Why I Love it Wednesday - Cuisinart Little Pro

When my husband came home with the Cuisinart Little Pro my first thought was why do we need another food processor.  We already have a larger food processor, so I couldn't figure out why he thought we NEEDED this.  It sat around for a couple of months and got some use but not too much...until I started making baby food for our little man.  I was about to puree some steamed carrots and thought - why don't I just try the little food processor and it quickly became a staple in my kitchen.  It is almost always on the counter and since it doesn't take up much space it is perfect.  I now use it for almost all of the baby's food.  Not only that but I have started using it for other food preparation in the kitchen and find it much more useful than lugging out the bigger food processor.

What I use it for:

• Baby food - it puree's to a perfect consistency
• Puree tomato and other veggies for sauces
• Chopping Veggies
• To make Dips
• For making pie fillings
• and any other time I need to Chop

Why I Love it:

• It's small
• It can stay right on the counter
• It only has a few pieces and is very easy to clean
• It is PERFECT for making baby food
• It chops to perfection
• and is powerful for it's small size.

If you don't already have a smaller food processer I highly recommend checking this on out.

Wordless Wednesday - Carnival

See more Wordless Wednesday at:

5 Minutes for Mom

Seven Clown Circus

A Beautiful Mess

Live and Laugh out Loud

Preschool Colors and Shapes Bingo and Tuesday Tag Along

It is Tuesday Tag Along time again...so head on over to Twee Poppets to link up and meet some new blogging friends

Preschool Colors and Shapes Bingo

What is the best way to get your preschooler (I actually suggest this starting at 2 if your child is already doing ok with recognizing shapes and colors) to work on Numbers, Colors, Shapes, etc...? Make it fun.

I found this great product at Barnes and Noble and the best part is that it is only $6.25 at Barnes and noble.

There are a couple of reasons that I like it, but most of all you children will be learning while they think they are just playing. I am always in the market for games that can make learning fun and this is a great choice. Another benefit is that it is a great beginner game - it will help you little ones learn about following the rules and taking turns. Since they get to place a chip on the card with almost every spin they don't get distracted or bored.  If you have children in the 2-4 age range I suggest trying out this game.

Homemade Baby Food - What's on the Baby's Plate this week

 

It is Tuesday again and that means its time for Follow Me Back Tuesday hosted by:

Survey Junkie
Little Yaya's
Review Retreat
Boobies,Babies and a Blog

We went blueberry picking on Saturday (again - we went last weekend too) and got a ton of blueberries. Though I have read that you should wait until about 8 months, we decided to try blueberries as our new food this week (he is 7 months, but he has no allergy concerns, does really good with chewing and does fine with items that have some consistency). As a note, we were told by our pediatrician that Blueberries are not in the same "berry family" as strawberries and as such the allergy concern isn't as high is it is with Strawberries (unless there is a family history, etc...)


Blueberry preparation:
 - Bring water (about 1/2 a cup) to a boil, add blueberries (about 1/2 pint) and let them cook until soft.  From there put them the blueberries only (reserve the cooking liquid) into your pureeing devise of choice (blender, food processor, etc... I use the Cuisinart Little Pro) and puree to the desired consistency.

   Additional tips:
    - If you need to thin the consistency while blending use some of the reserved from cooking liquid.
    - If the consistency if too thin for you little one add rice cereal, applesauce or mashed banana
    - Keep an eye out for stray skins after blending.  When they are cooked and pureed whatever skin they get they would probably be able to chomp through anyway - but just to be safe I would pull out any stray skins.

Here is what he will be eating this week:
Acorn Squash (steamed and pureed)
Sweet Potato (steamed and pureed)
Carrots (steamed and pureed)
Applesauce (Trader Joe's Natural - Only has water and apples)
Banana (mashed or just cut into small pieces)
Blueberries (see preparation above)

Possible Combo's this week:
I am not 100% sure what combo's I will give him this week. But here is what I am thinking of doing.

