20 Dye free Snacks and treats

This is a list of convenience snack foods and treats that we generally buy for on-the-go moments and school lunches. The ones I listed do not contain dye. We buy all (but one) of these snacks at our local grocery store (Meijer) or at Costco. (The YummyEarth Lollipops I order from Amazon)

1. Simply Fruit Fruit Rollups


2. YummyEarth Organic Lollipops, Assorted Flavors, 30-Ounce Container


3. Annie's Homegrown Berry Patch Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks, 5-Count Pouches (Pack of 4)


4. Veggie Straws


5. Crackers (ritz, saltines, etc...)


6. Tortilla Chips


7. Veggies and dip


8. Block cheese cut into cubes (Check ingredients!!! Annato is fine but sometimes they also use yellow lake etc)


9. Ritz Crackerfuls Four Cheese, 6-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12) (We currently have Garden Vegetable Flavor)


10. Teddy Grahams Graham Snacks - Honey, 10 oz


11. Jelly Belly Fruit Snacks


12. Lance Fresh Toasty Crackers with rich peanut butter sandwich crackers (40 packs) (Peanut Butter with NON orange cracker only!)


13. Danimals Smoothies and other varieties of the Danimal brand!!!


14. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Snack Crackers, Colors, Cheddar Taste, 30-Ounces Carton


15. Pretzels


16. Apples with Peanut butter


17. Grapes, bananas, applesauce (natural)


18. String cheese


19. Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars, Apple Cinnamon, 8-Count Bars (Pack of 4) Apple Cinnamon ONLY!


20. Stacy's Pita Chips, Simply Naked 28 oz
    

Please feel free to add any dye free options your family loves in the comment section!

Still to come... beverages, breakfast ideas, lunch ideas, dinners, desserts!

Menu on a Monday!

Monday (Mexican)- Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday (Tomato-ey)- Pop-up Pizza
Wednesday (Wild Card)- Out!
Thursday (Thrifty/Thankful)-Lasagna
Friday (Fancy)- Tortilla encrusted Tilapia and Half baked potatoes***
Saturday (Sandwich)- Hot Hoagies
Sunday (Sunshine)- Creamy Scrambled Eggs, bacon and toast

***Recipe for you!
Half Baked Potatoes
•Potatoes
•Butter/Margarine
•Seasoning salt
Cut raw potatoes in half. Using knife, cut several slits down the length of flesh. Butter flesh of all halves. Sprinkle with season salt. Bake in 350′ oven for 30-60 minutes depending on size of potatoes.

These are my husbands fave. We add even more butter when eating! Enjoy!


Food thoughts for next week
Macaroni and Cheese!
Oreo Truffles We did not get around to making these at Christmas so I definitely want to make them soon.

Saturday Seven

1. I am really enjoying my new job. Nothing else is getting done, the house is a mess and we are finding NO time to do extras with Josh. But I am having fun being back in the classroom.


2. Josh is adjusting okay to me being back at work but he hates daycare. He does not really have any real reason but he would rather be at my parents the whole week instead of just the 2 days and 3 at the daycare. It is just until June - It is just until June- It is just until June!


3. Christmas is definitely coming faster this year! We like to have our shopping done before Thanksgiving so we can just avoid the stores and enjoy the season. I am doing okay with the shopping because I mostly buy everything online. Right now I am just waiting on a few things Josh wants to go on sale. Sheesh, he sure does have expensive taste!


4. Andrew's family has a stocking tradition in which they fill stockings for everyone and pretend it is from Santa. I can not figure out how to get this done this year. I usually just did it when Josh was at school but now I do not have that time. I need to find an online source for those items too! (you know tiny and cheap! but not too junky and useless!)


5. We have 2 cats...have had them for about 8 years. They adore each other! That is until last week. All of a sudden our female cat started hissing and carrying on every morning when I fed them. Which also means she was not eating. It got so bad I started feeding them separately. They finally have made up but I just cannot imagine what the problem was!
6. Joshua was Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars for Halloween. He went trick or treating but then we traded him a penguin pillow pet for his candy. It just works out best for us since he does not care for chocolate and we do not do dye! Andrew just takes the candy in to work for the guys to eat!

