Where's my mind?

I am really having a hard time keeping up with everything right now.  I don't want to say I'm overwhelmed, but I'm definitely busy!  I forgot to take a picture the last two days.  Yesterday I just wrote an "I Love you" message on her sandwich, and today we made a ghost sandwich together and I carved a jack o'lantern face onto an apple.  It was really cute, and I wish I had remembered to snap a picture.  Hopefully I'll be back on track tomorrow!

Where's Perry?

Another reason to love Phineas and Ferb- the characters translate really easily into sandwiches!  Perry the Platypus is one of the simplest ones I've made so far- just trim the crusts off the sides of the bread only, cut his bill out of american cheese, and draw on some eyes.  She's also got raisins, strawberries, and pretzels. 


Yesterday I forgot to take a picture, but we made her lunch at the last minute and came up with something on the fly.  I called it a circle and square lunch, but really it was just coincidence that there was a theme at all.  The circles were grapes and turkey pepperoni slices, and the squares were wheat thins, cheddar squares, and red bell pepper pieces that I cut into squares instead of strips.  I think it's probably a good idea to throw in some traditional lunches from time to time- can't let the expectations get too high!  ;-)


We are all a little tired this morning.  Every few months, Sabrina sleepwalks and we find her in the middle of the night, crying on the couch downstairs in the dark.  She doesn't remember how she gets down there, which means she unknowingly takes the stairs in the pitch black... scary.   My late sleeper, Christina, was up before dawn instead of her usual 8 am wake up, and I'm only on my first cup of coffee.  I have some catching up to do!

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Sabrina and I made her lunch together again, and I have to say, we're pretty proud of ourselves.  We covered a bagel in red fruit leather and cut out a V shape for wings.  Then we stuck chocolate chips pointy side down for the spots.  The head is a grape attached with a pretzel stick.  We thought a butterfly went along with the theme, and Sabrina said these bugs would like to eat broccoli, so she has some florets and some ranch dressing for dipping.  This might be my favorite so far!

A Catch Up Post

So, it's only the beginning of October and I'm already falling behind on this blog.  Instead of doing a separate post for each day I missed, I'll just group them all here. 

Last week was interesting.  Saturday we went to a BBQ at a friend's house.  It was tons of fun, and the kids entertained themselves so well that even though I was a single parent for the weekend, I was able to relax and visit with grownups for a while.  The girls had so much fun that I wasn't surprised at all when this happened mid-day on Sunday: 

Unfortunately, that turned into this on Monday:

That's Christina, who almost never gets sick.  (Although now that I think about it, she has been sick twice since Sabrina started school.)  Sabrina is another story.  She's always sick.  And she didn't disappoint this time, with some wheezing of her own, fever, and ear infection.  So we stayed home from school on Monday.  Tuesday, Sabrina requested a repeat of her first day of school lunch, which I didn't take a new picture of, but you can see here  http://ninaslunchbox.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-day.html

Truthfully, by Wednesday I was pretty worn out, even though everyone was feeling better, so there's not a ton of creativity in the lunches for the rest of the week.  Wednesday we cut some stars out of fruit leather and decorated a turkey/bagel sandwich, and Thursday, Sabrina used my food markers to decorate a sandwich we cut into the shape of a heart.  I think she was more proud of that one than any of the others she has helped with.

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.  ;-)