Amusement Park

Mason and Jacob on a ride
Bradley and Mason
Mason and I waiting in line for the Scooby Doo Mystery House

On Friday, I took Mason to King’s Dominion Amusement Park. We went with Julie, Jacob, Evan and Cousin Bradley. Brennan was able to spend some quality time with Uncle Rick and Aunt Cathy! Mason was able to go on a couple of the small rides. We also went to the water park. Mason enjoyed running and splashing in the toddler pool. I was able to take Bradley on some bigger water slides while Julie watched the little guys. I have to say that I am getting too old for those water slides! Bradley and I started out on the totally enclosed tube slides about seven stories high. I was shaking when I got to the bottom! I sent Bradley back up to do another one on his own…I preferred to watch! We then went on an inflatable tube ride which I did enjoy. We had a fun day even though I ended up with a backache the next day!

Brennan: 3 months old

Brennan is now three months old. He is very strong! He is trying to roll over already. Brennan also tries to scoot forward while on his belly. It is fun watching him be more interactive. He loves to smile! He slept through the night Sunday night as well. I am hoping there are more of those nights to come real soon!

Pickles and Peaches

Cathy's dining room table loaded with our goods!
Jars of pickles, sliced peaches, peach salsa and peach jam

This past weekend, Cathy and I canned pickles and peaches. We have become more ambitious this year and tried several different recipes. It was fun researching recipes and we discovered that you can pickle just about anything. We put in some long hours but everything turned out fantastic. And in case you were wondering how many jars you can get from a bushel of cucumbers and a peck of peaches, the list follows.

1 Bushel Pickling Cucumbers...
Polish Dills
6 Quarts
11 Pints
9 Quarts (Fridge Recipe/Canned)

Dill Pickles
6 Quarts
10 Pints

Kosher Dill
3 Quarts
11 Pints

Sweet - Bread & Butter -- (Fridge Recipe)
2 Pints
4 - 1/2 Pints

1 Peck Peaches...

Peaches -- Sliced
22 Pints

Peach Salsa
18 - 1/2 Pints

Peach Jam
14 - 1/2 Pints
6 - 4 oz.
Needless to say, we will have enough pickles for years to come!

Moneysavingmom.com

Well, in this time of economic problems, I have decided to be more diligent with using coupons. Through a friends recommendation, I started reading the moneysavingmom.com blog. On this site, people post all of the money saving deals they have found for the week. It basically tells you which store to use your coupons at in order to save them most money. So, after research and organizing my coupons I headed to the CVS drugstore. I bought 2 pert plus shampoos, 2 deodorants, 2 tubes of toothpaste and a bag of chips. After using coupons and my CVS card my total was $4.96. I also received $3.50 in extra bucks. The extra bucks are like CVS money that you can use at your next purchase. I also hit Wal-mart this week and ended up with 4 packs of clean team wipes for .14 cents each after coupons! So, I am pretty excited about my savings and I hope to continue. It takes a bit of work but I am told it gets easier as you go along. I can't wait for tomorrow's paper to find the good deals! I know, you are probably thinking there are better things to do! But, I love finding good deals!

New York

Mason in the dogs water bucket
Grandma Chiovaro and Brennan
Mason in his new bike helmet (it was once cousin Brad's who is now 11!).

Our trip to New York went well. It took us 10 hours each way and we only had to make two stops. The boys did better in the car than I could have ever imagined! I have to say that the DVD player was worth the investment. Unfortunately, Mason ended up getting sick the second day which made him extremely cranky. He did have fun feeding the ducks at the river and blueberry picking. Mason ate more blueberries than he put in his bucket! We also had a family picnic. It actually ended up being an eat inside picnic as it rained pretty hard that day. Which also meant that the races we were going to attend were cancelled. It was a short trip but we were glad that everyone was able to meet Brennan.