Home Again!

We are home from our vacation! We had a fantastic time. Two nights in Seattle, two nights at Great Wolf Lodge. We were gone for five total days, and had a whole lot of fun. And I met my goal of making bento lunches for every day of our trip! Over the weekend I will put together all of my pictures from that adventure and write up a blog post with all of the details, my tips and tricks, and what I learned from making bento lunches on vacation.

We took the kids to the Pacific Science Center and/or Experience Music Project (Dude and I split the kids ~ he took G-man to EMP while I took three to PacSci and the big one stayed at his grandparents' place to chill out and play video games), and to the Space Needle. We stayed with family and it was so good to see them and spend time together.

I visited the Daiso Japan store in the Commons Mall and it was awesome. So many cute bento supplies for only $1.50 each! I was very well behaved and restrained - I only bought a few new bento boxes, a couple of rice molds, one pack of new picks, and an etching knife. I think I could have happily spent hours in there, rifling through all of the bento stuff.  They had boxes and cups and utensils and picks and molds and cutters and so much more, all for $1.50 each. So very cool!

The best part was Great Wolf Lodge. This was our fourth visit, but that place never really gets old. There is so much to do there! The waterpark is a blast, but that's only the beginning. There is the MagiQuest game, an interactive wand activated treasure hunt that takes you all over the hotel, through hallways and up and down stairs, following a storyline and completing quests. I think MagiQuest is the Dude's favorite part.

They also have Cub Club, which is a crafting room perfect for downtime when you don't want to go up to your room, but just need a little quiet activity. Cub Club has a corner with big cushy pillows and books to read, a little puppet theater, and tables full of crafts and coloring. There is also an arcade, and for the teenagers there is Gr8-Space, a large room full of nothing but video games.

Every morning a staff member leads kids on Wolf Walk, a 'nature' walk around the lobby of the Lodge. They talk about the different animals that are represented and share facts about the animals lives in nature, finishing up with a little craft. Bean and Princess made origami wolves and crawled around the lobby making wolf and bear noises in their pajamas. After Wolf Walk and at night before bedtime, there is an animatronic show with singing and a story in the large cozy lobby. Kids are invited to come down to the show in their PJs (or swim suits, or any other clothing) and get involved in the singing.

Since we go in October, there is also Howl-o-ween, with Halloween themed decorations and activities around the Lodge. They do a Trick or Treat Trail each evening - every kid is given a trail guide and sent from station to station around the lodge, receiving a treat at each station. I love seeing the kids running around, some in costumes, some in swim suits, even some in formal dress who are hitting the Trick or Treat Trail on their way to an event.

Great Wolf Lodge is our favorite family vacation spot so far. I love having all of the activities close at hand, with plenty of places for relaxation and quiet time when that is needed, too. When Beaker and Princess are older we might give Disney a shot, but for now we are happy with GWL. And it's even better that it's so close to us. The Grand Mound location is barely over an hour away, which makes for a nice easy drive.

Anyway, we had a fantastic vacation. And now we're glad to be home and settling back into our daily routines. Vacations are wonderful, but sometimes it takes a little time to adjust back to normal after you get home. We got home late on Tuesday night and the kids went back to school Wednesday morning, so we jumped right back into the swing of things.

Tomorrow I will have bento pictures from lunch today and tomorrow, and then Saturday I will put together a vacation bento post. For now, here are some pics from our trip!

Space Needle:

Bean, Princess, and Beaker in the giant hamster wheel outside of PacSci:

Beaker and his "buddy" (bought specially for this trip ~ there was no way I was taking my three year old who loves to run and run and run to a huge crowded public place without a solid way to keep him close by and safe. I care more about his safety than I do about what people think. This was his first experience with a leash. He, of course, dropped to all fours and crawled around, ran to the full length to jerk my arm, and dropped rapidly to the ground while walking to bring me to a full stop. And barked at people.) trying to figure out the seagulls.

Beaker LOVED the animatronic dinosaurs at PacSci. I think he would have cheerfully spent all afternoon racing around that room. His favorite was the Pteranadons. "Where are their babies?" He immediately thought of Dinosaur Train and wanted to find Tiny!

