Recently Tryazon sent me three products to host a Cool Maker Girls Spa Night Party. Covid and the County of San Diego regulations threw a wrench in that plan, so instead, I contacted some local mom friends and asked them if they wanted to host their own spa times with their girls. Bitty Bird and I did it yesterday, and we are sharing our kits with our buddies.
We received the following:
It was hard to do all of these activities and take pictures, but I did manage to snag a few:
I am a big fan of homemade gifts. This year the kids and I are making most of the gifts we will be giving, and thankfully, Dollar Tree has all sorts of craft supplies to help us out.
Our local Dollar Tree has a great selection of craft supplies: Wooden cut-outs, acrylic paints, decals, stickers, wreath making supplies, glitter paint, gems, beads, you name it.
This week we have been painting Christmas Tree Ornaments. We’ve got a bunch of acrylic paints in our craft cubby, and I let the kids go wild.
Over the weekend I painted laser-cut pineapples and a laser-cut pineapple light- all from Dollar Tree. As part of our holiday crafting, the kids are I are making a photo frame- We painted it, the next step is to trace and paint their hands on it.
If you are on a budget and wanna get crafty this holiday season either to give as gifts or to decorate your home, check out Dollar Tree either online or in-person (following all social distancing regulations for your area).
I wrote up the meal plan for this week last night and posted it on Instagram, but I was too pooped to sit down last night and write this post.
This weekend was busy (like all weekends):
The past few weeks I’ve been cooking larger batches of recipes, and we’ve been relying a lot on them. This week will be a “refill” week for that. A big batch of meaty red sauce, a few batches of soup made directly to go in the freezer, and I’ll be making some mire poix bags up as well. I’ll be posting on Instagram for sure.
If you have kids between 2-18, check with your local school to see if they are offering free lunches and/or breakfasts. You can also check the USDA Website– but it might be a little out of date.
For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.
I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.
Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2 for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular. recently the Big Kid has been on a protein shake kick in the AM.
Lunches will be whatever the kids want for the time being. The big kid has lunch at school, so it’s whatever he chooses from the lunch box in the cupboard, plus some fruit and juice or milk. Since the little girl is in the morning cohort at school, she has lunch at home. Buttered noodles, yogurt, apple slices, and a popsicle are her go-to lunch.
Usually, I do a crockpot meal on Mondays, but now that we are home all the time, we’ve been having an odd combination of fully home-cooked, scratch meals, and frozen entrees and veggies. I have been posting our meal plans on Instagram too- As well as pics of stuff we are doing to keep busy.
Please stay safe you guys! The sooner we flatten the curve, the sooner life can go back to normal- whatever that means.
Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?
I’ve been trying to meal plan on Sundays, but this weekend got away from me. It was raining, so we spent a lot of time playing indoors: Playmobils, Legos, drawing and doing crafts. Not a lot of time to sit down at in front of the computer.
The past few weeks I’ve been cooking larger batches of recipes, so this week we’re pulling out a batch of Salsa chicken from the freezer. I found a batch of veggie red sauce in the freezer too. I’m hoping to put together some soups this week for lunches and stash some in the freezer. I love making soup- It’s easy and frugal. and sooo tasty.
If you have kids between 2-18, check with your local school to see if they are offering free lunches and/or breakfasts. You can also check the USDA Website– but it might be a little out of date.
For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.
I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.
Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2 for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix). I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular. recently the Big Kid has been on a protein shake kick in the AM.
Lunches will be whatever the kids want for the time being. The big kid has lunch at school, so it’s whatever he chooses from the lunch box in the cupboard, plus some fruit and juice or milk. Since the little girl is in the morning cohort at school, she has lunch at home. Buttered noodles, yogurt, apple slices, and a popsicle are her go-to lunch.
Usually, I do a crockpot meal on Mondays, but now that we are home all the time, we’ve been having an odd combination of fully home-cooked, scratch meals, and frozen entrees and veggies. I have been posting our meal plans on Instagram too- As well as pics of stuff we are doing to keep busy.
Please stay safe you guys! The sooner we flatten the curve, the sooner life can go back to normal- whatever that means.
Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?
2020 has been, quite frankly, a kick to the balls for so many of us. I’m posting holiday resources now, and I’ll be updating with as many other resources as I find them to help y’all out.
With all of the CDC recommended safety measures and well as local and state regulations to help limit the further spread of COVID-19, many of the programs that I have written about in past years have been changed or altogether eliminated.
If any of these programs look like a good fit for your family, I urge you to apply ASAP. There is a greater need for assistance this year, and many of these programs are spread thin.
The holidays are more than food and gifts, but no one should go hungry any time of year!
Here is my post with a list of food banks/pantries in San Diego. Many of the food pantries also have special holiday distributions, it is worth a call to find out if any additional food or gift distributions will be done.