Blueberries and Applesauce (with and without rice cereal)
Sweat Potato and Banana
Squash, Sweet Potato and Carrot
Applesauce with rice cereal
Carrot and Applesauce

In addition, he will probably get some gerber puffs and/or Mum-Mum's to snack on so that he can work on feeding himself. These items are really just practice foods. Sometimes he does ok with getting them to his mouth, but other times they all just end up on the floor. Either way, he is working on his hand / eye coordination and self-feeding.

I would love some other idea's / suggestions, so what is on your little one's plates this week?

5 year old quote of the day

Brady: "Daddy can I have the baby name book?"

Daddy: "why?"

Brady: "Because when I grow up I want to have a baby and I can use the book to start thinking about names"

- Well I guess you can't argue with that....except for the fact that he can't really read yet....  :)

Ethan is 7 months old....

Friday Bloghops and A fun Summer Treat

It's Friday again and time for all of the Friday Blog hops....visit the following sites to link up.







Now I would like to share with you a fun and healthy summer treat.  I can't take credit for it - I saw it on Wholesome Baby Food (one of my favorite sites by the way)....

So here it is - Refreshing Frozen Yogurt Treats:

They are so simple - just grab a yogurt cup out of the fridge, stick a wooden stick right throught the foil on top and stick them in the freezer.  Wait a few hours and you have a healthy, frozen summer snack for your little ones. 

I am always looking for fun healthy snacks for my 5 year old and he loves yogurt so this will be perfect.  I am going to try it tonight so that he can have it for a snack tomorrow.  I am so glad I found it - I can't believe that I never thought to try it. I have a feeling that we will be having this snack on a regular basis this summer.

Wordless Wednesday - Amusement Park

See More Wordless Wednesday posts at:
A Beautiful Mess
5 Minutes For Mom
Live and Love Out Loud

Travel Tip Tuesday - Don't try to cram too much in

When you go on vacation, we all seem to want to do as much as possible and when vacation is over you come home just as exhausted (if not more) as you were when you left. I recommend trying to cut down on the things that you plan to do on your vacation. This can be extremely hard, especially if you are traveling to a place like Disney and you have little ones that just want to see everything. I can promise you that even if you go everyday for a week you probably won't see everything - so don't try. I am using Disney as an example, but this can and will happen on any vacation (unless your vacation is planned in a way that your only goal is to sit on the beach / at the pool all day everyday).
This can be a very hard thing to do. Parents have things that they want to do/see on vacation, children have different things (probably very different) that they want to do and see...and if you have more than one child, the fun things that everyone wants to accomplish is one week begins to add up quickly.

How do you avoid this?
1.) Let each person in the family have one day where you will do what they want (Mom picks what you do on Monday, Child 1 picks what you do on Tuesday, etc..) and the extra days can be used for relaxing at the Hotel pool or beach, or even finding a local State Park and picnicking. I find this to be VERY important especially with little ones (though I will admit that on our last vacation we did not follow these rules). The little ones need down time and if you are on the go everyday for a week they will be exhausted and that will not be a happy end to the vacation for anybody.

- When we took our older son to Disney at 3 years old we went to the parks every other day...I think we went 4 out of the 7 days we were there. We spent the other days checking out our resort, playing games, swimming, etc... He was able to nap on those days which led to a much happier little man throughout the entire vacation.

2.) Limit each person to one (maybe two) things to do on their day. Obviously the number will be based on what they are choosing to do, but try not to pick more than a couple of things. If your child really wants to go swimming on their day choose that as a morning activity and then allow them to pick an appropriate afternoon activity as well. If you child wants to go to Animal Kingdom at Disney - that is an all day activity so they get one activity for their day.

3.) Try to use the extra days (that have not been assigned to a family member) to break up the week. For example if you will be on vacation for 5 days and you have 4 people in your family, assign day one and two to family members, keep day three as an extra day and then assign day four and five to the remaining family members. By breaking up the week you will feel like you have had at least some down time during the trip.

