Frugal Friday 497

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Last Friday was Owen's 8th birthday. We woke up early to do a scavenger hunt for his gifts before Mark went into work. He got a new shirt, playdoh set, book set, and an Elvis shirt to help share the surprise that we will be going to/staying at Graceland later this year! To help keep birthdays feeling special our kids pick all of the meals and activities for the day. We made homemade breakfast pizza for breakfast, splurged on eat-out lunch at Enzo's pizza, and had taco bar for dinner. They each get to choose one eat-out meal on their birthday and since we rarely eat out the $35 for three people really shocked me! Glad we typically cook at home. He chose to see the WAVE Foundations' Shark Show at the library as his activity and I was thankful that was free. 

- Friday evening we rented the youth center at church and inivtied some of his friends to come out to play for his birthday. They had a great time and I really enjoyed not having the stress of cleaning house or figuring out how to entertain everyone. We had about a dozen kids so it was great to let the play with the ping-pong tables and such at church. Owen chose a nacho bar and ice cream cups as the meal/dessert. We had tons of leftovers and were able to eat it across several days.

- Saturday morning the boys had breakfast together and then ran errands like oil change and gasing up the cars. Annabeth and I headed to the Farmer's Market. It was much too early for any real produce so just tons of baked goods and homemade items. We skipped those and spent a bit of money on pepper plants. We had planted our own but they didn't come up. If we get 8 peppers from the four plants we bought we will have made our money back. 

- Sunday after church we went to Mark's mom's house for lunch. L+C+Kids gifted Owen some water rockets and that meant a whole afternoon of fun for all of the kids. Kristi has great shade outback so even with the hot, sunny weather we were able to keep all of the kids out and happy for 4 hours!

- This week was VBS at our church. For the first time, Annabeth was old enough to be a helper and this brought her SO much joy! Every year since Kindergarten she has talked about wanting to be old enough to help at VBS and she loved helping lead song and dance. Owen enjoyed his group and I helped with crafts all week. It was such a joy to share the gospel with over 100 kids! 

C.S.I. themed VBS was perfect for our C.S.I. Family

- My parents were here from Monday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon. They came up to see one of Owen's baseball games and we had a great time with them! They took the kids out to eat, to parks, to the library, played outdoors, and helped me do the dance/4H/baseball runs in the evening. Tuesday evening, Mama and I snuck in a shopping and dinner date which was wonderful. I SO love having them in town!

- Last night we enjoyed free night at the city pool. For locals, every Thursday night of June/July the FC Pool will be FREE from 6-8 PM. It was a lot of families and not overly crowded. We'll be taking advantage of this each week. 

- Mark spent his week away at Raven's Challenge with his Bomb Squad. We thank and praise the Lord for the safety of all teams from around the world during their exercises. 

We are looking forward to another weekend celebrating birthdays! 

Happy Savings to All