Brody gets to go to Busch Gardens for FREE again this year!

Brody at the park last year riding the "Lil Clydesdales"  

If you have a kid between the ages of 3 and 5 you should get this free preschool pass!  You can find the link HERE .  We got it last year for Brody and it was so easy.  You just fill out the info online and print out your pass!  TOTALLY FREE!  The only catch?  You must redeem your voucher for the pass by the end of May with proof of age at the park.  We went at the end of spring break last year to do this.  It's kind of annoying you can't just mail in a copy of their birth certificate or something but that is the only stipulation with this.

To make it even better......last year in Feb or March I found a Groupon for Busch Gardens tickets!  I paid $32 for each adult and $30 for Travis.  So when we went to validate Brody's pass I paid a total of $92 that day (normally it's $75 for everyone over 10 years old and $65 for kids 3-9).   Let's do that math for a second......the normal price for our family of 4 last year would have been $280 (Travis turned 10 in June so I got him a child's ticket for our April trip).......I paid $92 for our family of four.  That's almost a $188 savings!  What a deal!  You  know I will be trolling Groupon this year for that same deal again!  (and yes we probably spent at least $100 at the park in food and beer but who's counting right?  LOL)

Finally a place for all our winter accessories!

Not sure why the picture is so green but you get the idea.  lol

My friend Julie did this the other day in her house and it reminded me to do the same!  You can buy a over the door shoe holder at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond etc and fill it up with hats, gloves, scarves etc!  She has 6 people in her family so each person got a row......we have 4 so everyone has at least one row and others needed a little more space.  lol  I used to have everything jammed in a basket in the mud room but that led to things all over the floor when someone grabbed their hat etc.  The over the door shoe holder at Target is around $8 but is not clear plastic---the one I got is from Bed Bath and Beyond and it was $15 but ended up being $12 after the 20% off coupon---I wanted the clear one so the few dollars were worth it to me.

The suggestion was made on Julie's post to turn it into a summer catch all for sunglasses, goggles, sunscreen etc.  Not sure if I will do that or not since our swim bag "catches" most of that stuff.  lol  If I don't do the summer suggestion this entire thing will just move upstairs to the back of Brody's closet door since his closet is super huge.  ;)

Super Doubles week at Harris Teeter!!!

With the kids being home Wed/Thurs for snow I just now got around to going to Harris Teeter!  This week (through next Tuesday) they are doubling all coupons up to $2----so a $2 is now $4 and so on.  I will let my pictures speak for themselves.......the total bill after tax for EVERYTHING in the 2 pictures below was just $20!

The items in the top picture were all purchased with coupons from www.coupons.com.  The 2 boxes of instant breakfast were FREE!  (normally priced at $5.89 a box!)   Remember you can print each coupon on that site twice!

The items in the bottom picture were all purchased using coupons from the Sunday newspaper.  The L'Oreal conditioner was FREE!  (normally priced at $4.99)

Brody's 5 year old well check up

I was going to blog about this weeks ago but I didn't have all of the information I like to have for this kind of post.  ;)  I always like to look back and see where Travis was at these well appointments to compare and contrast their sizes.  Brody has always been smaller.......  When I went to start this post I realized that for some reason I didn't write down Travis' info for his 5 OR 6 year old well check ups......so I was waiting for the pediatrician to send me the info.  lol

Overall Brody is healthy and growing well.  We still have issues in the potty department and some socialization issues but that is it.

Brody's stats:
Height 43.75 in 68%
Weight 42 pounds 60%

Travis at 5 years old:
Height:  46.5 in 95% +
Weight:  52 pounds 95% +

I think next year is the year that Brody will be close in size to Travis.  Since Travis started his ADHD meds around his 4th birthday his weight gain slowed down......between his 5 and 6 year old check ups he only gained 2 pounds but that was OK with the pediatrician because his BMI was far too high back then.  ;)  (before his meds they were talking about an "eating plan" for him---I remember saying that isn't an eating plan that's a diet!)

Dec 26th is the perfect day to blog about........

HALLOWEEN?!?!?!

Since I never posted any Halloween pictures around Halloween time today is just as good as any other day right?  LOL

Travis went as "Slenderman" who is apparently a famous internet character---I had never heard of him but a lot of people recognized who Travis was!  Brody went as a skeleton.  He still isn't "into" the whole costume thing but I had him sold on this one because a) it was pj's and b) the bones glowed in the dark.  ;)

I took this picture 5 times and Brody's eyes were closed in all of them!

Running to the next house!

Travis' friend Tate (on the left) went out with us

Seriously they ran to every house!

Today's party prep updates.......

Ok......I will likely never make these again because they were a pain in the a$$ but they are so cute! GF too--yay Bugles!  :)  Please ignore the sideways picture---even if I saved it separately it still posted this way!

I made another batch of GF hot chicken salad after I read my Timehop for today and saw I had 2 batches last year.  :)  I even sampled today's batch and seriously I couldn't tell it was GF---the stuffing mix was an awesome addition!

 Over the weekend I made no bake cookies and put them into cupcake liners to make them a little less messy---when I have made them in the past they were runny and end up everywhere!  lol

I love to make food labels for my parties.  Why?  Well I like to know what something is when I am at a party before I put it on my plate.  ;)  It's also an easy way to label the GF things for my guests.

Magic......I perform magic.......

Well I'm not really magical but I feel like I am since I pretty easily made one of the most popular dishes at our Christmas Eve party GLUTEN FREE!  Which dish you ask?

Hot chicken salad made famous by Kristen's mom.......if you haven't trued it at my house or Kristen's  you must TRY IT.  You can eat it with chips , or bread or just with a fork (my preferred method lol).  The original recipe calls for croutons....instead of just leaving them out I substituted with a GF stuffing mix--I couldn't find GF croutons, didn't want to make my own and when I opened the stuffing package it basically looked like croutons---WIN!

Ready for the freezer--YUMMY!

I also made Jenni's famous chicken enchilada dip---the recipe is naturally GF which is nice.  I serve it with Fritos but really anything can work---I have even put the leftovers into corn tortillas and baked it!

This year I need to remember that things need to come out of the freezer 1st thing in the morning!  Last year a few things were still partially frozen when they went into the oven.  LOL

More party prep

Eventually I will get to posting about things in the last month or so like Halloween and Brody's birthday but until then.......here are more dishes I've prepped.  lol

Holiday pretzel bites---super easy and can be adjusted for any type of Hershey kiss, pretzel etc.  It just takes a lot of time getting the kisses out of their wrappers! ;)  http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/12/pretzel-mm-hugs-christmas-style/

During.......

After  :)

Bacon cheddar bites---I have learned this can be prepped ahead of time and stored in the freezer.  Then on party day I thaw it and put it on slices of bread for baking!  Easy!  http://www.food.com/recipe/bacon-cheddar-bites-121308

During  ;)

Ready for the freezer!

Sausage balls---I need to find the link to this recipe but the ingredients are just baking mix, ground sausage and cheese.  ;)  These are a party favorite and they freeze perfectly!

Already in the freezer!

Christmas Eve Party Prep has begun.......

I finally made my grocery list yesterday and made it to the store this morning so I am able to start prepping some of the dishes for our annual Christmas Eve party.  I have found a bunch of desserts that hold up very well in the fridge (assuming I don't eat them LOL) and some other dishes that transfer well from the freezer to the oven.

So today (as of right now) I have made my Oreo truffles and guess what?  This year I made them gluten free!  It was an easy switch to make and no one will be able to tell the difference but my friends that are GF have one more thing they can eat at the party!  :)

This is the recipe that I used: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/no-bake-oreo-truffles/.  Obviously I used GF cookies and I used 8oz of cream cheese and regular white chocolate chips.  They are very easy to make and look a lot more complicated than they are---I promise!

Gingerbread house

I am going to state the obvious---YES I AM VERY BEHIND!  In the next day or two I will be posting Halloween pictures.  (sigh)

Last week I put together the gingerbread house that someone got the boys as a gift last Christmas (they brought it over on Christmas Eve).  Technically it had expired so I didn't let the kids eat any of it but since the use by date was Nov I decided it could still be put together.  ;)

Let's just say I stink at putting these together.  Ugh.  In the end we put frosting all over it to keep it from falling apart--we said it was a nice snow blanket.  :)

So excited

Seriously.....Travis kept making these goofy faces on purpose---I gave up trying to get a good picture