Not Impressive

This morning was one of those days that I should have seen coming.  For the record, I started making these lunches because Sabrina was so adamant about not going to school, not because of any need for recognition- yes, I have a blog, I see the irony! She truly wanted no part of school, but she saw a website I was looking at with some character bentos and asked if she could have one.  I told her they were special lunches that I could only make for her if she went to school.  It worked like a charm.  I like doing it, and she likes it, which is why I've kept it up, but I think I've set her expectations too high.  Yesterday was a bad day.  Long story short, I didn't have time to empty the dishwasher so I'd have pans to cook in, let alone cook dinner.  So when my husband suggested pizza, I was thrilled.  (Well, I would have been thrilled if I hadn't been so wiped out.  And if I wasn't washing dog poop off of Christina's foot.  Yep, she went outside, took off her shoes, and stepped in dog poop.  Awesomeness.)  My brain was so fried that I decided to send something simple.  I sliced a leftover piece of pizza in half, added some berries and broccoli.  If you know my child, you know that she is a pizza freak.  She can eat as much as her daddy when it comes to pizza.  So, I thought she would love it.  Do you know what she said to me this morning?!?!  "Mommy, I don't think anyone is going to be impressed with pizza."  <sigh>

Ferb

So, I look at this and think my characters need some work, but then I remember that my "audience" is a four year old.  If you've never seen Phineas and Ferb, I highly recommend it.  It's our favorite show around here.  Keith and I love it because it's smart AND the characters are generally kind.  Even the villian is pretty benign.  So, Ferb is half a turkey sandwich with broccoli hair and provolone eyes, then she has mixed berries and bell pepper sticks. 

Sabrina's teacher walked her out to the car yesterday and had some really nice things to say about her and what was going on in class.  I appreciated it so much, because it's really a strange feeling for me not to know exactly what she's doing all day long. 

I'm running low on ideas...time for some inspiration!  Any suggestions? 

 



Repeat...rainbows again.

Short and sweet today- (I am working late- ok, I'm procrastinating- but I had to stop working, in the living room, because I couldn't stop thinking of the dishes in the sink.  Crazy, right?  Now I'm just regular old lazy procrastinating) 
This was another I-haven't-been-to-the-grocery-yet lunch.  It's a repeat of the sandwich sushi, but with the last of this loaf of rainbow bread, and a cheese stick and some bell pepper sticks.  Tomorrow should be a little more creative.  ;-)

Sneaky Puppy

What a weekend!  This weekend we had my mother over, went to my neice's first birthday party, and spent Sunday at my grandparents house with lots of family.  So, as has become my pattern, I'm a little lost when Monday morning comes around.  I didn't even have bread in the house this morning.  What I did have was Scooby Snacks!  I made a cheesecake dip to take to my grandmother's yesterday, and the recipe suggested mini-graham crackers for dipping.  The closest I could find was Scooby Snacks, little graham crackers shaped like dog bones.  We had some left over, so that gave me a theme.  I gave her carrot sticks and dip, along with turkey pepperoni, cheese, and crackers.  A few Scooby Snack bones and some paw prints cut out of fruit leather, and this morning I told Sabrina we must have a puppy sneaking around in our kitchen, because he got in her lunch!

Butterfly

I am not feeling very on top of things this week, thus the late post!  I saw  really cute lunch idea I wanted to try, but Sabrina wanted a butterfly.  Easy enough, so who am I to argue?  ;-)  So she's got a turkey sandwich on rainbow bread, and I used a cookie cutter to cut it out.  The body is half of a cheese stick, and then she had grapes and broccoli.  I am digging that she has decided she loves raw broccoli so much, because it's EASY. 
We have a busy weekend planned, and I am looking forward to recharging a bit.  Have a great weekend!

Hearts

I looked around last night and came up with some inspiration, thanks to http://www.bento-logy.blogspot.com.   She has the cutest ideas, and this heart lunch was quick and easy and exactly what I needed for today.  A turkey/bagel sandwich, strawberries, and broccoli/ranch dressing for dipping.  The heart on the bagel is cut out of a piece of fruit leather and the heart on the broccoli is made from a red bell pepper.

