Hotel Transylvania 2: Baby Dennis

My kids love the first Hotel Transylvania and are looking forward to the sequel, which is being released this week. Beaker has been watching the previews, waiting impatiently until we are able to go see the movie. He was quite put out when I explained that we have to wait until the movie opens before we can see it. "Just tell them to open it now! Isn't that what you do?" Uh, no kiddo. Mama isn't a mover and shaker in Hollywood. I'm not quite magic!

In the meantime, he loved this Baby Dennis lunch I made for him!

In this lunch:

Gluten-free open face (get it? face? ha!) sandwich

Carrots

Rice crackers

GF mini pretzel bites

GF chocolate chip cookie

Grapes

Baby Dennis is a simple sandwich built on a base of Udi's gluten-free bread and cheese with thin sliced turkey lunchmeat. His bright orange curly hair is made with carrot coins, and his eyes are mozzarella cheese with food dye details painted on.

Next, creep on over to Bento Monsters by clicking the button below, and see what is lurking there for you:

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Top Five Back to School Essentials

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I cannot believe it's that time again already! It seems like summer just started, but already it's just about time to pull out the school supply lists and peruse back-to-school ads. Getting five kids ready to return to school is a pretty massive undertaking, and I really have to be organized in order to pull it all off successfully. Having a list ready in advanced, or at least a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for, is crucial!

To help get you started, or maybe just give you some good ideas, here are five things which I find to be essential for making going back to school as smooth as possible!

#1: A great lunch dish.

As a bento-packer, having a great box to pack lunches in is definitely my number one essential school supply! A good bento box can make lunch packing both easy and fun. Some of my favorite bento boxes are pictured below:

Clockwise from the upper left: Laptop Lunches, Lunchbots Trio, Easy Lunchboxes, and the Planet Box Rover

#2: A few fun tools.

A good sharp knife is the best bento tool, but there are a few other common kitchen items that can make lunch packing vastly more pleasant! Colorful silicone baking cups, a few sturdy shaped cutters, and a variety of fun cupcake picks are great ways to brighten up any lunch.

Clockwise from upper left: Wilton's Silicone Baking Squares, Crayon cupcake picks, leaf cupcake picks, CuteZCute Cuddle Palz sandwich cutter and stamper.

#3: A sturdy backpack.

The higher kids climb in grades, the heavier their backpacks seem to get. I remember lugging around a bag that seemed to be filled with bricks when I was in school, and they haven't gotten much lighter since! A strong backpack with sturdy straps is worth the extra cost over those made with flimsier materials. I am still hunting for a great backpack brand that can stand up to the beating my kids put them through.

#4: A good water bottle.

Yes, for us this is a school must! Water fountains and breaks to visit them can seem few and far between, so to keep hydrated we take reusable bottles filled with cool water with us everywhere. They are easy to wash with hot water and a good bottle brush, and by using reusable bottles instead of buying bottled water we are reducing both our spending and our impact on the environment. My favorites for the kids are the Reduce Water Week bottles.

#5: Your own style.

This one is the most fun! Whether you're reinventing yourself with a whole new style, or just adding a few new pieces to spruce up an outgrown wardrobe, back to school clothing and accessories shopping can be a blast! It can also get crazy expensive. Try going in with a list of specific items to avoid impulsive over-shopping, and watch for sales! A lot of retailers offer good clothing deals right before the new school year starts. Our favorite accessories this year are brightly colored shoes, backpacks with patches, and super fun Jamberry Nail Shields!

The special letter for the Bento Bloggers & Friends Back to School Basics Hop & Giveaway code is...

Keep going through the whole hop for a chance to win! Collect all of the letters for the code, unscramble the secret message, and follow the instructions to enter to win an amazing prize. Click the pic below to continue through to the next post in the hop:

Thanks for playing with us, and good luck!

Welcome to the Boneyard

Oh, how I love Halloween. SO much. This year October has been even busier than usual for me, as I just started a new job and have been working quite a lot in addition to going to school and taking care of home and the kids. I am keeping quite busy and barely know which direction I'm moving in lately. Not that I'm complaining - I love it! The blog has been much too quiet lately. But when the lovely BBF'ers were planning up a triple-play Halloween Hop, there was no way I could resist that super fun action!

For my part, I made a Boneyard lunch for Beaker. As are all of his meals, this lunch is gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, peanut-free, egg-free, shellfish-free, and garlic-free. It's also a super simple meal, in a perfect size for a preschoolers little hands and tummy. There is plenty of scary this time of year, but no need for allergies or picky preschoolers to cause a fright!

To start, we have creepy-cool frozen yogurt skull and bones with frozen blueberries. Packing the yogurt and blueberries in while still frozen helps to keep the rest of the lunch at a nice cool temperature. By the time lunch rolls around, the blueberries have thawed a little and the yogurt has softened slightly, making a delicious and easy to eat dessert, which is also healthy. It tastes like a yummy blueberry ice cream, but has all of the nutrients, calcium, and protein of a fruity yogurt. Double WIN, nothing frightful about that!

The simple grave is made from a gluten, soy, and nut free vegan double chocolate zucchini muffin, topped with a rice cracker gravestone.

Beaker also has a broccoli floret 'grassy hill', with bites of leftover grilled pork chop and crunchy apple pieces. 