A Facebook friend posted this link a few weeks ago, Operation Santa 2020 is a group I am not entirely familiar with, but it looks like they will be helping out some families this holiday season. Nominations for Operation Santa 2020 close on 11/6/2020 (that’s this Friday), and there are two requirements:
If you live in Santee and need help with food and gifts for the holiday, contact Santee Santas. You can download and print forms, check into eligibility (it is income-based and they are very strict from what I’ve been told), and see what forms you need in addition to the application here.
The dates for turning in completed applications starts this week (Tomorrow to be exact). You can find specific information here.
Toys 4 Joy has served San Diego County families for over 20 years. Because of COVID-19, they are unable to host their amazing events. One of their main sponsors is The Rock Church. I would recommend contacting The Rock Church to see if any of their locations will be hosting a toy or food giveaway for the holidays.
The Salvation Army also has programs to help families during the Christmas Season. You can find out more here.
Toys For Tots is also a resource for holiday gifts for kids.
211 San Diego also has a lot of great resources. If you are outside San Diego County, check 211 in your area!
If you know of any other holiday events or programs that can help those in need, please post links in the comments!
Talk Back: What is your favorite way to help others?
This Friday’s freebies and deals have some awesome goodies! It’s Halloween weekend, so get ready for all sorts of spooky freebies and deals!
As always, if you find an amazing deal or freebie, please share it in the comments below.
Freebies:
Free Boo Adventure Drive-Thru Trick-or-Treating at Target
Free Keds Stickers
Free Face Mask
Free Medela Breastfeeding Product Sample Box
Free K-Beauty Products
Free Hot or Iced Coffee at Circle K
Free Sample of Yes Life CBD Oil & Hemp CBD Pain Relief Cream
Free Products for SwagBag Tastemakers
Free Medium Fries w/ Any $1 Purchase at McDonalds – Every Friday
Free 5pc. Chicken Nuggets at Jack in the Box
Free Genexa Kids Allergy Medicine
Free Sample of Daiwa Krill Oil
Free Phocus Naturally Energizing Sparkling Water
Free Sample of Smashbox Primer
Free Jar of Barilla Vero Gusto Pasta Sauce
Free Burger on Your Birthday at Ruby Tuesday
Deals:
The folks over at San Diego Moms aren’t letting a little social distancing get in the way of helping education new and expecting moms!
Their conference called Bloom is going virtual, and it’s free to attend! There will be a grip of great speakers- Doctors, Dentists, lactation consultants, and more!
Our family tends to give a few meaningful gifts each holiday. One gift my kids always look forward to is a new, warm, snuggly blanket.
I found a company called My Comfy Critter and it has all of the things that kids want in a blanket: it’s big enough to wrap around them, a hood to cuddle in, and their favorite cartoon characters (Paw Patrol and PJ Masks) or animals (oh hello Speedy the Sloth!).
Each blanket features:
Not only are these great gifts that kids will cuddle with for years, but they are a great buy at less than $30 each!
Halloween is looking a lot different this year, with social distancing, and a lot of places still having quarantine/limited contact with others.
We usually do a lot of Halloween events. We usually go to Brick or treat at Legoland, and we usually go to a pumpkin patch and several Halloween carnival the week of Halloween.
Unfortunately, a lot of the events we go to aren’t happening this year. Instead, a lot of the groups/organizations that put together carnivals and fun events have instead opted to switch to contact list or drive-through trunk or treat/trick-or-treat events. We haven’t gone to any yet, so I’m not really sure how it’s gonna work but will be going to a bunch this week and weekend. We skipped one that was taking place last Saturday because we did not have our costumes prepared.
Here is a small list of trunk or treat/drive-through events that I have found after a quick search on Facebook. If you have any other events that you would like to add, please leave a comment below with a link to the event page. I love Halloween, as do my kids. Any excuse to dress up, and I know there are so many people out there that look forward to Halloween every year.
10/30/2020
10/31/2020
November 1st
I’m a little late to the game- I usually post about this deal a few weeks beforehand, but… Gestures at the state of the world… You know.
Celebrate Halloween With a Freaky Freebie From IHOP®!
Happy Halloween from IHOP®! Treat yourself to some seasonal stacks & treat the kids to a FREE Mr. Mummy Pancake when you visit your local IHOP® from October 26-30.
The kids and I are going to pass this year. They don’t like frosting on their pancakes, and the big one doesn’t like their butter (it’s really hard and it doesn’t melt on the pancakes, it tears the pancakes when you try to spread it). I don’t like IHOP’s coffee. I know, I know… We are Denny’s snobs.
The Fine Print: For dine-in orders, kids age 12 & under receive one free Mr. Mummy Pancake between 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. from 10/26/2020 – 10/30/2020 at participating IHOP® locations. Limit one per child. For online orders via the IHOP® website or mobile app of $20 or more, receive one free Mr. Mummy pancake per order. Tax, gratuity and price of Mr. Mummy Pancake excluded. Not valid with other offers, coupons or discounts. No cash value. Offer valid from 10/26/20 to 10/30/2020. At participating restaurants. Further restrictions may apply.
Hewes Family Fun 