{Halloween} Bento Lunch Ideas: Week 7

With Halloween less than 2 weeks away (!) how's about a some fun Halloween bento lunch ideas for the littles! I have to admit we started in on the Halloween bentos the minute October hit...we just love Halloween over here! On a side note, I just bought fabric for the littles Halloween costumes the other day. Here's hoping Oliver will take some good naps for momma so I can get them done in time!

Lunch 1: Homemade applesauce, blackberries, baby carrots, orange and black Halloween tortilla chips and salsa (chips from Target!), and blueberry jam sandwiches cut out like little ghosts.

Lunch 2: Coconut flakes and dried blueberries, homemade applesauce, grapes, chopped cucumbers, pumpkin-shaped ham sandwich, pumpkin-shaped cheese slices, and pumpkin-shaped pretzels (from World Market).

Lunch 3: Baby carrots and ranch dressing, grapes, pumpkin-shaped cheese, pumpkin-shaped pretzels, pumpkin-shaped jelly sandwich with little bat-shaped pretzels, and a couple of those candy-corn type pumpkins for dessert.

Lunch 4: Orange and black tortilla chips and salsa, homemade applesauce, blackberries, and star-shaped ham sandwiches.  I was going for a starry night theme with the ghost pick and all!

Lunch 5: Homemade applesauce, blackberries, orange and black chips and salsa, and turkey and mustard ghost-shaped sandwiches.

Lunch 6: Cucumber slices, grapes, pumpkin-shaped pretzels, a few fall-colored m&ms, and a ghost-shaped jelly sandwich.

And there ya go! Hope you are inspired to put together a little Halloween bento lunch fun for your kiddos with these cute and easy ideas.

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Bento Lunch Ideas: Week 6

More bento lunch goodness for y'all, who's excited! So last night we picked up Penny's cheerleading uniform (!!!) She will be a cheerleader for winter basketball, hehe. The uniform is so cute and true to Penny-form she had to try it on as soon as we came home and immediately started doing cheers with her poms, she cracks me up! Noah will also be playing winter basketball and we just found out one of his old buddies will be on his team so it seems like the cold winter months are already looking brighter for us which is always helpful when it starts getting dark at 5, yikes!

Okay, on to the lunches!

Lunch 1: Paleo chocolate pudding, homemade applesauce with cinnamon, cucumbers, apple slice, almond butter and jelly mustache sandwiches.

Lunch 2: Blueberry jam flower and heart-shaped sandwiches, goldfish, homemade fruit roll-up, grapes, blueberries.

Lunch 3: Goldfish, homemade applesauce, little square sandwiches of almond butter and jelly, blueberries, raspberries, raw cashews, raisins.

Lunch 4: Applesauce, paleo chocolate pudding, panda bear jelly sandwiches, apple slices, cucumber slices.

Lunch 5: Organic strawberry yogurt, raspberries and blueberries, blueberry jam kitty cat sandwiches, cucumber slices, apple slices.

Lunch 6: Organic strawberry yogurt, almond butter and jelly puzzle piece sandwiches, raspberries, blueberries, cucumbers and baby carrots with ranch dressing.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope these inspire your lunch making :-)

XOXO,

Bento Lunch Ideas: Week 5

Week 5 of Bento Lunch Ideas is here, woot!  And ummm, dude, where has the week gone, how is it Thursday already?

Oh, and guess what? Last week it was our turn to bring snacks for Penny's soccer team and we totally forgot. Yup, that was us. Somehow it was NOT on the calendar we live and breathe by so we showed up to the game empty-handed. Soooooo. Totally not supermom over here, in case you were thinking otherwise. ;-)

Lunch 1: Blueberries with a mini elephant fork, cheese and crackers and almond butter and jelly sandwiches.

Lunch 2: Blueberries with a little bear fork, baby carrots and ranch dressing, cheese and crackers, and Tetris-shaped jelly sandwiches.

Lunch 3: Star Wars theme!  Light saber-skewered grapes, puppy chow made with almond butter, raspberries with leaf picks, baby carrots, storm trooper ham sandwiches, and storm trooper cheese slices.

Lunch 4: Clementines segments, raspberries and blueberries, Tetris-shaped ham sandwiches, organic animal crackers.

Lunch 5: Raspberries and blueberries, bunny and bear shaped hard-boiled eggs, baby carrots, cat-shaped cheese slices, crackers, clementines, and organic animal crackers.

Lunch 6: Goldfish crackers, applesauce, raspberries and blueberries, and a heart-shaped jelly sandwich.

And in case you like to pin horizontal pictures, here is one just for you! :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Bento Lunch Ideas: Week 4

Happy Monday folks! I just got back from a super fun girls' weekend at my friend Nicole's gorgeous lakefront home in Wisconsin. It was heaven on earth...and the first time I have ever been away from my little Oliver overnight! He did really well (yay!) so now the husband and I have hope for future getaways ;-) He was so flippin' happy to see me when I came home and my boobs were so happy to see him, holy engorgement...OUCH! 

It was seriously the perfect weekend. Good friends, good food, lots of wine, a beautiful lake to look at everyday, and blogging (!!) yup, we totally blogged and gave out advice and helped each other with ideas and chatted all sorts of nerdy things that bloggers love to talk about...it was so much fun! I am so grateful my friend Nicole let all of us come up and invade her cozy home on the lake, it was beyond words amazing. And we already have plans to head up again for another getaway, hee hee, I am so excited, now just to tell Mr. Smashed Peas!

