June 30, 2011

A Bunch of Great Kid Freebies

Here are a few good freebies for your lapel. I've found my children really love these for rewards. They're cute on a backpack or fun on a jacket--AND they're FREE.
  • Free Choose You blue flower pin.
  • Free red dress pin from Go Red.
  • Your kids can get a Planet Protector badge, along with some other cool stuff, from the EPA.
  • Here's a free online chore chart to try out. 
  • This kit should help keep your kids safe this summer while you're out and about.
Stay tuned for more great freebies and deals.

FREE Quest Bars

This one looks like it will get you two free Quest bars.

FREE Reading Program for 4-7

This looks like an interesting program, teaching reading skills to children aged 4-7. I've just registered and haven't had much chance to look around, but it's free, so worth a try.  Click HERE for Kabongo.

June 29, 2011

$2 in FREE Amazon MP3 Downloads

Amazon has a code to get $2 in free MP3 downloads.  You can use code CLOUDMP3 through June 30--that's tomorrow, people!  Enter your code HERE and get shopping.

Here's the list of $5 whole album downloads for the month. These deals also end tomorrow.

Wednesday Wanderings -- Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge

I am featuring some of the best places to go in and around Central Iowa.  If you want more information about a particular place, you can contact me through the comments here and place a request.  If you have more information to share about a particular place, let me know and I will get it added.  Look for a new post every Wednesday, unless I get too busy or forget.  

Check the "wandering" tab for more of the posts in this series, or the SSSS tab for more ideas for entertaining the short people in your home. 

This is a favorite, but might be more of a weekend wandering. For us, it's about an hour drive, which goes a little beyond my typical wandering.  We will go for a whole day trip, because there is a lot to do.

Here are just a few great things you can do. 


There are two walking trails that take you through the reconstructed tall grass prairie and give you ample opportunities to spot native wildflowers and animals.  Our favorite is the two mile Tallgrass Trail.  On our most recent trip, we saw many different types of birds, a white tailed deer, a snake, a ground squirrel, and a bunny.  That was with two really loud little girls who ran ahead and screamed back.  Just think if you went with quiet people. 


 


Along the trail are some opportunities for education.  They show the different prints made by different animals, and the kids enjoyed looking at these, then trying to remember so they could compare the painted prints to the real prints that we saw along the way.




After the walking tour, we went on the auto tour.  You can occasionally see the bison while walking along the Tallgrass Trail, but you'll definitely see the bison and elk when you do the driving tour. 


Our 4 year old called them "spicins" last year, but has sadly corrected her language now. 

The other aspect, and probably one of the best, is the prairie learning center.  A huge indoor facility filled with lots of interactive displays, this is well worth the price of admission (it's FREE, so that's a little joke.)  We were off to a late start on this most recent trip, so we found the center already closed.  We're up for several trips a year, so we'll catch it the next time.


The park itself is open seven days a week, from dawn till dusk.  If you want to visit the learning center, you can do that Monday through Saturday between 9 am and 4 pm, Sunday from 12-5 pm.  As mentioned above, admission is always free.

FREE Sample of Miralax

Click here to get your free sample of Miralax.

MAYBE this will get you juice...

So, Vocalpoint sent me a link to post for Motts for Tots. It looks like it will get you GREAT savings and a free sample. Please comment and let me know what happens.

And here's a fancy picture.

June 28, 2011

Amazon's Newest Clothing Site + $10 off

This looks interesting. It's through Amazon, but it looks like a lot of the invite-only shopping sites. They will offer super discounts on certain brands for a few days, then move to the next big sale. As an incentive to get people shopping, Amazon is offering a special coupon!

$10 off Promotion Code: through September 1, customers can save $10 on their order by entering the code MYHABITX at checkout.

Check out the deals by clicking this link.  I don't see anything about needing an invitation to this one.  I'm also adding a little scrolly box so you can see the new deals each day. 

Great Deal on Toshiba Laptop!

Here is a great deal if you're shopping for a new laptop. Amazon has a Toshiba laptop for only $391. It's not a huge gaming machine, but it's got decent specs. If you purchase this laptop before July 4th, you'll also get a $50 Amazon gift card at the same time. (Click where it says "add both to cart")



AND, if you buy it before June 30, you'll also get $25 in Amazon MP3 credits. Best part? No tax and free shipping. Your total is still under $400, but with $75 in extra money back.

Reading Freebies

How about a few good freebies to read?
Enjoy!

FREE American Girl Dress Pattern

We have some American Girl dolls in our house, and I also have a child who has been begging me to sew dresses for every stuffed animal she owns. With this free pattern, I guess I now have no excuse. It looks like a nice easy pattern, so give it a try. It could be just the right rainy day activity.

June 27, 2011

Babylegs SALE!

This is an awesome deal if you're a fan of the legs. We love Babylegs here, not only as leg warmers, but for arms. They also have a lot of socks and tights included. In this deal, you buy $75 worth of items, then use code BL7575 to get 75% off.

Seems like a lot to spend on socks and tights, but that brings you down to under $20 once the discount is taken.

