Feed your children "McDonalds" for less than $.50 a piece!

Lately I have run across several blog posts about being frugal and way to live on a shoestring budget. I have become a bit more of a bargain grocery shopper. I have been looking for ways to save money and spend less. I have been re-purposing things in my house for other uses instead of immediately going out to buy something, Today, I fed my kids a McButton Happy Meal at home for less than .$50 each.

I hit up the Safeway ads and took advantage of my $10 off $50 purchase coupon.

I ONLY bought things on sale.

Safeway Tyson Chicken Nuggets, BOGO this week came out to about $3.50 per package of 45 nuggets. By my calculations (and I had to break out the pencil and paper for long division, here) makes it about 7.5 cents per nugget.

Safeway 10 lb. bag of apples (about 18-20 apples per bag) for $2.99 with coupon, breaks down to $.16/apple.

My two shared an apple. One ate 4 nuggets, the other ate 5. I had leftover caramel topping in my fridge, ranch and ketchup for dipping too, or course, so I didn't purchase those. And they drink water.

If my calculations are correct (and feel free to test me on this, math is not my strong suit!) it came out to $.45/meal.

After lunch read a couple books on the couch or blow bubbles outside. That's a WAY better "prize" than you'd get at McD's (and it won't get thrown in the trash two days later!!)

What's your favorite way to SAVE (and still have fun) these days??

Wyatt's first book

When Wyatt got home from school today he was working very intently on something. "What are you doin'?" I asked. "Writing a book", he replied.

One of my most favorite stages in the boys learning has been watching them learn to sound out and write words. Wyatt is at that point, so let me interpret his first book for you.

The Diamond in the Ruff

A long time ago there lived a little boy. The little boy was looking for a diamond. (talking bubble) where is it?

And he looked and he looked and he looked.
I guess I'll never find it.

Then his dad found the diamond. He was so excited he spit his gum out.


Written by Wyatt Button


The end

Name my Blog

Ok blog readers, it's time to get your creative juices flowing and help me come up with a name for my blog. "The Button Fam" has been in exsistence for 3 years now and it is time for a change. A while ago I got a suggestion from Becca for a name she thought of "Buttons: Cute and Otherwise" and I like it. I really do. But I want to open the table to other suggestions before I make my final decision so here's my proposal:

You leave a comment with a new name for my blog. You can enter as many catchy names as you can think of. I will pick one of the suggestions in about a week and the winner will receive $5 in Dutch Bros. coffee cash!

So let me hear 'em!

Happy Birthday Wyatt

Wyatt: Day one, April 16, 2003

Wyatt: day 2,190, April 16, 2009
What a difference 6 years makes!

The Bubble Rocket: as seen on TV

If your kids watch any amount of TV (which mine do) they have most likely seen the commercial for the "Bubble Rocket". Wyatt REALLY wanted the bubble rocket for his birthday so I passed along the idea to my sister. We had an early b'day celebration for him at Easter and he indeed got the bubble rocket. Here are two short clips of the bubble rocket in action. As advertized in real life by Wyatt and Anna.

Will's comment after asking him how the bubble rocket on TV compares to the actual bubble rocket was:

"On TV the bubble rocket goes really high, but in real life it doesn't go that high."

Enough said.

Happy Easter

But first, a chick update:

The chicks are one week old and about twice as big as when we got them! I am wondering just how big they will get in the next 4 weeks, before they get to move outside?! They already have wing feathers and are starting to grow their tail feathers. Yesterday and today Wyatt uncovered rocks and dug around in the yard collecting bugs and worms for them to enjoy! It took a couple minutes for them to realize these tasty treats in the dish were for the taking, but once they did, they went crazy. The pecking order has been established and it is so fun to sit and watch these girls. Starly is the highest (black) Sweetie Pie's next (yellow) and poor little April (reddish) is at the end of the line. April will sit cupped in my hand without flapping her wings at all....she is so content.

They are funny and sweet and give us lots of entertainment. They are also very messy. I swear I change their water dish 3 times a day.
In other news....we took the kids to an Easter egg hunt this morning....

I'm so thankful the Jesus conquered death and rose again. I'm excited to celebrate!

Sing the Glory of His name; make His praises glorious! ~Psalm 66:2

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Baby Chicks Part 2

Our little chicks are quite the buzz around here and are getting lots of love! But first, I know my mother in law is dying to see photos of the coup Craig built for them, so here it is!

So far the only little chicks occupying this coup are the ones pictures below in the nesting boxes!

The only thing left to attach are the hook/locks for the egg door.

The nesting box area has since been painted white and it looks great. I am so happy with the way it turned out. I guess it pays to have a perfectionist for a husband. He did a great job!

The chicks will move outdoors to their new home around Mother's Day.

The weather has been incredible lately. Sun, glorious sun! We spent all day after church yesterday weeding and cleaning up our yard. All we heard from the kids all day was, "Can we run through the sprinklers???"

After our work was done, I gave in!

Sprinklers in April in Oregon! Gotta love it!

Chick Update:

Lacey is Anna's chick and her name has been changed back to her original name, Sweetie Pie. She is the yellow chick, a Buff Orpington and is the "pecker" of the three. She is also the biggest chick.

Starly, Will's chick (named after a pokemon character) is the black chick, she is a Barred Rock. She is the most skittish and I think she'll be the flyer of the group as well. I'm already contemplating putting a net over the top of the rubbermaid tote because I have startled her a couple times and she's gotten within 6 inches of the top!

April, Wyatt's chick is the sweetest (maybe she should have been named sweetie pie, oh well). She is also the smallest and the best one to hold. She has however had some problems with her poop. I read somewhere that chicks can get a condition called pasting up in which their poop dries to their bottoms, plugs them up, and they can die! I am a little paranoid about this happening to April (Craig has called me, "mother hen" on more than one occasion). So this morning I took a wet rag and a toothpick and went to town cleaning off her bum. Craig likens it to wiping that icky tar poop off a baby's bum there first couple days of life. I'm not sure it was even that enjoyable!

Oh, the joys of raising hens! Don't you wish YOU had some??

Baby Chicks

We added three little girls to our family today...

Lacey, April, and Starly

Aren't they sweet??

Nothing says spring quite like baby chicks!

I'm a little guy...stuck in a tree...needs help

I just found my old camera that will record short clips!! It has been missing since this fall. Actually, I mentioned I had been looking for it to Wyatt and he found it. So I let him record a "news broadcast", his story about a fish/worm thing he found on the beach at Seaside. I don't know why this makes me laugh so hard everytime I see it. Probably because I am his mom. Enjoy!!

"green" game

I am a copy-cat again. I saw this idea HERE, and since I always have an abundance of cracker and cereal boxes, I thought I'd give it a try.

I used my CM circle cutter to cut two matching circles out of each box: Cheerios, Cream of Wheat, Wheat Thins, Quaker Oat Squares, Ritz, Strawberry Frosted Mini-wheats (which are so disgusting, by the way) and Regular Frosted Mini-wheats. Then I threw the leftover cardboard in the recycle bin.
Anna uses this game more like just a matching game, rather than memory. She just puts them all face down, picks one up and turns the others over one at a time until she finds a match! You could cut out 4 of each kind and play as a memory game where each player takes turns trying to find matches. The boys love to play it that way, but Anna isn't quite there yet. It is an awesome FREE project that only takes a few minute to complete and provides her with a little activity while I get stuff done around the house. We store the circles in a zip-lock baggie. She has fun finding matches and it is a little challenging since the matches don't look exactly alike.

Try it, and feel good about being "green".