Some other helpful hints -
Do some planning in advance and give your children a short list of suggestions for their day. This works especially well with little ones who may find that it is difficult to make a decision for what they want to do on their day.

Stick to it.  It is so easy to stray from the plan once you are on vacation.  If you can stick to it (or at least something close to your plan) you will leave for home feeling like you have actually had a vacation.

Check out my other Travel Tip Tuesday Posts.

Get $25 Restaurant Certificates for $2 Nationwide and Follow me Back Tuesday

It's time for Follow me Back Tuesday at Survey Junkie...Stop by and link up



Now for the good stuff...I just found this today and thought I would share.

Go to the following link and it will give you the instruction on how to get $2 Restaurant Certificates at participating places Nationwide.  This will link you to Restaurant.com.

• Enter your zip code. 
• Browse the list of places in you area
• Select a $20 certificate (original price $10) and add to your cart
• Once it is in your cart it asks for a promo code - type "APE"
• Your price will drop from $10 to $2

I selected a few in my area just to make sure it worked. It looks like it will let you apply it to multiple purchases too.

Be sure to do it soon thought as the offer ends on June 24th

Tasty Tuesday - Semi-homemade pineapple cupackes

Stop by Tasty Tuesday at A Beautiful Mess for this recipe and some wonderful other recipes...and share your favorites too.

At times I am lazy when it comes to baking...I know I am not the only one - so take a look.

I made these for Brady's family Sponge Bob birthday party...and they made a HUGE hit.

What you need
Butter cake mix (whatever brand is you favorite)

Butter and eggs for the cake mix

Crushed pineapple

Store bought (or home made) cream cheese frosting

Food coloring

How to prepare
I take a box butter cake mix and prepare based on the box directions, except I replace some of the water with the juice from the crushed pineapple

Fill the cupcake tin about 1/2 of the way

Put a small amount of the crushed pineapple in the middle (the amount you want to include will be based on you taste)

Top off with batter

Cook following box directions (usually about 20 minutes)

Once cupcakes are cooked and cooled, split the cream cheese frosting into a few containers...add a couple of drops of food coloring and mix

and then frost

These are so simple - and alternatively you can add the pineapple right into the batter if you don't want to take the extra step to layer into the cupcake tin.

Three new Teeth and Tuesday Tag Along

Come join Tuesday Tag Along hosted by Twee Poppets....This is a great way to discover new blogs while increasing the number of followers for your own blog.

Now onto the other part of my post...My baby cut three new teeth this weekend - yes 3!!! Poor Little Man. He is doing really well with them but has been biting like crazy on everything.  He has been a little fussy but nowhere near what I would have expected with three teeth coming through. 

Tooth count is now up to 5.  This picture is from a few days ago - if you look closely you will see tooth number three on the bottom starting to poke through (it is really sticking out now) and  the other two new ones are on the top but he wasn't allowing me to get a good picture.

Family Fun on a Budget - Picking Fruit

The weather was great this weekend - Kind of hot but not too bad. We spent most of Saturday afternoon inside a movie theater with our 5 year old (like every other parent with children this age we saw Toy Story 3 this weekend)...so we wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the weather on Sunday. We decided to go fruit picking. Most people don't think about fruit picking until it is apple season. For some reason many people pick apples with the family annually but most people don't think of other fruits that you can probably go pick locally.

We love this a budget friendly family day out. I looked at the websites for some local farms that I knew of to see what they had available for picking and based on that selected where we wanted to go. If you are not familiar with farms in your area that do this, I suggest searching on the internet or talking to friends and family who may know of places. I know that my State has a "Pick your own" website that lists all the farms that allow you to pick produce and gives you a brief description of what they have. It also includes links to the Farm's website which then gave us all of the information that we needed - what was available for picking, hours, location, phone number, etc...