Candace/Sabrina

This was supposed to be Candace from Phineas and Ferb, but something's not quite right about it, so we decided this is Sabrina's face.  I was out of regular bread, so we have rainbow bread again, and grapes and goldfish.  Candace/Sabrina is made of American and provolone cheese, and her eyes are chocolate chips. 

I am flat out of ideas for tomorrow.  I have some things here that she would enjoy, but as far as creative... so I may or may not post- we'll see.

Fishy lunch

I was not really feeling the lunch I made today. (Ham and cream cheese sandwich shaped like a fish with cheese stripes, and strawberries and goldfish crackers.)  For some reason I have just felt really anxious all weekend and worried about how Sabrina's doing at school.  I have NO reason to feel this way, but I still wanted to keep her home and just snuggle up on the couch today. 

Instead, I'm going to spend the rest of the morning doing what I can't do while she's home-- purging the playroom!  Christina is still too young to realize that I'm getting rid of toys, so there's a lot that's being packed up.  If Sabrina were here, EVERY toy I picked up would suddenly be her favorite and I wouldn't get anything done.  Wish me luck!  If no one hears from me, I'm buried under a mountain of blocks and dolls...

America

Today is the Celebrate American Heroes Parade at Sabrina's school.  Good thing, because I hadn't given much thought to what I'd be putting in her lunch box.  We went with an American Flag sandwich decorated with blue and red fruit leather, red bell pepper sticks and dip, and a white cheese stick. 

School is going ok for her, I think.  She's not overly excited about it, and she doesn't talk about it much, but she's never unhappy to be dropped off and she's always in a good mood when I pick her up.  Christina always acts devastated to see her sister get out of the car, but I think she's enjoying our one on one time as much as I am.  It's a very different dynamic when it's just the two of us.   This week we attended our first Christina-playdate, where she wasn't tagging along to a group of older kids.  It was interesting, but I did sort of feel like I was forgetting something, only having one kid all day.

There's no school on Fridays, and we don't have much planned this weekend.  I am actually really excited.  I feel like we've been running all week long and it will be nice to slow down and relax!

More rainbows

It looks like a penicillin culture, doesn't it?  My kids have gone through half a loaf of rainbow bread since yesterday.  It just tastes like bread.  There's no special flavor.  But they are begging for this as though it was made of chocolate and crack.  ;-)  Really, this is a pretty boring lunch.  Turkey, cheese stick, apples, pretzels.  But...the RAINBOW bread.  I could serve brussel sprouts and anchovies and I think she would eat it on rainbow bread. 

Cinderella, and giving up perfection

Yesterday's lunch was another big hit, but today we are back to a regular sandwich because Sabrina remembered how much she wanted a Cinderella lunch. She also gets grape kabobs and pretzels today. So here's where the perfection part comes in.  This sandwich was beautiful with no face on it.  (Cinderella is made out of two types of cheese and a piece of blue fruit leather.)  BUT, Sabrina really, really wanted a face.  I offered blueberry eyes and an appleskin mouth, but she wanted me to draw them on.  A blue mouth.  It's her lunch, so here we go.  If it were just up to me, I would have left it blank.  I think this idea is something that a lot of parents struggle with- what we think looks good versus what our kids think.  I know I do.  But I try hard to not be a control freak.  It's her lunch.  She wants a blue face?  Sure.  She wants to wear orange tights with a purple dress?  Fine.  She wants to mix all the playdoh colors together?  ...I will try my hardest not to pull them apart as soon as she turns her head.  ;-)

Sushi

No, not really.  You may be getting the picture that Mondays are just bad for me.  The last three weeks in a row have found me at the grocery store at ten pm or later on Sunday night.  This morning found me putting my kids in the bathtub at 8:30.  We stayed way too long at a friend's house yesterday and the kids were filthy and asleep when we got home, so I was scrambling this morning.  Sabrina asked for a Cinderella lunch.  I figured out a way to do a Cinderella face, but she wanted a dress too.  No time, missy.  Instead, I suggested these sushi-like sandwich rolls.  I've seen them done with peanut butter and jelly, but that's a no-go for her, so these are made with ham and cream cheese.  Amazingly, she loved the piece I let her try this morning and wanted to eat more for breakfast.  These are just flattened-out bread slices smeared with cream cheese and some thin sliced ham, then rolled up and sliced. 

