It's camp week

This week has been busy trekking 40 minutes up north to bring Tyler to DINOSAUR CAMP!

Monday was tragic. Just tragic, I tell ya. He was crying, hanging on my leg. Now, he's used to being at preschool but I guess just an unfamiliar place, coupled by the fact he has been with me non-stop since mid May made it hard on the little guy.

So I left him there. Crying. I was crying inside too, but I knew he would calm down. Still, even though I had my cell phone and they had my number and I didn't get a call, I still worried. For no reason, of course! When we picked him up, he was smiling and assured me that he had a 'SUPER, DUPER!' time!

So that goes 9-12 and since its 40 mins away, it doesn't really pay to come home. Monday, we went to get bagels. Then we went to the dollar store for dive sticks. To kill the rest of the time, we played at McDonalds. Tuesday was story time at the library so we went to that. After a quick stop at Walgreens of course! Today, we went to 2 different Walgreens and then went to McDonalds again. What can I say, its indoors and IT'S HOT! It was 108 when we got home at 12:45.

I keep thinking this camp thing is expensive with all the things we are doing to stay busy. But I guess, if I spend $7 on a few bagels, that is the same I would spend on gas to get back home and back to get him, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

The kids have REALLY been enjoying our swimming pool. We were able to get in it on Saturday and every day since, they have been in it AT LEAST 2 hours a day. What a great investment. If you can call it that. Honestly, it will really make this summer way more bearable! It's 39 inches at capacity but we keep it closer to 36 inches. All 3 older kids can touch bottom so its perfect. It's 12 feet diameter, so great for all of us to splash and play!

Next week Abby is back in school for 3 weeks. Then Tyler has another camp for a week, a lab camp. They also start 2 weeks of evening swim lessons that week. The new school year starts on August 24th already!

I can't believe I'm sending my FOUR YEAR OLD to Kindergarten. The cutoff here is 9/31 but he doesn't turn 5 until August 26th, 2 days after school starts. After much deliberation, we decided to go ahead and put him in all day Kindergarten. It's going to be REALLY wierd around here having 2 kids gone all day.

Our school is a year round school. They do that kind of schedule if there is overcrowding. There are 5 tracks and at any given moment (with the exception of the 2 weeks in August before school starts) there are 4 tracks in session. We got on track 5, which I'm super excited about. It's just not as fragmented as the other ones. I just don't feel a schedule of 2 weeks on, 1 off, 5 on, 2 off 2 on 2 off, etc is conducive to learning. They will start August 24th and go until Thanksgiving. They are off from then until January 4th. Then they get a 3 week break for spring break, then are back in school till the first week of July. Then they have about 6 weeks off.

I'm really excited for that, because this summer has been an absolute nightmare trying to get activities scheduled around school. It will be so nice to have that 6 week chunk to fit in camps, swimming lessons, etc.

Oh and one more thing. 5 weeks from today, I can retire my Blackberry and jump on the I-phone bandwagon. Can't wait!

Free school supplies!

I know you are going to hate me before too long, since I have a CVS and you don't. But I still want to share my deals! I promise I will follow up with a smokin' deal from Walgreens.

Here is my loot:


Here is the proof!! The receipt on the left shows a total of $0.02, and the one on the right zip, nada, zilch! Pretty cool, eh? In the middle are my Extra Care Bucks. Just so you know what they look like. Because I know you were wondering.


One cool thing here is that you pay tax on the POST-coupon amount, unlike in WA, where you pay tax on the PRE-coupon amount. Whenever something was free with coupons up there, I always had to pay the tax. Here, it's just flat out FREE!

Everything in that picture was FREE after the ECB. I paid using some I had earned last week, so the only money that came out of my pocket was $0.02! I started off with $15 ECB and have $14.98 to use in the next month.

So you want a deal to? Ok, I'll give you one. Or two.

Walgreens.

Coppertone is on special this week. For every 2 that you buy, you get a $10 Register Reward, good on your next NON Coppertone purchase.

Here, the sprays are 10.99 and the Nutrishield is $11.49. Your price may vary!

Anyway, I usually prefer the spray, but can't resist lotion for $1.49 each!

Here's how:

Print off 2 (or however many you want, since you can just change your print amount to whatever number your little heart desires, mine desired 10 of them) of these coupons: Coppertone $5 off Nutrishield

If that link doesn't work, its on the front page of the Coppertone Website

**quick note on coupon links...I use Firefox. If you are using IE, you will need to change the 'wg' to 'wi' and it should work then.**

Go grab 2 of the Coppertone Nutrishields and bring them and your coupons to the register.

It will look like this:
11.49
11.49
Total: 22.98
- 5.00
- 5.00
Total: 12.98 plus tax and you also get $10RR
NET of $2.98 (plus tax) for both!!

You can get the sprays too. It's not AS good of a deal, but it works. I have seen tearpad coupons at CVS and Walgreens for $1/1 Coppertone.

$10.99
$10.99
Total $21.98 (if you stop here, you get a $10 RR, netting $5.99 a bottle)
- $1/1
-$1/1
Total 19.98 plus a $10 RR
NET of $9.98 for 2 or $4.99 each

We are going through sunscreen like crazy here. I normally prefer the spray but since I got them those handy dandy rash guard shirts, its much easier to apply lotion and they prefer that anyway. So I'm stockin' up!

Another deal is huggies. They are on sale for $10 for a Jumbo pack of diapers, pullups, and wipes are 2/$5. Buy $20 worth and get a $5 RR. There are printables for Huggies too:
$3/1 pullups
.50/1 wipes
-$1.50 off Huggies Diapers, SS 6/21
-$2 off Huggies Pull-Ups, SS 6/14 and 5/17,
-.75/1 Huggies Baby Wipes, 64 ct+, SS 4/19, 6/21
-.50/1 Huggies Baby Wipes 64 ct+, June All You Mag

*Note on coupons...I use Firefox for my links. It's just what I use, mmmkay? Anyway, if you are using IE, change the 'wg' in the link to 'wi' and it will print :)**

I've been rolling the RR's to keep my out of pocket low. More on that tomorrow.