MelissaStuff

  It's been awhile since I've shared, but when I saw this event, I knew I needed to let everyone else know about it too.  This December in Mckinney, there will be a special event - Christmas JoyPark.  In addition to activities like games, face paint, inflatables, a petting zoo, and story time with St. Nicholas, there will be a live Nativity that you can walk through with your family to remind them of the true meaning behind Christmas.  When all of those activities have wound down, you can enjoy the food trucks and the Christmas shopping featuring local artisans. The best thing about Christmas JoyPark is that its entire purpose is to raise funds to support underprivileged children and families around the world through faith education and the enjoyment of Christmas.  Use code CYBER25 before Cyber Monday to save 25% off the regular price of admission . Tickets start at just $10.  Maybe, we will see you there!

Saying our family has had A LOT going on would be in the running for understatement of the year. So when we had the chance to go see the new remake of Disney’s classic, Dumbo , at the Alamo Drafthouse Cereal Party  we were all over it. If you are like us and have never heard of a Cereal Party before, it is a unique Alamo Drafthouse movie showing. The show new release movies extra early on Saturday morning - our movie started at 9:30 am. You are encouraged to wear your pjs, and they have an all-you-can-eat cereal bar set up in the front of the theater.  What better way to do Saturday morning cartoons?!? It's even better than my childhood memories of gathering around the television in our pajamas with our bowls of cereal. For our crew, it was our first time at Alamo DraftHouse. If you haven’t been there, it has a beautiful vintage look and feel. It's the perfect combination of old classic feel and every modern luxury you would expect from the nicest moder...

Continuing our quest for unusual gift ideas this year, I came across this idea . . .  How fun would this be?!?!? It's like packaging up a color run and letting your kids have all the fun to themselves.  Just Add Color is now offering a Mega Pak that includes everything you need to add colorful powder games, color dances, color crafts, color photos and color experiences to any get together or fun outdoor time your kids are planning. Everything is more fun with color...birthday parties, Friday nights with friends, having the team over, slumber parties, graduation activities, even gender reveal parties or class celebrations (with parent permission, of course).  The Just Add Color Mega Pak provides you with the color, the tools and a how-to guide to make your next party TEN Times More Fun. Right now, you can get a one-time-only discount that includes Two FREE Color Blasters, Money Back Guarantee and FREE Shipping on your purchase -  a  $150 value f...

This year for Christmas, our crew is working hard to come up with some outside-of-the-box ideas. We already all have so much stuff, and this Momma is tired of picking up all of that stuff when it spills out over our house and car and yard. My boys are getting older by the minute and I want to take full advantage of it and enjoy every minute we can.  We've been looking for activities we can do together as a family, and I found a great deal on one that I think my boys will adore! Urban Quest Adventure lets you turn Dallas (or one of the other 98 locations across the US) into a giant game board with a fun scavenger hunt adventure. If you like the Amazing Race, you will love this three-hour city tour. Using your own smart phone, your team will make their way among well-known and overlooked gems of the city, solving clues and completing challenges while learning local history.  If your schedule is anything like hours, finding time to make a scheduled event is difficu...

By now, you're beginning to see all of your friends post about their trips to the State Fair.  If your mind automatically defaults to visions of dollars flying out of your wallet, you're not the only one. Thankfully, with a little planning, it doesn't have to put you in the poor house or run up debt on your credit card. First, get a discounted rate on admission . THEN, use these special insider tips to save in lots of little ways that will add up big. Bring Your Own Food and Drink Many people don't realize you can bring in your own food and drinks as long as there is no alcohol, no glass and no knives. If you're pushing a stroller because you have littles with you, this is a little easier. Lugging a cooler around the Fair doesn't sound amazing to many of us, but there are other options . . . Cheap Ways to Avoid Being Thirsty Get bottled water for $1 at the Continental Daughters of the American Revolution House (by the front entrance gate). So...

Once you get into the Fair at a discounted rate on Thursday . . . now it's time to save on other things like funnel cake and cotton candy! Did you even know that was possible? It is. Sometimes you may get a miniature version, but some are full-size and they generally range in cost from 2 to 7 coupons. Here's the list of products and the discounted rates for Thrifty Thursday: Let us know which ones are your favorites!

Our whole crew is getting excited about the Texas State Fair. It's a HUGE event in our family each year. The problem is that as our kids get older and our "crew" expands to include some other super special people, the cost of the fair can sky rocket. We've found a few great cost savings ideas over time, so I wanted to share them with you. First, you have to get into the Fair . . . Admission: You can buy them ahead of time at several retailers If you buy them online at the State Fair website , they are $1.50 cheaper. You can buy them on the DART GoPass app - $16 for adults and $12 for children and seniors. Kroger sells one-day tickets for $16.50 and a season pass (which includes one Bring-a-Friend ticket good from M-F) for $34.95 Bringing Dr. Pepper cans will you get half-off the gate price after 5 p.m. on any week day. McDonalds is offering discount coupons that will give you $5 off an adult admission or half-price children's admission wi...

