It's Official

I have accepted a new job on the other side of the country, so I am trading my beach lifestyle

for the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains!!!

Yup, if you recognized that view, it is...

So, another big move for the family is in the cards.  I will try to post as much as I can over the next three weeks as I fly home to pack the house and drive all the way back across the country.

Some Cool things I found while hanging around the Airport!

Killing time on my 3 hour layovers, I have been cruising the web looking for fabulous finds to share.

I absolutely love the style of these adorable playhouses!!  MissPrettyPretty

Whether for boys or girls, these are creative playhouses that fold up and get put away when not in use.

For the little baker, there is the Cupcakery...

Or a place for the pirates to sail into...

Julie even has accessories...

I am thinking Halloween for this one!!

She even sells the patterns if you wanna make a one of a kind gift for your little special someones.  Go on over and check Julie's etsy shop out today.  MissPrettyPretty

Pool Time!

I am traveling across country today, and will be gone for the weekend.  Today I am sharing some pics of all my children playing together at the pool.  Those of you with college age kids know how hard it is to get everyone together at the same time.  Enjoy my pics and I will be back soon.

You can tell who the camera hogs are!!  Love you girls, the little ones are just too busy to slow down for pictures.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Cheryl

Building the Eiffel Tower

Yesterday I shared that I had purchased Eiffel Tower wood puzzles in preparation for Michael's Passport to Fun Day - France, if you missed it you can catch it here: Beach Day

Jump to today and oh boy, what did I get us into...Let me start by pointing out that these say for ages 6+ so I knew I would have to help Bethany, but WOW!!!  I am about 35 years over the minimum age and I had to break out the hot glue gun and work with that to get this thing to hold together.

Step One: You must separate all the wood pieces out of the frame, no problem even the three year old could do this.

Step 2:  Start building the tower by looking at the picture from the ground up.  Sounds easy enough!

It didn't work, every time we would try to put the next level on, the one below would fall apart.  So out comes the wood glue.  We glued and constructed each level individually. 

I love how my kids are so much like me, notice the tongue stuck out!  I think it helps, too :>)!

And then I decided to give the kids a break, and I broke out the glue gun to sturdy these up!

Then we decided to paint them

Who would have known that if you mixed brown and white paint that you would get lavender?!?  Well, Chad didn't complain too much.


Cheryl

Free Fresh Express Salad

Go to Vocalpoint and snag this great freebie!!!!

You will get a Coupon for a free bag of Fresh Express Salad, a bag clip and other goodies!

FreshSavings

While you are there also check out the free Mots for Tots

Beach Day!!!

Well, with the layoff, my chances of having to relocate are pretty high so I figured I would take advantage of a pretty day and take the kiddos to the beach!  We ended up making a whole day of it, we started with a $1 kids movie at the local regal cinemas.  If you have not checked out this frugal summer entertainment option, you can check it here Regal Cinemas. 

We then went to Michael's for some more free summer fun. 

We do this weekly, as the cinema and Michaels are in the same complex and both offer the activities on Tuesday and Thursday.  The country of the day was Russia, so they got to make some Russian stacking dolls and a bear pin.  This Thursday's class will be France and the kids are really excited to build their Eiffel Towers.  We elected not to do the bird houses because we had an awesome frugal find...

This is a version of the Eiffel Tower that my son can build and then they both can paint AND I found these on clearance at Michael's for 49 cents each.  The birdhouses that the suggested using were well over $7 each.  We will be making these today and learning a few french words to prepare them for the activity tomorrow. 

After Michael's we stopped by Wendy's and you have to check out these keychains that they have available ( in some areas)

Frosty key tags


Hang it on your key ring and for just $1 you can have a free Jr. Frosty for one year at participating Wendy’s. Available in select markets across  the U.S.

We got these last year and the kids loved being able to say, "Can we get a frosty" without having to hear, that no we were not spending the money today.

To buy the small frosty it is 99 cents and for $1 you can buy this keychain for free frostys for the whole rest of the year,,,

Once everyone's tummies were full we finally made our way to the beach.

The gorgeous north carolina coast!

It is always great when you get them paying well together for a little while!


Thanks for joining me today!

Cheryl

A girl and a glue gun: What's for dinner?

I am trying to desperately organize my life with my free time... I have created a monthly menu including recipes and desserts by going through all of the recipes I have been saving in my email.  But I am absolutely loving this one from A girl and a glue gun!!! So I will try to reign in some time tomorrow and let you know what I come up with...Wish me luck!!

A girl and a glue gun: What's for dinner?: "oh, dinner. Just like laundry..no matter how many times you do it it still needs to be done. And i am horrible at planning out dinners. horr..."

Today's Fabulous Finds: And the DISH Ran Away with the SPOON

I was looking around blog land and found this cute post that I am hoping to do with my daughter this week...will post pics as it goes!


Today's Fabulous Finds: And the DISH Ran Away with the SPOON: "Alison at Oopsey Daisy has a fun Summer Camp series where each Friday a guest blogger shares one of their favorite childrens books with som..."

New to This

Well, I now find myself among the unemployed and have been playing among the blog sites. I have been married for 10 years and have four wonderful children.

My oldest daughter, Jackie, just graduated from college this year and is studying for her boards to be a dental hygienist.

Brooke is a junior at University of Nevada in Reno. She is a Delta Gamma and active in the Army ROTC.

Then I have the two that are still at home...


Chad, or Charles as he is asking to be called now is entering the fifth grade


an my littlest princess is Bethany, she is all girl!!!

I am Cheryl and I love to craft, cook, decorate, and my favorite hobby, what I like to call free-shopping (in other words how much free stuff can I get shopping with coupons and how little I can feed my family on for a month). No, I am not an extreme couponer...I have a healthy stockpile that serves my family well. Although my oldest daughter recently saved over $1000 and only spent $15 on a recent super doubles week, but that's another story. Thank you for joining me as I begin my journey to share my frugal family life!