Yumbox Lunch Before & After

Yesterday was Birdie's first day of Kindergarten! It wasn't her real first day of school though, in my opinion, that will be Monday, when I actually drop her off and leave. Yesterday, parents stayed, and learned about the school rules & practices, took a tour, and got to know the kindergarten teacher. I failed to pay attention to details when I read the notice about it, so I didn't catch the part about her not needing a lunch, and packed her this Yumbox:

Oh well,  we took it back home with us :) And I got to see how lunch in the Yumbox looks by lunchtime, after being packed in a lunchbag (usually sideways) then a backpack, tossed in the back of the van with all the other sproutlets' backpacks, or jostled about while my independent child put the backpack on herself to walk, the trip to school, then sitting in the backpack hanging on the classroom wall for 2 ½ hours, until it's taken out (often turned upside down in the process) & opened by the small child:

Awesome! Everything still in it's own section, even the yogurt with strawberry syrup! Some stuck to the lid but I expected that - and you can see how the silicone seal in the lid did it's job :) 

Birdie's lunch was decorated with elephant picks, and contained yogurt with a drizzle of strawberry syrup,  popcorn, strawberries, & a Clif bar,  which she asked for,  plus red grapes, which I added since she didn't want a vegetable. She's kind of gone off them lately - even baby carrots :(  I baked some carrot muffins for after school snack though, she likes those. 

Stuff I used to pack this lunch: 

Picks shown may not be the same colours as the ones in my lunch, they come in assorted colors, so if you're looking for particular colours, there's an "order comments" section in the checkout process where you can say so - the folks at BentoUSA are awesome and will do their best to honour your request :) 

Shark Week Sharknado Hero

Birdie's my mini-me in so many ways - one of which is our taste in TV shows. She's been enjoying Discovery Channel's Shark Week with me, and she loved Syfy's Sharknado 1 & 2,  and Sharktopus vs Pteracuda. Science or science fiction, it's all good to her :)  Monday we watched Discovery's Monster Hammerhead, after which she asked me to make her a shark lunch, with a hammerhead pick. Here she is with it, making a shark face, she says:

The sproutlets loved yesterday's Sharknado cinnamon rolls & wanted me to bake more Sharknado rolls today. Well, I did bake rolls, they're just not cinnamon... they're pizza rolls! And I used the rest of my shark cupcake picks to make them Sharknado Pizza Rolls :)

Baking is not my forte.  I use premade Pillsbury crescent roll dough, roll it out but don't separate it, brush with marinara sauce, sprinkle with cheese, roll up again,  slice, & bake at the temperature & time suggested on the package.

Birdie's shark lunch contains:

• a Sharknado pizza roll with a tiger shark pick
• grapes with the requested hammerhead shark  pick
• yogurt with circling sugar sprinkle sharks
• strawberry chum - heheh ;)

I packed Birdie's shark-themed lunch in one of our new Goodbyn Hero lunchboxes. We're loving this addition to the Goodbyn line! It's comes with 2 sizes of leakproof lidded inner containers, & there's even enough room to fit the Goodbyn drink bottle inside :) And there's always room for a Lunchbox Love note ♥ Especially one with trivia that goes with the lunch!

 

Stuff I used to make this lunch:

Birdie & I had fun playing with SyFy's Go Shark Yourself App. She made this pic of herself about to be attacked while sunbathing on our back porch :)

An Elephant Lunch Parade for World Elephant Day

Today is World Elephant Day! I packed Birdie's lunch in her Boon Trunk Snack Box. Nothing fancy - the box itself makes the lunch fun :)

She has mini croissants, grapes, honey ham rolls, a Babybel cheese, & a banana. I tucked some reusable ice cubes next to the ham to keep it extra chilly until lunch. And I used a mini cutter to cut a little birdie out of the Babybel wax, then stuck the cutout to the box, for an extra cute touch :)

The Boon Snack Box is quite roomy. The largest compartment is big enough for a juice pouch or small squeeze pouch. The lid is easy for a kid to take off, yet stays on securely when carried. It's pretty cute!

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Birdie has loved elephants since she was a toddler - she even chose an elephant theme for her 3rd birthday party :) So, we have a lot of elephant stuff, including bento accessories, & I have made a lot of elephant lunches - so I'm marching out my favourites for World Elephant Day:

Pink Elephants Lunch Parade

I like the smiling blue elephant cupcake ring I put on the string cheese :)

Parent & baby elephant sandwich made with a Lunch Punch Critter Cutter embellished with sugar eyes. So sweet ;)

3rd birthday bento!

Elephant Garden Muffin Tin Meal

Elephants & Carrot Peanuts :)

There's an elephant pick party in this lunch! I added a crown to the Lunch Punch sandwich - it reminds me of Babar & his family :)

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And this adorable bento is not mine, but I wish it was! I so love those elephant buns. It's by Eclectic Lamb, bento maker & bread artist extraordinaire!

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It's an Elephant Party & all are invited! 
Link your elephant food below :

An InLinkz Link-up

A Birdie Bento for my Baby Bird

We haven't called Birdie Baby Bird in a long time... at some point the nickname evolved, but that's how it began - when she was a toddler she liked to chirp, just like a baby bird. I packed her a Birdie-themed PlanetBox Shuttle for lunch:

My friend Venia (of the lovely Organized Bites blog) sent me a birdie sandwich cutter she found at Target. It makes 4 birds (or chicks) that can be arranged as you like. I spread Birdie's cheese sandwiches around her yogurt-filled Little Dipper. I remembered I had some chick-shaped sprinkles in an Easter mix so added a smattering, & glued some sugar eyes on the sandwiches with honey. On the side she has grapes, a clementine, & tomatoes.

Since we planned to take lunch to the lagoon at the park, I added a cloth napkin & a happy little spoon atop the sandwiches, which besides being useful for eating & wiping fingers, fills the empty space & helps keep things from tumbling in a heap when the PlanetBox is carried. 5 year old Birdie's just learning to read so I chose a simple Lunchbox Love note for her:

I love the little bird that's on every Lunchbox Love note ♥

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Some stuff I used to pack this lunch:

Spring Blossoms for Birdie

Birdie got a pretty Spring bento lunch today:

She has a blossom egg (made with the flower egg mold I posted about here) , Spring Ritz crackers, cheese blossoms, and honeydew melon grass. It's not a whole lot of food but remember, she's only a preschooler :)

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 Today is a great day for Birdie & me - she slept all through the night, in her own bed! Yay! You may be thinking, so what, isn't she like 5, what's the big deal? Yes, she is 5, but it's a big deal for us, as she's been waking me up every night since her Dad deployed and I'm tired! But not last night, hooray!

I added a Lunchbox Love note to tell her how proud I am of her :)

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Some stuff I used to make this lunch:

Valentine's Day Yumbox

I packed Birdie a simple & sweet pink & red Valentine Yumbox for preschool.

Yogurt with pink sugar, graham cracker stars, cheese, watermelon cubes, raspberries with a heart fork pick, & a red Hershey's Kisses treat. Birdie carries her Yumbox in a BUILT Gourmet Getaway Lunch Tote.

She'd been home from preschool with a cold & cough for a couple of days, so was very happy to be feeling better Valentine's Day and go to school and give her teacher the Valentine she'd made :)

The day before, I'd made my little Valentine this LOVE bento to eat at home, inspired by Anna of Becoming A Bentoholic's much lovelier original version she shared in the Bento Bloggers & friends Valentines Day Hop.

L - Baby carrots & a marshmallow heart
O - Strawberries
V - Cheese sandwich heart
E - Watermelon

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Lunch stuff I used: