Summer Break

Awesome playground in Solvang, CA

Well if you have been wondering what happened to me or where I've been well this post will explain it.  Life happened.  Summer was in full swing, kids where home and vacations came and went.  School started last Tuesday and I don't know how much I will be able to blog this school year.  I have decided after much prayer to help out at my children's school.  I guess it's more than helping out I basically will be running the ACE learning center.  I am super excited but that is another post. 

The next couple of post I want to talk about how we had a fun filled summer with very little money.  Practically the whole month of August we were on vacation and we did it all with cash.  There aren't any credit cards waiting to be paid off for months to come.  I drove over 4000 miles and stayed in some really nice hotels.  We've gone bowling, went to a water park, the beach and traveled to almost middle America.  I know there is more but I can't even remember all that we have done.

I'll start with the bowling.  If you remember when the summer started I told you all about the "Kid's Bowl Free" deal all across the country.  Well we went several times but it still cost us money in shoe rentals.  I am pretty sure that this great summer activity will come back again!  I won't be renting shoes next year though.  I have decided to start looking for bowling shoes throughout the year.  I remember at the beginning of this great deal I couldn't find any "deals" on shoes.  I searched Ebay and Craigslist and found that everyone was looking for the same purpose.  So skip ahead 2 months and what do you know, I found 2 pair of shoes for under $20 total!  I figured 2 things, the rush was over and parents were selling this years shoes before they out grow them.  I have 5 children and therefore I must continue to search for a few more deals.  I plan on giving them as Christmas presents (boy I hope my oldest daughter doesn't read this post). 

So there you have it the first update in awhile.  My next post will be about some other fun things we did this summer and how to prepare for next summer.