First Day of School

Oh, wow! How is it that time of year again already?! It seems to sneak up faster and faster every year. One minute it's June and you're saying good-bye to your school friends, and the next minute it's September and time again for the rush to find school supplies and get everything organized for the new year.

This year I have all five of my kids in school! Five kids in four different schools is taking a lot more organization than I expected, but I suspect we'll get the hang of things over the next few months.

Brick (who hates having his picture taken and ran as soon as he saw the camera come out) is in tenth grade now. G-man is in eighth, his last year of middle school. Bean is in sixth grade, and Lulu is in third grade. Beaker just started kindergarten, but since he is in a completely different school program than his siblings, his first day was half a week later than theirs.

Of course they needed special lunches for the first day of school! Except for G, who was even more excited about the school pizza than he was about seeing his friends again. 

Bean has switched to a gluten-free diet like Beaker, to help clear up some health issues from last year. So far it has been helping, we think. For her lunch I packed a cute sandwich on gluten-free bread, with rolls of turkey scraps on the side. She also has a pair of Lucy's GF cookies, cucumber slices with carrot flowers, Glutino pretzel crisps (with a cheese 6), and fruit.

Grapes and oranges are some of the only fruits she can eat without allergy symptoms flaring up, so it's a good thing that they are so easy to pack for lunches!

For Lulu, a sweet little tiger sandwich on multigrain bread. Tucked in the top is a few mini golden Oreo cookies, with carrot coins and cucumber flowers on the bottom. She also has pretzels - with a cheesey 3 - and fruit, too.

Her little tiger and Bean's mouse were made with the new CuteZCute Cuddle Palz set from BentoUSA, and Lulu has a pair of triangle sandwiches cut from the scraps.

Bean and Lulu both have their lunches packed in our favorite Easy Lunchboxes.

Brick has a very similar lunch, packed in a Sistema Cube. I tucked a granola bar in for an energy boosting snack - high school tends to have some long days.

Brick took his lunch to school packed in this fun lunchbag I found over the summer. He said he got quite a few head turns and strange looks. Can't imagine why...

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Lunch for Dad and Daughter

One recent night Bean and I were chatting while I packed up leftovers for the Dude to take for lunch. She watched me start tucking things into an Easy Lunchbox for him to take and made a comment about how delicious his lunch looked, but how it wasn't very decorative.

To surprise her, I packed up a similar lunch for her to take to school the next day. I used the same basic ingredients for both of them and just perked hers up a little with extra decor. It only took a few minutes, since I already had everything out for her dad's lunch, and she was thrilled to pieces to have a pretty version of his meal. "It was almost like we were having lunch together, even though he was at work and I was at school!"

When they both were home they talked together about their matching lunches and how their days had gone. Their lunch breaks are pretty close to the same times, and this was a simple and sweet way for them to stay connected, even though they're both working hard and don't see each other as much.

The Dude's lunch has leftover grilled chicken slices wrapped in a lettuce leaf. He has some homemade chunky guacamole with carrot sticks and tortilla rounds for dipping, as well as cantaloupe and cucumber pieces.

The guacamole is also delicious when scooped over the chicken wrap. 

For Bean, a sweeter version. She also has guacamole and tortilla rounds, but her leftover grilled chicken is cut into cubes and threaded onto mini flower and leaf skewers. Her cucumber pieces are tucked into a pink flower silicone cup, and her cucumbers are sliced and topped with carrot flowers. For an afternoon snack she has green grapes and a small Baybel cheese round.

Two versions of the same lunch, and a connection fostered between dad and daughter. And as a special bonus, these lunches took less than ten minutes each to make and used dinner leftovers, keeping both cost and waste down!

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Spring Lunches

We love spring! The rare glimpses of sun through the rain, the blooming flowers, getting the garden ready for summer... Spring rocks!

In celebration of the gorgeous, unusually sunny weather we have had here for the past couple of weeks, a pretty flower spring lunch:

With cantaloupe pieces and Wylde allergy free pretzel os by Ener-G, and a scoop of sweet strawberry-banana yogurt.

And a pretty flower and butterfly main compartment, made with a simple silicone cup full of pickle pieces, dill havarti cheese butterflies, Enjoy Life allergy safe cookie bits, a ham sandwich made with Udi's gluten-free bread, and sweet pea stem.