We decided on Cherries and Blueberries. We thought about Strawberries but decided that since my husband has been having back issues and I would be holding the little man in the bjorn that it neither of us would be able to pick them and that would leave the 5 year old as the only one picking strawberries which we then thought may be more messy than we would have liked so we passed on the strawberries. We also opted against the raspberries because prickers and 5 year olds just don't seem to get along well.

We love doing cherries and blueberries because they are easy for the five year old to pick. The trees for the cherries have branches that are low enough to reach and as long as you give him a quick example of which ones you are looking for he can pick away. The problem that we ran into with the cherries is that the 5 year old doesn't know how to eat them with the pit - se we were splitting them apart and de-pitting them for him while trying to pick them too. The blueberries were much easier for him. He could just grab them and shove them in his mouth. Just be sure to bring a couple of bottles of water to rinse the fruit before they eat it. I can't say that I got all of them before they hit his mouth but I did get most of them.

Why should you choose this as a family outing:

- You need to buy fruit anyway

- It is locally grown

- You can enjoy a little snack while you are picking

- you children will have fun

- They usually have bake shops with yummy items (we bought a couple of cherry donuts to share - they were so good)

The best part is that we got prices that were comparable or better than the grocery store. We paid $3.99 per pound for cherries (which is right around what they were a our grocery store last week) and $2.25 a found (not pint...a pound) for blueberries. We did really well with the blueberry price - do you know how many blueberries make up a pound???? A lot.

If they continue that blueberry price I will be going again very soon to stock up and freeze them for other points in the year.

Depending on the time of year we have previously brought our 5 year to pick strawberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, plums, apples, pumpkins...I think we did pears one year too. It is a great way to spend some time out of the house and I promise (as long as your children like fruit) your children will love that they can snack while they are picking.

This is the first time we brought our little guy fruit picking - at 3 years old

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 





and here is him picking fruit this past weekend
 

See my other Family Fun on a Budget posts

Meet and Greet Monday

It is time for Meet and Greet Monday at Southern Reflections.




and here is a picture of our Fruit Picking that we did today -

100th follower

Not only did I hit 100 posts this week but also 100 followers.  Thank you to my 100th follower My New Life as Mom and to all my followers.  I hope that you are all enjoying my blog.

Friday Bloghops and preschool graduation

Hi everyone...I will start with the bloghops - there are so many...so please visit the following to find some great blogs and meet some new blogging friends.

 

Now for the preschool graduation

I can't believe it, but my little man graduated from preschool.  All the children got up and sang some adorable songs and then they did a little ceremony calling all of the children up one by one to get the diploma.  Then they had cookies and ice cream for all the families.  It was so cute....

I am still amazed that my little guy will be starting Kindergarten in a few short months.

and here he is with two of his friends...dont they look overjoyed???

Thoughtless Thursday and coupon code for a FREE 8 X 10 collage photo

Hi everyone welcome to Thoughtless Thursday with hosted by Life in the Fulmer Lane. 

For my thoughtless Thursday I wanted to give you all a coupon code for a FREE 8X10 Collage Photo from Walgreens.com.  The code is GOBIG8X10 - input it at checkout and you will have a FREE 8X10 Collage Photo at your nearest store for pickup within a couple of hours.

Wordless Wednesday - Pirate Festival...and my 100th post

Well this is actually 101 - but I wanted to share my 100th post as well.

See more wordless wednesday at 5 minutes for mom

My 100th post

In just under 3 months I have been able to hit my 100th post.  I am so excited that I have been able to make it this far.  I am loving blogging so far.

First I want to thank all of my followers.  You are great and I love reading all of your comments on my posts.

My blog already become a mess of things:
Travel Tip Tuesday's (which I am skipping tonight to post about number 100),
Why I love it Wednesdays (discussions of some of my favorite things),
Family Fun on a Budget tips,
Homemade Baby food
and all these topics are tied together with the fun adventures we have on a day to day basis with our two little guys

I hope that eveyone really enjoys my blog and please continue to leave comments so that I can make my next 100 even better.

Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop - Sweet Potato Muffins

This is my first time participating in Tasty Tuesday (at A Beautiful Mess) and I am so happy to be able to find so many fun recipes.

Here is one of my favorite things to make for the family on a Sunday Morning....

Sweet Potato Muffins (or carrot or squash) are a great way to incorporate vegetables into your children's diet.

The followinf recipe makes a rather dense muffin, so if you want a lighter muffin use your favorite muffin recipe as a base.

Ingredients

3 cups self-rising flour

2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

 - I keep the nuts and raisins out of the initial batch and then add them to my variations below.
 - I also suggest modifying the amount of sugar based on the other items that you are adding (for example, in my modifications below you will see that we add fruit - when adding fruit you can cut back on a good amount of sugar)
 
Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon. In a bowl, beat the eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir in sweet potatoes. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raisins and nuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.


This makes about 36 Servings

Since this recipe makes so many muffins I like to split the batch and make some fun variation.  Here are some modifications that we make:

• Sweet Potato and Peaches 
• Sweet Potato and applesauce
• Sweet Potato and banana
• Sweet Potato and Peeches with chopped nuts and brown sugar

You children will love them and the are a healthy way to modify your muffins

Homemade Baby Food - What's on the baby's plate this week?

As many of you know, I am making our little guy's baby food so I thought that this would be an interesting way to track what he is eating as well as giving some ideas and helpful hints to others making baby food.

 

We have been having great luck at our local market for fruits and veggies so we stocked up on Friday.  The best deal was peaches for $0.49 per pound.  You will see that my weekend posts are all food related and all include peaches.

 

Preparation for the peaches - cut them in half, remove the pit and throw them in the steamer (one of my favorite baby food making tools).  Once they are steamed the skin just about falls off, so remove the skin and mash.  That is it - so simple.  If the consistency is still thicker than you would like it just through it in the food processor or blender until it is the desired consistency.

 

So here is what he will be eating this week:

Peaches (steamed and mashed)

Sweet Potato (steamed and mashed)

Mashed Banana (a staple and one of his favorites)

Butternut Squash

Mango (new food for the week)

 

 - I also have some pears so I may make them too we will see how the week goes

 

Our combo's this week will be:

Sweet Potato and Banana

Squash and Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato or squash with Trader Joe's Natural Applesauce (just water and apples)

Rice Cereal with Peaches or applesauce

 

My little guy just started on the gerber puffs too.  It is still more playing than eating at this point but he is doing ok with holding them and getting them to his mouth and he chews away and grinds them down with his two little teeth.  So he will probably eat / play with them this week too.

 

I am also looking for a recipe for teething biscuits if anyone has a good one.

Monday Meet and Greet and Sweet Potato Muffins

To join the Monday Meet and Greet stop by Southern Reflections



If you follow my blog, you may know that we have some trouble getting our 5 year old to eat veggies.  I found some recipes for Sweet Potato muffins (I also found some for squash muffins, carrot muffins and my mom has one for spinach muffins)  and decided to try them this morning.

They came out really good - the recipe that I used was actually a little more dense than I would like, but I can fix that in the future.  The recipe made 36 muffins so I made the base sweet potato recipe and then made the following variations:

• Sweet Potato and Peaches
• Sweet Potato and Peaches with crused nuts and brown sugar on top
• Sweet Potato with applesauce and peaches
• Sweet Potato and banana

They were really yummy and yes....the five year old ate them (and enjoyed them). 

Brady also helped me make them...he loves cooking / baking with us.

Grilled Peaches

We cooked on the grill tonight and threw some of the peaches that we bought this afternoon on the grill too.  We didn't put anything on them just cut them in half and threw them on.  We had never cooked them on the grill before but had seen it on cooking shows on TV and decided to give it a shot.

They were great...and both boys ate them and loved them.  Yes even the baby.  He was going to town with them.  The five year old was a little hesitant at first - but enjoyed them once he tried it.

