The Percy Party

In looking back through my posts, I just realised that I had forgotten to write about Nicholas's 9th birthday. The original plan was to go to the 2nd Percy Jackson movie "The Sea of Monsters" which was supposed to be released shortly before his April 17th birthday. He was going to take a couple of friends and that was all he wanted. I got totally preped and finished the second book a couple of months before his birthday and was all ready. Then....Ray suggested that I double check the release date....Poop! Postponed until August. On to plan B, which was also kind of tricky to plan. We decided to have an Aquatic Center party with all of the boys in his class. The original date for this was going to be right around his birthday, then we started baseball and heard rumor of Friday night games. Thus, the party was set for the Saturday of Spring Break. Not such a great time however, all we could do. He had a great time with the friends that were able to make it. We made a quick trip to Moscow in search of seashell candy molds to add to the cupcakes and had a blast in WinCo searching for blue foods. Why blue foods? Well, in Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief, Percy's Stepdad doesn't believe in blue food so, Percy's Mom goes out of her way to find blue food for Percy. Plus, Percy's Father is Poseidon (the God of the Sea). We found blueberry yogurt covered pretzels, blue taffy, blue juice, and Strawberries. Strawberries you're asking? Strawberries are grown at Camp Half Blood and are used as a form of income for the camp. We also used just plain blue paper napkins, cups, and plates.

Here's the cupcakes! They turned out super cute. We added blue food coloring to the cake batter and the frosting. Then added the orange/white seashells and sprinkled graham cracker crumbs around them for sand.

 

 

Nicholas also created a bookmark for his goodie bags. We found some clipart off of the internet of a trident and then Nicholas came up with a quote. We glued the trident and the quote together then rushed to Staples to have them laminated.

 

 

 

And then comes the final goodie bag....complete with clues that would relate to the Percy Jackson.

 

The Gatorade was blue & the Gold Drachmas were gold foiled chocolate coins. The bookmark, kazoo, and bouncy ball are all pretty self explanatory! :-) The kids all swam and had a great time!

 

 





April and May Freebies

Yep...WAY behind! April was a steller month for freebies and I had a blast collecting them. So, what did the April freebies entail? Well, check out this picture:

 

25 4x6 photo prints from Walgreens (not pictured) $4.75

2 Glade Air Freshners $0.98 each ($0.04 moneymaker)

Sunkist Ten Liter $$1.00

Best Food Seasonal Mayo $2.99

Softsoap bar $1.00

Olay bar $1.00

Victoria Secret Panties (not pictured) $3.99

7Up Ten $1.00

U by Kotex Panty Liners $1.24 ($0.76 moneymaker)

2 John Frieda Frizz Ease Curl Revializer $1.49 each

Reach Dental Floss $0.97 ($0.03 moneymaker)

Planters Nut-Rition $2.99

Zyrtec $6.00

Crest Toothpaste $0.99

Reusable bag $1.99

Woolite Sample

 

Now for the fun part! How much did I save in April? $34.85 for doing nothing but a little couponing & searching on the internet. Not bad for a month's worth of free groceries! And the moneymaker totaled $0.83.

 

Now, for the disappointing May freebies....When you check out this picture you will figure out why it took me so long to post April's freebies. Baseball season officially hit out home this month and I haven't done hardly any shopping. I actually went almost 2 full weeks without even stepping into a grocery store! So, here's the sadness of May:

 

 

Mountain Dew Kickstart $0.99

Purina One cat food sample

 

Great gun smokes, Batman! A whole $0.99 in freebies for May! Sad and embarassing....Hopefully, June will be a much better month. Happy almost summer vacation!!! :-)