Birthday Haul (Free Stuff)

On my birthday I usually go to Starbucks and get my free drink and sometimes I'll go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream and occasionally I'll go to Red Robin to get my free birthday burger, but this year I decided to go all out and take advantage of all the offers that came in my email. I mean, who am I to refuse a free gift.

New to me this year was the realization that not only can you get free food on your birthday, but you can also get free makeup. I lament all the lost years when I didn't know this existed. I signed up for the Sephora rewards program when I was in Los Angeles and bingo, now I'm a "beauty insider". Sephora's 2015 birthday gift to all beauty insiders is a deluxe sample duo of Nars lip pencils. Thankfully we have a Sephora inside of JCPenny so I was able to redeem my coupon in town, but otherwise you can still redeem them online at Sephora.com.

And at Ulta, a similar story. I'm signed up for their reward point system, so they sent me a coupon for a free birthday gift. Ulta changes their gift about every three months, so the gift for July, August, and September birthdays is a deluxe sample (worth $8) of Urban Decay mascara.

My gift from Birchbox was a $10 credit to use in their store and when I combined that with the $30 credit I already had in my account, I was able to get some Laura Geller makeup for a smashing deal. I got the Wearable Color Story eye shadow palette for $12 (retail $42) and a lip crayon for $6 (retail $16). Score!

Dairy Queen gives a BOGO blizzard coupon as a birthday gift, so I got a Strawberry Cheesequake blizzard for myself and the Rolo blizzard of the month for the boys to share.

Westside Pizza is a new pizza chain that opened up earlier this year and they sent me a coupon for a free medium pizza. The only stipulations of the coupon is that it has to be used within 2 days of your birthday, so I went in and got my free pizza the day before my birthday.

On my birthday I went to Red Robin and get my free burger. Rick had to work, but he joined me and the boys there for dinner. And before you start thinking that I'm always going to Red Robin on my birthday, this is actually the first time in 5 years that I've redeemed my birthday burger.

Starbucks lets you get any one drink or food item for free with your registered card, so this year I got a coconut milk iced latte. I almost never get iced drinks, but it's over 100 degrees here, so...

Dickey's BBQ is another chain that opened up earlier this year and they sent me a coupon for a free Big Barbecue sandwich ($6.50 value). I took the boys for lunch today and let me tell you what, that thing was huge! I ended up pulling some of the meat out and ditching part of the bun and still, I wasn't able to eat anything else the rest of the day. So. Much. Meat.

And finally, you know me. For my free scoop at Baskin Robbins I always get coffee or cheesecake ice cream.

July Favorites

Here are some of my favorite Instagram and Project Life photos for the month of July.

Kyle during his last week of swim lessons. He did such a good job, I can't wait until he can do it again next summer.

Story time sandwich. Mom. Book. Carmelita. Tyler.

 

On an evening walk with the boys.

Another evening walk, but I was the only one actually walking. Kyle likes to take his tricycle and Tyler likes to take his scooter and leave me in the dust.

We went to the middle school library to look for books and leave it to Tyler to spend the entire time playing with a Minecraft Lego set rather than look for books.

Kyle cashed in his tickets at the fun center on his birthday and got this knock off slip and slide. And with temperatures over 100 degrees all week long, it's getting lots of use.
 

Hiding in the ball pit at the Kids' Castle.

Handsome boys.

Tyler is kind of big for sitting in shopping baskets, but at Costco the carts are jumbo size and he likes to climb in and read while we shop.

Speaking of reading, here are my books for the month. The Girl on the Train was not as good as all the hype.  And Splendors and Glooms, an Inklings summer pick that I'm reading to Tyler is the worst. Ugh!

Where's Waldo 2015: Part 3

With one day to spare, we visited the last few Waldo locations and completed our passports.

The farmer's market is a new location on the passport this year and also the dumbest. It's only open for a few hours on Sunday mornings so the opportunity of going there is much less than for the other locations. And the worst part is that they apparently didn't get their Waldo and so they had nothing hidden. We walked around and around, finally asked at the booth and the lady said oh I'm Waldo, here let me sign your passport.

Patina was also a new location this year, a used clothing store in the downtown area. We found Waldo hiding on a lamp near the register.

 

At Encore Books Kyle was so busy playing with the mega bloks that he didn't notice Waldo on the shelf right behind him.

In the Yakima Valley Museum gift shop, Kyle was surprisingly the first one to spot Waldo.

At the Kids' Castle, Tyler found Waldo in a place I never would've looked. I always seem to miss the ones hidden up high.

Same story at the Family Fun Center. I wasn't looking high enough so Tyler found him first.

At The Big Red Barn/Barret Orchards Waldo blended in with all the other red and white things on display.

At Revolution Cycles, Waldo was hiding near all the protein bars. When we went up to the counter to get the passports signed, the man asked, "So where did you find Waldo"? Kyle responded, "He was next to something". And the man goes, " Yes! That's exactly right! And whenever people come in, I always tell them he's right next to something....you can't miss him".

All done!

Fountain Park and Scenic Train Ride

Harborside Fountain Park

On our way out of Bremerton, we stopped to see the Fountain Park, which is more like a plaza than a park. Still it was worth the stop to see the fountains and the view of the Bremerton ferry, which was loading the departing while we were there.

You can see where we were going with this...right? Stacked family photo in the rock sculpture. A for effort.

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and Museum

We got some tickets on Groupon for a scenic train ride in Elbe and let's just say that we thought it was okay, but nothing fantastic. The train ride itself was not great and from our car we could smell nothing but diesel the entire time. Also the term "scenic views" was a little misleading as we saw nothing but trees, a tiny stream and some run down houses. Not really worth the price.

On the upside, the train museum was interesting and everyone's favorite part of the excursion.

Tacoma Children's Museum and Point Defiance Zoo

Tacoma Children's Museum

On Saturday we headed over to the Tacoma Children's Museum.

It's the smallest Children's Museum we've been too, but just as busy as any other. They have five different playscapes, and Kyle bounced between three of them.

He loves water, so of course the waterscape was an instant hit.

Then he played in the invention playscape for what seemed like hours.

He also played in the Voyager for a bit, but really I think the invention area was his favorite. Actually he could easily have spent the entire day at the museum, but Tyler is getting a little old for such things and we also wanted to go see the zoo so we had to split after a few hours.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

It was the most perfect weather for the zoo with temperatures around 70 degrees. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. And most of the animals were out and visible so it didn't feel like we were missing anything.

This particular zoo has a lot of tigers and they were all enjoying watermelon during our visit.

My favorite exhibit and the one Tyler was most excited about was the budgie buddies. You walk into the open air exhibit and can buy seed sticks to feed the birds. They end up flying right onto your hand (or head in Tyler's case).

So fun!

Tyler also really enjoyed watching the puffins, especially the ones paddling around in the water.

The polar bear was neat to see. It's not an animal you see at every zoo.

The boys watched Finding Nemo in the car on the way to Seattle so the characters were fresh in Kyle's mind, and he easily found Nemo and Dory in the tropical fish tanks of the aquarium.

 

Sharks!

We stayed at the zoo until closing and before we left, the kids played on the playground in the kid's zone. It was funny watching Kyle go down the otter slides. He made sure to put his feet up so he could go down faster.