Bottomless Pits

All day long I hear it. Sure it changes from time to time but the basic structure of the request remains solid.

"I want *insert food here* Mommy!"

I hear this minutes after breakfast, all through out the morning, and into the afternoon. I hear it after they've just finished one thing and have decided they still want more. In fact, this week alone they have eaten (just as snacks now):

3 bags of chips (Cheeto's, Doritos, and Chex mix)
14 cups of yogurt
2 boxes of little debbie cakes
1 carton of ice cream
2 boxes of cereal
3 cans of Mandrian Oranges
8 Bananas
2 gallons of milk

I've never been one to deny anyone food, especially children. But this is becoming crazy. A part of me thinks that since they do eat it (usually) that it's not wasteful and obviously they are hungry but another part of me knows this type of weekly gorging will eat our budget like nothing else. This doesn't even include things they want for drink all day.

Yesterday I did a structured time for snacks. I gave one 2 hours after breakfast and another after lunch (after they woke from naptime). This was hard however because Logan and Vincent cried, screamed and begged for more snacks. The only upside being they actually ate the dinner I cooked, especially Logan who turns his nose up at everything but yogurt, chips and oranges.

Maybe I'll keep trying to do the structured thing. I have planned to bake at least x2 per week this summer with the kids (it's a good structured learning activity and they enjoy it) so that should save a bit of money as far as snacks are concerned. I just hope after a few days the boys quit running to me constantly asking over and over again for different foods. I feel like snack machine.

Summer scoreboard for the day, I think I'm on top. I'm meeting Jimbo this afternoon to take the kids to Pizza Hut to use their reading completion coupons. So unless something goes incredibly wrong between now and then, I'm awarding today's point to me.

Kids=2
Mom=2