Dinosaur Birthday Party

Like a ton of other little kids his age Hudson is obsessed with dinosaurs. So it was a definite theme for his 3rd birthday! We decided to do it at the WOW! Children’s Museum in Lafayette, CO – It’s small enough where we won’t be overwhelmed but the kids can still have tons to do and it’s large enough for us to hold all of our close friends and family. 🙂

Their prices were great for a 2 hour session (This was my first time doing an “outside of the house” party so I was excited it was affordable 😉 ) and they helped so much with the set up! Y’all know how thrifty I am so I decided to ask around my local Facebook Mom groups and found ALL of my dinosaur decorations for FREE. I was pretty proud considering it turned out looking uh-mazing! 

The room was large enough for 20 people with space to spare and there TONS of tables for food, gifts, cake, etc.

• 

Sprouts Farmers Market has the best catering platters!!! I grabbed 6: A veggie tray, a fruit tray, a sandwich tray, a dessert tray and a breakfast tray. They were all amazing, affordable for how much you got and they were a HIT. Anyone with any kind of food restrictions had plenty to eat which is obviously important to us as paleo eaters!

One of my favorite parts of this party planning was getting him a custom cake made by a local baker.. She does some AMAZING work and I’m SO happy I trusted her to make his cake! She made Hudson an AWESOME dinosaur cake and he LOVED it (Then she made this preggo Mama an INCREDIBLE carrot cake and omg it was gone in minutes haha!)

Hudson’s looking at this picture right now and really wants it.. haha!

Her bakery is located in Broomfield, CO and has the CUTEST name! The Book Tree Bakery! Contact her if you’re ever looking for any baked goods – You’ll be amazed ❥

At the end of the party we passed out little goody bags with different dinosaurs printed on them and each kid/adult got their own healthy snacks to take home – And my favorites, of course! SunRype Fruit Strips and Made in Nature snacks!

Everyone had such a blast and most importantly so did my little three year old! Highly recommend ALL of these places and goodies to anyone hosting a birthday party in the Colorado area! (Or anywhere else 😉 )

(I was compensated for some of the aspects of this post, but all opinions are my own!)

Raising Chickens

We’ve had our chickens for almost 3 months now and I’m so in love with them. They’re fun for our children to learn about, take care of, clean after and feed – A great way to teach them responsibility! We’ve learned so much so wanted to share some of our favorite projects/products with y’all that are interested in becoming chicken owners!

Firstly, we bought our chickens early Spring at our local ranch and home supply store Murdoch’s. They had some really healthy chicks (They also had ADORABLE ducklings! That may be a future project ;)) that were supposed to be all females which was all our city would allow us to have. (Check your local laws to see if chickens are allowed and if so, how many/what kinds!)

For their breeder box we kept them in a pack n’ play with a heating lamp clipped to the side pointed down at them to keep them toasty! We had standard feeder/waterer’s for them and their substrate was just softwood shavings (Made it easy to clean 🙂 )

Once they were aging we went looking for a chicken coop.. They are SO expensive. We checked on our local Buy, Sell, Trade pages on Facebook and asked around and got one for FREE. It was in amazing condition but was only large enough for 3 (We had 4) so my Husband built an add-on to their coop for pretty cheap *Only about $80?* and they LOVE it.

Isn’t it so cute?! Super rustic ❥

For their food we use standard pellets and I add some supplements to their water supply for an additional nutritional boost 🙂 Now.. This was what I wanted to discuss the most because I’ve had some troubles, now that they’re older and in their coop, on what feeders/waterers are the best. We’ve got some rodents nearby since we live right near a lake and worried about them getting into the hens’ food so we found some amazing feeders that hang ON the chicken wire so there’s no way for them to reach it! Product below ->

As for their waterers we’ve gone through 3 different ones before finding the one we liked! They all leaked and all got dirt in them CONSTANTLY which really wasted their expensive supplements. So after tons of trial and error I found this (pictured below) waterer which can be hung and hold a ton of water without the waste because there’s only little mini spouts that fill up when the nipple it pressed down. We have it sitting on a block so that it’s elevated but it took up too much room in the coop so I moved it to their add-on run which didn’t have as strong of wire for it to hang from.. 4 gallons is quite heavy 😉

So – Hopefully this saves some of y’all time when planning on getting chickens and feel free to message me with any questions. We love our chickies! ❥

Good Buy Gear

Ever have such an amazing experience with a company that you want to tell the world about them? That’s what this post is about. For parents living in Colorado, you’ve GOT TO TRY Good Buy Gear! They’ve got some AMAZING products with a unique twist. They’re an online infant/toddlers/children’s consignment shop that picks up the items and delivers!!

I had things PILLING up in my garage from the kid’s past bedroom decor, to toys, books and more. I wasn’t having luck on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and honestly felt uncomfortable meeting people whenever doing a sell without my Husband home – So decided to try something new. I had heard of Good Buy Gear from another Mom and decided to check it out.

