{organizing with style} Restaurant Kit for Eating Out with Little Ones

Eating out with young children can be a challenge, but Scott and I like to live on the wild side. Of course, it was a little easier when it was just Beckett, but even now that we are a family of four, we still venture out to restaurants on a fairly regular basis. Every once in awhile we end up having to ask for our food to go if the kids decide not to cooperate, but usually Beckett and Cooper are on their best behavior and manage to charm everyone at the surrounding tables.

For me, the biggest challenge when eating out with our kids is remembering to bring all the things we need to make it successfully through a meal. I'm constantly stuffing bibs and kid-sized silverware in my purse on my way out the door, and when we are out running errands and decide to make an unexpected dinner stop, I never have what we need. Until now...

With two kids under two, our diaper bag is already overflowing, so I wanted something separate and compact to keep us restaurant-ready at all times. My solution was to repurpose a make-up bag to create a "Restaurant Kit." After looking at a few options, I chose an Elle make-up bag from Kohl's.

This cute little bag has a few features that make it a winner:  there are a total of four separate zippered pockets - two large ones on the outer edges of the case, as well as one on each side of the center section;  all of the pockets are clear, making it quick and easy to see what's inside; the black and white polka dot pattern with the blue interior appeals to mom without being to girly for my little boys; and finally, the plastic coating on the outside makes it easy to keep clean, even when it's been in sticky little hands.

I filled up our restaurant kit with all the essentials for dining out with an almost two-year old, and an almost six-month old (who is just about to start eating "solid" foods). I'll update the contents of our kit overtime as our needs change, but for now, here's what's inside...

{1} Bibs - Bibs are a must, and when eating out I like bibs that can be easily wiped clean so they don't have to be carried home dirty.  Some of the wipeable bibs out there are fabric with a plastic coating, but I've found those to be problematic because once they are wet, the fabric backing can take a while to dry. I prefer the Gerber's Peva Bibs because they are vinyl that can be quickly wiped clean and dry, plus they have a pocket to catch spills.

{2} Kiddy Cutlery - Beckett is getting really good at eating with silverware, but adult sized cutlery can be hard for him handle.  By keeping a set of Gerber Kiddy Cutlery in our restaurant kit we can avoid having him revert to eating with his fingers when we are dining out.

{3} Baby Spoon - Cooper will be starting to eat solids in the next week or two, which means that we'll need to have a baby-sized spoon at the ready for feeding him when we are on the go.  We use the OXO Feeding Spoons at home, but for eating out, I prefer the Gerber Rest Easy Spoons because they have a built-in support that keeps the spoon and the food off of the table and germ free.

{4} Food Pouch Spoon - Pouches of fruit and vegetable blends can be very convenient for kiddos who are old enough to self-fed directly from the pouch, but for a baby pouches require squeezing the food out a bit at a time onto a baby spoon. That's why I was excited to find these Munchkin Click Lock Food Pouch Spoons that screw directly on to the end of the pouch making it much easier to feed a pouch to a baby, especially on the go.

{5} Wet Wipes - Wet wipes are a must for cleaning up little fingers and faces after a dinner out, so I love the conveniently sized packages of Wet Ones Hand Wipes.

{6} Adhesive Table-Toppers - These disposable plastic placemats provide protection from germs on restaurant tables, and they work especially well for toddlers who can't yet be trusted to not toss a restaurant plate on the floor. There are a lot of options out there, but we picked the Neat Solutions Elmo Table-Toppers because Beckett loves Sesame Street. They came in a plastic travel-case, but I opted to just put a few at a time in our Restaurant Kit, and I store the extras in the case at home.

{7} Highlights Hello Magazine - My boys have a subscription to this great magazine for babies and young toddlers. We are excited to receive a new Highlights Hello magazine in the mail each month, and they make an excellent addition to our restaurant kit because of their small size and their durability! Each issue is filled with stories and activities, and the pages are made of a material that can't be torn and can be easily wiped clean. The magazine is perfect for providing pre-dinner entertainment.

{8} Twistable Crayons - While many restaurants have crayons for kids, they often only give you three or four colors which can be a frustration to a toddler who is learning his colors and wants whatever color he asks for.  I like the Crayola Twistable Crayons because they require no peeling or sharpening, and because they are durable in the hands of a little boy who often snaps regular crayons while coloring because he doesn't yet know his own strength.

{9} Coloring Pages - Most restaurants have kids menus with mazes and other games and activities, but Beckett is not yet old enough for much more than some spirited scribbling. Since Sesame Street is a favorite in our house, I downloaded a variety of coloring pages from the Sesame Street website here and here. I simply used the save option to download the coloring pages to a folder on my computer (so I can print more as needed), and then I printed them each at a reduced size (half page instead of full page) so they would fit easily in our Restaurant Kit. Parenting Magazine online also offers great Sesame Street themed activity pages perfect for older toddlers and young kids.

Now that you have all the details about what we keep in our Restaurant Kit, let me show you what it looks like inside the repuposed make-up bag.

We learned from some very smart parent friends of ours to always order Beckett's food as soon as we are seated, even if the adults at the table need time to peruse the menu.  This way, his food arrives at the table quicker, requiring less patience on his part. But even so, sometimes we need to have a few snacks on hand to get us through the wait.  Luckily, even with all of our dining-out essentials packed inside the Restaurant Kit, there is still enough extra space for a favorite snacks (current favorites include granola bars and fruit strips).

It's so nice knowing that all of these items are neatly packed and ready to go if and when we decide to eat dinner out.  We've already had a couple of opportunities to give the newly assembled Restaurant Kit a test run, and so far, it's working great!  So well, in fact, that I made a second identical kit so that we can have one in each car at all times.

As the kids get older, we'll swap out the kid sized utensils for a travel sized game or two, and we'll update the Highlights Hello magazine and Sesame Street coloring pages to activity books like word searches and mazes. What essentials would be in a Restaurant Kit for your kids?

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