Working the Albertsons Deals!

Last night, I made a quick trip to Albertsons to take advantage of a promo sale they had going on. It sure was a good trip I made! Here are the details:

10 boxes cereal (those Cheerios are the big boxes)
4 chickens (approx 3.6lbs each)
1/2 gallon Breyers ice cream
3 steamer bags frozen peas (forgot to snag em back out of the freezer for the picture!)

Total out of pocket expense: $21.12
According to the receipts, I saved $65.79 - that's over 75% savings!
(from the ridiculously inflated full retail price at Albertsons... but still!)

I did this in 2 transactions:
First, I purchased the cereal & frozen peas to get the General Mills promo (purchase $25 of participating products & get $10 off your next purchase). I had a coupon for each item I purchased & used 3 doublers (so 3 of my $1 off coupons were doubled to $2 off!). That made the first purchase a total of $17.56 out of pocket.
Then I purchased the chickens & ice cream & used my $10 coupon. (I had another coupon & doubler for the ice cream, which was on sale - & the chickens were only 68 cents/lb!) It was cool to only pay 3.56 for 4 chickens & a half gallon of ice cream. :D

Chillin' on a Sunday Afternoon

David had a hard time going down for his nap on Sunday, so we let him run off some of his energy before trying again. He & Daddy had some adventures in the backyard & they captured a frog. It was fun watching David examine the frog up close. I love the curiosity of little kids. They find such wonder in the world around them. One of David's fascinations lately is with balloons. He exclaims, "balloon!" everytime we see one & points excitedly. Jamin gave in to his adorable demonstrations on Saturday afternoon & bought him a Halloween balloon when we were at Fred Meyer. He has had fun trailing it around with him while playing & bouncing the string around. I love how such a simple thing brings such joy to him! Just happy times with our little man :D

BiZi Farms

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday afternoon at a local pumpkin patch, picking out our Jack-o-Lanterns. It was perfect Fall weather, with a slight breeze chilling the air, but the sunshine warming us. The hayride down to the patch was a little dusty, but that's because we were sitting directly behind the tractor. There were pumpkins everywhere! David had a blast wandering around the pumpkin patch trying to pick up the little ones. He did a lot of pointing & exclaiming, it was pretty funny! It was fun sorting through all the squash, trying to find the perfect shaped pumpkins for the designs we wanted to carve. The toughest part for Jamin & I was limiting the number of pumpkins we picked out... we came home with more than a few. For now, they're speckling our front porch with a festive orange. But in a few short weeks, we'll carve them up & have them glowing on Halloween night. David's pumpkin won't be carved though.. we have other plans. Thanks to his Grandma Jeri's collection, David has a little love affair with Mr. Potato Head & all his friends. So I couldn't resist when I saw a kit to turn a a pumpkin into Mr. Pumpkin Head with a Pirate costume! Ca-ute!!

After we loaded our pumpkins into the car, we headed back to wander in the corn maze till dark. It was a fun family day on Saturday!

Happy Fall!

Earlier this week, I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of David. He's such a fun kid these days! He's talking more (we're working hard on please & thank you) & he's ever so curious about the world around him. It's so much fun being Mom to this awesome little guy!
I am loving this great Fall weather! It's been cooler, but we've still had some sunshine brightening our days. More rain is coming, and that's ok. As much as I love Summer, I really love the changing seasons. I love the hunkering down & making plans for the busy winter. It's when my crafting bug really gets biting, I've already had a few craft days with friends with several more planned. I'll have to take pictures of the scrapbook pages I've been working on & share them here! I'm so lucky to have a room where I can spread out my stuff & play while David is napping & then shut the door on my mess & keep little hands safe (& my projects safe from little hands). Jamin has been wonderfully patient with me on those days when I haul stuff down to the kitchen table & play. I do try to have a clean kitchen table a few days a week for him. ;)
Speaking of Jamin, we are VERY excited that his work schedule has changed & he'll have more quality time at home! YAY! He'll continue lead duties, but he's been assigned to another team, where his leadership skills will continue to shine. I have an awesome, hard-working husband & his managers know it. So with the new team, his schedule moves from 9:30-6 Mon-Fri to 4 ten hour shifts on Mon, Tues, Wed & Fri. The sweetest deal is that Monday is a holiday, & he also took Tuesday off... so his first week on the new schedule, he'll only work 2 days! We'll be fitting in a lot of fun family time this extended weekend, that's for sure!