How far can I stretch $5

When I first started my blog I made a post about spending $5.  My goal was to see how far I could actually stretch a 5 dollar bill by using coupons and shopping sales (not including any tax).  People say you can't get anything for $5 anymore.  Well I have to say that I have proved those people wrong.  My list grew and grew and now I think it's time to show my success.

To be honest, I have some change left over.  I spent a total of 4.85 

5 AirWick Freshmatic I motion Starter Kits

3 Glade Sense/Spray Starter Kits

8 AirWick Aqua Essence

3 Gain Dish soap

2 Dawn Dish soap

2 Gillette Fusion Power Razors

Schick Hydro 5 Razor

2 Schick Hydro Shaving Cream

4 Skintimate Shave Gel

13 Right Guard Total Defense 5 Deodorant

Nivea Men 3 in 1 body wash

Tylenol Precise Heat Patches

2 Bottles Listerine Zero

2 Crest ProHealth Toothpaste

2 Reach Floss

3 Reach Toothbrushes

Box of Tissues

Kandoo Toddler Wipes

3 Tubs Huggies Wipes

Blink tears

16 SOBE lifewater

Arizona Tea

4 Redbox Movies (1 night rental)

Snickers 10pk fun size

Men's C9 muscle shirt

7 pairs of Women's C9 socks

Women's C9 Shorts

2 Build a bear shirts

5 pks of Ball Park Franks

3 Tubs Best Life Butter

2 Bags Ceser Dog Treats

3 Chef Michael 3 oz moist dog food

11 pks of Post it super sticky notes

Pilot G2 Pens 2pk

Pilot Easy Touch Pens 2pk

Eraser

2 Travel Shampoo

4 Travel Tide

4 Travel Shout wipes

Travel Right Guard Deodorant

Total spent (not including tax)  4.85

Caleb's 2nd Birthday

My tiny little baby is finally two.  **Insert crying mommy HERE**  I can't believe my little baby boy is this big already.  Where did the time go?

We spent the evening before decorating the house and baking Caleb's cake.  His theme was construction trucks.  We blew up orange and yellow balloons and covered the house in streamers.  It looked really cute and festive.  His cake was a simple boxed cake (chocolate fudge with milk chocolate icing)  I put it in a glass baking bowl instead of a pan to get a nice round shape.  Then I covered the edges with green coconut for grass and crumbled up cookies for dirt.  Here's the end result.

Here's the crushed cookies.  We sprinkled some on the top and around the base of the cake.  It was Steve's idea to actually put some inside the truck scoop.

The coconut was colored with food coloring and water.  We put 5 drops of coloring and a few splashes of water into a ziplock bag, added a handful of coconut, and shook the bag until everything looked like grass.  We let it dry for about an hour before we used it on the cake.

Caleb was THRILLED when we pulled it out of the fridge!  He had a little bit of help blowing out the candles from daddy.  Hopefully next year he will be able to do it on his own.

We bought Caleb an easel and a tool bench this year.  We set those up the night before so Caleb could start playing with them right away.  We put all his gifts in the living room with balloons scattered around them.  He didn't know what to do with the wrapped gifts when he first saw them.  But once we showed him that there were presents inside, he caught on quite quickly.

I wrote "Happy 2nd Birthday Caleb" on his easel and drew his favorite construction truck...an 'Up and Down'!!

By the way...Kaysen LOVES this easel.  I think he used it more than Caleb did yesterday.  He still tries to chew on the crayons, but he is so happy to draw that I just keep a close eye on him.

Caleb likes the fact that I let him take the marker caps on and off.  He's doing a really good job with putting them back in the pockets after he is finished drawing.

In addition to the easel and tool bench, we got him a few trucks.  Here he is peeking into one of the packages that was making noises as he was opening it.

It was a really nice day for all of us.  Where did my little babies go?

Another very BUSY day

My phone died today.  No warning, nothing.  Just up and died.  Which means that I was out phone shopping at 8pm tonight while the boys were tired and cranky.  I ended up finding a good, practically free phone ($1).  Now I'm afraid to touch the thing because I have no idea how it works and I'm afraid of getting charged some weird fee for going on the internet or something.

My boys had a good day, besides Caleb having a melt down in Best Buy. (he was running away from me and got in trouble)  This morning they spent a few minutes coloring in their coloring books.

Kaysen has found a real love of coloring.  He has also taken real well to books over the past few weeks.  It was always so hard for us to bring out things like this for just Caleb because Kaysen would chew on the books and markers.  But now he will sit there and color for a few minutes without me having to step in and help.

Caleb has not grasped the concept of a coloring book.  He loves to color, however he doesn't like coloring on the pictures in a coloring book.  Instead, he wants me to draw him Choo Choos, 'Up & Downs' (construction trucks), 'Big' (dump trucks), and semi trucks.  Which is fine, the first hundred times.  I'd like to get through a coloring session without him asking for me to make him some sort of truck, especially when the coloring books also have pictures of trucks.

I set up a beach blanket and the boys' patio chairs in the living room today.  Added some blocks and a few books and puzzles, and the boys were entertained while I made out my grocery list!

This is Caleb's 'BIG' 

'Big' is used every day, almost all day long.  He will scoop things up with 'Up and Down' (his other construction truck) and drive it over to dump things out into 'Big'.  Then 'Big' will drive around and dump out the toys into a pile.  He will sit and do this forever!!  At least while Kaysen is asleep and he doesn't have his partner in crime to play with.

Oh, he stacked the blocks by himself too!

Road Trip!

Thursday we packed up the family and headed out for a mini road trip.   We went to a small little state park in Illinois.  It was only about an hour away and the traffic wasn't too bad.  Especially since we had to travel the express way that winds around Chicago.
I packed a lunch to take with us and brought the wagon for the boys.  The weather was really chilly, but the sun occasionally peeked through to warm us up.  It was a nice relaxing morning.  Total price of this mini vacation:  Nothing but Gas!