By the way, my plan to give her breakfast at 6 am seemed to work last week.  That was the first thing her teacher said at carpool- that she loved her flower lunch and ate the whole thing.  I guess this means no more quiet mornings alone for me!

Weekend Edition

So, this is not my best weekend ever, but I do feel like I got one thing right.  My kids LOVE pancakes, and I started making these rainbow pancakes not long ago after I heard about them from my friend Amy.  Christina calls them treasure-cakes.  (?)  Just a couple of drops of food coloring in the batter.  They look especially pretty when they are cut.

Flowers and butterflies

Yesterday when she brought her out to the car, Sabrina's teacher told me that she isn't sure Sabrina is really enjoying the sandwiches- that she pulls the turkey out and just picks at her lunch.  Her teacher is so sweet and I could tell she was trying to be tactful.  The thing is, I know this.  My once non-picky eater has changed recently into one of those kids.  The picky ones.  She wants the crusts cut off her sandwiches, but she doesn't really even eat the bread.  She likes cheese, but not on her sandwich.  She will pick it off and not eat it, but if the cheese is served separately, she will eat it.  She doesn't like peanut butter or jelly.  She doesn't like soup or virtually anything with a sauce.  The sauce thing is actually a lifelong dislike.  Even as a baby, she wouldn't eat anything that got her hands messy.   She likes fruit and veggies, but even the ones she loves, she will only eat sporadically.  On top of that, she is used to eating lunch around 1:00.  At school, she eats no later than 11:30, which is usually only 2 1/2 hours after she finishes breakfast.  I'm pretty sure she's not even hungry by then.
I'm dealing with the lunches the same way we deal with dinners.  You get what you get.  I try to make sure I'm serving things she wants, but if she chooses not to eat, that's fine.  She doesn't get anything else.  And she's fine with this.  Most nights lately, she takes one bite of everything (that is our only rule- a "good manners" bite of each thing) and asks to be excused.  She knows she doesn't get anything else and doesn't try to push it. 

So, I knew that she wouldn't be eating much, but I still feel a little disappointed.  We decide together what's going in her lunch box, so aside from that, I am not sure what to do.  For today, we decided to make a sandwich out of a whole wheat bagel.  She eats a bagel at least one morning a week, so I know she likes them.  I put a pink marshmallow in the center and trimmed the edges to look like petals.  A cheese stick makes the stem.  She asked for sliced apples (dipped in pineapple juice to keep them from turning brown), and we used the butterfly clip we made together on a bag of pretzels.  (And, maybe I should wake her up and give her breakfast at 6 am?)

Feeling Froggy!

Today we have a frog lunch.  I thought I should run this one by Sabrina first, so I had her try the spinach wrap.  She really just wanted another sandwich, so we compromised, and I made her a sandwich with the frog face made from the spinach wrap.  The eyes are provolone cheese and blueberries, and the mouth is a pepperoni.  The tongue is a piece of string cheese catching a raisin fly.  For the rest of her lunch, she has a box of flies (raisins) a cheese stick, some mini-rice cakes, and a couple of fruit kabobs- grapes threaded onto popsicle sticks. 
We're slooowly getting into the routine of having to be somewhere at a certain time every day.  We've had years of a really fluid schedule, where I could push things back if the kids wanted to sleep late or took too long at breakfast.  Since school has started, poor Christina has eaten more than one breakfast or lunch in the carpool line!

