Sunday, December 22, 2013

Snowy Day


The only Snowy Days around here are in the girls' lunches! There was a slight chill in the air last week but of course it doesn't snow here in Bermuda. I packed identical snow themed lunches for the girls. School is out so no more packing lunches for a while. 


The girls had mini snowflake shaped ham sandwiches, a boiled egg, strawberries, grapes and one lunch got the last few pieces of honeydew melon. 




Wouldn't you know, as I finally post these lunches today it turned out to be a really hot and beautiful day! We spent lots of time outside in the sun, quite a contrast to the snowy day theme.


The next few days will be busy in our household with some last minute shopping and gift wrapping. Little Emily has so kindly unwrapped a bunch of our presents that were gifts for her cousins! What a rascal. We will make our Gingerbread house and bake some cookies for Santa. 

Since I am still a bit busy with work I have put together some Christmas themed fun work binders for the girls. They were super excited when they saw me putting them together so I think that they will enjoy them. Hopefully when Emily naps in the afternoons they can work on their binders and I can get most of my work done. That's my plan anyway!  I found lots of printables online and didn't have to create anything myself. Check out my Pinterest Board for ideas if you would like to setup some fun work for your little ones. 

Here are some items that I used when making this lunch.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!
Food Decorating Pick Puffy Ring Snowman Polar Bear Penguin Food Decorating Pick Biodegradable Winter Food Decorating Pick Merry Xmas Message North Pole Winter Wonderland Food Decorating Pick Happy Holidays Message

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Monday, December 16, 2013

Jolly Holiday - fun blog hop.


As mentioned last week I am joining in on another blog hop with the Bento Bloggers and Friends. There are actually 4 hops in total this year. I have only joined in on the middle two, the last one will be on Dec 19th. You can find links to them all here.

This is Amy's Jolly Holiday lunch.


Amy has the jolly old man himself for lunch. Her sandwiches are chocolate and peanut butter spread shaped like Santa's hat and his best reindeer pal, Rudolph. She has lots of fruit - half a clementine, strawberries and cantaloupe. Trix yogurt and greek yogurt combo complete her lunch.  It was time to grocery shop so we were out of all of the raw veggies that she likes.

I have continued to pack the LunchBox Love FREE printable holiday jokes. The kids are loving these jokes.
Q: What do you call Santa when he has no money?
A: Saint Nickel-less
Hardy har har! 

Now on to the fun holiday blog hop.  Click the button to hop on over to Bento Days to see what Jean has made. There are 15 blogs to hop through. When you hop back to me you will have seen them all!


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Friday, December 13, 2013

Holiday fun!

A cute little holiday fun lunch for Heidi.

Turkey sandwich shaped like a stocking with mini marshmallows and sprinkles, trix cherry yogurt and greek yogurt mixed together, cantaloupe & strawberries. I also packed her a banana on the side. 

You might notice that I have been mixing trix yogurt and greek yogurt together lately. The girls love the trix yogurt and I like the extra protein and less sugar in the greek yogurt. Plus is makes it just a little thicker and less likely to make a mess when they are eating. Perfect combo for school!

Inside Heidi's lunch is a little holiday joke. It also came from the free printables set on LunchBox Love that I posted yesterday. Here's that link again.
Q;What do elves learn in school?
A: the Elf-abet
Ha!

You might notice a couple of raindrops on Heidi's lunch. I like to take my photos outside when I can and I almost made it in time! A surprise sunshower came over just as I was taking the photo. I quickly snapped the picture and ran inside, lunches in tow. There were hardly any rain drops on her lunch so it worked out ok.


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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Season's Eatings - A holiday blog hop

Today I am joining in on a blog hop with the Bento Bloggers and Friends. There are actually a series of holiday hops this month. Stay tuned as I will be participating in another hop next week!

For today's hop I made a fun Gingerbread People themed lunch for Rosie. Tonight we are going to have a gingerbread cookie baking evening in our house. It seems like everyone needs to bring cookies for something tomorrow! We're going to go with gingerbread people. Amy has to bake and decorate a bunch for her Brownies party as part of her cooking badge. I expect that we'll all have some fun in the kitchen. I"ll try to snap some photos to share.


For lunch Rose has greek yogurt & cherry trix yogurt mixed together, half of a clementine, cantaloupe, strawberries, and a marshmallow gingerbread boy.  Her sandwiches are her favourite chocolate & peanut butter (who wouldn't like that?) filling. I cut them into the shape of girl and boy gingerbread people.

I tucked a fun joke in her lunch. These jokes are free online printables from Lunchbox Love. You can find them here.  The joke Q: What did the gingerbread man put on his bed?  A: a cookie sheet! haha. Kid's humour, I love it and I know that Rose and her friends will too!

This post is part of the Season's Eatings hop. Click the button below to hop on over to Student Bento to see what eatings Stacey has made for the Season ^_^. There are about a dozen or so blogs participating. When you hop back to this post you will have seen them all. Enjoy!