Alright, so back to the real reason for this post...Week 4 of Bento lunches, yay! 

Lunch 1: Applesauce with cinnamon, strawberry cream cheese roll-ups with a little bunny pick, cheese cubes with a little puppy pick, grapes with a monkey pick, raw broccoli and cucumbers with ranch dressing.

Lunch 2: Blueberries with a mini giraffe fork, cucumbers and baby carrots with ranch dressing, kiwi with a monkey pick, Yoda ham sandwiches (using these cookie cutters) on top of a slice of swiss cheese (as requested by Noah!), and a Han Solo in chocolate carbonite (mold found here).

Lunch 3: Goldfish, kiwi with a mini kitty fork, blueberries with a mini kitty fork, flower shaped blueberry jam sandwiches, kitty cat molded cups with raisins and a hershey kiss.

Lunch 4: Applesauce with cinnamon, grape slices with a bear pick, blueberry breakfast bar from Trader Joe's, raw broccoli, heart shaped cheddar cheese slices, and heart shaped turkey sandwich.

Lunch 5: Ham roll-ups with animal picks, baby carrots, heart shaped cheddar cheese slices, orange slices with a mini kitty fork, and Enjoy Life! mini chocolate chips in a mini heart shaped silicone mold.

Lunch 6: This was one of Ellie and Oliver's lunches last week that we ate at the park! Sliced grapes, Annie's Cheddar Squares, a cheddar cheese stick, and trail mix made with raw pecans, walnuts, raisins, and dried blueberries.

And to sum it all up again, in case you need to pin this to Pinterest, here's another bento meal collage, horizontal-style.

 

Hope these help inspire you to make some fun Bento lunches this week!!! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO

Ikea Raskog Homework Station

With school in full swing now and homework starting to make its way into our house, I thought I would try to be a bit more prepared for all the color this, draw that, cut this, glue that directions that most homework begs of us.

Ya'll remember my love of Ikea's Raskog kitchen cart from my makeover post here, well, that one is for me...and all my sewing and craft goodness, muahahaha. Can I tell you how much I love that cart? So Dang Much. It's so handy to have around that I actually went back and bought another one for the kids. It had the makings for a perfect Homework station...and pretend library cart too! (my kids love piling it full of books and wheeling it around the house, checking books out and slapping overdue fines on each other, ha!)

I thought I'd share what I put in ours in case you needed a bit of "Homework Station" inspiration. Up top I have a simple pencil box full of colored pencils, next to it scotch tape, a white-out pen thing-a-ma-bob, and a pencil sharpener.  I also have little jars with kid scissors, crayons, pencils, gluesticks and erasers...you can never have too many erasers, am I right?

In the middle shelf I keep a big jar filled with fat markers, a small glass jar filled with fine tip markers, a mason jar of thick paint brushes, tempura paint, and a box of craft sticks.

The bottom shelf is for extra notebooks, folders, and paper.  I keep a few of these fun plastic paper protectors I found in the Target Dollar Spot. You just slip a piece of paper into them and write on them with erasable markers...perfect for practicing spelling and writing and math!

So there you have it, a simple Homework Station that we can roll into the kitchen, the dining room, or the porch! 

PS. I think right now a lot of stores are clearancing out their Back to School supply sections (at least mine are!) so you may want to head over and stock up for your homework station! I stock up every year!

XOXO,

Bento Lunch Ideas: Week 3

Another week means another Bento Round-up...ta-da! Week 3 for y'all...holy cats, can you believe my kids have been in school for 3 weeks already!

Lunch 1: Applesauce with cinnamon, hummus, cucumbers slices with an acorn pick, baby carrots, hardboiled eggs in the shape of a bunny and a bear (using these molds found here), Annie's cheddar bunnies and pretzel mix, and an Annie's chocolate chip granola bar with a cute little squirrel pick.

Lunch 2: Blueberries with a mini elephant fork, applesauce with cinnamon, baby carrots, dried coconut flakes, organic dried cherries with a leaf pick, and a mini bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a cute little bunny pick.

Lunch 3: A panda themed lunch! Blueberries with a panda pick, sliced grapes with a panda pick, ham roll ups(...with panda picks!), sliced cucumbers, baby carrots, and mini Club crackers with hummus.

Lunch 4: Applesauce with cinnamon, cucumber slices, baby carrots, ranch dressing, clementine with a little leaf pick, organic cheese sandwich crackers from Trader Joe's, Bacon jerky with a little froggy pick, and a blueberry breakfast bar from Trader Joe's.

Lunch 5: Sliced Grapes with a mini giraffe fork, sliced cucumbers and baby carrots with ranch dressing, blueberries with a mini lion fork, mini bagel with strawberry cream cheese, and a Han Solo in chocolate carbonite.

Blueberries with a mini doggy fork, applesauce with cinnamon, pizza picks (mini pepperoni slices with slices of string cheese) on light saber skewers, Han Solo in chocolate carbonite, dried organic cherries with a froggy pick, baby carrots, cheddar bunnies and pretzel mix.

And yet another bento meal collage for y'all, horizontal-style again, in case you like it better that way!

Hope these help inspire you to make some fun Bento lunches :-) 

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,