My favorite part of PacSci is always the butterfly habitat. I love sitting in the big enclosed room with all of the butterflies flapping around. The room is hot, kept around 86 degrees faranheit, so none of the kids spend very long in there, but I love just sitting in there with my camera. They're beautiful!

Beaker was more fascinated with the koi pond inside the butterfly house than the butterflies themselves.

Princess likes the brain games best.

Bean's favorite is the naked mole rats. Ugly little things, but she thinks they are absolutely adorable. She spent about half an hour just watching them scamper through their tunnels and writhe in a wiggly naked pile in the big common area of their habitat.

Bean, outside of EMP:

First night at GWL, the little kids hit the Trick or Treat Trail in costume (and psuedo costume).

Bean playing MagiQuest:

On our last morning there, I finally managed to get 4/5 of our kids in one place and snapped a quick shot of them in their swim stuff before we checked out of our suite.

Beaker in his GWL ears, trying to talk me into buying him a second sucker. Not a chance, kiddo. One of those big things is plenty of sugar for one little guy!

The waterpark has this big bucket that dumps water periodically on people standing underneath. If you hear the chimes sounding, move!

On our last day there, Brick turned 14! Happy birthday, my biggest (and most camera shy) child! Love you!

Princess, pretending to push her sister under in the wave pool:

Beaker finally got up the nerve to try the lily pad jump zone and once he tried it, he wouldn't leave. I lost count of how many times he went across - at least a few dozen! Dude helped him out by hanging out next to the lily pads just in case he slipped off.

Bean gave it a shot, too.

And so did Princess:

Elusive pic of Brick (who always hides from the camera as much as his dad does):

G-man in the basketball pool:

Thanks for looking!

Mummy? Mummy!

Today I packed two very different kinds of mummy.

First is the mummy for Princess. I cannot even remember where I saw this idea the first time - somewhere online, but not sure where - but it was very easy. To make a mummy sandwich, just use a round cookie cutter to cut the sandwich into a circle, then cut white cheese into strips and layer across the top of the sandwich like bandages. Finish off with a pair of Wilton's candy eyes. Done! A seriously simple way to cute up an October lunch.

The letters are cut from fruit leather using alphabet fondant cutters. Princess also has a little bit of dill pasta salad, some grape tomatoes, green grapes, and Sunbursts.

Bean has a very different kind of mummy.

This is another Doctor Who inspired lunch, from the episode The Empty Child (season one, episode 6, I think). Creepiest episode so far! The weeping angels and the ood had nothing on the gas mask zombies. Bean says the episode didn't scare her at all, but I don't mind admitting that it freaked me right out. So. very. creepy. "Are you my mummy?"

Bean's gas mask zombie sandwich is turkey and mustard, with the mask made from fruit leather and white cheese. The letters are made with the scraps of white cheese.

She also has a bit of pasta salad, Sunbursts, and pear chunks.

I made chili last night and Brick asked me to send the leftovers for his lunch. I heated some up this morning and put it in the Thermos, along with a dish of salad with ranch dressing, Sunbursts, saltines, and a silicone spider cup of shredded cheese. The tiny little bottle peeking out from under the spider contains hot sauce.

We leave tomorrow for our vacation! Wish me luck. I will survive the drive with bickering children!

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Today Lacks Inspiration

No matter how hard I try, I am simply not ever going to be a morning person. This is why most of the kids' better lunches are made late the night before. I function better at night. Last night I had stuff to do though, so I put off putting lunches together until this morning. Brick and G-man decided to get lunch at school, as they usually prefer, so that just left lunches for Bean and Princess.

 

Each of the girls took a Thermos of Spaghetti Os for their lunch. See? Complete lack of inspiration. And very little effort. But Princess grinned from ear to ear when she saw the pan of gooey canned Os bubbling on the stove this morning.

 

I also put together a pair of small dishes with some veggies, fruit, and crackers for each of them. Each has a pumpkin silicone cup with half a peeled clementine and cheese crackers, a couple of candy pumpkins, and carrots and broccoli with ranch in one container, and grapes with Teddy Grahams and a pair of gummi bears in the other container.

 

 

 

Two more days until we leave for vacation!

 

To minimize costs, reduce fast food consumption, and make lunch times less hectic, I am making bento-ish lunches for each member of the family for every day of our trip. 5 days, 7 people... Think I can do this? Sure, of course I can!

