Eighth Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

Letter G was the letter of the day for the eighth day of kindergarten so I chose a giraffe theme for this lunch. My daughter has loved giraffes since about the age of two and has about a dozen stuffed giraffe toys, so I hope she enjoys this lunch. In our pink Sassy box, she has an orange pepper, a few snap peas (a first try in a lunch box for her), carrots, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber slices. On the right side, she has two peanut butter crackers, giraffe-shaped havarti cheese, baby Goldfish, and ham on giraffe picks.

For snack, she has a cheddar cheese letter G, a few Cheez-Its, and red raspberries.

Seventh Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

On the seventh day of school, my daughter's class was reviewing the letter F. So, in the blue (water) Sassy box, she had a fish-shaped peanut butter sandwich, letter F cheddar cheese cutouts, baby Goldfish, cucumber slices, plum slices, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and pepper rings. It was a success and came back empty.

The seventh day was also purple day. So, for snack I packed little Frosted Mini Wheats, purple grapes on a purple bear pick from the Dollar Tree, and a few apple slices. Unfortunately, she dropped this on the floor and wasn't able to eat it. Her teacher was nice enough to give her a replacement snack so she didn't get too upset.

More Lunches for Work

This as a PlanetBox lunch for my husband. He had tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, Cheez-Its, a turkey sandwich, and pineapple and blueberries. The fruit was arranged on a drink stirrer from the Dollar Tree. I clipped the ball off the end so that I could slide the fruit on. A Debbie-Downer gave my husband a critical look when he was having this lunch; he told her he didn't need any negativity around his lunchbox :).

This was my husband's lunch on another day. It was packed in the Spencer box that we bought to go with her PotteryBarn Kids lunch box. This box is fairly large and really holds more food that she eats at one time, so it can double for use for our lunches. My husband had turkey, muenster, and tomato slices on a small french baguette along with cheddar cheese slices (the negatives from the bears I cut for my daughter's snack that day), a few peanut butter pretzels, grapes, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots.

In this Lock & Lock box, I had veggies, pineapple slices, blueberries, and a ham and cheese sandwich.

Sixth Day of Kindergarten: Lunch

Orange was the assigned color for my daughter's sixth day of kindergarten so I decided to incorporate that color into her lunch. I packed strawberries with orange bunny picks, a small orange pepper, two cherry tomatoes on top of a small piece of celery, and two carrots. The other side held a string cheese, two peanut butter crackers, and pieces of deli ham on orange bear picks inside an orange pumpkin-shaped silicone cup. I saw the string cheese package with colored crayons on anotherlunch and then came across them in a grocery store near us. I liked the idea of getting these for lunches because we have another entire week of color days for kindergarten next week. The problem is, the only kind our store had with the crayon wrappers was white and "orange" cheese combined and my daughter sometimes will only eat the ones that are strictly mozzarella. So, later in the evening after this box was packed and photographed, I got worried that I had too many items that she might turn down. I was afraid she might reject the cheese, sometimes she won't eat strawberries, and she has been getting a little funny about eating the small sweet peppers. Therefore, I pulled the box back out of the refrigerator and added a little more to it:

The final version was a little reorganized. I added almonds in the small orange box and orange goldfish from the space themed Goldfish bag in a small silicone cup. I will be interested to see what makes the trip bag home tomorrow.

And, there is no snack for this day - my daughter made sure I was clear on that point :). Her school sells ice cream on Friday. On the verge of tears, she emphasized to me that she would not be allowed to buy ice cream if she had a snack in her bag, "Mommy you can't pack a snack, I really want to have ice cream - the chocolate kind. My teacher said I had to ask you for money. Please, remember no snack." I had already packed a snack, because I wasn't sure if they were still supposed to bring a snack to have with the ice cream. To make sure she didn't panic about losing the chance to get ice cream, I gave her the snack at dinner and showed her that I had already prepared the envelope with her ice cream money. She has been looking forward to getting ice cream at school way since back when we first went to kindergarten registration in the spring. She saw other kids walking in the hall with ice cream that day and she has talked about it several times since then. I hope it lives up to her expectations tomorrow!


Update:

This is an after shot of the lunch. she left the cheese untouched and a few Goldfish remained, but ate everything else including the added almonds. So, I guess my last minute additions were a good idea.

Fifth Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

The fifth day was green day for the kindergarteners at my daughter's school, so I used a lot of green silicone cups for lunch and snack. Lunch was packed in our Lego bento box. The top tier had a dog-shaped peanut butter sandwich (green day was also the day for learning the letter D, hence the dog shape), almonds, and a few of the space themed Goldfish. The bottom tier held grapes, blueberries, ants on a log (we make these with mini chocolate chips instead of raisins because my daughter won't eat raisins), yellow, orange, and green pepper slices, and carrots. The sandwich came back untouched aside from the candy eye, but she ate everything else.

