Mini Golf Mix-Up & McDonalds

So, I got these coupons at the Kid's Day event and told the girls we would all go mini golfing at Mountasia. The day had come and right before we left to Mountasia I noticed that the coupons had expired yesterday! I thought that kids 3 and younger got in free, so I would just need to pay for my oldest. We got down there and were ready to pay when the employee said that kids 2 and younger play free. I was not planning to spend $14 on golf; so I told the girls they couldn't play. Yes, there was a meltdown right in the middle of the place. I came up with a compromise to spend $5 on games and they could use their McDonald's gift certificates to eat dinner at McDonalds. They were happy with that and even like this idea better. Whew! $5 of games lasted a whole 15 minutes and then we were off to an early dinner at McDonalds.

Since it was so early we let them play in the play area. Those play areas are pretty disgusting. There are kids standing on table tops with dirty bare feet, climbing on poles, and food on the floor. One girl even dropped her chicken nuggets on the floor, picked them back up and threw them in the trash. Then, apparently the mom didn't want to pay for another meal, had the girl go back to the trash and get her nuggets. Yuck! We got the girls out cuz we couldn't stand being in there anymore and ate dinner.

We actually didn't even save that much money from the original $14 golf price. Hubby and I got a couple items from the $1 menu which was about $4 plus the $5 on games. We ended up only saving $5. A couple days later I had found another Mountasia coupon that expired the day we went and it was in the car the whole time!

Kid's Day

Today we spent the afternoon at the Newhall Park for the annual FREE Kid's Day event. The girls were entertained by various vendor booths, many of which had a game or craft for the kids. A few of our favorite vendors who give out free admission tickets were not there this year; but we did get some coupons for free mini golf at Mountasia. My youngest spent a lot of time at a preschool booth, playing with all their learning activities. The girls also expelled some energy at the bouncer and at the park playground. We ate free hot dogs, free Chick Fil A chicken nuggets, and snowcones. We also participated in a free raffle to try to win Disneyland or Magic Mountain tickets. We had to stick around for 2 hours to see if we won but of course we didn't win anything :(

L.A. County Fair

Today is fair day! My daughter always has the 3rd Friday off from school which we designate as L.A. Country Fair day. Fridays are great because you get free admission if each person brings 5 Ralph's brand cans. Our 1st stop is always Fairview Farms to see the pig races, look at all the animals, run around in the hay stacks, and get some chocolate milk at $2 each for both girls. Believe it or not the milk is the only thing we bought here.

They had tractor pulls for the kids that my girls wanted to try. My youngest wasn't able to do the pull with all the weights added; so she sat out while the oldest gave it a try. She was the 1st one to go with another 9 yr. old boy. The boy won by 1 foot and my oldest beat all the rest of the kids who were even a few yrs. older than her. They passed out ribbons to everyone who participated. She was so proud of herself for coming in second place that she wore her ribbon all day.

After tractor pulls, the girls had to go to their favorite part of the fair which is the Ralph's grocery store and farm area. It is very cool how they put it all together by planting seeds in the ground, milking a cow, getting a chicken egg, and picking corn, veggies and fruit. They get play money for supplying the food they grew and then use it to go grocery shopping.

We then went to see a ariel circus performance, played in the princess kitchen, saw some sharks and then to the dino area and back to the Ralph's' grocery, farm area.

We didn't spend money on any rides or games; but the food was the most tempting part! We said we would get one fair food for all of us to share. We settled on chili cheese fries and began to search for them. We found a couple vendors who had them for about $7-10. I was not going to spend that much on a fry snack. It was close to dinner time and the smell of fair food was getting the best of us; so we left to forge outside of the fair for our own fair food. For dinner,we got $5 pizza from Little Caesar's and got my chili cheese fries at Weinerschnitzel which was all less then the fries at the fair.

Zimmer Children's Museum - Free Admission

On the 10th Anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, we decided to take a breather from all the memorial services on TV by going to the Zimmer Children's Museum for FREE. We had never been here before and had to go since they were offering free admission today.

The girls had a lot of fun playing in the waterway exhibit and swimming in a shipwreck ball pit. They spent the most time in the grocery store shopping, cleaning, organizing and eating. There was also a synagogue, a bookstore and a bagel shop which they didn't spend hardly any time in these areas. They did have fun playing hopscotch in the pretend park area. It was a good couple hours of Free fun!

The museum does have another Free admission day on Sunday, September 25th, 2011. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is also that week. So they are throwing a big party! Join them for a day of reflection and celebration as they welcome a new year with friends and families of the Zimmer! There will be activities for all our Zimmer families to learn from and share with one another. The Zimmer will be open normal Sunday hours from 12:30pm – 5:00pm.

Free Breakfast Entree at Chick Fil A

There's still time to get your free breakfast entree at Chick Fil A. Promotion is going until Saturday, September 10th. Click here to make your reservation.

Homemade Applesauce

In trying to ditch the fruit in can, bag, jar and cup with high fructose, I made applesauce.

Sarah's Applesause
I peeled, cored and chopped just 2 apples to start and put in a sauce pan
Then added 1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
and cooked for 15 min. covered until tender.
Then put it in the food processor.

The warm cinnamon applesauce tasted and smelled delicious! My oldest said she didn't like warm applesauce; so I put it in the fridge to cool down. After a few hrs. I had her try the cold applesauce but it was too cold. This baby bear wanted something to be just right at room temp. Ugh! The rest of us loved this recipe warm or cold.

I then tried to just simply slice up the apple for my oldest. She loves them! She now is off the sugar filled applesauce cups and eats the fresh stuff. She loves them even more when the apples are peeled.

Banana, Mango Smoothie

While I was at the grocery store, I was pondering over just how much processed foods there are and everything has a ton of fructose syrup, sugar and preservatives. I always buy the canned fruit, fruit cups and jarred applesauce because they last longer and so my daughter doesn't have brown apples at school. My goal this trip was not to buy fruit in a can, bag, cup or jar and try to get them to eat fresh fruit.

My 1st stop is the produce section. Believe it or not, half of my shopping cart gets filled with stuff from this section. This time, I actually put a mango is my shopping cart! I never had a mango before. My youngest sniffed it and didn't want anything to do with it; but in the shopping cart it went anyway.



Strawberry, Banana, Mango Smoothie
I got home and unloaded all my fruit. I love smoothies and decided to make one. I threw in my blender...

1 cup strawberries,
1 banana,
1 mango,
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk.

It was delish. Smoothies are a great way to get a lot of fruit into you, even that mango! My youngest loved it. My oldest spit it out :(