Fuel Your Summer: Fuel Savings and Summer Travel {+a BIG Giveaway}

KrogerPInfotor2It’s summertime! here at Casa de Kahuna, we are wrapping up a fun week of Vacation Bible School, and the kids are eager to start day camp. We’ve got a weekly summer routine that’s taking shape, but we have a couple of fun things in store to shake up our summer.

I’m taking off at the end of the month for the first of my fortieth birthday weekends, and the rest of the family is motoring up to Chicago for a weekend with family. Mid-July we are heading to the Smoky Mountains with my parents for a week of sightseeing, swimming, and with any luck, unplugging. I’m also hoping for a few more stamps on my National Parks passport.

kids stepping in ocean

Most of our family vacations have involved water- either the beach or the pool. Above, here’s Meg stepping into the ocean for the first time in 2007 in North Carolina, and Andrew stepping in for the first time in 2009 in Massachusetts. We’ve seen the Atlantic Ocean as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as Florida. We’ve swam in pools from here down to Atlanta. Now that both kids can swim, I’ll be able to do less lifeguarding, and maybe more reading. We also like to see landmarks, tourist attractions and anything else that catches our fancy. I love vacations.

disneyfotor

We tend to pretty economical when it comes to traveling. We’ve never flown as a family of four. We search for hotel deals, pack a lot of our own food, and set moderate limits when it comes to souvenirs (See those mouse ears? That’s what they got at the Magic Kingdom!).

One thing we can’t control on vacation is the price of fuel. The only thing we can do is overestimate costs and keep our fingers crossed that we’ve estimated well. I take that back- there’s one more thing we can do. Kroger is running a Summer Fuel special, where shopping on the weekends (in June 2013) will earn you 2x the fuel points (groceries only). You read that right- every $1 spent in Kroger stores on the weekends during this promotion is worth 2 fuel points… and every 1000 points is worth $1 off per gallon. Not bad, right?

seerockcityfotor

By earning Fuel Points twice as fast, it’ll be no time at all before we’ve got the 1000 fuel points needed to save $1 per gallon when we fill up the van for our family vacation. That savings will come in handy- who doesn’t want a little extra cash on vacation? It might mean an extra meal out, more fun souvenirs or perhaps more adult beverages (it is vacation, after all). Spending less on gas means there’s more to spend on fun things (I could have purchased so many fun things at the Rock City gift shop). To earn double fuel points on June weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays), follow this link to enroll: http://bit.ly/16XJg2x. Hook up your Kroger Plus card and you’ll be on your way!

{The BIG Giveaway}

To get you started on your Kroger shopping, I’m giving away a $100 gift card to one lucky reader (I KNOW. Happy grocery shopping).

To enter, tell me where you’re off to this summer, or one fun thing closer to home you’ll be doing this summer.

For additional entries, do any or all of the following, and leave me a comment for each thing that your did:

This giveaway will be open until next Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at 9pm. A winner will be notified, and will have 24 hours to repsond. If there’s no response, I will choose a new winner. Thank you so much for playing, and good luck!!

Disclosure: I was compensated with a gift card for myself for facilitating this giveaway. All of the opinions on this promotion are my own, as are the photos of my adorable children.

Sky Vacation Bible School: A Recap

This past week the kids and I spent our mornings at vacation bible school. Every day, from 9:00am- 11:30am, we participated with about 100 of our closet friends. There were flying pigs, a talking chipmunk, some cool science experiments and fun games.

And there were songs.

Oh my were there ever songs. As a volunteer, I received a CD with the music for the week. Every day, twice a day, the whole group sang a few songs, all with actions. Every day, on our way to and from VBS (and everywhere we went) we listened to the CD. Well, MaM wanted to listen. The Fox wanted to sing. After a few screaming matches we compromised.

The ride to VBS is for listening.

The ride home from VBS is for singing.

It really is the little things that can make or break a day.

This year the service component of the program was raising money and awareness for Operation Kid-to-Kid’s efforts in suppling mosquito nets to African children in need. Each day, in addition to learning to TRUST GOD, learning Bible stories and having fun, the kids learned a little more about the importance of helping others and the dangers of malaria.

MaM and the Fox didn’t talk much about VBS at home, except for singing the songs non-stop.

Then tonight I noticed the mosquitoes must have gotten the Fox last night. One of his thighs was a maze of welts, and he was scratching them as he got ready for bed.

“Mom, why did the mosquitos get me?”

“Well, they get everybody. They use your blood as food.”

“They use your blood too, right?”

“Right.”

“And the kids in Africa!”

“Right.”

From there, he explained to me that the mosquitos in Africa have bad germs, and kids can die. And that mosquito nets can help keep the bugs out. And then he used his sheet as a mosquito net, and showed me how the bugs couldn’t get through. He talked and talked, and quite clearly had a grasp on what the whole project was about.

He never ceases to amaze me.

Are your kids experiencing Sky this summer? It’s seems to be the go-to theme for Catholic and Protestant churches alike. Want to get them excited about it?  Check out this video:

The Week in Review

School is wrapping up here tomorrow, and I have to say, I’m ready for a change in routine. This past week has been, I think, the busiest one of the school year. Nearly every day this week, there’s been a special event at one school or the other (or both!) and a list of very specialized, random items to send in on particular days.

Monday: MaM has an all-morning appointment 25 miles away from where the Fox spends his mornings. Send snack and show and tell with the Fox.

Tuesday: Escort the Fox to school, celebrate his impending FOURTH birthday (hold me) with fruit snacks for 24. Send MaM to school with $3 for a handi-craft fair.

Here's the Fox having fun at the play dough table at school. Doesn't he look almost four?

Wednesday: Take MaM to school and enjoy a breakfast for school volunteers. The breakfast pizza I had made shelving library books all year long totally worth it (for reals. so good). Pick up a medication in the school office while I’m there. Pack a wedge of Asiago cheese and a can of sunscreen in MaM’s backpack. Get a call (too late) that MaM forgot her lunchbox. Apparently gnawing on the wedge of Asiago wasn’t an option. Oops.

Thursday: Send paper plates with the Fox. Get $$ from the ATM for MaM. CLEAN THE LUNCHBOXES AND PUT THEM AWAY for awhile. I’m sure we’ll picnic at some point this summer. Write a list of things MaM needs to remember to bring home from school tomorrow.

Friday: Send $5 & a bag of apples to school with MaM. Leave work early for an end-of-school lunch with the Fox. Remind LKM to do the same for MaM’s end-of-school lunch. Silver Lining: It’s No Lunch Box Friday! (And, I get to meet Mario Andretti and have drinks with the girls later that night- more on that later)

By Friday afternoon, I’ll have a second grader and a pre-k’r. I’m not exactly sure how that happened, but I’m not complaining. Second graders count money and tell time and read chapter books. Second graders also get to make First Communion. Second graders will sometimes also have to go to the orthodontist, but so it goes. Pre-k’rs sleep more at night, are more independent and tell funny jokes, right?

I don’t know what the first week of summer will bring, but I’ll be pretty content if it doesn’t involve leaving the house at 7:30am, random cash in envelopes, and assorted grocery items going in odd directions.

Clearly, I need a drink. I’ll probably have one before Vintage Indiana, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. If you’re reading this before 9pm on Friday night, click here to enter my Vintage Indiana ticket giveaway!