Her snack contained thin Ritz crackers, two tomatoes held by small green koala picks, and a string cheese with a green crayon wrapper. I pulled the wrapper open a little to make sure she would be able to get into it on her own. She ate everything in this snack.

Lunches for Another Day at Work

In the PlanetBox, my husband had turkey and muenster on a WhiteWheat sandwich round, with veggies, pineapple, two mini Kit-Kat bars and some pretzels.

I had a similar sandwich with a string cheese, carrots, tomatoes, and tri-color pepper rings.

(Almost) Identical Friday Lunches

These lunches were for me and my husband. His was on the left and mine on the right. They were packed in new Lock & Lock boxes I bought as part of lunch box sets on KidsWoot. My husband had turkey and muenster on a baked baguette and mine was on a WhiteWheat sandwich round. We both had strawberries and purple grapes along with an orange pepper, carrots, tomatoes, celery, and two peanut butter crackers. These lunches came together very quickly and I was happy to have everything done before my husband got home with the kids. Lunch packing goes much more smoothly when the kitchen is quiet :).

Fourth Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

Afraid of making my daughter sick of peanut butter sandwiches before the first full week of school ended, I opted for turkey for this lunch. Packed in our blue Sassy box, she had a piece of cheese, turkey on elephant picks, baby Goldfish, grapes and pineapple, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. She didn't touch the fruit, but ate everything else.

For snack, she had an applesauce pouch (I was happy that I remembered to break the seal on the screw cap before packing it so that she would be able to open it herself.), a few frosted Mini Wheats, and a few purple Goldfish and red rockets from the space themed bag of Goldfish.

Third Day Kindergarten: Lunch

This was a lunch that turned out pretty cute even though it wasn't anything like I had planned in my head. I had prepared matching homemade bear picks and planned to pack a letter B sandwich at my daughter's request since they were learning the letter B on the third day of school. However, my son, who is eighteen months old, wasn't in the best mood that evening and nothing fit or worked out like I had imagined (as evidenced by the fact that I have no picture of her snack, even though I know she had one :). The letter B sandwich tore and when I attempted to salvage it by coloring it blue (it was also blue day at at school) it turned out looking very unappetizing. So, I ditched the letter B and the bear picks and ended up with this instead.

In a new Sistema box, I got at TJMaxx, I packed a few chocolate Koala bear cookies, a teddy bear shaped peanut butter sandwich, cucumber sticks, blueberries in a bear silicone cup, nectarine slices, cherry tomatoes, and pretzels. I like these side-by-side Sistema boxes because they are the perfect height for most of the silicone cups I have. This new pink one is easier to unlatch than the solid blue ones we have so I felt okay about packing it for my daughter to unlatch at school.

Second Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

On the first day of school, my daughter's teacher read The Kissing Hand and the class colored a picture of the raccoon from the story. My daughter loved the book and told us all about it, reminding us several times that we should kiss her hand each night just like the raccoon's mother did. I was pleased to her her recount the story in such detail because it was usually very difficult to get her to reveal anything about her day last year at preschool. Since, she loved the book so much and because she seemed to have such a nice memory of her teacher reading it to the class, I decided that it would be a great theme for her lunch on the second day of school. Packed in our pink Sassy box, she had a hand-shaped sandwich decorated with food safe markers with a heart the way she did in class. In heart shaped silicone cups, she had cherry tomatoes, hand shaped cheddar cheese, carrots arranged in the shape of a heart (idea from BentOnBetterLunches), slices of cucumber, and purple grapes. My daughter reported that her teacher said her sandwich was cute, and that she "ate it all up".

For snack, I packed more of the space themed goldfish that were successful on the first day, star-shaped cheddar cheese, a few blueberries, and a star-shaped gummy that we made over the weekend.

First Day of Kindergarten: Lunch and Snack

I tossed around a lot of ideas when considering what to prepare for my daughter's first day of school lunch. I thought about preparing a school bus and using picks as different passengers, and I came close to making a pencil and ruler themed lunch. But, in the end I decided that it might be best to stick with familiar foods with a presentation style that she is accustomed to. I thought she might be short on time or distracted by everything else going on and that a complicated lunch might turn out to be something that went uneaten. So, the food above is what I sent with her on the first day. It was packed in the Spencer box that fits her Pottery Barn lunch bag. She had two stacked peanut butter star sandwiches beside a piece of chocolate cake leftover from a trifle I made for work. The bottom section held slices of yellow plum, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, orange pepper strips, pretzels, and a few purple grapes that I wedged in just to keep the other food from moving around. She ate most of the veggies, fruit, and pretzels along with one of the sandwiches. She had the second sandwich and some of the cake after school.