I can't even tell my boys about this because they will talk of NOTHING else until this arrives . . . and then maybe NOTHING else again until they find out if they can do it again. I don't know if you knew this . . . but you can now play Minecraft in a movie theater! Gamers of all ages will be super excited about this opportunity to participate in this fun, face-to-face social experience. Using the big screen, kids will have a chance to implement superhero-themed maps and mods in a custom Minecraft adventure, Rise of Heroes. Just bring a laptop with Minecraft 1.9.2 installed. You will be able to play first person on your computer and then connect wirelessly to the Super League server which will put you and everyone else's gameplay up on the big screen. Parents and siblings can attend for FREE and cheer on their favorite gamer. Your gamer will be able to collaborate and team up with 4-7 other members their own age as they create their own worlds, fight ag...

Thank you  Capital One Home Loans  for sponsoring this post. This is a paid endorsement. To learn more about how Capital One Home Loans tools can help simplify your home-buying process, visit  CapitalOneSmartHomeLoans.com . The journey I have been on in the last few years has taught me just how big a fallacy it is to assume that everyone has the same experiences in life or learns the same lessons. I have now successfully purchased two homes. One was a starter home - a brand-new build where we where we were able to choose every detail from the ground up. The other was a foreclosure that involved going through a difficult, tedious process which ultimately netted us a home in need of a lot of work but also with a lot of equity very quickly. However, in my line of work, I regularly deal with people who are saving up for down payments, buying homes, selling homes, refinancing homes, investing in rental properties. It's exposed me to a much wider array of home buy...

Legacy ER and Urgent Care is compensating me for providing this post and coverage of their grand opening. Pneumonia. The Flu. Bronchitis. Strep Throat.  {sigh} It's that time of year. Everyone is getting sick. Kids are out of school for one thing or another and then they go back just in time to catch the next round of illness. Or at least that's the way I felt year after year.  But in the last few years, we have made a couple of changes that have really changed that cycle for us. 1.) We started using Thieves - Young Living Essential Oil in the house regularly and 2.) We make sure all of our boys get their flu shot. This year, they were able to go to Legacy ER and Urgent Care to get their shots. The wait was short. The attractive firefighter who gave the their shots did an incredible job and not one of them cried! How amazing is that?  The Allen location was the easiest access for our crew, but there are also locations in McKinney, Frisco, North Richla...

This summer has been a big change for our crew. It's the first time since my boys were born that I haven't been free to take them places, go swimming and plan lots of fun stuff for them. They attended a local summer program where they had a lot of fun and stayed super busy . . . and also dealt with a full-on bully, but that's a story for another time. Since summer is quickly screeching to an end - the boys all start back to school Monday morning - we decided to take last weekend and go to Hurricane Harbor. Just before we loaded up, I quickly searched to see if I could find any information on families and the park. Alas, it was not available. So I thought I would create a post with that kind of information and if you have anything to add, please leave a comment and I'll add it this material. 1. Take advantage of special offers for entrance fees.  We actually had FREE season passes to Hurricane Harbor because of the timeframe we purchased our Six Flags season pa...

My poor boys - because I started a new job just before the beginning of summer and it has consumed an enormous amount of my time, we really didn't have a "normal" summer. I haven't taken them swimming once yet (although we are going to Hurricane Harbor this weekend in 107 degree heat). We didn't go on vacation (but we have one scheduled this fall). We just didn't do the things we have typically done every summer for as long as they can remember. So when I heard about the Coleman Family AdventureFest that is coming to the Irving Convention Center the weekend of August 21 - 23, I knew it was something I wanted to do with my boys. Taking place both inside and outside the convention center, the adventure-themed activities and celebrity visits by Herschel Walker, Philippe Cousteau and more will fascinate my boys. They can try archery, building and launching rockets, play fishing games, test robotics, experience a virtual zip line, climb a rock wall and more....

I have been so busy lately that shopping - let alone consignment sale shopping - has just not been on my radar. But the one sale I am making time for is the Just Between Friends - Ft. Worth sale. It's Texas' largest consignment and maternity sale held in the Will Rogers' Memorial Center  - Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall. This year's sale will be held Thursday, September 3, 2015 through Saturday, September 13, 2015, so there's plenty of time to schedule a shopping trip (or two)! If you are a first-time parent or grandparent, you can sign up and  get a free pass to get in to shop early . Or you can consign or volunteer, both of which will get you in early as well. But here's the deal - not only will I make time shop consignment, I will also make it a priority to make time to sell consignment. Let me tell you why. #1 - It forces you to take the time to clean out closets, toy bins, under beds and the backseat of the car. It's so easy to get busy and put t...