Joshua at my parents house after t or t!

Have a great weekend!

Our Reading Basket

Josh is reading -

• The Bald Bandit (A to Z Mysteries) Josh is liking these okay, it helps that there is a character named Josh in the story.
• The Nixie's Song (Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1) Josh loves this whole series and reads them fast and voraciously!
• A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles) Book 2
• The Wyrm King (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3)

Shannon is reading -

• The Help I am really enjoying this book! It is about the relationship of women during the civil rights movement.
• Return To Sender I have to admit, I just love a Fern Michaels book! This one has a sweet Mother/Son relationship!

Andrew is reading-

• Under the Dome: A Novel Which is easily the biggest book I have ever seen, he says he is enjoying it!

Surprise!

I am going back to work (part time) starting tomorrow. I was not even looking for a job but received a phone call from Joshua's Young 5 teacher (from last year) on Wednesday. Her assistant changed jobs and they were wondering if I was interested. So, here we are 6 days later and I am back to work, eeeek!

The details are not yet worked out but they are getting there. The main issue is that I begin at 11am and Josh starts at 12. My Mom is available Mondays and Fridays to give him lunch and take him to school. Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday we are going to try to get him into a daycare for an hour. I will send his lunch and they will drive him to school. We have called 3 different places. One pretty much laughed at me for only wanting care for 3 hours a week, one has not returned my call, and the 3rd was fine with it and we are going to check them out before school tomorrow.

I have pretty much felt every emotion possible since Wednesday. I am nervous for sure, mostly about Josh. I kind of feel like I got what I wanted and now do not want it. I do want it of course but the whole daycare thing is stressing me out.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we begin another adventure!

Who is Parenting Who?

I frequently use the parenting technique with Josh where you get him started on an activity and then go get something of your own done checking in on him occassionally. It works pretty well and is especially useful for the dinner hour, especially when I set him up with something at the table.

So anyway, the other day, Josh asked if I would play LEGO with him. (We have been working on a project together...putting together again the tiny kits that came in his Advent calendar from Christmas...searching for the pieces in his big tub of mixed up pieces!) I agreed and came down to sit on the floor with him. Well, I began the search and was pretty wrapped up in it when I noticed he was off having some elaborate to do with the Lego guys.

He totally set me up! Funny Kid!

Books for Where he is at....

• Geronimo Stilton Adventurer's Boxed Set We love the Geronimo books because they are chapter books that he can read entirely on his own. AND they are so silly, he just loves them. You need to check them out because they are pretty special. The author uses pictures and fancy print throughout the book to add fun and frivolity. I love that the stories are good clean fun and they use wonderful language throughout!
• The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid (Geronimo Stilton, No. 2) Josh's favorite! He is still VERY interested in Ancient Egypt!
• The Case of the Hungry Stranger (I Can Read Book 2) There is a whole series of these by Crosby Bonsall. Super cute little mystery books about a group of boys who solve silly mysteries.
• Kids Across, Parents Down: On the Go: The Puzzles That Kids & Adults Enjoy Together (Kids Across Parents Down) and Kids Across, Parents Down: Crazy Critters: The Puzzles That Kids & Adults Enjoy Together (Kids Across Parents Down) These are so fun. Josh and I do these often. As the name suggests, he does the across clues which are at his level and the down clues are a bit harder intended for adults.

So, what books do your kids just love? Any great suggestion for a boy's boy who can READ but is just 6.

What's that Smell?

It has been a tough couple of weeks. I had just started to get back into blogging when the you know what hit the...well... basement!

July 3rd, the day our city celebrated the 4th, we were about to get ready to leave for the fireworks. Andrew thought he smelled something and eventually I smelled it too. We soon discovered the source down in the basement. Our sewer was overflowing up through a drain in the floor. The entire basement was flooded with nasty, nasty, nasty sewer water.

Well, to make a long story short, four other houses on our block were flooded too. There was some sort of block in the city's sewer. They are currently saying they are not liable for all the damage but we are meeting with them Tuesday to hopefully work things out. Please hope/pray for the best! The clean up alone was already around $5000., and that does not include all our things that were destroyed or the repair to our basement walls that were cut off about a foot up.

We have had cleaning guys in and out of the house almost everyday since the flood and are pretty tired, overwhelmed and nervous! I am off now to play Playmobil with a certain little guy. Hope you are counting your blessings as well!

Got Josh Back!

It is summer vacation and I am loving it!

We are mostly getting along and enjoying having our days together! We have been picnicking, playing Lego, listening to music and books on J's bday Ipod, playing with Bendaroos, jammie days/movies, visiting a Children's garden with our new membership!, writing books, drawing drawing drawing, and of course following our interests. (still Ancient Egypt for Joshua!)

As is normal for us, we have a new schedule. It is not yet settled, needs a bit of tweaking but I will share what we are working with....

8am- Breakfast (morning routine!)
9am- Learning activity
10am- Get Ready
11am- Play Outside (not happening with all this rain!)
12pm- Lunch
1pm- Play with Mommy!
2pm- Computer time
3pm- Room time
4pm-Arts/Crafts
Dinner & Daddy
8pm- Reading & Bedtime

We are currently reading the first Harry Potter book together. He can read it just fine but pretty much will only read one page on his own every night.

Keeping it Real
As is the case for every family, we have our share of struggles and joys throughout everyday! Our biggest struggle right now is Josh's sassy mouth. He always knows better and more. He has struggled with this for awhile but it has become much worse after spending his first year of school with (well intentioned!) people who were a bit stunned by his intelligence.
Just today, while working with bendaroos he had a bit of a fit because the bee I created had only one body part and not the required 3. He eventually calmed down after I explained that I was just being creative not making an actual bee. OH MY!

Joys? There are many little delights but I thought I would share a funny thing Josh said today. Andrew's birthday is Saturday and I was telling Josh what I ordered him for a gift. Josh looked over at me suspiciously, and asked "Did you think that through, Mama?" Uh...why yes I did Josh...

Menu Plan Monday~ February 22, 2010

(starting back slowly! ...miss all of you!)

Monday- Spicy Chicken Sandwiches on whole grain rolls, spicy french fries, all out of the freezer!

Tuesday- Chicken Taco Salad

Wednesday- Baked Ravioli with Ground Turkey

Thursday- OUT to Buffalo Wild Wings (Our fave!)

Friday- Garlic Bread Pizza

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday- Omelets, bacon, and english muffins

Eight Excuses...

for why I am not blogging!

1. We are so happy with Josh's school/Teacher, I have not had to do much extra. I planned all that science etc... and we really have not done much!
2. Josh is so far ahead of his class, doing extra feels like I am causing more of a problem. His teacher had him tested (with the K and 1st graders) so that she could show next years teacher how far ahead he was...ya know with real proof. His test scores were not at all what we expected. We knew he was a good reader but he scored as high (er) as the k and 1st graders do at the end of the year in Reading and Math. Of course we are proud, but we are also a bit scared...not really knowing what we should do with/for him.
3. My laptop keeps overheating and dropping the Ii's so that I need to keep going back and adding them. We plan to get it fixed but just haven't...partially because we do not know who to call, we bought it at Circuit City a few months before they announced they were going out of business.
4. We are still working to get our house ready to put on the market. It is slow going because Andrew works a ton (60ish hours a week) and we are just not real handy! (We still have base boards to put up, painting to do, cleaning/packing and a few jobs we will need to hire someone to do!)
5. I have been sick CONSTANTLY. (ear infections, flu, colds, currently am coughing up my poor poor lungs!)
6. I volunteer twice a week in Josh's class and lately have been asked to do a bit more for various reasons. I really do like doing it but see #5! (oh yeah...that is why I stopped teaching...I was always sick...anyone have an immune system to spare?)
7. I have been journalling...with PAPER AND PENCIL! I got Wreck This Journal for my Birthday in October and finally got around to using it just lately (car pool lane is perfect for writing!) I am REALLY enjoying it.
8. Finally, I seem to spend all my spare time playing with Lego, Playmobil, Batman, Wii. It is as it should be!

