Twoooosday

Lunch 73

Lunch: Apple cider pancakes with real maple syrup. Cucumber and bell pepper slices, grapes and cheese cubes.

Snacks: Granola bar, fruit strip and a banana.

Drinks: Bottle of water and chocolate milk from school.

Wednesday Feb 22nd

Lunch 71

Lunch: White cheddar melted onto whole wheat, cut into a pumpkin shape. Black olives, almonds and fruit snack pieces. Top has two prunes, half an apple and red pepper strips.

Snacks: Granola bar and mixed cereal with an organic fruit strip.

Drinks: Lemonade from home, chocolate milk from school

Tuesday: Snooze Day

Lunch 70

Lunch: Buttered whole wheat sea creatures. A small chocolate chip cookie. Happy face carved mini babybel cheese. Half an apple, surrounded by cucumber, red and green peeper chunks and a mini bottle of ranch dressing.

Snacks: Granola bar, whole grain pretzel twists.

Drinks: chocolate milk and water.

The youngest member of our little clan decided to keep everyone awake from about 1 am to 5 am. We are all pretty sleepy today!

Lunches, lunches

Lunch 69

Lunch: cream cheese and jelly pinwheels on whole wheat. Chocolate orange section. Apple half, prunes and black olives. 

Drinks: Juice and chocolate milk.

Friend: bear with a fish in it's mouth.

Triumphant Return!

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Lunch 68

Lunch: Whole wheat hearts with cream cheese and strawberry jam in the top. Red bell pepper and cucumber hearts, jello jigglers hearts (blackberry fusion flavored), mini babybel cheese and strawberry hearts in the bottom. 

Snacks: Granola bar and a chocolate pudding cup with a few animal crackers

Drinks: Chocolate milk and cranberry juice.

Heart Shaped Crayons

What does one do with a pound of broken crayons? Make rainbow crayons of course. Even better, make them into hearts and give them out to the kindergarten class with their valentines!

The first and worst job was getting all those wrappers off! Then we put them in a foil lined baking dish and melted them in a 250 degree oven.

After about ten minutes in the oven and another ten cooling, a small metal cookie cutter turned them into hearts!

This was a really messy project! I'm very glad I only collect that many crayon rejects every two or three years! The crayons and the scraps are lots of fun to draw with though.

Combo Post ~ Three Lunches

Lunch 65

Lunch: Pumpkin pancakes and cantaloupe. Small bottle of maple syrup. Cheese stick. 

Snacks: Granola bar, mixed dry cereal.

Drinks: Juice from home, chocolate milk from school

This particular breakfast for lunch was an attempt to get this kid to eat some food! She has been bringing home more than she eats. I even precut the pancakes to make it really easy. It worked! Almost all the food was gone. Two chunks of melon and 1/3 of the cheese stick were all that was left after school. 

Lunch 66

Lunch: Whole wheat and cream cheese hearts. Two prunes. Apple, grapes and carrot sticks.

Snacks: Pumpkin muffin, granola bar

Drinks: Iced tea and chocolate milk

Lunch at Home. . .

Grilled cheese strips, kiwi and cucumber slices. Green pepper and green grapes. Star fruit slices. Ketchup in the center of one plate.

It never fails to amaze me, when the food is put in a pattern, it vanishes much faster. It doesn't need to be cute. It just needs to be interesting.

Lucky Stars

Lunch 64

Lunch: Cucumber and green pepper stars. Small bottle of ranch dressing tucked behind them. Ham, cheddar and lettuce roll ups. Kiwi stars, green grapes and star fruit. 

Snacks: Banana and granola bar.

Drinks: Juice box and chocolate milk.

Friend: Sea turtle.

The "lucky" color around here is green. So when the bento challenge this week was green, lucky stars were my first thought. My daughter said it looked like a leprechaun's lunch! 

Very cool thing about this lunch, she had never tried star fruit before. She LOVES it. She's begging me to buy more. Love it when that happens.

Thursday. . . thursday

Lunch 63

Lunch: Cowgirl nutella sandwiches on whole wheat. Tiny fairy toy peeking out. Ranch crackers, cheese stick and almonds. Pear fruit cup.

Snacks: Granola bar and a banana.

Drinks: Juice box and chocolate milk from school.

An entirely veggie free lunch due to a fresh veggie free fridge. Had to restock! I could have given her some frozen corn, but I didn't think about it until it was too late.

So thursdays have been kinda dull. I've been kinda dull lately. Next thursday WILL have something creative. 

Since it's been so cold, I thought I'd share a pic of last night dinner!

Home made split pea soup with ham, carrots and potatoes. My favorite! Served it up with toasted and buttered mini bagels. The girls were strongly opposed to the color, but this time (the very first time ever) they ate it! We challenged them to eat with their eyes closed. A bit messy, but it got the job done! Baby boy devoured his. He is not opposed to much in the food department. He's very anti pear, somewhat anti chocolate, but that's all I can think of. Well, whole peas are more fun to smash than eat, but I don't think he really dislikes them.

