Palm Beach

So we decided to take advantage of another 'nothing going on day' and use our free coupons for Moody Gardens 'Palm Beach' area. FUN! They recently remodeled so there was more to do than we remembered. We didn't get a lot of pictures of the really fun stuff because I didn't want my camera to get wet, but it was a blast! They have added a 'lazy river', some water slides, and a wave pool since our last visit. Kyle was disappointed that the 'good' water slides required you to be 48 inches tall...he's almost there so it was very sad. He managed to have a great time on the 'baby' water slides and loved the wave pool. I have very few photos of Katherine because she spent almost the whole time on the big slide. Again, we got up and moving and beat the day care crowd to the park. We enjoyed over 2 hours of fun in the sun and then we finished off the day with a picnic next to one of their playgrounds. I consider this by far the best free day we've had yet! Woohoo!!!

Enough is enough!

What the heck is that picture? Let me explain.

Like every Mom I tend to say things when I'm upset and then never really follow through...i.e. "You're grounded until you're 30", etc. Well today I actually followed through. It was just 'one of those days' around here. Tons of fussing, fighting, whining, and crying. I was just about to farm them all out on playdates when I thought 'why should they get to play as a reward for being rude and drivng me nuts?' It certainly didn't help their case that I had a terrible headache and our landlord had just dropped off the amazingly long and detailed cleaning checkout sheet.

Yep. I rounded up my 4 oldest children, a stash of old toothbrushes, an extra large box of baking soda and we got to work. Cinderella style. They spent a good chunk of the afternoon cleaning the grout between the kitchen floor tile. I have to admit mopping floors is not my forte...and (don't judge me here) I have NEVER cleaned the grout. Not once. Part of me wishes I had taken a 'before' photo so you could see the difference...but part of me is glad I didn't because you would be judging me for sure! It was a huge change and now, I must say, we have a splendidly clean floor. It's glaring white. Bonus: my children worked together, discovered they don't actually hate each other, ended up having some fun, gained some appreciation for a hard day's work, tried really hard not to spill at dinner, got completely worn out, and are snuggled up together watching some TV before an early bedtime. Hard work is good for the soul...I should follow through more often!

Free!

Okay friends I have to tell you that I have become a little crazy with the coupons lately. It has gotten so bad that anytime Aaron wants something he comes over and says "I was just wondering...do you have a coupon for ____?" When we were looking at houses he even asked if I had a coupon for 'the one with the stairs'. Oh, I wish!

Anyway, this blog is not exactly about my coupons...even though I do save a lot at the grocery store (I'm not Extreme Couponing material, but sometimes I'm close). This blog is about how we are doing really fun things this summer FOR FREE.

We are in that terrible waiting phase of buying a house. All our ducks are in a row, we're just waiting to close. If you've ever been here you know that spending any money during this phase is horrible! You don't want to risk messing up your loan, you don't want to waste precious remodeling/decorating money, you know you will order a lot of pizza very soon...spending money will have to wait. Sooooo, you find free things to do.

Free Thing #1

One day Dan came home from work and unloaded two very large Rubbermaid containers into the garage. I said "what the heck are those?" He said "a water slide" and walked into the house. ???!!!

Yep, someone from Dan's school just gave us this water slide. So. Random. She bought it for her kids a while back and they had outgrown it, so we win! We have loaned it out for two parties, had one surprise party of our own, and invited many friends to 'come on over, the water slide is up'. I do not actually recommend this slide and would be bitter if I had spent upwards of $250 on it because it is dying. The older kids are very rough on it and every time we put it up it leaks a little more...the next time we use it could be the last. But who cares. It got me through a very rough June and I am grateful. Tons of fun. TOTALLY FREE!

Free Thing #2

Okay, so this one isn't as cool but I found a whole bunch of balloons on clearance...I think I paid 75 cents for 8 packages...not free but close enough. Anyway, when we blew them up they were HUGE. Even Tyler had fun with these monsters. It occupied an entire afternoon while Dan was out of town. Tons of fun. BASICALLY FREE!

