Costco Haul

It's that time of the month again!!! Time to share our Costco Haul! Y'all know I'm obsessed with this place.

We're pretty well stocked on dinner foods, so this trip had a lot of snacks or quick dinner meals for us.... with a few other random finds! 

Like this pack of 50 hangers! I'm thinking these were only $10.00 but they may have been a little more. Regardless, we needed to stock up on hangers, because we have been running out, despite cleaning out some clothes out of our closet. 

I love grabbing this yogurt for the girls. I will freeze half, and put the other half in the fridge. Sometimes, Megan will eat the frozen yogurt, or I can put it in their lunch knowing that it will be thawed by the time they eat it at school. 

Fun tip- squeeze it out and throw some sprinkles on top! Sprinkles make everything more fun! 

The girls eat Uncrustables; not the healthiest option, but mama sometimes needs a break from making a sandwich. 

Their applesauce is super affordable and we've tried numerous organic brands, but these just make sense. I have a box of "extra" snacks in the pantry, so I'll throw half in the fridge, and half in the box, to grab later. 

This meal was delicious! I grab one of their quick meals weekly. Downside- it takes about an hour to bake. Upside- there was enough left over for me to take for lunch at work for two days. 

On cold winter days, I love their soup. This is the first time we've bought the baked potato, but it was delicious and tasted way better than what I could make- ha! 

Hands down, the best tortillas! They come in two packs of 22. I freeze both packs and then set out the pack that we'll eat in the morning so it can thaw. Then, I have Gretchen cook them on the griddle. 

The girls love Salami, and this is an easy option for a quick dinner or to put in their lunchbox. Again, it comes in two packages, so I freeze half. 

I love buying their bell peppers. I usually wash them right away and cut them. The girls will eat the slices in their lunches. 

Agh! These are a must!!! They're allergy friendly, but I usually eat a pack on my way to work for breakfast and they're a good snack. 

Again, another easy dinner for us. 

We eat this fried rice with their orange chicken, but Gretchen or I will take a pack for lunch. 

Hands down, the yummiest chips and locally  made here in Austin. 

We haven't bought corn dogs in a long time (I'm not a fan) but everyone else is. So, these are perfect for a quick lunch for the girls..... or DJ.

Adalyn and I both love these chips- I like them in salad.... she'll take them to school for lunch so I picked up a bag. 

And since the girls hadn't had fruit snacks in a while, we bought these. I even find DJ stealing a pack or two sometimes. 

Yum! These make a easy lunch for me! I'll often just eat the patty with veggies, or I cut it up and put it in a wrap. 

These fruit strips are perfect for the girls lunches. You receive 1 box of the pineapple and 1 box of strawberry banana, so again, we just put half out to eat now and half in the box to eat later. 

Y'all! Costco finally had healthy cereal! This is one area that I'm never happy with because I can usually only find kids junk cereal. When I saw this, I picked it up! The box had three different types of cereal and Adalyn has been eating the Cheetah Chomps all week! I'm really hoping this stays around. 

Addy is a guacamole fan. None of the rest of us are, but these are individually packaged and she's been taking them for lunch. 

We're obsessed with this bread- again, we freeze half, and then put the rest in the fridge. 

Pro tip- make your sandwich and bake it in the oven for about 10  minutes for a restaurant feel. 

We are always buying fruit from Costco. 

And the girls love their Naan dippers. They'll just eat the breads, but we love them with the spinach dip, or I'll put some in the girls lunches with some lunch meat or salami. 

I found this painting set for $20.00 and picked it up to hopefully give DJ the hint that we have got to start painting this house soon! 

Muffins for breakfast :) I usually will put divide it in half and freeze one, but the whole family dove in to these and have been eating them all week. We do cut them in half though because they're big!!! 

And finally, I always get these juice boxes for the girls lunches.

 I've been asked a lot lately if I prefer Costco over Sams and the answer is heck yes!!! I feel like Costco has an amazing quality of organic foods and selection. Yes, it changes, so sometimes we can't find the staples that we've fallen in love with, but, it's so easy to go there and find everything we need to feed our family of 5! 

