Disney!

We are starting to plan our first Disney vacation! We would love to hear from those of you who have been. Particularly if your youngest child was around the age of 2 when you went :) Here are specific things I am wondering, if you feel like sharing :

-how old were your kids when you went
-how long did you stay
-could you have stayed longer or do you think you stayed too long
-was there enough for the littlest ones to do
-recommendations on things that are "must see" or "don't do"

Comments are moderated on here, so I won't publish them....so feel free to share as much as you want!

The Fresh 20

The meal planning service that I mentioned in my last post, The Fresh 20, is offering a special on MooLaLa today. You can get a 3 month subscription for $7 (instead of $15). Unfortunately it isn't valid for current subscribers :( But, I thought some of you might be interested. Click here for details or to purchase.

What Happened to the Grocery Challenge??

I know everyone has been wondering about our menus & the grocery challenge. Well, I gave up after 2 weeks (as I thought I might). There were a few reasons I stopped. One being that we decided to spend the 4th of July with John's parents & they prepared some great meals for us. I didn't think it would be right to continue with the challenge if we had someone else cooking for us for almost 3 days. But the biggest reason was that I was sitting at home during the second week (after having done my grocery shopping & spending my budget) wanting to bake something to freeze but was afraid I wouldn't have enough milk for the week. I decided that it was crazy for me to not do something because I might go over my $75 budget. Maybe I'll try it again next year....Timothy will count next year so my budget would be higher :)

I did find a menu planning service that I wanted to share. It is The Fresh 20. They do "real food" menus using fruits & veggies that are currently available at farmer's markets (& of course at grocery stores). I have used it for the past few weeks. They do 5 dinner menus per week (for 2 adults, 2 kids) & the cost is supposed to be around $80. There are usually 1 or 2 that John & I don't like but there have been some good meals. They also do a good variety of meats/fish so you aren't eating the same thing all of the time. They do use the same meats during the week though. For instance, one week you may have 2 chicken meals & 2 shrimp meals. The next week you may have 2 beef, one fish & one salad with leftover meat. There is a sample menu on their website if you want to check it out.

One other thing food-related to share. You have got to try these cookies....whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip. Best.cookies.ever. You make one batch & can freeze them. Yummy! John & Joshua both approved of these....not healthy but better than store bought!

July 4th

We spent the fourth of July with John's parents in Mentone. We didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are a few:

Joshua is still a big fan of bubbles. Too bad bubble machines don't last too long!

Seriously loves some bubbles!

I think Timothy enjoyed the swing.

This was his first time in a swing. Joshua wanted to swing in this swing too....I wish I had gotten a picture of that! He is a bit too tall but he did it anyway. We had a strap swing but he isn't too sure about that yet.

How funny is this!

Checking out some different toys.

These were our fireworks. Timothy would have been scared if we had gone to see real fireworks, & I didn't want to keep them up past their bedtimes. Of course, being in a different place, they were both up past bedtime the first night!

Our child who never naps.....crashing on the way home. He didn't even seem to mind that baby brother was screaming right beside him. Of course, this only lasted about 10 minutes & wide awake again.