What to feed the kids?

David will be two next month and I have been trying to mix up his meals a bit. David is a great eater but is having a "drinking" phase. I nearly have to hide his milk to get him to eat his food or else he will just gulp away. He will even fake drink out of an empty cup.... goof.
This is what David had to eat today:

Breakfast
French Toast Sticks
Berry Berry Kix Cereal
Strawberries
Milk
Note: I had to bribe him with a strawberry to get him to eat his french toast!

Lunch
Chicken Tenders
Peas
Apple Sauce
Milk
Note: He had about 2 peas...

After Nap Snack
Apple Juice
Pretzel Sticks
Note: "More juice, more juice, more juice." Nope. No more juice, David!

Dinner
1/2 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Corn on the Cob
Blueberry Yogurt
Milk
Note: This was his first peanut butter & jelly sandwich and he absolutely loved it.

I did some googling for other ways to do similar meals in a different way. This is what I came up with:

Breakfast: Strawberry French Toast

Photo Credit // Taste of Home

Lunch: Ultimate Bisquick Chicken Tenders

Photo Credit // Betty Crocker

Dinner: Grilled Peanut Butter & Jelly

Photo Credit // Chow.com

I would love some other kid friendly recipes!

The New JCPenny

JCPenny has launched their new site and new prices. I found their ad while clipping my Sunday coupons this morning and it looks very interesting. Their prices are now listed with the amount and an "everyday" after it.

The new marketing scheme features always low prices versus the use of coupons or sales to get a good deal. I don't know, I like couponing and sales. It makes the shopping experience more enjoyable for me.

I visited their women's department online and they have a nice feature of clothing and accessories using this winter's color blocking fad. Prices seem reasonable to me but nothing out of this world or anything.

$20

$25

$30

$40

$50

I have never been much of a JCPenny fan. It was really overwhelming in store as racks didn't seem to be super organized. The quality of the clothing never seemed very good to me either. However, I usually just looked at clearance racks and shouldn't judge the whole store by only being cheap!

Also, my JCPenny store is farther for me to get to than Kohl's. I am used to shopping at Kohl's and have a system when I go there, to get in and out, in the quickest time! So, when I go to JCPenny's I feel a little lost.

It will be intersting to see if JCPenny changed the quality of thier items or just adjusted the price.

$10 off $10 at Vitacost

Vitacost is offering $10 off a $10 purchase.

They have thousands of products like vitamins, organic food and baby items. They also have a Proffessional Lines section that is offering free shipping on select items.

Burt's Bee's Kit $11.34

Seventh Generation Training Pants $11.84

Earth's Best Shampoo $5.53

This Burt's Baby Bee Kit is only $5.98 shipped and includes 4 items.

$5.98 shipped with coupon.

What did you find a good deal on?

Target Bridesmaid Dresses

Since getting married in 2008, I still find myself getting mildly obsessed over wedding stuff. I am no expert but I had so much fun and poured so much energy over my own wedding, I get curious about what is going on in the wedding biz.

I got an e-mail from Target introducing their new (I think?) line of bridesmaid dresses. All for $69.99 and available (for now) in sizes 2-28W, they seem to satisfy that classic bridesmaid look for a great price.

Maybe a teensie-weensie homecoming-ish,  My worry? They seem awfully short. This is usually what keeps me out of the junior dress section past 22 years of age. I will be 30, I have two kids, I have a butt... I need something that covers.

If I could do it again, picking a Target dress, I would consider these:

One-Shoulder Rosette Chiffon Dress in Cement Gray

Ruffle Neck Shantung Dress in Bayou Teal

One Shoulder Shantung Dress in Black

See how I picked the dresses with some sort of sleeves? Not sure I would trust many of the dresses in the chest area if you, well, have any chest...
Thoughts?

DIY Cutlery Roll-Ups for a Party

James' Baptism and party are coming up at the end of the month so I thought I would start getting the little decorations done now!

Here is a very simple, everyone should know, tutorial for cute cutlery roll-ups. I think it is really nice to have a fork, knife and spoon wrapped together for guests if you are serving food buffet style.

I plopped down on a quilt during nap time and cranked out 50 sets or so. I hope to have 100 done in the end. This project really took me back to my serving days!

I used the following supplies (a special thank you to my God Mother for giving me the paper wares after I told her my colors were blue and yellow!):

Scissors

Tape

Yellow Scroll Paper Napkins

Fork, Knife & Spoons

Ribbon

I found laying the silverware with the knife on the bottom, then fork, then spoon made the roll-ups easier to roll.

 

To make things go faster, I folded all the napkins ahead of time and stacked them on top each other. I also pre-cut all the ribbon.

Here are a few other links for napkin design ideas!
Napkin Folding
Carrot Cutlery for Easter
Napkins with Name Tag

$5 off $5 Purchase at Michael's

Thank you, Your Retail Helper!

Potty Training: Day One, Part I

Do you remember back in high school and college when you took notes in class and they always looked like this:

I. blah blah blah
     A. blah
     B. blah blah
          a. blah bitty blah
               i. blah boo boo blah

So on and so forth...

That is how I feel my day is going and how the next week will unfold. Yes, potty training (I can already tell) is a series small bulleted points that need to be read in all the right order. If not, nothing will make sense and no one will have learned anything.

Even though I am only on Part I, I can see that it takes incredible patience, on both parts, and incredible kindness. I know it has only been half a day but I have enjoyed hanging out on my bathroom floor with both my boys talking about bowel movements.

I mean really, how awesome is it to be a Mom of two boys, getting to discuss crap all day. Win!

I had David pick out colors for my toes while we waited for some potty action.

Since 8 am, we have had 3 messes and 1 potty. Even though it doesn't seem like much yet, the first hour there were tears even mentioning anything about a potty. So, getting David to actually sit and go potty is a feat in my eyes.

I have read so many things about not pushing him too much to potty and being supportive and encouraging instead of trying to make him go. It all makes sense.

I figure he will just sit on the potty until he goes.Within a reasonable time limit of course.

After lunch I tried to have him potty again with no luck so I slapped a pull-up on him and we will do a repeat of the morning when he wakes up.

Here's to hoping!