Thank you, Ponyo

"Ponyo loves HAM!" exclaimed the title character in one of Birdie & Sprout's favorite movies, Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo. And now, thanks to that little redheaded goldfish, my little Birdie does too! She used to eat ham only if I camouflaged it somehow, but today I gave her some plain (well it did have a little flower pick through it - but it wasn't rolled up in anything). "Wha dis?" she asked, wrinkling her nose when I put it in front of her. "Ham!" I said brightly, "like Ponyo!" "Ham?" "Yep - Ponyo loves ham. You love ham too!" "Otay." And she ate it! Thanks Ponyo :)

Oh, and thanks to my handy dandy little egg molds, the little girls don't need to be encouraged to eat hard boiled eggs either :) The extra time spent making their lunches cute feels absolutely worthwhile when I see my sproutlets dig into their healthy lunches without making a face. ♥

So, my plan for today's school lunches was a sort of a breakfast for lunch thing - waffles, ham, eggs, strawberries, and yogurt. There was some deviation from that plan though, as Bella and Beanstalk had their own ideas about what they did and didn't want in their lunchboxes...  

Bella ended up with waffles, ham, an egg, syrup for dipping, and the apple slices she took for lunch the day before but didn't eat, in lieu of the strawberries. She reminded me, in an exasperated tone I hadn't expected to hear from her at only 8 years old, that she doesn't like strawberries. I knew that - I was just hoping if that's what I packed, and she was hungry, she might give them another chance. My plan was thwarted, but oh well, apples are fruit too.

Beanstalk was not at all interested in breakfast for lunch. He chose what went in his lunch box - raisins, almonds (in the green container), cheese crackers, and apples - and I added the Power Bar because I didn't think that was enough for a growing boy. Oooh, and guess what - those apples were sliced yesterday! They have a yellow tinge because they are Gala apples - but NO browning, the Fruit Fresh works great!

Pickle's lunch was just as I planned it. Waffles, yogurt, syrup dip, and strawberries :P OK, so the strawberries are peanut butter sandwiches - gotta give the boy his daily dose of PB! Thank goodness he drinks juice, or the only fruit he'd ever get would be the puree I sneak into muffins!

Today was much better than yesterday. We got out the door with minimum stress, and the lunchboxes came home almost empty - with no leakage from the syrup sections :)

EDIT TO ADD: Notice the improvement in picture quality from my older posts? Sailor Boy got me a NICE camera for my birthday! It's fancy, it's going to take me while to learn to use all the settings - whee!