Great Hometown weekend!

The weather this past weekend was so fantastic, I could hardly spend a minute inside.  On Saturday, we took Owen to the Sunnybrook Farm Museum to take in their 17th Annual Pioneer Days Festival.  It was a great day filled with tractors, farm animals and homemade pie!  The best part is that we made use of Red Deer's extensive trail system and rode our bikes to the event.  It felt so nice to be out in the summer sun, get some exercise and enjoy a visit to a farm in the middle of the city!  We'd never been to the Sunnybrook Farm museum before, and the Pioneer Days Festival was the perfect introduction to all that the farm offers.  They are open daily 10 am to 4 pm from Victoria Day to Labour Day and admission is by donation, making this an affordable, educational and fun summer stop for the whole family.

Limited Time Savings...

Remember when that kid came to your door last summer, or your colleague from work was selling those coupon books that time?  Guess what - many of the great deals in the SUTP coupon book expire at the end of the month!  That's only a couple of weeks to find the book, search through the coupons & use em up! 

When we started buying the coupon books, I'll admit, it was mostly for the fast food deals.  We've since grown more mature & are into a healthier lifestyle, so we're trying to skip over those pages.  If you take a minute to really look at what is offered, you'll find tons of savings for local attractions (Collicutt Centre, Laser Tag, Kraay Family Farm just to name a few); and lots for places a bit further afield (one of the Calgary Zoo coupons is worth over $20, which is what you paid for the book in the first place!).

The book is a great place to get ideas for things to do with the family, and you're helping out local organizations at the same time.  $10 from the sale of every book stays in Red Deer. 

With school starting up again soon (sorry kids...), you're likely to get a knock on your door or a colleague from work asking you to shell out the $20 to help out their organization, don't hesitate!  It's a great deal & can result in a lot of fun for you and your family!

You can check out this link to find out more about the ticket books, or just send me a note & I can put you in touch with someone selling them once they go on sale later this month :)

Flexibility

Flexibility is the name of the game when you have young children.  Take this past weekend for example.  I posted about all of the great events that were happening around Central Alberta, but unfortunately didn't get a chance to take in any of them.  My 19 month old wasn't quite himself.  I'm pretty sure he's teething again, so he wanted nothing more than to be carried around by me for most of the weekend.  I hate to see the little guy in pain, but I will admit that I loved the extra snuggle time.  It doesn't happen all that much anymore.

In the end, we stayed at home for the most part.  It wouldn't have been fair or enjoyable to either of us (or those within earshot) if I had dragged him around when he clearly wanted to be at home.  Instead, we spent some quality time playing with his tool set, some cars and our dog.  We even managed to watch a bit of the Olympic closing ceremonies.

So, even though it wasn't what I had set out to do for the weekend, it was still time well spent.  I'll have some options for next weekend, and we'll see where we end up!