new shoes

Dave and I went to a halloween party on saturday night and I brought out a pair of red heels to wear with my costume. Riley saw them and jumped into them. I haven't been able to get them back to actually put them away. He calls them his new dancing shoes. all day long I hear clickity clack. SO funny.

halloween

this year was the first year Riley actually got to choose his own costume. out of all the hundreds of things he could have chosen...he chose this little number. It was love at first sight. I didn't buy it right away and he did nothing but talk about it and ask for it.


yes a hamburger. that's my goofy kid. it was a hit though and I made his hat. which we didn't even need. it was a beautiful night for trick or treating.

trick or treating this year was soo much fun. we went last year but after about a dozen houses he was done. this year he was soo excited and talked about it for days before. we went to a different neighborhood with our neighbors and their kiddos. it was a blast!

reward chart

so, my sweet used to be 2 year old entered the world of 3 with full force. he is still sweet and funny and a good listener, most of the time, but he has really been testing his limits. So after doing a lot of looking around, I decided to start him a reward chart. I chose to do a tic tac toe grid. the sheet has four rows of four grids. he gets to put a sticker in a box for things like picking up his toys without being asked, using his nice voice and not the screaming one ( please and thank you is great..but not when it's being screamed at you) and just following directions the first time I ask. when he fills a grid he gets to pick a treat. anything from a cookie or fruit snack to a sticker and extra time at the park. when he fills up two rows, then he gets to either get extra tv time or a trip to target to pick out a new hot wheel. and then for filling the entire page he gets to pick a fun trip like pump it up, the zoo or a lunch date to where ever he chooses. within reason of course. it seems to be working. it's nice to see him so excited about his accomplishments. So i was wondering if any of my other mommy friends out there have had to start similar charts or what do you guys do for rewarding good behavior?
Since I haven't blogged in awhile, Some other things going on with us...we had some family photos taken last month, we were without a computer for a week or so, Riley is doing great with potty training..if only I could get him to poop on the potty. he stays dry...any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. I know once he does it he will be good to go.. I have been searching for a preschool for him for a few months now, I am having a hard time finding one with an extended birthday date. The only one I found we are on a waiting list for because the class is only 8 kids and it's full. and he needs to be fully potty trained to go. almost there, except for the poop.I am off to sew a fleece hat to go with riley's Halloween costume. he has been telling me all week that he really wants to go trick or treating and driving me crazy! is this what my parents felt like during holidays? and this morning he told us that he really needed a cookie, really pathetic and weak like. ( it didn't work). until next time!

party!

We had decided to do a small party at the house for Riley for his birthday. We took him to the beach on his actual birthday. I was thinking like 10 people...but it ended up being more like 46! Most of them being kids. I was looking around during the party and was overwhelmed a little by all the people that love and care about my son. He is one lucky kid. We had a great time. I made cupcakes instead of a getting a cake. and because Of the number I needed to make I had to get creative and make my own cupcake stand. I was rather pleased with the way it tuned out. Instead of games, because I am not big on party games, I created a craft table with glue sticks, color pages, construction paper, foam stickers and crayons and markers and stickers. it was a hit. even the adults could be found coloring at the table :0) outside I had some lightning mcqueen beach balls I scored at the dollar tree and some bubbles with large wands, sidewalk chalk. I found some trophy's for free at a garage sale a few weeks ago and snatched them up. When I pulled them out for the party Riley got all excited..My piston cup! I used them for candy bowls. I found some free clip art and made my own labels using address labels and just stuck them around the chocolate pieces. they were a big hit. I also took the same idea for gift bags and just stuck them onto paper bags. The party was a big success.
The next day we got up early and headed to the beach for the day. It was beautiful day! Riley was so excited to go. we went to the aquarium, outlet malls, and of course the beach. that was his favorite. all the way there he was telling us that he was going to swim in the ocean. Umm, yeah. then we hit our favorite candy store on the way out and got some taffy and homemade Carmel. what a great way to spend a birthday! happy big 3 little man!

11 more days

and I will have a 3 year old in my house! (and the new found "attitude" to prove it!) I am amazed that we are about to celebrate Riley's 3rd birthday. time has flown, and I couldn't be prouder of the little boy he has become. He is very polite, independant, funny and a great problem solver. The conversations that take place these days are so fun. I love how simple things seem to him. things just are the way they are. everything has to be done "by myself". and he has all of sudden about 2 weeks ago decided that he wanted to use the potty. he stays dry as long as I remind him to go. but I noticed today that he was been starting to figure out going unprompted by himself. Now of I could just get him to poo in the potty :0) He is still my little guy..barely 3 feet tall and 30 pounds. only in a size 6.5 shoe, and still crazy about his friends from radiator springs. He amazes me everyday, and I can't wait to see what the coming year brings!

update #2

So, not that anyone probably cares...but I do :0) here is how the rest of the week went. we had tacos, pretty simple. cooked the meat ahead of time and then reheated the night of. the baked chicken burgers ( and potato salad) : they were really easy and pretty yummy. I will probably omit the mayo next time and add it after. something about warm mayo kinda ruined it for me. SO i will try again and re modify the recipe for us. johnny marzetti ( or meat mixture on cheesy noodles) this one was really yummy. made the meat mixture and then the noodles and froze them in separate bags. defrosted and reheated. I will make the noodles next time on cooking night. Mine ended up really dry and didn't reheat very well. but I will make again. we were supposed to have turkey burgers, but was making some spicy honey chicken for the freezer so we had that for dinner instead with leftover potato salad. Korean beef on friday, always a family favorite here at our house. saturday night we ate out (too hot for anything).

my grocery bill this week came to 93.99 dollars. I scored big on some bogo packs of boneless chicken breast and boneless chicken thighs. I got 11 meals out of my 4 packages of chicken. I think it's pretty good, but I could have done better. I will post my menu later for this coming week, I am not sure if I will be able to execute it this week, I may be breaking into some of my stashed away steaks and what not as they weather is going to be very hot and I dont want the stove on at all. but thats alright, that just means I have my meals for the following week :0)

OAWC update

So..I spent thursday night and part of friday getting my meals for the week ready. I spent 90.00 at the grocery store, which is about 30-40 more than usual. But I found a great deal on some steaks. they were buy one get one free and I actually bought the roast instead and got a roast free and cut my own steaks and ended up with 6 steaks total. I got 13 meals out of my groceries. I was pretty happy.
On friday night we had spicy honey glazed chicken thighs. Sooo yummy! we threw them on the grill and once I basted the glaze on we had our neighbors asking us for the recipe :0) I bought a pack of 14 and got 2 meals out of them. I was afraid 7 weren't going to be enough for the 3 of us because they are so small. But we had some left over and I sliced up the leftovers and had them on a salad for lunch on friday. I served them with green salad, which I always have and found a can of baked beans out on my pantry shelf. saturday we had lasagna with green salad and garlic bread. I actually made this friday and had enough for 2..so one was eaten and one was frozen. I am hoping that if this keeps up..I will get a free week at the end of the month. Tonight we had tangy marinated steak with leftover baked beans and we threw the other half of the garlic bread on the grill with it. easy peasy. It was soo yummy! I had made three of them and three batches of korean beef with the other 3 steaks. I have noticed that cooking this way has saved me on a lot of dishes and time. which is fine with me! I will review again in a couple of days when we have tried a few more!