They’ve got some AMAZING products at such incredible prices!! I was able to get quite a few gifts for the kids for Christmas but most importantly.. I was able to make some room in our garage! I scheduled a pick-up appointment time to come grab my items and they made it SO easy for me! They did the research for descriptions, they clean up the items if needed AND find a great price to sell it at that people would find appealing (They run the prices/posts by you first before posting them!)

Their Huge Warehouse in Arvada!

This is exactly what adapting to the future looks like! Making a consignment store online with the convenience of delivery/pick up is SO perfect for people who would be using this website – Parents with Busy Schedules!

Try it out!! There’s SO many amazing gifts for your kids AND a $10 gift code (TRYGOODBUY)

I just spent $42 on some amazing gifts!!! 😀 Can’t wait! ❥

Holidays on a Budget

We’ve all been through it – Where our budget is a little tighter, especially with the holidays quickly approaching! During these times it’s important to be mindful of spending and try to be as smart with your purchases as possible!

It’s easy to over spend when thinking of loved ones, Which is totally normal, by the way 😉 , but I’ve found some really easy ways to cut the costs without cutting the amazing gifts and decor!

1. Buy gifts ahead of time (and hide them, of course) and have an excel sheet that keeps you organized! I start collecting gifts around June/July because we’ve got 3 November birthdays and Christmas quickly after!
2. Get your decor and some gifts at the Dollar Store or at Target’s Dollar Section (I’m obsessed with this section…)
3. Check on BSTF (Buy, Sell, Trade, Free) pages on Facebook! SO many people giving away their kids now unwanted toys at such discounted prices! (I’ve gotten most of my kids’ gifts from there!)
4. Check Craigslist!! SO many people give away awesome free stuff and discounted toys/clothing for adults, kids, and pets!
5. My newest found obsession… The Clearance area of Walmart! There are SO many brand new toys that can be up to 70% off!! Things my kids had seen on commercials that are no longer “hot toys” make for exciting gifts!
   • Also, check the clearance areas in kid’s clothing! There’s a ton of “out of season” clothes at extremely low prices! *Just make sure to buy a size or two up so they don’t out grow it by the next season! 😉 *

If you cannot tell I’m already SO excited for the holidays and already planning but these are great tips for planning WAY ahead of time or right before!

Happy Holidays y’all!

Groupon Coupons

If you’ve been following my shopping posts long I do NOT like to pay full price. I worked in the retail world long enough to know there are almost ALWAYS coupons somewhere! So anytime I’m shopping I always check for coupons and almost always find one! Who doesn’t love a good deal?! (Leaves you feeling way less guilty about spending 😉 )

My favorite coupon site is Groupon – That’s where I love to find my favorite local deals so figured they’d also have the best coupons and they always do! I’m currently most excited about their Finish Line coupons as I used to work there as a store manager (And that’s where I met my Husband 😉 ) and still loveee their products! Especially with Back To School coming up, have got to get these quickly growing kids new kicks!

Groupon has both in-store and online coupons when available such as their current online promo code for Finish Line for an extra 25% off AND flat-rate shipping – That’s a killer deal for some sweet new shoes! (They also display the current sales going on – So convenient)

I’m probably a little biased when it comes to Finish Line but I use their deals myself and love the ease the Groupon coupon’s page provides! I highly recommend checking it out next time you make ANY purchase – Online or in-store!

(I was compensated for this post, all opinions are my own)

 

Being Thrifty

My family and I are incredibly thrifty – Doesn’t matter whether we’ve got a ton of money or not, we really love saving money and getting good deals! It just doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of money on something you can get barely used for cheap OR free.

**I am totally listening to Macklemore’s Thrift Shop right now**

It took awhile for me to realize what a good resource Craigslist was, but once I started finding tons of deals I was HOOKED. I just wanted to brag about our newest find to show how AWESOME it is to be thrifty!!

My husband came home one day with a completely disassembled hammock stand that he had picked up for FREE on Craigslist. It looked like it was missing pieces and I wasn’t too interested. But after putting it all together it was HUGE and looked awesome!! Found out it was from Ikea and retails for $70!! It looked nearly brand new!

I started getting pretty excited after that so we looked on the Ikea website and found the matching hammock to go with it for only $40! So instead of paying $110 for a really nice hammock and stand we only paid $40 and now have an amazing piece for our backyard for relaxing and tanning 😉

I know there’s a stigma about buying used but it’s so much cheaper and just as good as going out and paying full price, as many of the items being sold ARE being sold because they’re in good condition still (Obviously there are SOME exceptions to what you’d buy used but you get the point 😉 )

So if you don’t already I highly recommend looking into a different way of shopping! It’s really exciting and rewarding when you grab some amazing deals! ❥

Be Thrifty! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!