Mega Food at Mega Savings!

Wow! I just got home from the grocery store and am SO impressed with the savings this week!
My total before I used my Kroger card and coupons was $243.86 and after all of the savings came off, I only paid $118.76! That is $125.10 in savings!
This week Kroger is having a Mega Savings Event so when you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 off your total. I bought a lot of those items!

You may be saying to yourself "Christie, I don't buy that stuff"...well, I never did before either. I am sorry but I don't have the time to make every single meal from scratch! Yes, I do make most of mine myself but there are some days that we are just so busy that I need something quick! Also, my house frequently has extra people (hungry teens) over and if they want to grab a quick bite, it is there for them! I would love to be able to make homemade pizza for them every single time they ask but well, I can't so pizza rolls come in VERY handy!

Here is what I got this week:
Kroger Dill Slices
Kroger Spanish Rice
Betty Crocker Brownie Mix (perfect for my daughter to make a quick snack when I am not home!)
Pack of 10 Ramen Noodles
2 boxes of Chex Mix Bars
2 boxes of Nature Valley Bars
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper (I have not bought these in over 10 years but can use these for charity or let my kids use them for lunch!)
1 can of Ranch Style Beans
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks
2 boxes of Fiber One Bars
3 boxes of Cocoa Puffs
2 boxes of Trix
1 box of Cap'n Crunch
1 box of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch
3 cans Rotel
6 cans of Grands Biscuits (great for quick biscuits when we sleep in and I don't want to make homemade biscuits)
2 boxes of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
4 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
6 bags of Totinos Pizza Rolls
2 loaves of Wonder Classic White Bread
2 bags of Tostitos Chips
2 bags of Fritos
2 packs of ground turkey
Gallon of milk
Gallon of OJ
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 box of Kroger Wheat Saltines
2 trays of bakery 9 ct cinnamon rolls (for my SS class!)
2 bags of Quaker Rice Quakes
1 bag of Ground Chuck Patties
1 bag of Simply Potatoes Hash Browns
2 packs of Kroger Burger buns
3 bags of Shredded Cheese
Oxy Clean Face Wash
Oxy Clean Pads
Oxy Clean Lotion
Always Pads
Tampax Tampons

I think that is it.... The kids have put it all up now. I love saving money!

Back to School

Yesterday we started our new school year! The oldest is now in the 9th grade, middle child is in the 7th and youngest is in the 4th...where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like I have been homeschooling my children that long! I enjoy it SO much because we are learning and exploring together.
The kids decided that they really enjoyed doing the lapbooks last year but they wanted to put all of their work into more of a scrapbook type book this year so that is what they are doing. They are currently working on pages to show what they learned from reading The Apple and The Arrow. It was a book recommendation for what we had been studying in The Mystery of History Volume II at the end of last school year. I wanted to do a review of some of last year's topics to get us back into "school mode" so I chose this. Most of the printables activities were found at Homeschool Share

The picture shows the kids working on their projects.

Did I mention that I LOVE homeschooling??

Sylvan's Forward to School Algebra Challenge

When the kids were on the Book Adventure site yesterday taking their reading comprehension quizzes, I noticed a new contest! Sylvan is having an Algebra Challenge for everyone over the age of 13. Take a math quiz and be entered in their sweepstakes. The GRAND Prize is a $10,000 scholarship!

Go to Sylvan's Forward to School site and play today!

Christmas Carol Train Tour

We went to the train station and stood in line for almost 2 hours to get on the train. It was hot! Occasionally we would get a little breeze so that helped out and they also had water coolers for people to stay hydrated and misting fans to help people cool off a little. Here is a picture of my youngest standing by the train.

They made everyone leave their strollers before going over to the final lane of the line and I was a little nervous about letting little Miss D free but she actually did well! Amy and I were able to keep the 2 year old, the two 6 year olds and the 9 year old all together and through the train with very little problem. The kids LOVED it! They had costumes from the movie and snippets of the movie playing throughout the train. This picture is of a model of the room where the characters did their acting. They showed us how they use sensors to show what part of the body is moving so that it looks natural on the movie.

And this is the kids playing a trivia game about The Christmas Carol on the touch screen computer. Since we read The Christmas Carol last December, they knew a lot of the answers.

Their favorite part was the face morphing where they were able to get their picture made and the computer morphed their face into one of the characters. It was funny! They had it set up so that we entered my email address and the pictures will be emailed to us soon from Walmart.com! How cool is that?!?

This picture is at the end of the train tour. They had a Christmas dinner set up so you could have your picture made...my group was too large to see the food! LOL

The Knack(SM) - Where Kids Discover(SM) - Free Family Event - Back to School Personalized

The Knack(SM) - Where Kids Discover(SM) - Free Family Event - Back to School Personalized

I was on Michael's Website and saw this event for this Saturday. Sounds cool! I hope some of you can make it out there!

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All Aboard

I am SO excited! My youngest is really into trains...has been for a long time. When I found out about this awesome FREE train tour for Disney's A Christmas Carol, it was a no brainer that we would be going!

If you are in the Memphis area, it will be at the Memphis Central Station on S. Main tomorrow, August 4th, from 9 am - 7 pm. I will be there so look for me!!

I know the flier says to see back for cities and dates but I only scanned the front of it.

For other cities please visit http://www.christmascaroltraintour.com/