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.

Blossoms & Blox

Spring Break's over, back to school. It's really feeling like Spring on Whidbey Island now. Our front yard & neighbourhood streets are decorated with cherry blossoms :) Bella & Sprout have blossoms in their lunchboxes too:

Bella's Laptop Lunches bento box contains:

• turkey & cheddar flatbread wrap
• carrots & cucumbers
• whole grain Fig Newtons
• spiced almonds
• sunburst & grape tomatoes

Sprout's Goodbyn Bynto contains:

• apple wedges
• mozzarella string cheese (under the apples)
• sandwich blossoms
• baby carrots

Pickle's new favourite containers are these Rubbermaid LunchBlox. He likes how they stack uniformly and snap together - even the ice pack (not shown) snaps to the bottom of the containers, or to the lid. 

Pickle wanted a "regular" (not creative) lunch today, so he has peanut butter sandwich, yogurt & 2 cookies. Monday's are early release days so he didn't need anything for afternoon snack.

Bella's lunch wouldn't be complete without her Lunchbox Love note!

Help Laptop Lunches Feed America!

This month, the folks of Laptop Lunches are working to raise money for Feeding America, a non-profit organization that provides meals for the hungry. We can all help out by reviewing our favorite products on their website. For every review created in the month of April, Laptop Lunches will donate one dollar to Feeding America! I just love our Garden Laptop Lunches bento box, so it's the one I chose to leave a Review on. Why not visit the Laptop Lunches website and leave a review on your favourites!

● ● ● ● ●

Stuff used to make these lunches:

iHeart Spaghetti Tacos

No, this is not déja vu, I've made this lunch before. Mia Bella loves iCarly & spaghetti tacos. Not an iCarly fan and wondering what spaghetti tacos are? Basically, you replace the meat in a taco with spaghetti! It might sound strange, but it's actually really good - and a yummy way to use up that little bit leftover spaghetti that's not quite enough for a meal :)

Bella has her iCarly Thermos Funtainer packed with hot spaghetti & marinara sauce. I chopped the pasta a bit to make it easier to fill the taco shells, which I packed in her EasyLunchbox. The big gummi bear is actually a plastic container (from a McDonald's happy Meal!) filled with shredded cheddar cheese to top the taco with :) On the side she has dried strawberries topped with random dancing bears, and cantaloupe "gummi bears".  For protein she has almonds in the EasyLunchboxes Mini Dipper. Bella ♥'s this lunch!

Stuff I used to make this lunch :

 

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.

● ● ● ● ●

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

● ● ● ● ●

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: