Even better than discount food is free food. If you have kids you know how frustrating it is to dine out with kids only to have them not eat their food which you paid good money for. Fortunately you can find free food for you kids almost any day of the week at a variety of restaurants. See the websites below to find free food for your children. On a recent “boys weekend” my son and I found several restaurants where he was able to eat for free. One drawback is that it is not such a good deal if your child is a heavy eater. You can only get free food from the child’s menu which is not enough for my growing seven year old boy, so I have to order him another entree. So instead of a free child’s meal I end up only getting a free child’s appetizer. For most kids it should be enough food for them. FYI: Kids eat free at Hooters on Sunday although we decided against trying it. That’s our story and we are sticking to it.

101 Restaurants Where Kids Eat Free

Kids Meal Deals

1. Kids are getting smaller: I don’t know if its due to bad diet or poor air quality but kids these days are tiny in size. My kids were big babies and are now only average in height and weight, about the 75 percentile. However compared to their classmates they are giants, particularly in Kindergarten.

2. Some Moms are too involved in their child’s education: In my circle of Mom friends a few Moms are very active in their child’s academic lives.  Nothing wrong with being an involved parent but I think there is a point of being too involved. I know many Moms who push to get their child into certain teachers class or in a class with certain friends in an attempt to make their child’s academic life easier.  I think by doing deprives a child from learning an important life lesson which is how to “deal with it”.  There are always going to be teachers and students you may not get along with and your mother is not always going to be there to fix things.  You just need to learn how to deal with it.

Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

I got to experience not 1 but 2 staycations in the last few weeks.  Not only was it a staycation but the best of staycations.  A staycation without kids.  Thanks to my gracious in laws who took my kids across the country to Florida for a week we got to experience a staycation at home while the kids took a real vacation.  A win-win for everyone…except for my in laws.

Work demands kept us at home during this time but we did get to experience simple pleasures such as sleeping in and having a quiet home.  We also got to see a movie at the theater not once but twice. Christine enjoyed unhurried shopping trips and dinner with the girls.  I was able to read quietly at home and watch my shows on TV.   We enjoyed finding a few new local restaurants and a nice leisurely dinner with old friends.  Even though we did not get to go away during this time, it was very relaxing and the time went by very quickly.

Amazingly after a week in Florida my in laws took the kids for another trip to Yosemite for 5 days.  By now we are getting used to the time alone and the quietness of the house but all things must come to an end.  The kids will soon be back and we are finally starting to miss them.  Staycation 2009 was sweet while it lasted but with baby # 3 on the way I don’t expect another staycation without kids for quite some time.

Tea Party With Grandma and Zoe-Notice the matching outfits

More Pump it Up Parties

Gilroy Gardens

Alameda County Fair

Children’s Fairlyland is located on the shores of  Lake Merritt in Oakland.  It is a children’s literature theme park for little kids and ideal for young kids under the age of 5.  There are rides and puppet shows for the kids to enjoy.  Last week I accompanied my daughter Mia’s preschool class to Fairlyland.  It was her preshcool’s end of the year field trip.  Fairlyland has been in Oakland since the 1950’s and I remember going many times when I was young.  Of course it seemed a lot bigger back than.  The rides seemed huge when I went in my youth.  Now the park seems really small.  Even at a slow pace you can cover the entire park in about 45 minutes.

Going back to Fairlyland made me nostalgic for my early years of life.  Not only did it bring back memories for me, it was also fun to see Fairlyland thru the eyes of my daughter.  To her it was a big deal and it was a big deal for her to have me there with her.  Besides bringing back fond memories for me it was a little sad because it would be quite awhile before I would be able to experience Fairlyland again.  You see, Fairlyland is only for very young kids.  I think 2-3 years is about the perfect age.  Even at the age of 5 the kids are a little old for Fairlyland.  Sure, they had fun but they will outgrow Fairlyland real fast.  So with Mia ready to go to Kindergarten I was ready to say goodbye to preschool days and Fairlyand for good.  Or so I thought.

It turns out that there will be more preschool and Fairlyland days for me in the future.  If you have not figured out the point of all this….We are expecting baby # 3. No I’m not kidding.  It is not a publicity stunt to liven up post #200.  I only wish.  While I have known about this for awhile now, it has taken me some time to get over the shock and to be able to write about it.  For awhile I had no thoughts on it, just feeling numb.

I am now getting used to the idea and my other kids are getting excited which is causing me to be more excited.  Thanks to all the other friends who have encouraged me by saying things like “3 is the new 2″ and “Going from 2 to 3 is an easy transition”.  Even though they are well meaning, “3 is the new 2″ makes no sense at all.  I believe the old saying “Misery enjoys company” applies in this case and they are excited to have a new member in their club.  So I will be joining my friend Norm in the expectant father club.

Even though this will be my third child I feel like a first time Dad like Norm. That is because it has been nearly 6 years since my last child.  Everything I knew about babies and young children I had deleted from my memory because I thought I would not have to use that information again.  What I do remember about babies has been filed under “trivia” in my brain in case I am asked baby questions on a game show.  So I have to relearn everything.  I don’t remember how the strollers or car seats work.  I have to find that book on a 1001 baby names.  Maybe I’ll just skip the names and go to a numbering system and just call this one “3″.

So it looks like I will be back in preschool and Fairlyland in a few years.  But before that diapers and potty training all that stuff I don’t quite remember about.  But I will soon.  So that’s my big announcement to mark 200 posts and over 2 years of blogging.  At least I will now have more material to blog about, but will I have the energy or time to do so?  Pray for me us.

The blog has evolved over the last 200 posts.  In the beginning I shared my thoughts on investments and business, but soon ran out of things to talk about.  So I started sharing more random topics such as family stories and pictures.  Some of you enjoyed that.  Sometimes I ranted about something that was bothering me.  When you have a blog you can use that as an outlet to vent.  Other times I just talked about what I had for dinner.  Some of you enjoyed that, but this blog was never meant to be all things to all people.  Rather it was just a creative outlet for me since I can’t sing, draw or dance.  I think I can write a little and over the years hopefully my writing skills have improved and a few people are entertained.

Thanks for continuing to follow my rather random blog and I appreciate your kind comments.  Not only has my blog evolved the world of blogging has also evolved.  Blogs such as mine are still random thoughts by random people, but blogging has becoming an acceptable media outlet.  Often breaking news are delivered by blogs or on Twitter just as often as they are on the television news or newspaper.  There has never been any breaking news on this blog or even anything that interesting.  However for my 200th post I will be sharing some exciting news, or an announcement I guess to commenerate this blogging milestone.  I will be making post #200 this Friday June 5th.  See if you can guess what my announcement will be.  I may give out a prize to be determined to whoever can guess correctly.  Of course I may disqualify any guesses if I deem it unfair because well its my blog.  Stay tuned for post #200.

Our assignment allowed us to get up to 4 adults into the academy(kids under 7 are free), spend $25 in a gift shop and lunch.  Once inside we can visit anything we want, but we are required to visit and rate several exhibits as well as a gift shop and a cafe during our visit.  All the exhibits were great.  I particularly enjoyed the aquarium.  I heard the planetarium was also very impressive, but I fell asleep.  Very comfortable chairs though.  Oh well, it was free.  The cafe was surprisingly very good too.  While the assignment gave us a budget for the gift shop it did not specify an amount we could spend on lunch.  So I ordered everything.  I hope I get reimbursed for lunch.  My rating of lunch may have been biased due to the fact that I was very hungry and it was free(I hope).

Had we had to pay it would have been a very expensive day.  With parking, food, and admission we are looking at close to $200.  Of course I would have probably bought my own food in.  If you get a chance to take a mystery shopping assignment it is certainly worthwhile.

Party # 1-Bethany Age 3-Pump It Up-Union City-10:30 a.m.

Cake # 1-Homemade Princess Cake

Party # 2-Mason Age 3-Tilden Park, Berkeley-1:00 p.m.

Cake # 2-Yo Gabba Gabba

Taking a nap between party #2 and #3 @ 5:10 p.m.

Party # 3-Jacob age 4-Maxim Restaurant, Hayward 5:30 p.m.

Cake #3-Spaceship

By this time I was so full and tired that I forgot to take a picture of the kids at party #3.  Does’nt matter.  They look and and act just like the kids in parties 1 and 2.  The following day we had another birthday party and yet another BBQ the day after that, but at least they were on different days.

Next up is almost free 31 cent scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robins.  Its always a long line at my local Baskin Robins but I heard others are not so crowded.  When I can’t find a coupon or a free meal I always try to use Restaurant.com to get a big discount on a meal.  With Restaurant.com you get to buy a gift certificate at a participating restaurant so you get a deeply discounted meal. A drawback of Restaurant.com to some people is that you can only use your gift certificate if you order more than $35 in food. Also the restaurants are usually not well known chains so you are not quite sure what kind of food you will be getting. However its not too much of a drawback to me since with a family of four you will always spend at least $35 dollars no matter where you go. Plus it is discounted by a lot. I also like trying new restaurants and a quick check on Yelp will keep you from making a big mistake. We have found some good surprises thru Restaurant.com. Right now they have a 80% off gift certificate sale good thru April 30. Give it a try.