Muffin Tin Monday and Doctor Who

The first time I read about Muffin Tin Mondays was on Another Lunch. The idea of using a muffin tin as a sectioned plate was something I knew my youngest two kids would love. I picked up a couple of 6-cup muffin tins at the Dollar Tree and decided to give it a go for Princess' birthday dinner. See, for our family, birthday dinners are special. The birthday star can choose anything they want for dinner, even if it's chocolate cake. Princess chose a Snack Tray dinner.

Snack Tray consists of a bunch of finger foods. Popcorn, apple slices, grapes, crackers with cheese... anything that doesn't need flatware to be eaten goes. Princess chose popcorn, crackers, summer sausage, cheddar cheese, pear and apple slices, grapes, spinach dip, ham and cheese pinwheels, and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Yum!

I set out muffin tins for Princess and Beaker and let them choose what went into each cup. They insisted I get the camera.

The birthday star herself!

Beaker's muffin tin:

He heartily approved. However, he thought the lack of flatware meant no hands required. He ate puppy-style, by leaning foward and licking his food out of the tin. Messy, but effective enough.

And now for today. Beaker requested a "spiiiiiider wunch". Clockwise from the upper left corner he has: a spider silicone cup of red and green grapes, a few Ritz crackers with a spiderweb drawn on with edible food marker, a ham roll up, another spider silicone cup with yogurt and sprinkles, and a cup of ranch dressing with carrot sticks and olive halves. The spider in the ranch is made with an olive, inspired by a post on Wendolonia.

Sad looking spiderweb:

The olive spider was super easy. Just cut an olive in half. Use one half for the body and cut the other half in to 8 tiny slivers. Place the pieces with a pair of tweezers.

For Princess, I sent a pumpkin lunch. A mixed greens salad with bacon, a side of ranch dressing, and pepper Jack o' Lanterns...

And red grapes, Ritz crackers, and spinach dip with Autumn leaf picks, carrot sticks, and ham and cheese pinwheels.

For Bean, I sent the first of what will likely be many Doctor Who lunches. We love Doctor Who. We're still catching up to the current season - right now we are halfway through the third season of the new series. The Dude and I watch them first to sort of screen them for the younger kids. We learned that lesson in the first season when we all watched The Empty Child together. Princess was understandably freaked out (that episode even scared me!) and we nixed the Doctor altogether for the younger kids for a while. Last week we began cautiously allowing them to watch again with the caveat that they have to tell us if an episode is too intense for them so we can stop it.

Bean is a huge fan of the Doctor, even wanted to be a Dalek for Halloween if I could have pulled the costume together for her (she changed her mind and decided to be a bubble gum machine instead, thankfully. The Dalek costume was a bit too involved for me!), and wants a TARDIS mug for her birthday.

For her snack, I sent green grapes (sporting a bow tie) and graham crackers. The TARDIS is drawn on with edible food markers. 

For her lunch she has ham and cheese pinwheels, a mixed greens salad with bacon and ranch dressing, croutons on the side, and pepper jack letters spelling out "BAD WOLF".

She had also requested I send spinach dip, so I included a little in separate container, with Ritz crackers, apple and pineapple pieces, and Sunbursts.

Inspired by her lunch, I made myself a Doctor Who lunch, too. Mixed greens salad with carrot and bacon bits, ranch on the side, and pepperjack "ALLONS-Y!" Also, a few ham and cheese pinwheels with music note food picks (a nod to the signature theme song), apple and pear chunks, and pretzel sticks.

G-man had jazz band this morning and requested a large snack. I packed a packet of fruit snacks, Flipsides crackers, ham and cheese pinwheels in a spidier silicone cup, and red and green grapes.

Brick wanted a salad. Since I was already on a TV show kick, I made him one for his favorite show... Mythbusters.

He has ham and cheese pinwheels, Flipsides and croutons, and a mixed greens salad with crumbled bacon and ranch on the side. And pepperjack letters with a recurring theme on the show - "Let's blow it up!"

If you've never seen Mythbusters, you should. Fantastic show, especially for people who love science. I'm pretty sure Brick has seen every episode and he has tried a few of the experiments from the Mythbusters science fair experiments book. He is highly interested in science and math, so this show is right up his alley.