Two for Tuesday

So, the holiday messed up my schedule a little, so I'll do a regular lunch and something that makes my life easier. Still two posts! Plus I haven't made a grand home lunch, unless you count cookie cutter sandwiches. We've been snacking instead of eating meals for the last couple of days. Everyone is in a funk and hungry at different times. So. . . without further ado:

Lunch 62

 Lunch: Provolone and turkey roll ups, red grapes, pretzels, apple, two prunes and two spice drop candies.

Snacks: Granola bar, cheese stick and oatmeal squares dry cereal.

Drinks: Chocolate milk from school and lemonade from home.

Now, the good stuff!

Meet Charlie! 

He's my laundry buddy! 

Seriously though, I love this stuff. First and foremost, it usually costs me $12 for this size. That's right folks, $12 for 80 loads of laundry. 80 loads of HE laundry. But wait, there's more, Charlie's does not require fabric softener. In fact it's preferred that you don't use any.

Oh, the savings. 

It is scent free, dye free, fuss free, cloth diaper friendly, good stuff. 

No more sneezing. No more itching. No more worry about whether it'll bother the wee one's skin. 

It won't. 

I use it for everything, even hand washing those dance clothes. Our clothes smell clean, not perfume-y. They are soft and they seem to be lasting longer. The towels soak up more water. Did I mention no more sneezing?

I am in love. It makes my life easier. It's cheap and I trust it.

I do keep a bottle or two of stain remover on hand though, because no soap is a good match for three kids on spaghetti night!

Orange You Glad I'm Doing An Extra Bento?

Lunch 61

Lunch: Macaroni and cheese, orange segments, prune, colby jack cheese cubes, a few yellow -> orange candies and carrot match sticks (took the picture before I added them on either side of the orange and forgot to take another, oh well, you'll have to use your imagination). 

Snacks: Cheddar goldfish crackers, a banana

Drinks: Orange juice, water, chocolate milk from school.

"Friend Bear"

I had a crazy busy day and neglected my blog yesterday. I was too busy playing in the snow with my kids! This is my first color theme bento, inspired  by the bento blog network. I think I'll do many more of these because it was fun.  Maybe a rainbow theme too.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Fancy Friday

Lunch 60

Lunch: Teddy bear grilled cheese on whole wheat bread with raisin eyes, craisin mouth and cherry "puff" buttons donated by the baby brother. Kid sized granola bar. Chocolate chip cookie cut into wedges, raisins, carrot sticks and a little piggy bottle of ranch dressing.

Snacks: A banana and cheddar popcorn.

Drinks: Juice box, mini bottle of water and chocolate milk from school.

So, while cute, this one was done in a hurry. There is a magical time warp in my house. It goes from 6:20 am to 6:50 in barely a blink of the eye almost everyday. During that time I can be found staring at nothing and randomly demanding my kid actually eat the untouched breakfast that has been sitting in front of her for 20 minutes. Maybe we are all actually still asleep at that point. Being awake is only an illusion. 

Two for Tuesday

An example of lunch at home:

PB&J duck on whole wheat, banana, pear, carrot sticks, red pepper and cherry halves.

I say example because I keep forgetting to photograph the home lunches (and dinners!) This one was from whenever the last of the fresh cherries were being polished off.

Lunch 58

Lunch: half a pear, grapes, celery sticks and carrot flowers in the top.

Cream cheese pinwheels, two prunes and black olives in the bottom.

Drinks: Iced tea and chocolate milk.

The side of her bento box says this ^. It cracks me up because it's the only lunch vessel that she ever wants to take! 

Run, Run As Fast As You Can!

You can't catch him, he's the . . . muffin man?

Lunch 56!

This pumpkin muffin man was made by spreading about 3/4" of pumpkin bread batter in the bottom of a large, foil lined loaf pan. After baking, I used a cookie cutter to cut out the men. I made a teeny tiny batch of vanilla cream cheese frosting (a few spoonfuls total) and made the apron, hat and secured the detail with it.  He has a Craisin mouth (ok half a craisin), chocolate chip bits for eyes and white and semi sweet chocolate chips "glued" on, just for fun. He's making a snow angel on a bed of cheddar popcorn.

The other half of this lunch is in a totally different season. A hard boiled egg flower and green pepper stem and leaves sit in front of a grape background. I was going for a mosaic effect here, just for color and fun. A little red lizard is going along for the ride today.

Snacks: A banana, a granola bar and a bag of pretzel sticks.

Drinks: Juice, watered down of course and chocolate milk from school.

The muffin men hung out together in the fridge last night. The one without added details got devoured by my 13 month old for breakfast and the one with white eyes mysteriously disappeared when left alone (for a minute!) with a three year old this morning. Not a trace has been found. Strange.