So, what have you been up to?

Ho, Ho, Ho!

So, I have been putting off the trip to the jolly old elf this year. I avoid the mall most of the time anyway but especially at Christmas time. Plus, it is always so tense...waiting in crazy long hot lines with Josh who is never really "sure" of the whole thing. He wants to go but...

Anyway, my sweet neighbor told me about this store near us that was having a Santa event today. She said that it involved reindeer and santa but that is really all I knew. Since it did NOT involve the mall I was all in!

After lunch today we jumped into the car and headed to Horrocks market!
We were directed by a grandmotherly lady, heading to her car, to the area where Santa was sitting. He was at the end of a line of children (of course!) but on the way was a fenced in area with the reindeer. They were wandering a bit and you could feed them. It was very cool! And it made the wait go by super fast. Josh pet Comet and tried to feed them but they were not really hungry!

It was finally our turn for Santa. He was stationed in a cute little sleigh that the children could sit next to him in, not on his lap! Luckily I thought to bring my camera. We snapped a few pictures and Josh read him his letter to Santa. (thanks Kylie Our Worldwide Classroom!)

Then we headed into the store where they had free face painting, free ice cream, and all kinds of goodies!

What a super fun FREE day! Our pictures turned out pretty good and I even uploaded my card order to pick up tomorrow! (We love Costco)

SNOW DAY!!!!

We are having our first real snowday today! Very exciting for sure! So far, we have watched the original Grinch movie, Charlie Brown Christmas, and are starting in on Ichabod and Mr Toad as I type. Of course he has also spent the morning stamping, playing with Lego's, making a "movie" with his Little People Nativity, and building his new lego kit from the Lego City Advent calendar.

Busy Busy Busy!

I personally am exhausted (long night...see yesterday's comments if interested in an update but all is fine!) and have just laid here on the couch all morning watching the flurry of activity!

We do have big plans for the afternoon however! We are making a button wreath from our Advent activities list. (yesterday's activity...good thing I saved it huh?) He has also decided to make puppets with the cutout nativity people. (todays activity!)
http://sjbacb.blogspot.com/2009/11/advent-calendar.html (LAZY LINKAGE TODAY!) Oh yeah, and FINALLY finish decorating the tree!

We are likely to have another snow day tomorrow, they are predicting 2 inches an hour all night. So I think I will gather up the supplies for gift making and try to get some of that knocked out if we are home again. Also, tomorrow should be a bit better for outdoor fun so for sure we will be heading out to enjoy the snow.

Enjoy your families!
Shannon

Please...if you pray...

Andrew's brother is having surgery any minute. He was injured and is having his eye socket repaired. Please spare a thought for him and the family today. They are struggling with the weight of all life is throwing them right now.

Thanks so much
Shannon

Advent Calendar

Here is our schedule for advent activities. I would like to have all the required materials assembled beforehand so I can just grab it and we can do it. But we shall see... I have an advent calendar with 24 little drawers, so I just print the activity on a slip of paper and stuff in the tiny drawer. Josh opens the correct drawer in the morning and sometime that day we do the activity!

Hope you have a Very Merry Christmas!