Beaker loved this lunch. Fun, cute, delicious, and totally safe for his allergies!

And for Mom, a simple salad with ham and salami and cheese bits.

With pears, strawberry, plum, and blackberry mix and yogurt for dipping on the side.

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Spring is Here!

The weather is going back and forth between sunshine and rain faster than a drunk yo-yo on speed, but we are loving the move toward Spring anyway! The trees are starting to sprout new leaf buds. The daffodils and tulips are poking their pretty heads up out of the ground. The birds are returning from their flight south and twittering in the trees again.

The first day of Spring coincided with a special Pajama Day at the girls' school, so I packed these breakfast-y, Spring-y lunches for them.

For Bean, a Spring Butterfly:

She has an Eggo waffle butterfly with fruit leather antennae, a hard-boiled egg, a little cup of maple syrup for dipping the waffle, and a butterfly silicone cup of Sunbursts. She also has yogurt with sprinkles and a cup of watermelons and blueberries.

Cutting the Eggo Butterfly was super fast and easy!

First I toasted two waffles and allowed them to cool slightly. Then I stacked the two waffles, one on top of the other. I cut the stack in four, lengthwise. The rounded parts became the wings and two of the straight parts became the body. The other straight strips I cut into smaller parts to make the wing accents. Simple and quick!

For Princess, an Eggo waffle Easter egg. The Eggo Easter egg was made by toasting two waffles, then cutting them using an egg shaped cookie cutter. I cut the accents out of fruit leather. Princess also has a peeled mandarin orange, a little mayo cup full of maple syrup, a ducky duck egg, yogurt with sprinkles, and blueberries with watermelon. 

The ducky was made by hard-boiling a duck egg (generously provided by our duck hens) and soaking it in yellow food dye for a few minutes. I rinsed the egg after it had soaked in the dye, then used a carrot to make the feet and beak. The eyes are two small sprinkles.

A happy chick is splashing in her yogurt, and the watermelon flowers were easy to cut using a small cookie cutter!

On the same day G-man had an appointment, so I packed up a lunch for him, myself, and for Beaker.

G-man has an Angry Birds Eggo lunch. The egg Eggo is made using the same method as the Easter egg Eggo for Princess. He also has Angry Birds Honey Grahams graham crackers, apple slices, watermelon balls, and a blueberry granola bar for a snack.

For my lunch, I packed some leftover Italian pasta salad made with Easter themed pasta, chunks of peeled kiwi, apple slices, and Crunchmaster multigrain crackers with Laughing Cow cheese.

It was delicious! Especially the kiwi ~ yum!

Beaker's lunch from that day will be shown in a separate post.

The Dude's lunch was more of a snacky tray.

I rolled deli sliced roast beef around strips of havarti and topped them with grape tomatoes. He also has Laughing Cow cheese with Club crackers, a few raspberry shortbread cookies and chocolate covered espresso beans (in the small dish with lid) for dessert, green grapes stuffed with garlic and blue cheese, and kiwi slices with blueberries.

Pretty tasty and easy to make, my favorite!

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Preschool Piggy

I finally caved in to the cuteness factor and bought the CuteZCute sandwich cutter from BentoUSA/AllThingsForSale. Hello, adorable! And super easy to use, too.

To break it in, I made Beaker a little piggy lunch today.

See? SO CUTE! Cute little piggy face sandwich with ham and cheese.

He also has clementine segments and mango chunks, snap peas and baby carrots with ranch, and a few chocolate covered blueberries.

For the Dude, a sliced beef and provolone sandwich on a jalapeno cheddar bagel, with jalapeno chips and a couple of small kiwis. The little heart container holds dark chocolate cranberries. The sandwich is every bit as delicious as it looks. And so colorful, with a mix of fresh spring greens to add some cooling flavor and crunch to balance out the spicy jalapenos.

Princess and Bean both wanted leftover beef stew from last night's dinner.

On the side I packed them each some oyster crackers, peeled clementines, baby carrots and snap peas with ranch, and a few chocolate cranberries.

The pretty fruit and veggie flower for Princess was made using silicone baking cups and a variety of fruits and veggies. The 'petals' of the flower are carrots and clementine segments, while the flower center is a golden cherry tomato. 'Grass' snap peas sprout up on either side, while the 'leaves' - green mini silicone cups with oyster crackers and chocolate cranberries - hold the bottom.

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