A Weekend in Disney!

A few weeks ago, my mother in law called us and asked if we would be willing to fly Gretchen to Orlando for a weekend in Disney. My mother in law loves Disney World and thought it would be fun to take Gretchen and celebrate her birthday with our Florida family, who has a daughter Gretchen's age (her birthday was on Valentine's day) and then a daughter a few years older than Gretchen, but they share the same birthday. We knew it would be fun for the cousins to celebrate together, but..... I wasn't comfortable with putting my 12 year old on a plane by herself. So, we agreed she could go if I could tag along too. Thankfully, my mother in law didn't mind and Saturday morning, Gretchen and I boarded a flight too Orlando! 

She found out about the trip on her birthday when her Nana facetime her. Needless to say, she was so excited! 

Once we landed, we met my mother in law and my sister in law (both of them live in Arkansas and flew in that morning) and we took an Uber to Animal Kingdom. 

We were so excited to have a weekend away!!

Our Florida family drove in that morning, so they were already at the park when we arrived. 

It didn't take us long to find them.... and Kevin. 

We hadn't really had breakfast and it was almost lunch time, so we opted for a cold treat and a Mickey ice cream! 

My mother in law booked our Fast Passes and our first stop was The Lion King show. We had watched it the last time we went to Disney, but I forgot how good it was! The whole time, I kept thinking about how Megan would've loved it because there was gymnastics in the show. 

All the girls celebrating the weekend! 

After the show we stood in line for a river ride. Gretchen passed the time by facetiming, Connor, her friend from Oklahoma. 

Birthday girls and sweet cousins! 

This drink was tons of fun and had boba beads in it, which we later found were pretty fun to shoot through the straws.

Our next Fast passes were for rides that Gretchen wasn't too excited about- she's in to classic, calmer rides, so we went ahead and went over to Magic Kingdom. 

This is how she felt about being at Magic Kingdom without her sisters! 

She really wanted to ride Haunted Mansion so that's where we headed. And y'all, the line was so long! We got off the ride just as the fireworks were ending. We met up with everyone and ate dinner, before riding The Little Mermaid, Dumbo, and Small World. 

The park had extended hours, so we finally headed out around 10:30. 

One family picture as we headed out. We were exhausted! 

Sunday morning came early! We had Fast passes for Slinky Dog, so we all arrived around 9 to Hollywood Studios. 

The new Toy Story area was adorable!!! So many bright colors and toys everywhere and Slinky Dog was SO much fun! 

We grabbed Churros for breakfast, and went off to watch the Frozen show and the Little Mermaid show. Some went off to ride the new Star Wars ride, but Gretchen wasn't sure she'd like it.... and after the shows, my sister in law and mother in law went off to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster, which I knew Gretchen wouldn't ride either! 

She and I opted to walk around the Chines Theater- she knew all these random facts about it. 

Apparently, these are Audrey Hepburn's only handprints (according to Gretchen)

Seeing if her hands are as big as Donald Ducks! 

And she was excited that her hands were almost as big as Mrs. Potts! 

We headed over to the Star Wars area, and it was spectacular, but since I'm not a Star Wars fan, I totally embarrassed myself by my lack of knowledge. Thankfully, DJ has taught the girls well, and she knew all of the ships.

Like this one. 

We met back up took a few more pictures before leaving Hollywood Studios.

And we had to get one with Gretchen and Nana since she made this trip possible. 

And my sister in law thought we needed to send one to our hubbies. 

We met the rest of the fam at Disney Springs where Gretchen and I shared a huge ice cream sundae!

We had to leave around 5 to catch our plane home; we were suppose to have an hour layover in Dallas, but because we sat on the runway in Orlando, we had to run and catch our next flight to Austin in only 10 minutes- yikes! 

It was a fun weekend, I absolutely loved being with Gretchen and being able to do exactly what she wanted to do. It warmed my heart to have this weekend with her.

Thank you Nana for making it possible for us.