1. Begin Lego Advent Calendar!
2. Decorate for Christmas
3. Glittery initial ornaments
4. Christmas Cookies
5. Cookie exchange and Talent Show
6. Picture With Santa
7. Roll a Christmas tree
   Dotted sheet Tree
8. Button Wreath Ornament
9. Nativity Cutouts
10. Santa With a cotton beard!
11. Reindeer Addition Roll and Color
12. Christmas tree Puzzle
13. Christmas Movie marathon w/ Popcorn
14. Pom Pom Garland
15. Magnetic Bookmarks
16. Decorate felt Stocking
17. Photo Ornament
18. Wrap Presents
19. Pretend Christmas Eve at Nana's
20. Pretend Christmas Day at Nana's
21. Make Fudge
22. Felt Holly Napkin Rings
23. Reindeer food
24. Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Daybook- November 18, 2009

FOR TODAY
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Outside my window... it is cold, rainy, and oh so dark today.
I am thinking... of Joshua's teacher who has been home sick for 3 days...Please pray...
I am thankful for... a loving, happy, healthy family.
From the learning rooms... today we worked on the Story of the World and The Story of the Orchestra. We are beginning to cut out and assemble a lapbook for Ancient Egypt and I am wanting to create a timeline that we can use for both "world" & "Orchestra".
From the kitchen... Mmm, I can smell the Cream Cheese Chicken from the crockpot. It just seems to warm up the whole house.
I am wearing... A forest green "Camp Catch A Rainbow" t-shirt, Forest green hoody, and Yoga pants. Bare feet! Took it easy today...obviously...
I am creating... A December menu plan.
I am going... christmas shopping tomorrow...again! I am struggling to find just the right item for my Mom. ...also, those frustrating stocking stuffers I always make more difficult than need be!
I am reading... The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
I am hoping... to settle holiday plans soon.
I am hearing... utter silence! Josh is home from school but having quiet time in the basement.
Around the house... ugh! Still working on preparing to sell the house. Exhausting!
One of my favorite things... Dr Pepper Lip Smacker
A few plans for the rest of the week: More staging, finish sorting Joshua's Legos into bins, prepare Kitchen/dining to be painted.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...
Josh and me his first day of school! I love his constant enthusiasm. I must strive everyday to see it as a blessing.

Join in at The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Report Card and a question for YOU!

At Josh's school they do conferences a month or so before report cards so that a "turn around" is possible. I get the idea just not sure how I feel about it yet.

However, we are really happy with our school choice still. Josh loves his teacher and is really enjoying school. He is learning a ton because the young 5 class gets to do fun stuff like all the lifecycles and only inadvertently works on letters and sounds. Which is great for Josh since he does not need that. Having said all that...

Josh brought home his report card Thursday. It is a 5 page report that covers a ton of subject areas including math, science, language, social studies, and moral focus. Their grading scale is 0-4.

0 means does not understand skill or concept yet.
1 means beginning to understand skill.
2 means at grade level.
3 means at end of year level.
4 means exceeds expectations.

The included letter stated that we should see a lot of 1 & 2's at this time of the year.

Josh got 15 4's, about 18 0r so 3's, and 5 2's.

So I have a question, did we make the right choice? Should he have gone straight to Kindergarten? What do you think? I am too blinded by my utter fondness for his teacher to think it through.

I do want to say, we are really proud of him. We knew he was bright but we really expected to have some behavior issues. He can be a bit spirited! But he does really well...now if only he could extend that to his after school behavior....but that is for another post!

Menu Plan Monday~ October 26

I just noticed I have not posted a menu in almost a month! I guess it has been busy/crazy. I had the flu, parent teacher conferences, volunteering in Josh's class twice a week, 2 dental appointments (got a crown), and Josh had a fever for a few days; not to mention that Andrew has been working long hours. Mostly it has been good...except when I was very sick.

