Back to School $25 Kroger Giftcard Giveaway

Can you believe it's that time already?? Around here, we have less than two weeks before school is in session. My oldest is starting kindergarten and I've got a huge case of the school jitters...and I'm not even the one starting school! Anyway, we've been doing some back to school shopping here and there. I've found that history definitely repeats itself. Cade, faced with a zillion cool backpacks to choose from, chooses a Super Mario Brothers backpack. He's all about Mario these days. He even told me he will name one of his ten (yes, TEN) kids Mario. I have to giggle.

I digress...

Coming up on August 8th through August 21st, Kroger stores (Fry's around here) will be having an "Add Up the Savings" Event where you can stock up on all your favorite General Mills and Kimberly Clark items. (If you're anything like me, you need to know that those items include brands like: Cheerios, Huggies, Yoplait Yogurt, Pillsbury cookies and biscuits, Kleenex, Betty Crocker brownies, Cottonelle and Lucky Charms.) When you buy 8 of the participating items you'll receive $4 off. All you couponers, get your coupons ready!

On top of that, be sure to take advantage of the special Bonus Box Tops offer. All you have to do, if you haven't already, is sign up at www.rewardyourschool.com. Once you register, you automatically get 5 bonus box tops. You will also receive custom offers for box tops for buying participating items. These offers are:

* Buy any 4 Box Tops items and get 10 Bonus Box Tops

* Buy any 8 Box Tops items and get 25 Bonus Box Tops

The offers you select are loaded directly onto your Kroger Shopping Card to be redeemed once you purchase the item. They go directly to the school of your choice, so you don't have to clip and save anything. I like that feature because I can't pretty much assure you they would never get to the school.

Okay, still with me? Now is the fun part: the $25 Kroger gift card giveaway! To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment. Any old comment. Need ideas? How are you feeling about school starting? Happy? Sad? A little of both? What do you do to prepare? How do you deal with the Mommy school jitters? What do you do with all your "free time" once the kids are in school? (Funny, huh? I've gotten that question a few times.)

You have until Thursday, August 5th, 11:59pm to enter. Good luck! I look forward to checking out all the back to school blogging that will take place. :)

** General Mills, Kimberly Clark and Kroger Foods provided the giveaway gift card through MyBlogSpark.

Camping 2010

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. This summer has been busy! Kevin and I have been working a lot more this summer, so it's been crazy. We decided we wanted to get out of town for a weekend so last weekend we went on a campout with my brother and sister and their families. It was so fun! We haven't been camping since Cade was a baby, and it had been too long. We threw this little camping trip together last minute. We went up to Canyon Creek where we used to camp as kids. It was perfect. There weren't a lot of other campers and the weather was great. Here are some pics of the fun:

The McMillans

The Haws's

The Webbs

All the Webb cousins

Playing at the creek

Cade

Kevin and Gavin

Gavin on the swing

Cade on the swing

Myla on the swing

I have so many other pictures, but it takes so long to upload these days. Maybe I'll get around to uploading more soon.

I learned a few things this camping trip:

* Pack double the clothes for the kids you think you'll need.

* Don't make your daughter go to the bathroom behind a tree instead of the outhouse in the middle of the night when she has never done it before...even if there is a random bear roaming the woods. She'll inevitably get her pjs totally wet. That is where packing double the clothes for the kids comes in.

* I really don't like sleeping in a sleeping bag. Claustrophic feeling. I do really like sleeping on top of one though.

* A little rain is heavenly. A lot of rain, combined with windshield wipers that bust in the middle of the storm while driving down the winding highway, can be almost disastrous.

* Just when you think you can't get any dirtier, you can.

* Just when you think you can't have more fun, you can.

* Just when you think you can't love your family any more, you can.

* Just when you think you can't be attacked by any more gigantic beatles while trying to play games at night, you so can!

* Just when you think you can't possibly laugh any more, you can.