Love our Earth, Love our Oceans

Happy Earth Day!  Last year I put a little planet earth in each lunchbox, but this year I chose a different theme, ocean life, because of course, one of the most important parts of taking care of our earth is taking care of our oceans!

The sproutlets have always enjoyed nature programs about the ocean and marine life, and some new favourite family films are the whale tales Big Miracle & Free Willy. They also love Winter the dolphin, so whales & dolphins were an easy choice for their Earth day lunches.

Beanstalk's Laptop Lunches bento box contains:

• a Lunch Punch whale peanut butter sandwich
• blue gummy fish swimming in Veggie Stick waves 
• green & purple grapes with an orca whale cupcake pick
• half a Granny Smith apple decorated with a fruit leather spouting whale & waves
• a GreenPaxx reusable straw (for the yogurt drink not shown) folded and tucked into itself
• and a Lunchbox Love note. Bella got this one last year - Yep, we recycle our Lunchbox Love :) 

I'm sure the trip to school buried the fish among the Veggie Sticks, but that's okay, they'll have been a surprise when he came across them :)

Bella's EasyLunchboxes bento contains: 

• blue gelatin
• green & purple grapes
• cheese tortilla heart roll-ups
• baby carrot hearts
• romaine, raddichio & cucumber salad
• a Lunchbox Love note - a new one :) 
• a Light My Fire spork
• and a whale print Red Poppy cloth napkin

I love how these heart roll-ups turned out ♥ I made them by folding a tortilla in half to make a crease before covering it with cheese,  rolling in each side towards the crease, slicing 2" pieces & securing with a skewer.

I made a batch of Earth Day muffins! They're apple streusel, coloured green, with blue sugar sprinkles added to the streusel topping.  They smelled so good we couldn't wait for Earth Day, and had some for dessert last night :)

Pickle wanted to take one with his lunch as well:

Pickle's yubo lunchbox contains:

• dolphin peanut butter sandwiches
• an Earth Day apple streusel muffin
• vanilla yogurt coloured blue & green, topped with dolphin sprinkles

It's Muffin Tin Monday!

The little girls' tins contain:

• earth day apple streusel muffins
• green & purple grapes
• broccoli trees
• dolphin cheese atop starfish crackers
• whale peanut butter sandwiches
• vanilla yogurt coloured blue with dolphin sprinkles
• baby carrot hearts

Some stuff used to make these lunches:

Laptop Lunches for my Sweetheart & my Little Man

Colourful, fun Laptop Lunches - one for Bella & one for Beanstalk ♥

Mia Bella's Laptop Lunches bento box contains:

• raspberry Trix yogurt with a frozen yogurt heart. I froze a bunch of yogurt in silicone cups to make mini edible ice packs. The heart will melt by lunch but it will help keep the whole yogurt cup cold
• ham & swiss tortilla rollups, carrots, & grape tomatoes
• Galia melon hearts (sweet like a cantaloupe, but white) 
• salad with cucumber hearts & tiny cheddar hearts & flowers
• a little roll of Smarties Love Hearts from Valentine's Day
• & a Lunchbox Love note

Beanstalk's Laptop Lunches bento box contains:

• Veggie Stix, & almonds in the smaller container 
• raspberry Trix yogurt in the lidded container
• Granny Smith apple wedges
• half a peanut butter sandwich
• ice pillows, in the utensil compartment, to help keep the yogurt cold, and the apples too - I swapped the  positions of the sandwich and the apple containers after the photo
• moustache print Red Poppy cloth napkin
• & a Lunchbox Love note. Today is report card day!

You can help Laptop Lunches Feed America!

All this month Laptop Lunches is working to raise money for Feeding America, a non-profit organization that provides meals for the hungry. For every product review created on their website during the month of April, Laptop Lunches will donate $1 to Feeding America! If you own any LaptopLunches products why not visit the website and leave a review on your favourites!

Some stuff used to make these lunches:

Lunch is a Hoot!

Birdie has an owl for lunch today. Hoot hoot!

Her owl is a cheese sandwich made of honey wheat & white, with mozzarella & American cheese details. Beneath the owl is the rest of the string cheese used for the eyes, baby carrots, & strawberry hearts.

The underside of the owl is the reverse bread - no waste! 

The half-circle piece cut from the top actually makes wings...