Friday Blog Hop - Social Parade

Smart and Trendy Moms . We created it for socializing and to get new followers, fans, subscribers, readers without feeling overwhelmed. Every week will be a new link-up that will focus on following blogs, getting new readers to your blog! We will have Wild Card week to focus on the other ways you engage people with your blog. Its about fun one follower,fan and reader at a time!

It's time for the Friday Blog-Hop....

Social Parade Followers Friday Blog-Hop is a weekly link-up hosted by


* Follow the blog in the first spot. I will follow all on the linky as time allows! All blogs participating must post about Social Parade every week.


* Link-up your blog post for "It's a Social Parade" that you made on your blog. See the F.A.Q and Updates for help

* Follow as many as you like commenting on their POST as you do so they can follow back!

* If you do not make a post and link that up, it is unlikely that someone will search around for a post to comment on.

Thoughtless Thursday - Vacation Wrap Up (Day 1 and 2)...

I am finally getting a chance to write about our vacation...a week later. 

I was a little bit nervous to take both boys on the longest road trip that we have taken.  The car ride was 8 hours each way, assuming no traffic or stops - which you know doesn't happen.  We made the decision to stop approximately half way through in Hershey, PA.  This was a perfect stopping point for us since we have been there many time and therefore knew where to go, what to do, and had some ideas of where we should stay.  With all that said we did one thing on this trip that I rarely recommend...we got in the car without a hotel booked.  We weren't positive that we were going to stop in Hershey, so we did check out some hotels but we didn't book anything.  This proved to be a great move for us since we ended up getting our hotel in Hershey for $50 using Roomsaver.

We were on the road by 6am...yes with two little ones we managed to get out that eary - I was shocked.  This was perfect because we missed most of the traffic and made it to Hershey early in the day.  We called a hotel when we were about an hour away, they told us they have availability and that they would have a room ready when we got there. 

Since we got there early we were able to do some fun things in the Hershey area that day.  We went to Chocolate World.  For those of you who don't know about this place it is a great place to go with your small children.  They have a ride that shows you how they make chocolate, they have a 3-D movie, they have an assembly line set up that your children can pretend that they are making the chocolate, they have a brand new make your own candy bar activity (I will write more about this later in my trip re-cap) and of course they have a store to but anything and everything Hershey.

As I said, we have been there before but Brady was super excited this time.  He loved every part of it.  It is a perfect low key and cheap family activity.

It was still early so we decided to visit Indian Echo Cavern.  We hadn't done this in the past because Brady was too little, but we decided we would try it this time.  It is amazing they take you down 100 feet and take you through explaining the detail of how this was natuarally created and how it changes with the weather.  It was exciting for Brady and interesting for me.  Ethan got cranky about half way through so my husband took him out and they relaxed in the car while Brady and I finished the tour.  It was amazing.

Now onto day 2 - we woke up and got on the road an headed to Herr's Snack food Factory.  They have a free tour with a short video about the company and then they take you through the plant.  You actually get to see them making different items...we saw them making popcorn, pretzels and potato chips.  They best part they give you warm chips that were just made in the factory - yummy.  Again, a perfect thing for a 5 year old - he loved it and had his face planted up against the glass throughout the whole tour.  They didn't allow picture in the plant, but here is one after the tour.

Unfortunatly the rest of the day didn't go quite the way we planned and we hit a ton of traffic.  So we ended up stopping at another unplanned hotel about an hour away from our final destination - Williamsburg, VA.  We used Roomsaver again and once again got our room for about $50. 

So there it is...Day 1 and day 2 - there is plenty more vacation adventure ahead once I get some time to blog about the rest of our trip.

Thursday Friends and Giveaway's Social Parade

I am joining the Thursday Friends and Giveaway's Social Parade....

Grab our cute "Cafe Button" at tammys two cents and post it on your blog...and link up by adding your Blog Name and Blog URL.

