Our Busy Bags

Have you ever wondered how to keep your little one entertained at a restaurant?  Well we found a great way! 

Busy Bags!!

Currently I redid our bags to fit the newer interests of the kiddo.

Here are the two currently in rotation that just got finished!

I keep them in pencil cases I got at the dollar store.  Easy to transport and easy to keep nicely zipped up!

This is what you find in the red one!  I got the straws from the dollar store.  A pack of 10 for a dollar.  The white squares are just stiff fabric I had in my fabric scraps and the snow flakes I cut from left over holiday cards we never sent.  I cut a small hole in the middle of each square and snowflake.  This gives the child the ability to thread these items on the straws!

This activity kept her busy earlier today, our "testing time", for about 30 minutes. That is plenty of time for a restaurant to bring you out your food!

She was so intense while doing her threading.  Each piece had to be on there just right.  She got a little frustrated with the snowflakes, as they have no give currently, but she still sat there and worked hard at this.

The second bag is super simple, but oddly kept her just as busy!  This one is filled with small animals I also got at the dollar store.  The shiny cardstock is also from my craft tote (I have a rather extensive craft tote for someone without much time to craft...).  I just got the cardstock down to manageable squares.  

The objective s to place the animals on to their own little square.  They are all dogs, so we do that then we talk about the different colors and types.  We have two dogs, so she knows a lot about puppies from just her own.  

When all was said and done, this activity kept her attention about 25 minutes.  Which at most places you are going to go with a two year old, that is plenty of time to get your food!

The whole idea here is to provide entertainment that lasts long enough to get the food you ordered and keep the kiddo from running around screaming her head off.

I have high hopes for these little bags.  As I finish up the other two, I will gladly review those as well!  I also plan to do a post on everything we take to keep the kiddo interested and not running in the aisles or screaming so loud other patrons are uncomfortable.

Freezer cooking

View of my kitchen as I work.  So much going on!

Sometimes I have to do not so fun things.  One of those is freezer cooking. I know, I know, I love cooking, but sometimes putting together 30 meals is just tiring.

Movie 1... made it an hour.

I'm gonna be unable to cook for a little while, so present me is stocking the freezer in hopes that future us are happy and full.

Part of that means I have to occupy the kiddo!

In comes that wonderful thing called screen time.  Sure, we are unlimited, but that doesn't mean we have the TV on every second of the day.

So in my quest to fill the freezer, I broke down and let her watch movies.  Movies I've been avoiding like the plague.

When in doubt... Moana

And she surprised me by not really caring for any of them.

But they occupied her in critical moments, like pulling things out of the oven or throwing things in the deep freeze.

All in all I got 20 some odd meals put up, with 2 more types to make, which will give us roughly 31 meals total for breakfast, lunch, and supper.  I want to put up a few more for breakfast, but right now I'm just trying to get suppers together.

I am happy with today's work.  Hopefully baby girl can give me one more day, but I'm thinking tomorrow might be a park day!  Get out of the jammies and get moving again.

First complete meal. 
Sloppy Joe Sliders