ago I made the first trip to begin our food bank and here is the first stash to go into our vacation box. Not bad. Even have a spaghetti dinner and chips and salsa! Not a bad start. I get a lot of help from Southern Savers and IheartPublix. Our goal is to not use any household money, buts to eat off of all our free stuff for the week and use any gift cards (Pat and I both have birthdays in August) for dairy and meat. Any "cash" we receive for birthdays will go for gas for the trip.
I have decided to use eBay to sell items we no longer need or want to raise the spending cash for Disney. I am going to have the girls do a heart to heart in their rooms and decide if they would like to part with any toys, books, etc.... Combined I am hoping to raise enough for a cheap hotel after a day at Disney and some spending money for the park.

My friend Patty over at ReasonsforChocolate recently did a post on her children's "Go Bags". I normally do "Go Bags" for my children, but need to be able to fill them "free" or almost free for this vacation. I had a few dollars from selling a homeschool book. I headed out to where my friend Patty found her treasures - Target. I was in luck. The summer items with the black dot were on clearance and half off (in the cheapo bins to begin with). I got some cute items which I can't list because C-Sunshine reads this blog. (I will sneak in a post closer to the trip)......

Weekend at the Lake

There is something wonderful about going to the lake. There is such peace there. The lapping of the water against the dock in the morning is such a wonderful sound. You can sit and enjoy all the tranquility....and then.....the kids wake up! Splashing, jumping, playing, tubing, boating, skidoing, and the list goes on. We had a great fourth of July. Hope you did to.

C-Sunshine, Cousin A, K-Doodle and Cousin B
Having fun on the way to watch the fireworks from the boat.
Even Lucy got in on the fun.
With the passing of the fourth of July means that the beginning of another learning year for us is about to begin. Our summer break will be over in just a few weeks. I have most of my plans in my head and will be putting them down on paper shortly. I will post our learning plans soon. Have a great week!