Halloween Craft

Yes I know..today is Halloween. How on Earth will you find time to fit this in today? Sorry about posting it today but I forgot about it before!

We made another handprint trivet craft (see here for the one we did last month). Since it is Halloween, we decided to make a ghost from a handprint. Since I already had tiles and they were white/cream, I had to first paint the tile black. You could just save yourself the time and work (although it’s not much) and buy a black tile to start with.

After that had dried and Little Monkey had taken a nap, we went outside and practiced making handprints on some black paper first.

Once he had that down, we went ahead and made a print on the tile. I finished it up with some black paint to add ghost eyes. He already appeared to have a mouth from the way Little Monkey put his hand down on the tile. I also added the word “BOO” as if it was coming from the ghost. At the bottom I put Little Monkey’s name and ’08. (I figure we will all know it was October since it is a Halloween craft.)

This is before adding his name, year and the ghost's eyes. But you get the idea.

And of course, Amy managed to get some other shots in the process of Little Monkey’s hand covered in paint. He was quite happy to show it off. He did a good job and his Grammy and Pops seemed to like it. Just wait until they see the ones we are making next month!

A Little Preview

We decided we better try on Little Monkey’s Halloween costume to make sure it fit before the big day (and to get him adjusted to wearing it hopefully). We actually tried it on on Tuesday and he did pretty well. I was a little concerned that it would be too big. I bought it last year at Old Navy after Halloween for like $5!  Here is a little preview of what he will look like on Halloween night.

Double Coupons at Kmart

This week is Double Coupons at Kmart (participating stores only). They will take manufacturer’s coupons up to and including $2.00 and double them, as long as it does not exceed the cost of the product. They will not take internet coupons for this. I went through my coupons on Saturday while Amy took Little Monkey to Universal and I got to stay home to try and get rid of my cold. I had a stack ready to go and Amy and I headed out on Monday to see what we could get. I figured we would do better, but overall it’s really not too bad.

Here is a picture of what we bought:

For better detail I’ll give you a listing.
1-Package of Washable Triangle Crayons for Little Monkey’s Stocking
3-Dove Shampoo
1-Dove Conditioner
1-Tylenol Rapid Release
2-Natural Instincts Haircolor
2-Herbal Essence Haircolor
1-Sure Deodorant
1-Pert Plus Shampoo/Conditioner
1-Pedigree Dog Treats
1-Magic Eraser
2-Cascade Complete
1-Smart Start Cereal
1-Peanut Butter M&Ms

After all my coupons, we paid $23.63 for everything. I would have like for it to be better but not bad considering if I had JUST bought the four haircolor products (currently at a sale price even) with no coupons, it would have cost more that the $23.63 anyhow. The total for all the products (at their sale prices this week) would have been $76.53.

I think I was supposed to be teaching my sister something about coupon shopping, but I don’t know that she learned much.

Menu Plan Wednesday

Last night we finally finished our last meal from our meal plan last week, so after dinner we sat down to come up with a new menu plan. Here is our new listing of meals…(this week we did actually assign meals to specific days)

Wednesday: Big Monkey at work, Little Monkey, Amy and I are going to Mom and Dad’s
Thursday: Leftovers (Options include-Pumpkin Ravioli, Hawaiian Chicken and Fiesta Chicken Tacos)
Friday: Amy not here, Halloween-play it by ear depending on Big Monkey’s schedule for the day
Saturday: Big Monkey at work, Amy not here, You’re on Your Own (YOYO)
Sunday: Burgers and Fries
Monday: Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Mashed Potatoes
Tuesday: Big Monkey at work, Tater-topped Casserole (new recipe)

Steal a Base, Steal a Taco

Thanks to Taco Bell for this promotion!

A base was stolen in the World Series and now you get to steal a taco from Taco Bell. (Okay you don’t have to steal it, but they will give it to you free.) Tonight, October 28th, head over to your local Taco Bell (if participating) and grab your free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco!

Thanks Taco Bell!

Free Movie Monday!

Head on out to your local Redbox and pick up your free movie!

Today’s Free Movie Code is: 93NCA5

Menu Plan Monday

Today is Monday…and time for a new Menu Plan but I haven’t made one yet. We still have two meals and leftovers on our menu from last week. I can tell you that tonight we plan to have Pumpkin Ravioli. We’ll see how that goes. It is a new recipe that I found in a magazine, so maybe we will all be eating leftovers instead. For more Menu Plans, head over to Organizing Junkie.

If you are so lucky…I might post again later with the Free Redbox code of the day. I forgot last week (and heard about it from some people) so I will try not to slack on this!

Pumpkin Carving

We haven’t carved our pumpkin yet. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow since Big Monkey will be back home from work. I decided to look around online to come up with some ideas of how we could carve our pumpkin. Big Monkey doesn’t like using patterns (which is why we usually have more than one pumpkin) but I still found some fun patterns online. There are a few that I picked out just for Little Monkey and a few that would be perfect for Amy. Let me know what you think!

Random Woot Shirt!

Recently, Woot Shirt had “Random Shirt Day.” They charge $6.66 with free shipping but you cannot pick out what shirt you will be getting. They will pull out a random leftover shirt in your size and send it your way. I figured what the heck. I had some money in my Paypal account from selling a book so I thought I’d give it a try. My good friend Joe also encouraged me to go ahead. He has posted about Woot many times before, including the time he bought three random woot shirts. I got my shirt in yesterday’s mail, a surprise since the tracking on it said it wouldn’t be here until Monday and then possibly Saturday. I got the “The nation in my head is inside my mouth.” shirt. It is not the shirt I would have picked out but it is better than many of the ones I could have gotten! I don’t know if I will wear it regularly but I will wear it, and even out of the house…it’s not too bad! And who knows, maybe if “Random Shirt Day” comes up again and I have money in my Paypal account, maybe I’ll try my luck for another one! They did send me the wrong size…so I might have to look into that. No wonder it looked big!

Pumpkin Patch

I took Little Monkey out the other day to go to the pumpkin patch (even though he had already been with Grammy and Pops and bought a ton of pumpkins!) to get our own pumpkin for carving. When we drove up, we found out that they were not open yet and sadly we could not find another pumpkin patch close by. After dinner, Big Monkey, Little Monkey and I went back to the pumpkin patch. There were quite a few interesting looking pumpkins and of course (just like at the other pumpkin patch) Little Monkey was drawn to the “special” pumpkins. We were finally able to pick out a good pumpkin for carving though. It is a decent sized one and only cost $8. I was surprised, but happy. All of their prices were quite reasonable for a pumpkin patch I thought. Here are some pictures from our visit to the pumpkin patch.

So many pumpkins to choose from

One of the many special pumpkins

It's too heavy!