Christmas Traditions: Having Their Own Tree

One of our new Christmas traditions is allowing the kids to have a Christmas tree in their room. Two years ago, we got them on clearance after Christmas. They are 3 feet tall. We bought them their own ornaments and allow them to use some of the family ornaments. They love decorating and redecorating them. Our daughter takes the ornaments back and forth from the living room... it is so sweet. We do have ornaments that are durable and can be moved. We would not do this with anything breakable or sentimental. Mostly, they are Disney ornaments and non breakable balls. The best part is that they love having their own tree and they love getting to decorate! It gets us all in the spirit!

Santa's Nice List Video

Disney Family has this great FREE video that is personalized for your child to see if they are on the "NICE" list. You upload the picture and the name and it plays back with Santa checking his list twice! Make you own video here. My children were amazed and relieved they were on list! What a tool to keep them in line!

Start Christmas Cards Early

I just ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly. I am a little early, but so much better than being late. I will be able to mail them right after Thanksgiving. Plus Shutterfly has free shipping (code ship25) right now which saved me $6.99 on 50 photo cards. And they have the best selection of cards for around $.55 each, with up to 9 photos (I did three photos on mine). Check it out! (No affiliate here, just great info!). I will scan the card when I receive it.

Here is one of the Christmas photos I used. You can see some more on my Mom Blog. Aren't they just so cute???

Making Halloween Costumes

I actually made my kid's costumes this year! I am quiet proud!


My little girl has never worn the costumes we have purchased, so my plan this year was to make her costume more like clothes than a costume. She wanted to be a tiger, so I purchased the ears and tail and made the rest. Using a pair of her brothers old black jeans, I sewed some marabou to the bottoms to make them girly. Then I used an orange t-shirt, cut slates in it to resemble tiger stripes, sewed marabou onto the bottom, and put a black shirt on underneath. She looked pretty cute!

For my son, he wanted to be Curious George. I dyed some old pants and a new white shirt brown and found a great brown ski cap at Walmart that had a bill. With some felt and glue, he had a great Curious George face. We added in a balloon at the last minute and Dad went as The Man With the Yellow Hat. Too cute!

Making the Curious George costume and using a t-shirt to make the tiger costume made these pretty low fuss costumes. And it was nice to have something original. I will do it again next year.

Ultimate Money Saving Tip

Joining Vicki in her Frugal Friday tips, I decided to post a tip just for preschool parents as well as my tip for anyone wanting to save money on my other blog.

For parents of young children, the smallest things can add up... clothes for the cooler weather, birthday parties, doctor's visits, etc., all add up to unexpected purchases. For a family with preschoolers, you have got to plan ahead in order to not get bogged down with these cost.

One thing is to shop ahead. At the end of the season, buy clothes in the next size up. While some children may growth spurt or not grow much, you can almost bet than most children will be one size larger by the next year (not exactly a science, especially for babies). Try to buy the things that are not as necessary to be in exact sizes- sweat shirts, coats, long sleeve shirts for winter- bathing suits, shorts, and T-shirts for summer. Try to store them where you will not forget them for the next year. At least you will be a little ahead on those new purchases.

You should also shop ahead for gifts. When I find books, toys, crafts, and other great birthday gifts on sale or clearanced, I go ahead and buy them and make a space in the closet with the items. When a party comes around, I do not have to run out and buy a gift, but I choose from those things purchased earlier at great savings. This saves the hassle of shopping the day of the party too. Try to buy gifts that are suitable for boys and girls so you can be ready for any party. This is a great idea for Christmas gifts too.

For unexpected illness (and what illness is not unexpected), cut coupons for over the counter medicines you may need in the future. When the time comes, you can buy what you need, and have a little savings. Shopping at drugstores like CVS also give you reward bucks for all purchases and prescriptions. They can be used later for purchases and also special sales they have (toilet paper is a great item to use the reward bucks, coupons, and their sale price to get a really good deal!).

Planning ahead for those events you know are going to happen is a great way to save money. Impulse shopping tends to be more expensive than shopping when you can stop and think or shop around for the best deal.

Great Preschool Website

My kindergarten son came home asking for Starfall.com. We found it online and instantly notice it was a quality site with great activities for a pre-reader/ emergent reader. And while that was exciting, my 3 year old preschooler is learning buckets of information! She is learning her letter sounds and some beginning word sounds. It has some great books that read to the children, along with lots more. And my 3 year old can navigate it herself! WOW!

Check out that site for your preschooler.

The 201st Post, A Bit Delayed: Meals Matter

I was so excited about my 200th post, and then I slacked off for a few weeks. It has been an adjustment to teaching all day, coming home and doing home stuff, and making dinner (the most dreaded of evening activities). I did find a great meal planner website that is perfect for moms of all ages and stages, Meals Matter.org. It is free and has lots of recipes to include in your weekly meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with things you can request or exclude. It was a little tricky to figure out some of the functions, but worth the time and effort. They even print a shopping list.

The only negative is that you cannot print a list of recipes, but have to print each individually. So take you time with that one!

And you know eating with your children is so important at any age. Making meals at home is not the most fun job, but worth the time when you sit down for that homemade food.

Hope you enjoy!

Plus, I am saving money by planning ahead and NOT EATING OUT!