Events around town this weekend

This weekend is full of fun free events!!

One of our never miss events- the second Saturday of the month Lowe's Build and Grow! It fills up fast, but there could be walk in spots available after 10:15. http://m.lowesbuildandgrow.com/upcoming-clinics.aspx

St Cloud Life Community & Business Extravaganza is a HUGE community event in downtown St Cloud on Saturday from 10-4. Notable things going on- Home Depot Kids Workshop, food trucks, Wing Wars, sidewalk chalk drawings, live entertainment, classic cars, and more! 

http://www.stcloudflchamber.com

Community Appreciation Day & Open House at the Osceola Countu Sheriff's Office, on Saturday from 10-2. Meet Sheriff Hansell, meet the Deputies, learn what the office does, check out their vehicles up close & personal (without having to be in trouble!) Learn about various groups in your community! Lots of fun for the kids too, face painting, bounce houses and more! 

https://www.facebook.com/events/386106304892656/

Leu Gardens is having their Plant Sale this weekend, Saturday AND Sunday from 9-5. Admission is free for both the sale and the beautiful gardens for the event! They will have experts on hand to help you pick the perfect plants for your landscape! Mark sure to bring a wagon or a cart to haul around your great plant finds! 

http://www.leugardens.org/plant-sale-weekend-march-14th-15th/ 

Couponing!

Now I'm not claiming to be an expert, and by no means am I an extreme couponer, but I do manage to save 30-50% off my grocery bills consistently; and sometimes way more if I'm lucky! I'm in Florida and we don't do any of the double/triple coupons, so it's not as high as you can get in some places. I do most of my shopping at Publix (regional grocery store), Target, Walmart and CVS. All of them take manufacturer's coupons in addition to having store coupons. I love being able to stack both a manufacturer's coupon with a store coupon, (and even better with a sale on top of that!) that's where I get a lot of my savings! Couponing isn't a quick activity, but after a few weeks, you'll get the hang of it and I can promise you the extra time is definitely worth it with the money you'll save!

My first step is checking out the blogs, facebook groups, and Instagram. These lovely people do a TON of the hard work for you. They get the ads, go through the coupons and list the great match ups.
Then I go through my coupons and work on what my good deals would be. A lot of people will buy a ton of papers to get the coupons, but we only have 3 people in the house, I don't need a grocery/drug store in my garage.  I also go through all my rebate apps to make an even larger discount!

What are some of your favorite ways to save money while you're shopping?

CVS- only paid $0.76 for everything pictured. 

Target- 13 books for Cole, only $4.15! 

Walmart - spent $16.89 saved $17.50. (3 items were money makers!)

Recent savings at Publix. 

FrostyVoxBox from Influenster

I received an awesome box of goodies from Influenster for testing and review purposes! (If you want to be able to do this too, let me know and I can send you an invite!)

Fruit Vines Bites- I got strawberry, and we really liked them! (By we I mean my 2 year old helped eat them! "Can I have another one? Ohh yummy!") they are just the right size for a quick little snack. 

McCormick Gourmet Thyme- my husban loves to cook so he was excited about this one! Thyme has so many great uses, I'm sure it won't take long for the bottle to be empty! 

Rimmel London - Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner & Gentel Eye Makeup Remover - I'm not a big makeup wearer, but I just love Rimmel London products! These stood up to my expectations! The makeup remover was gentle and not oily like so many I have tried. The eyeliner was easy to use and forgiving when mistakes were made. It also looked awesome! 

EcoTools Hair Brush- the only product I didn't like :( my hair is crazy thick so finding the right brush is hard. It usually made the top layer of hair look great- shine (in a good way), smooth, and nice. When it didn't work, it made my hair static-y and stick out. It never touched the lower levels of my hair, the bristles moved out of the way. 

Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Decaf Green Tea- this is a house of tea lovers, it was hard to keep it for mysel to be able to review. Normally I'm not a peppermint/candy cane person, however, I love it in this tea. We are already huge fans of it before it showed up in my voxbox. We always make sure to stock up during the holidays since it's hard to find year round. 

NYC Expert Last Lip Color in Sugar Plum- again, not a huge make up person, but NYC has some amazing colors & Sugar Plum is no exception! It's a nice shade without being crazy. I love how their lipstick is smooth, and lasts a long time!

No7 Protect & Perfect Intense ADVANCED Serum - nice moisturizer, would love to see what a sized package could do! "80% of women said this serum provided the best anti-agent results they have ever seen." 

SpongeBob SquarePants Event!

Just in time for the SpongeBob Movie Sponge out of Water!! 

are you ready, kids?

Join Us for a spongetastic event Saturday, Feb. 7 from 12pm-2pm at ALL Toys“R”Us stores!*

Use your superpower strength to build and catapult jellyfish with the Mega Bloks SpongeBob SquarePants Jellyfish Launcher! You can even take it home along with a FREE Mega Bloks SpongeBob SquarePants figure!

Visit the Toys r Us website for more details! http://m.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=4311963

Sea World's Christmas Celebration

It's Christmas time again!! Sea World has brought back their Christmas Celebration and it bigger and better than ever! New Shows, decorations, and Atmosphere Entertainment have been added to this year's festivities! As always, these events are included in your regular park admission!

Our first stop was Elmo's Christmas Wish - Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Zoe, Rosita all make their Christmas wishes! There is tons of singing and dancing as the friends all make their wishes for Christmas and help Elmo make his wish. This is a must do for the little ones! Little Man was very excited to see his favorites on stage! He also loved the bubbles and "snow" coming down from the ceiling! 

After we left the show, we headed to the waterfront to see the Sea of Trees. Crazy!! SO MANY TREES, over 100 of them! They were everywhere; and the colors and music were so festive. I absolutely loved seeing all the dancing images on the trees: candy canes, Frosty the Snowman, gingerbread men and more. It was 10 minutes of magic!  

After the Sea of Trees we headed over to O Wondrous Night, the Greatest Story Never Told. We were greeted to a friendly guitar playing singing Christmas songs! What an amazing show! It's the Christmas Story in a way you've never heard before- through the eyes of the animals! The show is filled with wonderful performers, singing traditional Christmas songs, fun puppetry and an actual living nativity! We loved the performance (little man did get kind of antsy, it's a 30 min show)! Little man's favorite part was when all the live animals started coming out! 

We wen to see Shamu's Christmas Miracles next. They had a saxophone player for a preshow. I always love the night time Shamu shows! This one was no exception! They whales performed between videos of people telling about their miracles. They had a heart touching video of the first Baby Shamu! We had a few moments where the whales didn't want to perform, but that happens. We definitely want to come back and see it again! 

We ended the night with Winter Wonderland on Ice. We found out earlier in the day that they are skating on real ice, not a synthetic surface. Such a festive ice skating show! Fantastic skaters and some of my favorite Christmas songs, and a new fun one for us "Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate!" My favorite part was when Pete and Penny Penguin came out to ice skate!! We loved how the fountains and the trees danced to the music too, it was very immersive.

Immediately after the show is Holiday Reflections: Fireworks & Fountain Finale. If you are already there for Winter Wonderland on Ice you don't need to move, you have a great spot for this finale! 

The only things we missed out on was Polar Express, the snow flurries on the waterfront and meeting Santa Shamu! We will definitely be back to see them!