I ruff you

Every Friday at school is "Panther Pride Friday".  The kiddos are supposed to wear purple and celebrate their school pride.  When I first started making bento style lunches, my plan was to make a special paw print lunch every Friday.  I have made a total of one of those since March.  Not only did I not do a paw print lunch today, I just realized KoKo went to school wearing an adorable pink and brown argyle print skirt and a pink shirt with a brown cat.  We're clearly slacking in the Panther Pride.  I can tell the school year is winding down to a close as I'm getting more and more lazy.  At least we are still getting the homework done...


Speaking of getting lazy as the school year winds down, I can't wait for summer to get started.  Wow...I can't believe I just typed that.  I'm not a summer person.  I honestly really would like to live in Alaska, but I live in the midwest where we have really awful humidity and heat in the summer.  Not to mention the bugs.  Don't get me started on the bugs.  But this year, I'm really excited to spend time with my kiddos.  I saw an idea on Pinterest to make a first day of summer gift basket and I can't wait to make them for the girls!  I'm going to fill it with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, fun little activity pads I found at Michaels for 50 cents each, a new reading book for each, swimming punch cards, and a list of some of the activities we will be doing this summer.  They're going to be super excited!!


So, on to lunch...

I got a cute little set of puppy dog cookie cutters from my local grocery store and got to use them today.  The bottom tier has a ham and cheese dog shaped sandwich.  I used my food marker to make the ear, eye, nose, and mouth.  I also cut a little paw print out of the sandwich.  The bones are out of a slice of American cheese, stacked together.  The top tier has Triscuit crackers and mandarin oranges.  There is also a tube of Gogurt in the lunch bag.  I always pack a water bottle as well.

KoKo has a birthday party to go to tonight, so I am off to get a birthday present.  I'm taking JayJay to eat pizza and play on the playground while big sister is at the party.  It should be a fun filled evening!  :o)  Have a happy weekend!

Quit Monkeying Around!

Yeah...I'm not doing so well at making lunches recently.  I have been doing it, but I've been too tired lazy busy uninspired to make something cute.  So, I'm kind of stealing borrowing copying being inspired by a post I found somewhere and pinned on my Pinterest page. 

Both of my girls have been given the nickname of Monkey.  I don't know why, but they are Monkey 1 and Monkey 2.  They love this and have decided I am Mommy Monkey.  So since we apparently love monkeys, I had to try this idea.

Isn't he cute?!  The little monkey is just a peanut butter sandwich cut with my circle cookie cutter.  I cut a vanilla wafer in half (incidentally, do this with a serrated knife if you don't want it to crumble...that took a few tries) for the nose/mouth area, added icing eyes, and fruit leather ears.  There is also a container of sliced bananas with a monkey pick in the green square silicone cup in the upper left side.  The bottom left has an "M" alphabet cookie with pretzel sticks and cut up fruit leather surprise under the pretzel sticks. 

I found these adorable monkey lunch notes and stickers at Michaels yesterday for 49 cents!  I love stuff like that!  Sorry for the horrible picture, but my little note said to have a monkey-tastic day.  Aren't they cute?!

I also packed a breakfast this morning, which I have been horrible about.  She loves some of the breakfasts they serve at school, so I have been completely lazy about sending a healthy one for her...Anyway, I broke apart a cereal bar for the bottom tier and put sliced cantaloupe in the top tier.  I just realized I forgot to send a pick for the cantaloupe, which I totally meant to do.  I'm sure she will figure out to use her fingers...I got this little box from the Fit Japan store out of Houston.  It is adorable, but tiny and I didn't realize I needed a strap to keep the two tiers together.  Doh!  So, unfortunately, it is completely, unstylishly held together with a rubber band from my desk.  Ummm...yeah.  Anyway, we LOVE cantaloupe and I was super excited to see tiny, really yummy cantaloupes at the grocery store this week.  I can't wait to get some more as this won't last more than another hour or so in our house.  Although, JayJay just informed me it tastes like fingernail polish remover.  We had a fairly lengthy conversation about why she knows what fingernail polish remover tastes like...Gotta love 4 year olds!  :o)  I have deemed the cantaloupe as delicious, so it is delicious.

I'll try really hard to do another cute, post-worthy lunch again tomorrow.

My inspiration - Meet the Dubiens: BENTO GIVEAWAY

So, way back last fall, I started using Pinterest and one day came across this stinking adorable lunch.  I followed the link and found the blog for Meet the Dubiens and was instantly hooked.  Jill is having a giveaway and it is awesome!  She's giving away an adorable bento box with a strap, a cute set of cutters, silicone cups, and picks.  Check out the link below to sign up.