... but I ate them! Bad hungry mummy :)

Her lunch was inspired by our new bento box, all the way from Britain! It was a surprise from my blogger friend Grace of Eats Amazing. I had admired this owl design box months ago and she remembered - thank you Grace!

The bento box is by Paperchase. The lid is transparent and there's a shelf beneath it that holds cutlery, chopstick, napkin etc. I've tucked Birdie's cloth napkin in it, and a fork - it looks kind of like a branch for the owls to sit on :)

Sprout's lunch is what she asked for, with a couple of friendly little animal picks for fun. She has carrots, string cheese, strawberries, mini peanut butter sandwiches, a GoGurt tube, & an Oreo, packed in her yubo lunchbox.

Pickle has his usual yogurt & cookie (not shown) & peanut butter sandwich - cut with an airplane Lunch Punch from the Vrrrmm! transportation set.

Lunchbox Love & Learn :)

We love our Lunchbox Love note cards; they're an easy way to add some extra love to the sproutlets' lunches. And a little learning fun too! All the notes have a sentiment side, but on the flip side, some have jokes, and some have tidbits of trivia. We especially love the ones with animal facts ♥

I made my girls bentos to match the themes of their Lunchbox Love :)

Bella's panda bento was inspired by the lunch Jenn of Bento for Kidlet packed for her Kidlet today - I just love the colourful pasta she made! We had some leftover marinara sauce so I put that in a Thermos and cooked up some leafy veggie pasta for Bella to pour it over. She also has cucumbers, almonds (in the Mini Dipper), apples with a teeny bottle of cinnamon & sugar to sprinkle, and cherry & sunburst tomatoes. 

Sprout has a starfish bento with cheddar cheese stars, little starfish peanut butter sandwiches, starfish cheese crackers, & apple wedges.

Birdie's turtle bento has "turtle egg" peanut butter sandwiches, apple bites, yogurt with sea turtle sugar sprinkles, and a cup of plums bites & red grapes.

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Today's lunches are linked to Bento for Kidlet's Meatless Monday

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Want to add some Lunchbox Love to your little one's lunch? Visit the Lunchbox Love from Say Please website! There's often a special savings coupon code on the home page, or you can use my code, BENTON, to save 15% :)

Some other stuff used for these lunches:

 

Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Today is Read Across America Day, in honour of Dr. Seuss's birthday (tomorrow, March 2nd, but that's not a school day). I packed Bella a slightly Seuss-ish EasyLunchbox with a few random Seuss references. The cheese Eiffel Tower represents Paris - Bella is interested in fashion, and in the spirit of Seuss I wanted to remind her that if she can dream it, she can do it! 

Plus I've long been wanting to use these fabulous World Famous Landmark cutters I got as a Christmas gift from my friend JeeJee of BentoUSA:

Today is also National Peanut Butter Lovers Day, which is really every day for Pickle - to say he loves peanut butter is an understatement :)  I made him some heart-shaped peanut butter finger sandwiches stamped with LOVE ♥ I stopped counting when I reached my goal of 101 peanut butter sandwiches, but I wonder what number we're at now...

Click the pics for more Seussaliciousness ...

My Oh, The Places You'll Go bento was voted Bento of the Week!

Blue's Clues Snow Yumbox

It's sunny today, and the birds were tweeting like mad this morning. Birdie asked what all that bird noise was, and I told her they were probably all excited because it's beginning to feel like Spring.

"Spring? But we didn't have snow yet! Aw, I wanted it to be snow, hmph." Sorry kid! Too bad you don't live on the East Coast ;)

I promised her a snow lunch instead. She asked if it could be a Blue's Clues snow lunch, in her new Yumbox, and to watch "Blue's Snow" (she means A Snowy Day, an episode on Blue's First Holiday). So that's what she got :

Birdie's Yumbox contains: 

• cheddar cheese snowflakes
• hard cooked egg blossom (made with a star egg mold)
• yogurt with snowflake & blossom sprinkles
• green grapes on a snowflake cupcake pick
• Galia melon cut like bite sized snowflakes
• carrot sticks, one through a Blue cupcake ring
• little white cheddar cheese sandwich on honey wheat
• & a couple of candy melts for a sweet treat

She loved it :) 

Some of the stuff used for this lunch: