Florida Vacation 2012

My husband and I don't really go on vacations except to see family due to time and money constraints. But my husband's parents are from a vacation destination (Clearwater, Florida), so it works out well anyways. We were there a few weeks ago, I've just been really lazy with my blog. The first part of our vacation was spending a few days in Alabama to celebrate J's birthday. Then we went to Florida for a week. After that, my husband flew back to LA, and J and I went back to Alabama for two weeks. Here are the highlights from Florida:

We ate at the Columbia Restaurant, and it has some of the best food in Tampa.

"Uncle Matthew" came up from Naples to see me and J. We went to the beach and a park.

Here are Daddy and J playing at the beach.

The four Burke generations

The Burke women- surviving cheapskate husbands for over 50 years

Here is J and his "friend" Molly. He loves dogs, and he loved chasing her around the house.

Florida was really fun. We got to see a lot of my husband's family. My husband and I also were able to take advantage of the free babysitting and go eat dinner on the beach and see The Avengers. It was nice to go on a date without looking at the clock and calculating how much money we were racking up in babysitting fees.  Another fun thing was that J got really good at walking. His grandma bought him a push popper lawn mower that really helped him improve his walking skills. He used it in Florida and Alabama, and he was a real walker by the time we left. Highlights from Alabama in the next post!

Extreme Couponing 101

I did my first attempt at an extreme couponing trip...I didn't pay ten cents for a cartload of food like on the show, but I still got some sweet deals. I will shamefully admit that I shelled out *cough* a little bit on a binder. You know those Trapper Keepers loaded with the baseball card holder pages that the nerds on the show have? Yeah.......

.......ANYWAYS, you only need to do two things to start couponing:

1. find, clip, and organize coupons in a way that makes sense for you (Ziploc bags, accordion file, binder, whatever), and
2. stack manufacturer's coupons on store sales/coupons for the best savings.

I was too lazy to take a picture of mine and upload it, but I have this binder and accordion file :)

You can read more about couponing online, in books, on blogs, etcetera, to learn the insider tips and tricks, but basically this is it. Just get coupons and combine them with store savings. I got a subscription to the LA Times for $1.25 a week for coupons, and I also get my mom's and MIL's when I go home.


Here's some of what I bought and how I used the coupons:


                

Gerber fruit pouches- 2 for $.75 each-and they're organic! Regular price was $1.59. I stacked a "$1 off 2 pouches" manufacturer's coupon with the "$1.25 each" sale price. (If I had had 2 "$1 off 2 pouches" coupons, it would've made them $.25 each.)

Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch cereal- 2 for $.88 each (12.2 oz box). Regular price was $4.79. Vons card took off $2.29, extra store coupon took off $.62, and I had 2 "$1 off 2 boxes" manufacturer's coupons.


Hershey chocolate bars- 4 for $.50 each. $.99 each, buy 2 get 2 free 


9 oz. blue Dawn- $.89, regular price was $1.39. I stacked a $.25 off manufacturer's coupon with a $.25 off store coupon.


19 oz. Dawn with Olay Hand Renewal- $1.99. I stacked a $1 off manufacturer's coupon with $.80 off with Von's card.


King's Hawaiian rolls- $1.50. I stacked a $1 off manufacturer's coupon with $.49 off with Von's card.


I bought produce on sale and had a "$3 off $10 of produce" store coupon, final prices:
2 canteloupe for $1.05 each
1 lb. strawberries for $.68
Bananas for $.48 lb.
10 lb. bag of potatoes for $2.79


I bought a few other items. I had a "$5 off $20 or more purchase" store coupon that took off even more money. My final savings came to 49%. The regular prices of all my goodies equaled $113.39, and I paid $55.15.


Did I inspire anyone to start couponing? I hope so! Just don't expect to save a lot when you first start accumulating coupons. The best store sales seem to line up with coupons about a month after they come out, so you have to be patient. Good luck!

J at 14 Months

Everything about J at 14 months.

Weight: 20.5 lbs

Height: 29"

Teeth: 7

Walking: can walk around pretty well, I think you could really call him a walker now

Words: he shakes his head a lot, still uses grunting for main verbal communication

Hands: claps and waves on command and on his own, no pointing yet

Favorite game: tag

Favorite book: isn't obsessed with a particular book at the moment

Favorite toy: his lawn mower popper 

Favorite TV show: anything on Baby TV

Favorite activities: playing with his grandparents and his cousin Luke

Favorite food: his breakfast- eggs and whatever fruit/berries I give him

Favorite thing ever: his lawn mower and his grandparents!

J is getting really good at walking now. The push walker I bought him and the lawn mower popper his grandmother bought him have tremendously improved his walking skills. I wish I had purchased walkers sooner for him, I bet he would've been walking before he turned 1. Now he can stand from a sitting position. He used to have to wait for someone to set him on his feet or pull himself up on furniture first. He can also bend down and pick things up.

He got his first pair of "big boy shoes." We bought them at Target, but we might be high rollers and go to the Stride Rite outlet for his next pair ;) I wanted him to walk in them so I could see if he liked them, but the elastic string was making him upset.

He then decided that he should eat the receipt because he thought we didn't need it.

 

J has had the same schedule for a long time. He wakes up around 7, eats breakfast, and plays. He naps from about 9-11, then eats lunch and plays. He has another nap around 2-4, eats dinner, and plays. And then he usually goes to bed around 9:30. Sleep, eat, play, repeat. Babies have it made. 

J is learning how to use real silverware. He can spear stuff on his fork and sometimes bring it to his mouth, but most of the time he will spear food and then take it off. He is also still nursing. I know it's not really "normal" to nurse a toddler in this country, but I still think it's important for complete nutrition. And I'll be honest, I use it as a crutch to get him to sleep :/ horrible, I know.

J LOVES chores. He loves laundry time because he can sit in the pile and "sort" laundry. He also loves the vacuum cleaner. I don't think I've ever heard of a baby loving a vacuum cleaner. I have to strap him in his booster seat and give him food, or else he will follow me around and crawl in circles around it. Here he is "sorting" laundry for me outside the bathroom door. He sits outside the bathroom door every day and waits for Daddy to finish showering.

He got ringworm :( I think he got it from Gymboree. Ringworm is a fungus that causes ring-shaped rashes that have normal skin in the center. We have to apply anti-fungal cream morning and night. We also have to wash the sheets after every nap. That means 3 times a day. Fun.  

All in all, I really like this stage of early toddlerhood. He can walk and he loves his independence, but he can't talk back to me or say embarrassing things in public yet =)

J's 1st Birthday Party

We did a Dr. Seuss-themed party for J's first birthday. So what if it was almost 7 weeks after his real birthday? Better late than never, right? :)

My husband and I made all the food from Dr. Seuss books. My mother-in-law purchased a Honeybaked ham and made a side dish, as her foodie soul shriveled at the thought of people coming to her house to eat "Micaela food," so she wanted to make sure there was something edible available. (Although you can't blame her, it's a wonder I don't blow myself up when I fry J's eggs for breakfast every morning.) Here's the spread:

Here's a list of the food and books they came from:
Green Eggs and Ham: ham, deviled green eggs, eggs and ham quiche
Ten Apples Up On Top: apple slices
Go Dog Go: hot dogs (pigs in a blanket)
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish: Yink's Ink (pink lemonade), blue jello with candy fish inside
The Cat in the Hat: strawberry and banana kabobs, Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes
The Butter Battle Book: rolls and butter
Horton Hears a Who: elephant ears
Yertle the Turtle: turtle tracks ice cream

I wanted a fancy fondant cake. I found a simple Dr. Seuss-themed fondant cake, emailed the picture in for estimates, and....different bakers quoted about $150-$200. My gentle, loving, slow-to-anger husband would've punched me in the face and then given me the cold shoulder for a year if I spent $200 on a cake for a one-year-old. So I ordered one from Publix for $40. AND it had a layer on top that worked as the "smash cake," so I didn't even have to spend another $10 on his own little cake.

Another fancy thing I wanted to do was get customized plates with his name and picture, and cups and napkins with his name. Everything was so cute and...about $100 for everything I needed.  I didn't want to hear my husband talk about the time I spent $100 on paper plates for the next 50 years, so I went to Dollar General and bought red and white plates, cups, and napkins for super cheap and stacked them red-white-red.

Here are the before and after pictures of J and his smash cake:

 Yes, he ate the whole cupcake and mountain of icing. Diabeetus!

I think this little boy had a great party!