Meet the Dubiens: BENTO GIVEAWAY: No, my computer is not fixed yet. They have it for the weekend and I'm praying for good news tomorrow. Thank-you to everyone for your well...

Five Not So Green and Speckled Frogs

Today's lunch is inspired by the book Five Green and Speckled Frogs by Priscilla Burris.  You can see or purchase the book here.

In the lunch box is a celery and peanut butter log with raisin flies.  The little frog sandwiches are tortillas with cheese.  I added candy eyes and heart sprinkles for their mouths.  She also has a half a banana (to help keep things from moving around!), a small container of strawberry yogurt (I covered with foil to avoid spilling), and a small container with some cucumber frogs with a little frog pick.  KoKo hates cucumbers, but I asked her to try them, so we'll see...

On the lid, I wrote with a dry erase marker: "Five not so green and speckled frogs, sitting on a speckled log.  Eating some most delicious bugs.  Yum yum!  I love you - Mommy".  She is thrilled beyond thrilled.  I'm a little nervous that they are going to move around, but she got to see it before we packed it away, so she knows what it looks like.

This one was super fun to make.  I got some new cutters in the mail yesterday and this is actually a bear head, but can be used to make frogs.  I couldn't wait to use them!  :o)

Today's lunch

I had ordered this adorable Bento box in March off of Ebay.  It came all the way from Japan and took about three weeks to get here.  I'm thrilled with it!  :o)  KoKo adores it and is so excited to be taking her lunch in it today too.

She had grapes with a little chomping duck pick and cheese flowers in the top section.  In the bottom section, she had leftover Easter ham with two little cheese flowers and a pig pick (couldn't resist the pig with the ham) and leftover Apple Snicker Salad (completely yummy) in the silicone heart cup.  She also has a banana in her lunch box and water in her reusable bottle.

Here's the box all put together.  It has a mommy and baby seal on the front and says "Happy Aquarium".  My kids love animals of all kinds and this is the perfect box.  I'm thinking I need a couple more of these type boxes.  Too cute!  :o)

Happy Easter!

On Saturday, we took a train ride with the Easter bunny.  The trip took about two hours and was 11 miles round trip.  The girls got to see the Easter bunny and got to get off half way to go on a Easter egg hunt.  They got quite a few eggs filled with candy.  They also each got a dollar and JayJay got a special prize from the conductor (she picked out a kite)!  Here are a few pictures of them from Easter.

We went to church Sunday morning and celebrated that afternoon with an egg hunt of our own.  They had a lot of fun and were little angels.  :o)  Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Here Chickie Chickie!

KoKo was home from school on Friday, but I still made a cute little lunch for both girls.

The sandwich was turkey and cheese and cut in an egg shape.  It had little candy eyes, and the wings, legs, hair tuft, and beak were made of carrot shreds.  They also had yogurt with Easter egg sprinkles, rice snack puffs, and a carrot heart with a bunny pick.
 

They also had a little grape and banana slice kebob.

Yummy, super simple, and very fast to make...just my kind of lunch!  :o)

Happy Easter Week!

KoKo asked to have school lunch on Monday and Tuesday and since there is no school on Friday, I only had two lunches to pack this week.

Wednesday's lunch was bunny food.  She had two little turkey and cheese bunny sandwiches with little marshmallow tails and eyes made from food safe markers.  There was also wheat thin crackers and little Lifesaver gummies in the green silicone cup, some strawberry yogurt with Easter sprinkles in the plastic container, sliced kiwi with bunny pick in the blue silicone cup and carrots in the pink flower silicone cup.  Once again, all the kids loved it and she gobbled up the entire lunch.  :o)

Today's lunch was an Easter egg hunt surprise.  It was turkey and cheese cut in various Easter shapes (chicks, eggs, crosses, and bunnies), bunny graham crackers from Target, bunny marshmallows, and these adorable egg shaped M&Ms on edible Easter grass.  The eggs are sitting on more of the edible Easter grass and there is some edible Easter confetti sprinkled in there too.  She also had a small baggie with cheddar cheese flavored rice snacks.

Here are the egg shaped M&Ms.  I drew little chickies on them with a food safe marker.  Unfortunately, one of them smudged when I was taking the picture.  :o(  Oh well...KoKo adored her lunch, and that's all that matters.

Also, I made a little craft this morning that I saw on Pinterest the other day.  I am so glad I did it and think it turned out fantastic!  It is a beautiful little wreath made with fuzzy yarn that looks like grass wrapped around the a foam form and little daisy flowers pinned on with beautiful pink pearl like straight pins.  Although I don't love the bow yet, I love the way it turned out!

We are going on a scavenger hunt at the zoo tomorrow and working on some crafts.  We are also going on a Easter egg hunt train ride with the Easter bunny Saturday morning.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of pictures after the weekend is over.  Happy Easter!