Making delicious, healthy, and fun lunches doesn't have to take a scary amount of time, either. This lunch took about twelve minutes to pack up, including the amount of work-time it took to prep the yogurt ahead of time.. Freezing the bones was pretty simple - just scoop some of your favorite yogurt into a silicone ice cube tray in a fun shape (skull and bones, in this case) and slip into the freezer for a few hours. I usually keep a tray or three in the freezer covered with plastic wrap for easy grab-and-go when needed or a fast after school snack for the kids. The muffins I also make ahead and freeze in large batches every now and again when I have a little extra time. Super time saver right there!

Have a happy happy Halloween!

Now click the button to see what spook-tacular fun awaits at What the Girls Are Having, and see the rest of the fang-ulous lunches on the hop!

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A Pirate's Life For Me!

 Avast! Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ye scurvy dogs be sailin' the high seas with the BBF pirate hop and now ye've landed on the great ship C&C. Arr!

Beaker's new favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so it was easy to choose a theme for his TLAPD lunch. I asked him which character is his very favorite, and he said, "CUBBY! I love Cubby."

Okay, kiddo. A Cubby lunch it is!

Cubby is an open-faced turkey quesadilla. His face and ear are made with turkey lunchmeat, while his pirate bandanna and eyes are made with white corn tortilla. Blue food dye painted on with a toothpick colored the quesadilla and also painted on the mouth and nose. A circle of white corn tortilla also forms the base of the quesadilla. Carrot shavings form his hair and eyebrows.

This lunch also includes carrot coin 'gold dubloons', a star filled with raisins and EnjoyLife chocolate chips, grapes skewered on pirate swords, and a tub of tasty Cutie orange segments.

This lunch is completely Beaker-safe, which means it is free from gluten, soy, nuts, eggs, garlic, and shellfish. According to Beaker, "My Cubby lunch is DELICIOUS!" But alas, he has now decided that Jake is actually his favorite character and wants a special Jake lunch. Yeah, I'll just go ahead and get right on that, kid. Maybe another day.

Now that you've seen my TLAPD post, follow the button to see the next post at One Crafty Thing!

Once you work your way all around the hop back to here, visit the BBF Blog TLAPD post to see the other half of the hop, Black Beard's Revenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

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James and the Giant Peach

Happy birthday to Roald Dahl! 

As a kid, I found his books super creepy. They were the first books to ever scare me. Especially James and the Giant Peach. Something about the mean aunts and the boy who ran away with person-sized bugs was chilling to child me. I blame the giant spider. 

Creepy, scary... but also very good. Dahl was excellent at imagery. I may have been scared by the books, but I still read them all and kept going back for more. 

Bean is starting to be interested in reading Dahl books, so for Roald Dahl Day and the BBF blog hop, I made her a lunch based on the book that inspired several sleepless nights and a lifelong fear of biting into insects in fruit.

Muenster cheese letters spell out the name of the orphan boy across - what else? - a peach.

Miss Spider spins her web across spinach dip, while the Glowworm snoozes on a bed of pretzels. There is also a few Buffalo chicken strips with ranch dip.

And a smiling Mrs. Ladybug crawls across half a chocolate zucchini muffin.

Click the button below to follow the hop through to the next blog and see what the lovely Keitha's Chaos has to share!

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May the Fourth Be With You!

One of the best, most geeky days of the year ~ it's Star Wars day! May the Fourth (and the Force) be with you!

For May the Fourth, Bean took a Laptop Lunch box full of delicious-ness. She has Angie's Sweet & Salty popcorn (so very tasty!), with mini sausages and a little dish of barbecue sauce for dipping. Carrot discs and watermelon stars are tucked in with the dip dish, and mango chunks, a Cutie orange, and more watermelon  bits round out the side. For a good snack, on the side she has a Chobani Champions Greek yogurt tube.

Okay, it's supposed to be a Cutie Death Star. It looks more like a Cutie wearing an eye patch and a bad goatee. Meh, she ate it anyway!

Because sometimes a Storm Trooper just needs to feel pretty.

Princess took Angie's popcorn, mini sausages, mangos and a Cutie with watermelon stars, and some carrot discs with cherry tomatoes. She also has a yogurt tube for snack.

What? Inside every Darth is a little princess fighting to get out and dance!

 Beaker has a muffin tin for his Star Wars lunch:

Watermelon balls, mini sausages, cheese bits, peeled Cutie segments, broccoli, and Vans Multigrain crackers.

Now click the button to stay on the Path and see what the rest of the Jedis have to share:

And when you're all done with the Jedi path, click the button below to follow to the second half of the hop!

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Holly Jolly Ho-Ho-Holiday Hop!

The fantastic group at Bento Bloggers & Friends are at it again, with another fun blog hop! The Ho-Ho-Holiday Blog Hop is in week two, and this time C&C is joining in on the fun. Be sure to click through the button at the bottom of this post to continue with the hop.

For Princess and Bean, it's a Snowman Snowball Fight!

Jolly and Jingle, the Snow sisters, have stockpiled a good bin of snowballs and have taken their corners to launch their attacks.

Who will make the first move? Will Jolly pitch out the first snowball, or will Jingle? These snowy sisters are ready to rumble!

The snowman sisters are ham and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat white bread, cut with two sizes of circle cookie cutters. The eyes, mouth, and buttons are drawn on with decorating gel and the noses are carrots. Their pretzel stick arms are poised to snag a mini marshmallow snowball to lob across the table. The cute hat picks I bought from BentoUSA.

Included in the lunches are peeled clementines, kiwi chunks, star crackers with baby carrot sticks, and holiday colored chocolate pretzels. Both lunches are packed in Easy Lunchboxes.

Now, hop on over to Healthy Eating Starts At Home (an excellent blog!) to see what Marie has going on!