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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A trio of trees

My mojo has been lacking lately. I have been making lots of healthy lunches, they've just been a little low on flair. Here are some recent lunches. All of the girls had similar lunches, keeping it easy for me!

Heidi's lunch

Heidi has strawberries, half a banana, green grapes and a tree shaped sandwich ( probably ham but I can't remember!)

Amy's Lunch

Amy has cucumbers yellow peppers, green grapes, strawberries, goldfish and a tree shaped sandwich

Rosie's lunch

Rosie has yellow peppers & grape tomatoes, green grapes and strawberries, goldfish crackers and a tree shaped sandwich.

There are slight differences in the lunches as their favourites are different - banana is one of Heidi's favourites, cucumbers are one of Amy's favourites (she would never eat a banana!), bell peppers of any colour are definitely Rosie's favourite item in her lunch. So even though these are mostly the same they were each happy to have one of their favourites for lunch. 

Almost everything was eaten. Rose left a bite of sandwich and Amy left the peppers. It was a trial, she still doesn't really like them. And is case you are wondering what happened to the other half of the banana - baby sister Emily ate it for breakfast. She LOVES bananas too.


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Friday, November 15, 2013

Squirrelly Fun Lunch


A little squirrelly fun for lunch.


Amy has a boiled egg, honeydew melon and strawberry pieces, carrot sticks and a squirrel shaped ham sandwich with a bushy tail. The tail has a little peanut butter and chocolate spread with chocolate sprinkles. That was a really special treat to find in her lunch!

Here are some items that I used when making this lunch.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!

  Japanese Bento Accessory Cute Food Pick Animal Squirrel Food Decorating Party Ring Squirrel Owl 8pcs Japanese Bento Accessories Microwavable Silicone Food Cup Sheep Squirrel
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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Panda Themed Lunches

Today, I am guest posting over at BentOnBetterLunches. How exciting! I've made two panda themed lunches and have shared one over there and one over here.

This is Rose's fun panda themed lunch.
Rose has a panda shaped boiled egg, honeydew melon & blueberries, yellow peppers, carrot sticks and veggie dip. There is also a mini babybel cheese with a nori face to look like a panda (sort of! ha.) Rose has a special treat for her sandwich today - it's chocolate & peanut butter filling! She was thrilled at the suggestion. 

I was going to open that babybel cheese and put the nori features right on it but Rose said no. It would have looked more panda like since the cheese is white but Rose said that she didn't want to eat that nori today and she didn't want it ON her cheese. So on the red wax cover it went  >_^

I'd love it if you pop over to BentOnBetterLunches to see Heidi's panda themed lunch. Hers is packed in a Planetbox shuttle and is slightly different. I'll give you a hint about one difference, she has 2 super cute mini panda sandwiches. Can you guess what I used to make them?


Here are some items that I used when making both panda themed lunches. 
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!
Japanese Bento Accessory Food Pick Panda 3D food picks 8 pcs Japanese Bento Fork with Case Panda and Strap Japanese Bento Food Cup Tip Rock Paper Scissors CuteZcute Bento Sandwich Cutter and Pastry Stamp Kit Japanese Bento Accessories Sauce Container Dipping Mayo Cup Bento Nori Cutter Seaweed Puncher 3 Design Deluxe CuteZcute Mini Pocket Sandwich Maker and Egg Mold Kit - Animal Palz Hard Boiled Egg Mold Rabbit Bear for Bento Decoration
There is a glorious amount of cute panda items available at Bento USA. Click here to see them all!
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Friday, November 1, 2013

Muffins for lunch!

It's been tricky packing lunch for Emily lately. She doesn't eat much and she's not been eating all of her sandwices. I made a batch of blueberry muffins and the kids were all happy to devour them! I saved a couple for lunches just to change it up a bit. Emily calls them cupcakes - I have not corrected her ^_^.


Emily has a blueberry muffin, rolled up turkey and string cheese, a couple of halved red grapes, a sliced strawberry, a few honeydew melon slices, 2 cucumber flowers, and a couple of carrot sticks. She took at least a few nibbles of everything. I knew that it was a bit too much food for her but I didn't want her to be hungry. 

Some days she eats everything in her lunch and when she comes home it's straight to bed for naptime. I want to make sure that if she's hungry at playgroup she has plenty to eat as she's just so tired when she gets home. Literally, she comes in the door and wants to take off her shoes and socks, grab her blankie and climb into bed. She's usually asleep within 20 minutes of arriving at home. Thank you playgroup! On those days I can get so much work done for my paying job. And that makes the nights earlier for me too. I am happy that she has such a fun time and a good nap - I just don't want her to be hungry but too tired too eat. She wakes up a bit grumpy sometimes and I'm sure it's beacuse she's a bit hungry. So I'll probably keep packing a little too much food just in case.

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Cute little bunny sandwiches.

This might just be my favourite mini sandwich cutter. It's sure had a lot of use since the start of the school year. Here's a familiar preschool lunch for Heidi.


