Food, Family, Fun.

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!

Here she is cutting out the pumpkin shapes

Putting on some sprinkles

Rose decided to take her spider craft that she made last week, some turkey cut and paste and colouring pages, some information about her name and a list of some favourites, her favourite book Bugs A-Z, her favourite stuffed animal, lots of photos of her doing various activities - gardening, swimming, dancing, gymnastics etc, a CD of her favourite songs, some family photos including our pets and lots of pictures of her cooking in the kitchen. She's really the go to kitchen helper in the family.  Collecting the photos is the part where I did the most work to help. We talked about what she wants to bring photos of and then I just used the computer to arrange them on the pages and type a description where it's needed. We don't have to arrange these like a project. The teachers have a special board and they put them up each week :) 

So how did Rose make these fabulous sugar cookies? Easy peasy. We made our favourite sugar cookie recipe -- Wilton Roll Out Cookies -- and added some neon pink and regular yellow food colouring to make the dough bright orange. Then I helped roll out the dough as this recipe is a no chill dough and is very soft and a bit tricky for a four year old to handle. Rose cut out the pumpkin shapes, added the sprinkles and I did the oven work.

This is the pumpkin cookie cutter that we used:

It's getting closer and closer to candy night! I can't wait to take the girls trick or treating.  Today is another lunch blog hop to get us all in the fun Halloween mood. Click the button at the end of the post to hop along to the next blog.

Here's Amy's lunch packed in a planetbox
carrot sticks, green grapes, gummy vitamin
strawberries & cantaloupe, witch finger sandwiches (ham) with fruit leather fingernails
She told me that she wanted lots of picks and things. So she has 2 bat picks, 2 witch fingers and 2 ghost rings

Halloween lunch for Rosie in a planetbox

Chex Mix (sort of looks like Jack O Lantern parts), green grapes, apple Jack o Lantern Mouth,
cheddar Jack o Lantern, pumpkin shaped cantaloupe, Jack o Lantern Pizza Pocket
The paper behind is a small wax paper treat bag.

Heidi's EasyLunchboxes Halloween Lunch

Heidi had apple monster mouth, grapes and a spider PB & J

The original plan was to draw a spider web on the circle cutout with a food safe marker and then stick in a spider pick. Well, my marker skills were lacking today so I flipped it over and used a spider cutter to cut a spider out and then left it all together so there was enough sandwich. The spider alone wouldn't be enough.

Of course the other side with the messy marker didn't have the little crusty bits of bread showing - DOH!

If you would like to see all of my Halloween lunches, crafts and activities click here.

Now on to the hop! Click on the button below to hop along to the next blog. I expect there will be lots of fun and creative Halloween lunches to see. I can't wait to hop through them all myself :)

cookie (I didn't make these, my Aunt brought them over last night), string cheese with ghost rings,

gummy vitamins, apple pieces, honeydew melon

jack o lantern sandwich

The ghost rings were one of a few fun Halloween trinkets that I found at Party Plus on the weekend. 

Amy's Lunch

Amy's is the same as Rose's. Just a different cheese and no mustard on her sandwich. The cookie sure looked lonely in that compartment all by itself but there has been a little bit of uneaten food coming home lately, so I didn't want to overpack again.

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Heidi had a cookie, grapes, apple pieces and a cheese pizza.

For Heidi I still made her lunch in the morning, but I didn't heat up the pizza until she got home from school. I am sure that this is the first of many Halloween pizzas I'll make this year as the girls always request them once Halloween nears. The ghost cutter below also makes a great Halloween pizza, cover it with grated mozzarella and sliced black olives for eyes and a mouth instead :)

Everyone ate all of their lunch except Amy, who left some cheese.

Halloween candy - jack o lantern marshamllow, BOO chocolate, peppers, carrots, grape tomatoes ( tailored to individual tastes), orange kool aid, jack o lantern clementine, ham Pumpkin shaped sandwich, grapes with Happy Halloween flag.

I only had one snack to make this morning. Rose has been at home and feeling sick, and today was hot lunch so only a snack box for Amy, and then Heidi only takes a drink to school on Fridays. Somehow we STILL just about made it out the door on time!!

string cheese, green grapes,

apple cinnamon rice crisps, jack o lantern clementine

Amy's lunch:

*failed* black cat rice krispie!, grapes, cantaloupe,

candy coated sunflower seeds, sealed PB sandwich

(Amy doesn't like cheese today - so none for her!)

Rose's lunch:

rice krispie, grapes, cantaloupe, candy coated sunflower seeds

sealed PB sandwiches with cheese toppers

Heidi's lunch:

peanut butter cookies, grapes, cantaloupes

candy coated sunflower seeds, sealed PB sandwiches with cheese toppers

They did not mind that their rice krispie treats did not turn out nicely. they were just thrilled to have one in their lunch. I don't know if it's technically allowed at school though - so we'll have to see what happens. I didn't make them myself - we had them from a bake sale :)

A quick little Halloween bento for Amy & Rose to take to gymnastics on Saturday. I saw the idea to use my dumpling maker for the sandwiches here. They loved their sandwiches this way and I will definitely make the same kind of sealed sandwich next week for school.

Amy's lunch

grapes, Nice cookies, cantaloupe, PB sandwiches, provolone jack o lantern

Rose's lunch

PB sandwiches, cheddar jack o lantern, Nice cookies, cantaloupe, red grapes

Amy & Rose have identical lunches. Heidi has hot lunch at school.

popcorn, honeydew melon, vitamins

strawberries & peaches, PB pumpkin sandwich