Puzzled

This feels like a half-hearted attempt to me, but I had a lot on my plate this weekend, so at least I came up with something.  I found a puzzle shaped sandwich cutter at Walmart last week, and Sabrina liked it when she saw it, so lucky for me.
Everyone seems healthy today, so I sent Sabrina to school.  Today was the day I've been hoping for and dreading.  She hopped right out of the car and walked inside with her teacher.  No last minute hugs or "I'll miss yous."  In fact, she forgot to hug me at all.  I've been saying that I was hoping she'd love school so much that she'd forget I even existed, and that happened today.  My feelings were only a little bruised. 
Christina and I tried the library story time by ourselves.  It's the first time I've ever done anything like that with just her, and we had a great time.  When we were waiting in the carpool line to pick up Sabrina, Christina stopped what she was doing and said, "Mommy, tank you Jer-jer back!" which translates to "Mommy, thank you for getting Sister back!" and which totally melted my heart.

Labor Day weekend

Friday afternoon we packed up the kids and headed to my mom's house.  The girls love it because Nana and Papaw are their favorite people in the world, plus they get to eat a steady diet of cookies and juice boxes.  Now, I'm not going to say that the junk food has caused the tummy troubles we are dealing with now, but between dinner yesterday and 10 am this morning, it's been yucky.  I've rushed each girl to the bathroom twice with my hand over their mouths, Christina has had two baths this morning, and we've gone through half a pack of baby wipes.  We had hoped to leave later today and be home before the worst of the bad weather hits, but I really REALLY don't want to put these girls in the car.  So glad there is no school tomorrow. 

Update: We stayed.  And good thing, because physics really can't explain how certain bodily substances ended up in the places they did.  I finally quit putting clothes on Christina at all.  Luckily, Sabrina seems fully recovered, so (knock on wood) she'll be headed to school tomorrow.  I'm not all that excited about the lunch I have planned, but events have conspired against me this weekend and I'll do the best I can.



I love this picture.  My sister in law and niece were at my mom's this weekend too, so we did not have access to the crib like we normally do.  (And, after Christina vaulted out of it last time...) The first night was not very restful- no one was sick yet, but Christina just doesn't understand sleeping in a real bed.  The second night was a little better.  By the third night, both girls were so sick and so sleepy that they fell asleep cuddled together.  Isn't this the sweetest?

Take Two

When I picked Sabrina up yesterday, she told me she had a great day.  When I pushed her for details, she said, "Mommy, I don't really want to talk about it.  Can we talk about animals instead?"  So I don't have very many details, except that her teacher plays the guitar for them and she made friends with a girl whose name might be Emma. 

This morning, Sabrina was just not herself.  She moped around all day, told me she missed her best friend, her tummy hurt, she was lonely.  She kept it up for HOURS.  I'm fairly sure she's fine, but she definitely did not want to go today.  When I dropped her off, she climbed back into the car to give her sister another kiss, because Christina started howling as soon as she realized Sabrina was leaving.  She really misses her sister during the day.

Today we have an Isabella sandwich.  Sabrina's favorite show is Phineas and Ferb, and she loves Isabella.  I found a blog where another mom made all the characters, and mine doesn't look nearly as nice as hers, but here it is:

First day!

Attempt #71 at keeping a blog, people. :-) I'm going to use this space to record my (probably hilarious) attempts at creative school lunches and as a place other than Facebook to write down the little things about my kids that I don't want to forget.

Today is Sabrina's first day of school. She's nervous, but we didn't have any tears this morning. (Well, we didn't have any together. I cried in the parking lot and I don't know what she did once she got to class.) Since she was so reluctant to go, I pretty much went along with whatever she wanted today. She wanted to wear a white dress. It might be ruined by the time she gets home, but at least she's happy. (Thank you, consignment sale!) For lunch, I packed her Hello Kitty lunch box with a "Back to School" theme. The sandwich is a pencil, with a pink marshmallow eraser, and I used a Wilton edible marker to color in the tip. I got a little carried away, and yes, I carved the carrot sticks into crayons. :-)

Now I'm just counting down the minutes until it's time to go get my big girl!