Heidi has four bunny shaped ham sandwiches, red & green grapes, honeydew melon, carrot sticks, red pepper strips and ranch dip. She hasn't really been eating any raw veggies except for carrots. She asked me to try some peppers so I put two small pieces in her lunch. She took a nibble but didn't eat them. Still counts as progess in my book! I'm a little tired of sending her carrots all of the time and she is going to get tired of eating them! I'd love to find a new raw veggie that she likes.

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Funny Faces

We're on Mid-Term break here. Woo Hoo! No early mornings for a whole week ^_^. Last week got so busy that I didn't have a chance to blog many lunches. Here are a couple of funny face lunches that I made for Amy & Rose.

Rose had veggies & dip, cantaloupe, pineapple. celery with peanut butter (and candy eyes), yellow pepper and a funny face ham sandwich. 

I went on a healthy eating grocery tour a couple of week's ago. I've changed a few things on in our diets, mainly in the reducing fat area. I get so focused on reading the labels for the carbohydrates and sugar when making decisions about what to choose that I forget to keep a check on the fat. I guess that's just from years of being PG and having TOTAL STRESS over my blood sugars. Well one change that we made was to switch to Bolthouse Farms salad dressing - their yogurt ranch is a hit with the kids and has only a fraction of the fat. Win! It's really tasty too, and I'm not even a Ranch lover.


Amy's lunch is similar. Way less veggies and crackers added. She's been pretty difficult with her food choices lately, we're getting back into our same lunch rut so soon into the year. Not sure what to do about it just yet. I'll likely experiment a bit over the break to try out some new lunchy items at home. She didn't like the new salad dresing - but she has yet to meet one that she likes. Also still not a salad eater, we're working on the deconstructed version first. 



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Monday, October 28, 2013

Budding Chef Competition - Vegetable Critters

Last weekend was the Annual Budding Chef competition at school. All 3 girls entered again this year. The girls did not win in their categories this time, but they all got a participation ribbon. Heidi said, "We all got ribbons so we all won!" Love my little peacemaker ^_^.

Rose & Heidi's age are allowed to enter the veggie critters competition. It's one category and all of the Children's House can enter so it's ages 3-6.

Heidi made a fly.

I helped with both. It's really hard to push the toothpicks into the potatoes! 

Rose made a dinosaur.


There were lots of fun entries - it's a pretty tough category. 
Here are the ones that won.
The car on the bottom left was first place, the butterfly was second place and the elephant with the lady bugs came third. We spent a while thinking up and looking at other critters for ideas online the day before. We almost made that exact same elephant (I thought it would be easy for the kids - I really tried to convince them!) but they were not interested in making it.

I also took a photo of many of the other entries. Here are a few. 
I'm partial to Darth Vader. Neat idea!



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Monday, October 21, 2013

Happy Jack O' Lantern Sandwich

Instead of a Spookie Halloween Lunch, I decided to make a happy one! Amy has a smiling Jack O Lantern sandwich today.


As excited as she was about her Spookie Ookie lunch, Amy didn't seem to eat much out of it. She was either rushed or not that hungry. In this Happy Jack O Lantern lunch I packed many of Amy's favourite foods. Cucumber and carrot sticks, honeydew melon and pineapple and both reg & green grapes. Her Happy Jack O Lantern sandwich is a ham sandwich. She ate more out of this lunch, but still not very much. I think she must be very chatty at the lunch tables these days!


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Friday, October 18, 2013

Spookie Oookie Lunch


Amy wanted a spookie Halloween lunch so this is what I came up with, a funky monster which looks sort of happy and lots of monster parts! Today's post is part of a fun Frightful Fall blog hop by the Bento Blogger's and Friends. At the end of the post click the button to hop over to the next Frightful Fall lunch.


Amy has mozzarella cheese & fruit leather fingers, spookie boiled egg eyeballs with grape slices and dried cranberry accents, apple and almonds monster mouth and a few grapes. The gummy candy Vampire teeth are made by the Natural Confectionery Company. Amy's sandwich is a turkey sandwich with lettuce hair, cucumber and candy eyes and a red pepper mouth.

Rose has a Haunted Pumpkin Patch Lunch.

I packed her a Wadson's Farms baby butter lettuce salad with cheese pumpkins, ghost cucumbers, skull carrots and grape tomatoes. She also has red & yellow pepper strips, grapes, strawberries, a couple of grapes and an owl shaped cheese sandwich. This lunch is vegetarian. I packed her a lunchbox love note from the Halloween Jokes series. Amy also had one but it didn't make it into the photo. Her joke went something like this - What kind of fruit do vampires love? Neck-tarines.  hahaha!

So here's how the hop works. Click the button below to hop to Sarah's blog Zoe's Lunchbox. Keep clicking the buttons to see all of the lunches. When you arrive back here you will have seen them all. There are 15 different blogs.



Since this is day 3 of the Bento Bloggers & Friends Frightful Fall hop, you can also go through the other 2 hops that went live earlier this week. Click here to start day 1, Click Here to start day 2. Each one will have 15 blogs so if you hop all 3 that's a total of 45 fun lunch blogs! You'll surely find lots of fun FallOWeen ideas ideas.



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