So I am going to post a month long menu for November (prob. December too). Trying to save a bit of time during the holiday season. I am also scheduling certain types of meals for certain days...trying to simplify and avoid the crazy!
Therefore,
Monday= Mexican
Tuesday= Italian
Wednesday= Misc...
Thursday= Chicken
Friday= Pizza
Saturday= Misc...
Sunday= Breakfast

1. Omelets/Bacon
2. Empanadas
3. Chicken Parmigiana
4. Polish Sausage w/ Macaroni & Cheese
5. Easy Chicken & Gravy with mashed potatoes
6. Pepperoni-rolls
7. Family Party
8. French Toast & Sausage
9. Taquitos and salad
10. Lasagna
11. Chicken Chili & Cornbread
12. Savory chicken roll ups/
13. Take out Pizza!
14. Hot Dogs
15. Egg in a hole
16. Nachos
17. Spaghetti
18. New recipe...yet to be determined
19. Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken
20. Garlic Bread Pizza
21. EAT OUT!!!!
22. Bacon pull aparts
23. Taco cornbread pizza
24. Skillet pasta
25. Chicken Fingers & fries
26. Thanksgiving!
27. Pizza
28. Leftover Turkey Shepard's Pie
29. Breakfast Pizza
30. Tacos

October Seasonal Activities

I was looking for some ideas to make this rainy miserable Fall a little more fun and thought I would share what I found with you! We will not get to even half of these!

Crafts (mostly Halloween)
Paper Strip Pumpkins We did this! It turned out great and was fun and easy!
Tissue ghosts We made these and strung them on a plastic glow lace!
Color, cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Jack O'lantern person (not scary!)
Lantern Orange or Black would look cool!
Bat Mobile
Cute paper Bats I would like to use these bats to make the above mobile!
Adorable Craft stick Mummy
2 liter bottle ghost
Fall Ideas
Felt Board Pumpkin Faces Thanks Melissa!
Fall Silly Putty
Easy yarn Apples and Pumpkins!
Spider Web Spin Painting
Fall Window Hangings We did this last year with wax paper, leaves, crayon and an iron!

Misc. Activities
Printable Halloween Games
Halloween Color Pages

Art
Line Art Leaves

Online Activity
Build your own Jack O'lantern

Recipes
Pumpkin Shakes
Ghost Sandwiches
Spider Pizzas
Ritz Spider
Witches Hat

Language Arts
Pumpkin Book
Several Links to Fall Poetry

Science
Fall Window
Skeleton from bottles Plan ahead for next year?

Math
Fall Tree Dice game

Pumpkin Ideas
Star Wars Pumpkin Stencils Links to other themes too!

Blah, Blah, Blah

I have nothing to say, well that is not true...I just have nothing INTERESTING to say. And, if you know me in real life (rl) you will know I have never let that stop me! So....

1. Internet Explorer is apparently not happy with Blogger. I can not seem to make them talk and behave together. Which is frustrating and making it really hard for me to post anything with a lot of links in it. Which includes my October post for science.
2. Tomorrow is October! When did that happen?
3. This year October means 2 things to me instead of just one. My birthday...as usual and I start working in Josh's class...on Friday...
4. I am nervous about starting Friday. I just do not feel prepared! AT ALL! I am running the entire Accelerated Reader (sorry no link!) program for his class. Should be interesting since I have not actually seen AR at all in about 10 years. Then, only briefly.
5. Remember me complaining about our brand newish furnace leaking? STILL NOT FIXED! It has been about 2 weeks.
6. Now the Kitchen sink...with the newish faucet is leaking...or at least it was until the plumber came and fixed it this morning. It was under $100 which is good but the broken part only costs $.40. Oh well...at least it is fixed.
7. Josh is HILARIOUS and so is all of life in his eyes...or at least that is what he tells us and everyone who will listen.
8. It seems like everyone I know is either pregnant or just had a baby. (Congrats BL!)
9. Anybody want to buy my house? Please!
10. Next week, Josh's teacher is coming for a home visit.
11. Josh has sold $68 worth of his toys on Craigslist.org ! And several more to go.
12. He bought a batcave with some of his money...ugh, here Fisher-Price Super Friends Batcave (don't ask how long that link took!)
13. I usually have several Christmas gifts purchased. This year? ZERO!
14. I have a lot of things going on that are unbloggable and are weighing on my heart.

Thanks for the indulgence of a whiny list! I will try to get the October Science posted this week!