Free Thing #3

Our local library has a great summer reading program (if you are in the area you seriously need to sign your kids up at the Friendswood library, now). For reading a mere 10 books they got an awesome package of coupons with tons of FREE THINGS in it. I do not have photos of the free ice cream or hamburgers...but really, did you want to see that? One of the coupons is for Jump N Jungle. I hate that place, but the kids love it. I only go when it's free. It was actually a lot of fun (thanks G family for joining us). The beauty of the summer reading program is that ALL your children may participate, even those that don't read--as long as someone reads to them, they get to sign up! Sooooo, even though Elizabeth is too young to use most of the coupons, she has them. SCORE! I 'helped' her use her food coupons and we are saving the extra Jump N Jungle coupon for a day when the big kids are back in school...Aaron will 'help' her use it then ;-) We will be using the Moody Gardens and Astros tickets very soon...we'll post more then. (FYI, the prizes for summer reading do not keep pace...for reading 20 books we got bubbles, 30 was a rubber duckie, and 40 was a pinwheel...not very motivating). Tons of fun. TOTALLY FREE!

Free Thing #4

Obviously (see previous paragraph) we go to the library. A lot. It's air conditioned and it's free. They have coloring pages, puzzles, toys, movies...oh, and books! We go every Wednesday. EVERY WEDNESDAY. It's not optional. Tons of fun (unless you are a grumpy kid who just wants to stay home and play Wii). TOTALLY FREE!

Free Thing #5

Okay so a while back Dan decided he wanted bowling shoes. Random, I know, but let me explain his theory. You can always find a coupon for a free or deeply discounted game...which 'does not include shoe rental', if you own your shoes you beat the system. I mocked him, who owns bowling shoes? Fools mock (and wear other people's shoes). His shoes are really sweet and were a gift from my mother...she even made him a bag, but that's a whole different blog post right there. After that it snowballed. Every time we are in a sporting goods store someone is scanning the clearance rack for bowling shoes. We buy them all--the most we've ever paid is $10, the least was $3.50. Dan's goal is to have at least one pair in every size so that when we are grandparents (yes, I know our oldest child is 11) we can take our grandkids bowling whenever they visit. Yep. That's his master plan...when we die our grandchildren will all sit around and reminisce about bowling with Grandma and Grandpa Hoppie and their endless supply of bowling shoes. But let's get back to the point. Free stuff. If you go to http://www.amf.com/ you will see a 'summer unplugged' program link. Click on it...sign your kids up. Every child gets 2 free games of bowling EVERY DAY THE WHOLE SUMMER! Seriously. Of course it 'does not include shoe rental.' Tons of fun. TOTALLY FREE! (for us...for those of you who have to rent Vinny's shoes it's almost free).

Free Thing #6

Chuck E Cheese is right up there with Jump N Jungle in my book...I guess I have a thing against places that use initials in place of words. Anyway, I have all our kids signed up to get birthday email coupons from Chuck E Cheese. Randomly we have started getting 'half birthday' coupons as well, score! Fun that June is Kyle's birthday month and Aaron's half birthday month. Two sets of free coupons, woohoo! Today we decided it was as good a day as any to use some free tokens so we got up and moving and were at Chuck E Cheese by 9:00 a.m. Did you know it's open at 9:00 a.m.? Neither does anyone else. That's the way I like it. Seriously, if you have to go, go right when it opens. I'm pretty sure we beat most of the staff to work today and because of that we had a great time! First of all we were literally the only people there who were not employed by Master Chuck. Free run of the place means I didn't have to spend the entire time counting five heads over and over and over. Aaah. Extra bonus tip: they are open at 9:00 a.m. but are not really ready for customers that early...who goes that early? We do. My children's eyes just about popped out of their heads when they saw the teenage employee 'priming' the ticket containers on the games. He must be hard up for fans so he let them follow him around and collect all the tickets that spit out of the machines while he prepared them for the day. All of the machines. Yep. Over 700 tickets just spitting out randomly all over the place. Add in the other tickets we 'won' with our free tokens and we scored 90 minutes of family fun, a giant koosh ball, and some smarties for zero dollars. Tons of fun. TOTALLY FREE!

Okey dokey, I have to run. We're off to the park (free) and then to the pool (free) before we settle in for a little movie from Netflix (still in our 'first month free' trial period). Happy day!