FREE Christian Book

This looks like it might be an interesting book. If not, well...you didn't pay for it, right? Click here to get a free copy of Slumdog No More.

Need a free new testament Bible?  I posted this one earlier, but just received mine last week.  It's a very nice little purse-sized Bible, and a great freebie.

June 26, 2011

Pfaltzgraff $1 Sale

This looks like a potential for some great deals, if you need anything for the kitchen.  Pfaltzgraff is having a $1, $5 and $10 sale, with some huge markdowns.  Here's the link to the $1 page and the entire Dollar Days sale page, and I already see some really nice coffee mugs for $1, marked down from $6.

They have $7.95 flat rate shipping, or free when you spend over $99.  You can also get a 15% discount for signing up for their email list.   You can try codes TAKE15ALL for 15% off or WELCOMEBACK20 for 20% off.

FREE Dave Matthews Band Downloads

This looks like a good freebie if you're a DMB fan, or even if you just like free music. This Caravan download freebie has seven free songs, is good through October, and it looks like there will be more later. The best thing about download freebies is that they rarely go out of stock. :D

While you're looking there, you can also check out my monthly free Amazon download posts for more free stuff.

June 25, 2011

FREE Bag and 15% off at Staples

Get yourself out, though, because this one is for today only. It's a free reusable bag, but it also gets you 15% off whatever you put inside it except their exceptions list.

FREE Meal at IKEA for College Students

You'll need to bring this and your student ID, but this should help out the starving students among us. It's good through July 2.  I had no idea that IKEA served meals.  Now I've learned something new.

Bad Blogger

I apologize for the lack of posting lately. With two children to entertain, my free time becomes much more limited. I promise to try to bring a few more posts in over the weekend and keep up a little better.

If you're dying for something to do, remember the blog calendar with free fun activities.

or check out my summer sanity savers

or maybe you just want to get some freebies.  A lot of the old freebies are still available or have come back into stock.  If you missed them the first time, it's worth a shot to try again.

With all of those, make sure to click "READ OLDER" to see more posts in the same topic. 

June 18, 2011

Shaking Homemade Ice Cream

Here's one of my favorite combinations--snack and activity.  It's cheap and easy to make, and it's kind of fun.

Ziploc Bag Ice Cream

Mix these three ingredients and place them in a quart sized storage bag.
  • 1/2 C. milk or half and half (I used skim because it's what I had on hand.  Half and half is my preference because it's creamier.)
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla



Fill a gallon sized storage bag about half full with ice, then add around 1/3-1/2 cup of rock salt.


Drop the quart sized bag into the gallon sized bag.  You can put two in if you need to make a few servings of ice cream.


Then SHAKE!  It takes about 5-10 minutes, depending on how good your shaker is.




And enjoy!  It's a great fun activity on a hot day, and the shaking will wear the kids out.

June 15, 2011

Wednesday Wanderings -- Robison Acres

There's a lesser known wildlife area between Nevada and Cambridge called Robison Wildlife Acres.  It is small but very beautiful.  It might not be as well-known, but that allows it to be a nice quiet place to enjoy nature.  There's a pond and quite a few trails leading through a wooded area with lots and lots of wildflowers.  They do have port-a-potties and a few picnic tables with grills.

June 13, 2011

FREE Pearls from Amazon

This seems like a really nice offer! Amazon has a promotion where you'll get a free pair of pearl earrings with a purchase of certain pearl jewelry. Most of the ones you need to buy are a little higher priced, but here are a few that are under $50.



Some bracelets:


Here's the link to all the jewelry included in the promotion.

And here are the free earrings.

June 10, 2011

Amazon Friday Sale, 6/10

The Friday Sale is a bonanza for anyone needing baby and toddler foods. Remember that most of these things will extend the length of your Amazon Mom Prime account, though they are no longer sending subscribe and save items the fastest way.  Don't have Amazon Mom?  Be sure to read the link to check out all the benefits.

There are TONS of Gerber Graduates products on sale. As always, there's the extra 15% off with Subscribe and Save, and 15% off with code GERBR434 at checkout.  Most of these are 6 of whichever canister it is for under $10, which brings them about $1.40 a package.  I haven't bought veggie puffs for a while, but they were close to $3 a jar then.  You can just click on one of the pictures to see more.



By the way, I am trying to work on the look of the posts.  As a reader, do you prefer the picture alone like above, or the picture with the price like below?    I think the picture only looks a lot nicer, but it's sometimes nice to get the price in with it.

The other items that are good deals in the Friday sale today are Earth's Best Organic smoothies.  They say for toddlers, but my older kids like them for an occasional on the go treat. These come down to around $1 per package when you use code EBSMOTH3 and S&S, not bad for an organic treat.



Can't get enough of the healthy treats?  Plum Organics also are represented in the Friday Sale today.  Even organic, these containers come out to around $2 a can.  Not bad.  Use code PLUMPUF2 for the additional savings.



There are also some coffees in the Friday sale. Check out the whole sale HERE.