Missing My Pup

We were at the mall looking around at clothing for the Fall and Summer clearance when my son spotted this display of Boo Dogs. He told me "Mom I miss my puppy Kosha". It made me so sad that he misses our dog. She was not a puppy but to him she was. The two of them were the sweetest pair of boy and dog. As soon as we get a home of our own the first thing I am getting him is a black lab puppy. I can buy him a million dog stuffed animals, and I do lol, but nothing is like having a real dog. I miss that sweet pup too.

We were updated by the people who opened their hearts and homes to our dog and she has found a permanent home with a woman who loves her. They said the woman was feeling lonely and not much made her want to go out and live life but having a dog as sweet as she is made this woman feel loved and a purpose. When I read the email update I was at work and tears started streaming down my face. I am happy someone loves Kosha as much as we did and she is living a good life.

Ancestry.com and New England History #ad

*This is a sponsored post.

I have always been fascinated with History. I love watching the history channel and reading books about people from the past. I remember in elementary school when we had a project out find out our ancestry. I loved asking family members about our heritage. When I was in school there was no internet to google that type of stuff. We are lucky that now we can use places like Ancestry.com to find out about past family members and famous people in American history. 

Ancestry.com is featuring New England History over the last 400 years. See the picture below for fun facts and famous people from New England. I found it fascinating that as big as Maine is there are not many people in that state. Many profound influential people of change in American History are from New England. Philosophers, abolitionists, civil rights activist, presidents, founding fathers and authors all from the same area rich in American history.

I wonder more about my family and who we are related to. Do we have any famous people in our family tree? I can search immigration records to see when members of my family came over to the USA. Being a Mom I am also curious about my husbands side of the family for my son. I have heard some great stories about their American adventures through the Midwest and Texas to California that I would love to document through records. 

 

Great Wolf Lodge here we come!

This summer is flying by, we are now into the month of August! This summer has been a pretty low key year for us, we decided that we weren't going to go on a huge vacation this year or travel far from home. To keep ourselves busy this summer we have been looking for great "Staycation" ideas, fun activities for our whole family that and close by and where we aren't spending a fortune in order to enjoy! To cap our summer off and ring in the new school year we are taking our boys to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA! The Great Wolf Lodge is an giant indoor family water park with a hotel on site with lots of waterpark fun and entertainment.

As you can see my boys are so excited that my 6 year old created a "countdown calendar" to mark off the days until our stay! I love that not only are they anticipating our stay, but day by day the excitement is around us, something to look forward to is always a good thing.

 

 

There are so many rides and attractions at the Great Wolf Lodge, fun for toddlers, young children, teens/tweens and the entire family. They offer activities like MagiQuest, an Arcade and even a Kids Spa!

 

 Fort Mackenzie!

 Alberta Falls!

 

 The KidCabin Suite

 

At the Great Wolf Lodge your water passes are included with your stay in any of the suites they offer. I love that we will be staying the night there, no driving home with tired kids, you just walk to your room and they are off to dreamland!

 

 

We can't wait  to share our "Staycation" pictures with you all and give you a peek into the waterpark at the Great Wolfe Lodge! Check out their site to see if you have a Great Wolf near by, what a great way to spend a few days. 

 

 

*I was not paid for this post, we will be guests at the Great Wolf Lodge. All opinions are my own.

Frugal Friday Coupons!!

 

Back-to-school Supplies - For Lunches

• $0.55 off any Jif Whipped Peanut Butter Spread
• $0.50 off 2 Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot
• $1.00 off 1 lb. of Sara Lee meat at the deli
• $0.25 off Betty Crocker Macaroni & Cheese
• $1.00 off TWO Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookie Dough

Snacks

• $0.50 off 2 Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot
• $0.50 off TWO BAGS Bugles Corn Snacks
• $0.75 off Food Should Taste Good chips
• $0.50 off ONE BOX Fiber One Chewy Bars
• $0.50 off ONE BOX Fiber One Protein Chewy Bars
• $0.50 off Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares
• $0.50 off TWO BOXES Nature Valley Granola Bars
• $1.00 off TWO Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookie Dough
• $0.50 off Green Giant™ Veggie Snack Chips
• $0.55 off any two Martha White Baking Mixes
• $0.75 off TWO Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie Mix

Breakfast

• BOGO on any Pillsbury Heat-N-Go Mini Pancakes
• $0.75 off THREE Pillsbury Toaster Strudel
• $0.40 off TWO Pillsbury Sweet Rolls
• $0.50 off ONE BOX Original Cheerios cereal
• $0.50 off Liberte Greek or Mediterranee yogurt
• $0.75 off TWO any flavor Yoplait products
• $1.00 off FOUR Yoplait Yogurt Multipacks
• $0.40 off SIX CUPS any variety Yoplait Yogurt
• $1.00 off FIVE CUPS any Yoplait Greek yogurt
• $0.50 off ONE 20 OZ. OR LARGER Original Bisquick
• $1.00 off TWO BOXES Cheerios cereals
• $0.50 off ONE BOX Cocoa Puffs cereal
• $1.00 off TWO BOXES any General Mills kid cereals

Food

• $0.80 off 4 Hamburger Helper Home Skillet Dishes
• $0.60 off THREE Green Giant Seasoned Steamers
• $0.75 off ONE Pillsbury Gluten Free Dough product
• $0.75 off THREE PACKAGES Totino's Rolls Snacks
• $0.60 off 3 Old El Paso products
• $1.00 off FIVE Totino's Crisp Crust Party Pizza
• $0.50 off 2 Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad Mixes
• $0.55 off any two Martha White Baking Mixes
• $0.75 off TWO Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie Mix
• $0.40 off any TWO Pillsbury Crescent Dinner Rolls
• $0.25 off Betty Crocker Macaroni & Cheese

Storage + Baking + Protection

• $1.00 off Reynolds Wrap Foil, 35 sq. ft. or more
• $1.00 off any (1) Glad Food Protection product

Entertainment

• $5.00 off The Walking Dead Blu-ray™ or dvd

Beauty-Care Products

• $1.00 off COVERGIRL Clean Whipped Creme Foundation
• $0.75 off ONE COVERGIRL Flamed Out™ Shadow
• $0.75 off COVERGIRL Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail
• $1.00 off COVERGIRL Lipslicks Smoochies Lip Balm
• $1.00 off one GARNIER FRUCTIS STYLING Product
• $2.00 off any Burt's Bees Lip Gloss

Vitamins + Wellness

• $1.00 off any (1) Disney Omega Gummy Vitamins
• $1.00 off 1 Disney or Marvel Gummy Vitamin product
• $3.00 off any Phillips' Fiber Good Gummies
• $2.25 off Any One Nature Made Vitamelt
• $2.00 off Centrum Silver 100 ct. or larger
• $3.00 off any ONE TruBiotics™ product
• $1.00 off any One A Day Multivitamin product
• $1.00 off any Citracal Product

Oil

• $10.00 off Any two Valvoline Motor Oil

Simple Dessert: Marshmallow Popcorn Balls

For movies we love to pop fresh popcorn from our movie theater style popcorn maker. Sometimes I get a little wild with it making way too much for the night. I find it absolutely fun to make the popcorn and watch it pour out of the popper. Silly I know but this leaves me with extra popcorn all the time. Sometimes we feed it to the ducks at a local pond and other times we make popcorn balls.

This last time we made popcorn for a movie I had a whole grocery bag full left over. I decide we would make some simple marshmallow popcorn balls. I searched the cupboards to see if we had anything we could add in and I found some white chocolate and dark chocolate chips. I found some food coloring too so I decided to make my white chocolate pink.

My son wanted to help as always so I let him make a couple pink popcorn balls, his oddly turned out a little runny. I found out after clicking through some pictures and asking my husband that he had dipped his popcorn balls in his apple juice before dipping it into the white chocolate mix. ( I was baffled as to why his turned out so watery and strange lol)

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. butter
1 tsp of vanilla
1/4 tsp of salt
10 oz bag of Marshmallows
12 cups popped popcorn
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips


Directions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the marshmallows, vanilla and salt. Heat, stirring constantly, until the marshmallows are completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Place the popcorn in a large mixing bowl. Pour the marshmallow mixture over the top. Toss gently to combine and coat the popcorn. Allow to cool just slightly, then form into balls with well buttered hands. Place on sheets of wax paper. While popcorn balls are cooling melt the white chocolate in a small bowl in microwave, mix in coloring if desired, melt dark chocolate in separate bowl. Once cooled dipped the popcorn balls in the chocolate mixtures. ENJOY!