For any new visitor's - I hope that you like my blog...and to my current blogging friends thanks for stopping by.

Wordless Wednesday - Sleepy Baby

Travel Tip Tuesday - Williamsburg, VA

When planning a big vacation (more than a couple of days) my vacation motto is Plan, Plan, Plan.  There are many reasons that planning should be a big part of your vacation preparation, but the biggest reason is that it can save you money....and who doesn't like to save money???

 

On our recent vacation we visited Williamsburg, VA, prior to planning the trip we got online to determine what we wanted to do while we were there.  We knew we wanted to go to Bush Gardens (for those of you with little ones - they have a Sesame Street section that your little ones will enjoy) for at least a couple of days, we figured we would go to the waterpark for a day (or at least half a day) and we thought that we would like to visit Colonial Williamsburg.  From there we started to price it out to determine how much it would cost. As you all know Theme Park vacations can get very expensive very quickly.

 

On the Bush Gardens Website we found the following for Daily Passes (for my husband and I and the five year old it would have been $175.85 for one day plus $13 in parking).  Remember that this is just one park for one day. 

 

2010 Regular Admission Rates
Regular Admission                      $61.95 
Child Admission (ages 3-9)          $51.95
Children 2 and under                   Free
Parking                                      $13

 

We continued to look and found a multi-day ticket.  This was for up to 7 consectutive days and granted you admission to both Bush Gardens and Water Country (parking was not included).  This sounded like a much better deal.  The price was $69.95 ages three and up.  What a great deal - for seven days we would be paying just over the price of a single day admission and we would be able to go to both parks.  For my husband, myself and the five year old it would be $209.85 for three days. 

 

Regular (Ages 3 & Up)

$69.95

 

We continued to look and found the Williamsburg Bounce Pass, which ended up being the best deal for us.  It included Bush Gardens, and Water Country as did the one above, but this one also included Colonial Williamsburg.  The pass was good for 7 consecutive days and also included parking which is a savings ove $13 per day...and the best part - It was free for children under 6.  The total cost for our family was $197.60 only $21.75 more than a one day pass for the family.

 

Adult (Ages 18 & Up)

$98.80

Child (Ages 6-17)

$82.00

Child Under 6yrs

$0.00

 

We only ended up being there for 4 days (instead of the 7 included in the pass) and we decided to skip Colonial Williamsburg because we figured it wouldn't be as much fun for the five year old.  We saved a ton of money and we found these deals right on the Bush Gardens Website.

 

If you are planning a trip to that area, or even if you are not I would check out these deals.  You will be surprised at how affordable a Theme Park vacation can be.

 

Also take a look at my other Travel Tip Tuesday posts.

What is on the baby's plate this week???

I have been making most of his baby food for the past two months (since he started food at 4 months).  I have to admit he has been getting more pre-made stuff than I would like in the last week or so, but that is because we were on vacation and it was easier to throw a jar in the diaper bag.

 

We are back to it.  My husband stopped at this great market near us - fruits and veggies are so cheap (and grown locally as much as possible).  He got three bags of fruits and veggies for about $12.  So last night I made Ethan's food for the week.  He will be having two of his favorites (sweet potato and carrots) and a new item (parsnips).  I am interested to see how he does with the parsnips - we will probably end up mixing with another familiar flavor, but we will see how it goes.  The veggies will be supplemented with banana's, another one of his favorite foods, and Trader Joe's Natural Applesauce (just apples and water). 

 

When introducing new items I like to offer them alone so that we can see how he reacts to the flavor.  For items that he has previously eaten we have been trying combinations.

 

Fruit and Veggie combo's this week will be:

Sweet Potato and Banana

Carrots and Applesauce (my 5 year old will also get this for a snack, he will probably eat sweet potato and applesauce too)

Monday Meet and Greet

This is my first Monday Meet and Great.  To participate stop by Southern Reflections.

If you are stopping by from the Meet and Great - I hope you enjoy my blog.