Bwa ha ha ha ha ha...

Just in case you didn't see this video on the yahoo front page news, I had to share. Please don't think I am sick and dimented for cracking up hysterically.

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=3710199&l=4418225

My Dinosaur

Elliot's favorite song...

Me and my dinosaur

I never had such a friend before

Big as a house

Twenty times and a half

Fifteen times taller than any giraffe

Legs long as sequoia trees

Teeth big as piano keys

No two people are buddies more, than

Me and my dino

Nothings more finer

Me and my dinosaur

Yeah!

Elliot got a cute dinosaur costume for Christmas. All the little girls get to dress up as princesses and play make believe, so with $5 clearance Halloween costumes, I thought Elliot can dress up as a dinosaur and a monkey.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight

We started a tradition of opening two presents on Christmas Eve, a book and pajamas.

Decorating Christmas Cookies

I LOVE sprinkles!!! The more the better, so I will let Elliot decorate my sugar cookies anytime. This was one of my favorite things to do as a kid with my mom and Jennifer and, also with the Lynch's, so I really enjoyed decorating with Elliot this year.

Friday Fun!!!

I needed a few things from Paper Source, so we had a nice morning at Crystal Court. They had the most adorable train ride, that I have ever seen in my life! I swear Elliot is the most serious looking kid at times, but he was having the best time.

I swear, he shows no emotion. My mom says he gets that from me.

And he cracked a smile!
Grandma's favorite store...

And before we headed home, Elliot got to throw pennies in the fountain or mountain as he calls it, and let his sea lion go for a little swim.

Bargains for the Weekend.

The main sale I know of for this weekend is 40% off at The Calico House. But it will probably be crazy there when they open at 10:00. There will be $3.50 a yard fabric and all other fabric is 40% off. I think that notions and kits and everything else are 40% off, also, but I am not positive about that. The above link shows their address, but it is not updated with the new sale info.

The next great sale is at Hanna Anderssen. They have all pajamas for $18, and they are regularly $35-$39.00. They also have some pretty cute sweaters for $19.00.

Macy's sale didn't look as good this weekend as it was last week. But I did see a lot of great extra reductions on all items in a lot of the store fronts in the mall today and yesterday. The only one I actually remember is that Talbot's has an extra 30% off everything.

One more tip, I wanted to share, even though you probably know about them, is the survey calls at the bottom of your receipts. A lot of stores and restaurants have drawings that you are entered into, if you call and do their quick survey about the service, but some of them actually have coupons or free stuff. My favorite is at the bottom of Ruby's receipt. If you do the telephone survey, you get a free milkshake on your next visit, and I think that is a $4.99 value.

Some pictures from Ruby's today...

Doing Honk Honk

99.99 Cent Store...

After hearing about the 99 cent chef who started shopping for groceries at the 99 cent store when he lost his job about a year ago, I was dieing to go and see what treasures I could find. I haven't been to one since before Elliot was born. On Wednesday while Elliot was at Papa's playing, I got to go to the Yorba Linda/Placentia one for about 20 minutes. If you go, make sure you have more than 20 minutes. There is a lot to look at. First I have to mention, that it is no longer the 99 cent store, even though, that is what the sign still says. It is the 99.99 cent store and they round it up to 1.00. It seems kind of like a scam, but I'm not going to stop shopping there, over a penny an item. My favorite find was the gift bags, for 79.99 cents. And they were really cute. My other favorite was the Duncan Hines small cupcake mix. It only makes 12 rather than about 20 from the regular size. I was very happy to find the milk and honey softsoap, because it's my favorite and it is definitely a bargain at 99 cents. The mini palmolive was probably not much of a deal, but I thought it was cute, and the pregnancy test, I picked up, because you never know when you might need one of those, and for 99 cents, that was probably the biggest saving item I bought. Lastly for the rest of the food, I got 8 bananas, nice and fresh crimini mushrooms and some powdered sugar, each for 99 cents. In the produce section, there was some nice looking stuff and some not so nice looking stuff, but I was impressed by the mushrooms. They looked much nicer than the ones I buy at Trader Joes and even cheaper. How could I forget about The Chico and the Man dvd. I honestly don't remember ever watching Chico and The Man, but for 99 cents, I thought I might check it out. Or save it as a special Christmas present.

I tallied up the savings I could find based on prices I found at Albertson's, Von's and Target. Here are the usual prices...

mushrooms- $2.00
softsoap- $2.79
Bananas- 34 cents each
Chico and the Man $1.25- $5.00 (prices new at Amazon)
Sugar- $1.09
Gift Bags from $1.19- 4.99
Generic Pregnancy Test- $6.99 for a generic 2 pack

This all was a savings of about $14.00

Bargain Girl

Or some say the coupon queen. I can give my mom the credit for teaching me about coupons. As a young girl, I used to get drug to the grocery store about once a month to hold and organize the coupons while my mom walked up and down each and every aisle of the supermarket. So, since my mom has retired from the coupon queen post, I will take the crown. I am thinking about starting a bargains blog. But for now I will write about all of the sales and coupons I come across here.

At the moment Macy's has $10, $15, and $25 off coupons with minimum purchases. And they are good until Christmas Eve. There best sales and price usually run Friday and Saturday, but they always seem to have some great sale going on. With the coupons and last weekends sale, I got a $139 Sak purse for $75, a super soft and comfy pair of pajamas regular priced $58 for $21, and a pair of $69 shoes for $33. Just click on coupons above for the link.

The next set of great coupons is at The Disney Store Online. With their sale and the 50% off coupon for luggage, a Cars suitcase that my mom bought for Elliot, for $35 in October, is about $13. And there are princess suitcases, too. Kids love these. They have wheels and they can fill them with all sorts of treasures. They also have some coupons for some toys and for clothes. I found a couple of very pretty little girl dresses for around $8.00. Just click on The Disney Store for the link.

Tomorrow, I will tell you all what I find at the 99 cent store.

Snips and Snails...

...and Puppy Dog Tails. That's what little boys are made of.
Elliot was so fascinated by the worms and algea and seaweed looking stuff that Danny was finding.

Little Dinosaurs

Elliot and Danny playing Dinosaurs on the Bamboo Forest!

More from The Gardens
Caro, Aaron and Danny who was turning 4 the next day!

The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens

We had a wonderful day at the Huntington Botanical Gardens on Thursday, with Carol, Aaron and Danny. And it was free day, which is a great deal, considering the $15 admission rate. It is truly a photographers dream. There were beautiful succulent and cactus gardens, lily ponds, bamboo forests and a Japanese garden, and so much more to see. It would not be an exaggeration to say it was almost as big as Disneyland.

For some reason Elliot was scared to go near the bamboo trees. So we thought we would play a trick on him to get him near them. We told him The Mommy Tyrannosaurus Rex was on the phone telling me her baby was going to come and take Elliot's lollipop, if he didn't go with Danny to hide in the bamboo forest. Well, it totally backfired. He burst into tears, scared to death that there were dinosaurs in the bamboo trees. The only dinosaur in the bamboo was Danny. When you ask Elliot about the gardens, the main point he wil tell you about is the "scary dinosaurs in the baboon forest."

More pictures to come tomorrow. There were so many good ones!

HO, HO, HO, Merry Christmas!!!

Elliot has had Lee and I in stitches all afternoon saying that with his deepest 2 year old voice.

Elliot and I had an interesting experience meeting Santa today. I had a coupon for The Beverly Center, which is about half an hour from our house. We got a pen drive thingy with the image on it, for $25.00 and it came with a $25 gift card for Shutterfly, to print the pictures. Elliot wasn't as scared as I thought he might be, but he refused to look at Santa, and then when we were finished he burst into tears, because he thought Santa would have presents for him. He is very confused by the fact that everybody keeps telling him Santa is coming to town and going to bring him presents on Christmas. But a two year old has no concept of time, and when Christmas is. So Santa may be leaving a gift for him under the tree tomorrow morning. Anyway, the most interesting part of the experience was Santa Claus. The man was so old, I was worried he was going to keel over right there. The helpers practically had to hold him upright, and after every kid finished they had to give him a drink of his Coffee Bean coffee. So here it is. I am just glad the picture is tear free.

I have been wronged...

And I am going to make a formal complaint tomorrow. I went to Macy's tonight to look for shoes and a purse for myself for Christmas. But I forgot my coupons, and they were good. $10 off of $25, and $25 off of $100, so I asked the lady to put the shoes on hold for me until tomorrow morning when I could go back with my coupons. She said oh, I have coupons and tried to get me to accept the $15 off of $100. But I made her search out the $25 off. Then when I handed her my Amex, she said oh, you can only use Macy's credit card with the coupons. So I said whatever and bought one pair of shoes. Well, when I got home, I found my coupons, and guess what, there is no Macy's credit card required. I am really pissed off about it, mainly because she lied to me, so I will complain tomorrow when I go back with my coupons. I don't want to get her fired, I don't wish that upon anyone right now, but she should definitely be reprimanded. Slimy cow.

Crazy Busy Fun Weekend!

It was filled with fun times, but super busy.

Busy times were
-going to Walmart at 6:15 Friday morning.
-taking the cat to the vet and the dog to the dog washer.
-Christmas shopping. I started early and thought I would be finished early. But it doesn't look that way, now.
-just a lot of running around in between the fun stuff.

Fun times were
-Thanksgiving Dinner at Mom and Dad's.
-Playdate with Deanna, Kathleen, and Steph. We always have a great time. It was such a bummer Elliot and I had to rush out, so I could get the cat to the vet.
-Decorating for Christmas.
-Listening to Christmas Carols.
-Spending an evening at the wonderful Rice Family house, eating yummy curry and the most delicious apple pie, playing wii, taking Christmas pictures, and chatting away with Carol.
-Discovering the Lakeshore Learning Outlet Store in Carson.
-Getting some good buys at a garage sale down the street. Elliot hasn't put the shark that we got for 50 cents down since Saturday.

Hailey, Sophia and Sarah playing doctor at our playdate

Elliot playing with a Cinderella toy.

Sophia and Hailey in their matching outfits.

Jonah!

Sarah!