This was her first day of school snack. She had purple grapes on a homemade owl pick beside blueberries, and space themed Goldfish. I gambled on the Goldfish; she usually won't eat the colored Goldfish, but I thought these were cute and she figured she might like them as something special for a first snack. It worked out; she ate everything at snack time. And, I am really pleased to say that she loved her first day of kindergarten!

Friday Bentos

The lunch above was for my husband. He had a turkey and muenster sandwich on a scali roll along with pretzels, orange pepper strips, cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, nectarine, blueberries, and grapes.

I had the same side items with a ham and cheese sandwich. My food was in a Fit & Fresh box and my husband's was in a MyBentoMeal box.

Matching Lunches

The lunches pictured above were for me and my husband. We each had cherry tomatoes, carrots, green grapes, purple grapes, blueberries, kiwi, and chicken salad. The bread for our sandwiches was packed in separate boxes.

Food for a Really Busy Day

Last week, my husband and I both had open house at our schools on the same day. This meant that we both had to work from about 7:00 to 9:00. That same day, my daughter met her kindergarten teacher AND said the Pledge of Allegiance at a rally for the Vice President. It was a busy day! So busy, in fact, that my husband never even had a chance to touch the lunch pictured above. Had he had a free moment to eat, he would have had grapes, veggies, french baguette croutons, two fudge covered Oreos, and chicken salad on a deli roll.

I ate the food above in the car while hurrying back from the rally and my daughter's kindergarten registration to get to my school in time for my open house.

Since I knew it was going to be a crazy day with my daughter being shuffled from one place to the next, I prepared three bentos for her starting with this breakfast. She had grapes, a slice of cheese, almonds (in the small container), Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Mini Wheats, and a little ham on pink kitten picks.

She had the snack above before going to wait with the Secret Service before the rally. It contained a yogurt drink, blueberries, red pepper slices, carrots, and cucumber slices.

And, she had this bento while riding in the car with me to the open house at my school. She had more blueberries, grapes, cucumber slices, red pepper strips, cherry tomatoes, mini Club crackers, and turkey on giraffe picks.

More Plated Food at Home

This was a breakfast muffin/person/monster/character for my daughter. We couldn't decide exactly what it reminded us of. We thought it was a little like the Goon from Goodnight Goon, a little like a monster from Where the Wild Things Are, and a little like a Wallace and Gromit character. At any rate, she had a blueberry muffin made in our muffin top pan with fresh blueberries. It was decorated with bacon hair secured with a little bonnet pick, candy eyes, a dark chocolate nose, and cappuccino chip teeth.

This was a really quick, but cute, snack made to occupy my daughter while I put groceries away. She had two marshmallow stars, a few blueberry "snowballs", and a small penguin peanut butter sandwich standing on a banana "iceberg". The penguin was decorated with a fudge covered Oreo slice that I quickly cut with a cup.

This was a dinner for my daughter. She had cherries, blueberries, grapes, red pepper strips, carrots, shredded cheese, mini Club crackers, and baked chicken. She put the cheese on the celery and said she was having, "worms on a log". Not my idea of a great flavor combo, but she seemed to enjoy it.

Lots of Bentos from Last Week

I packed this for my daughter on one of her last days of summer vacation. It was packed in our new Spencer box from Potter Barn Kids. She had two (stacked) elephant shaped peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and grapes. The elephant was a little overfilled so I covered the oozing peanut butter with some blue sparkles and passed it off as a circus elephant :).

This was a snack my children shared while we were waiting for a play to start. They had some peas, Cheez-Its, blueberries, purple grapes, Cocoa Puffs, and "Little" Frosted Mini Wheats.

This was a packed breakfast for my daughter. She had a yogurt drink, a slice of cheese, some Frosted Mini Wheats, and grapes and blueberries on picks. This was packed in a new Sistema box. It looks square, but it slightly larger in one direction. Because of that, I think it might be tricky for my daughter to get the lid back on herself, so I don't think I will be using it for her school lunches.

This was a lunch for me. I had ham and cheese on a deli roll along with tomatoes, cucumber slices, carrots, grapes, blueberries, and almonds.

Some Plated Food at Home

This was a breakfast served in an ice tray with flower shapes from IKEA. My daughter had purple and green grapes, blueberries, mini shredded wheats, Cocoa Puffs, almonds, and cherries.

For a Saturday lunch, my daughter had cherry tomatoes, a "kiwi branch" for the green bird, some plain rotini noodles, a few pieces of plain baked chicken, and some peas.

For a weeknight dinner, my daughter had cucumber slices, a couple of tomatoes, a few rotini noodles, kidney beans, raspberries on bonnet picks, purple grapes, and blueberries and kiwi on a pick. She also had a few chunks of plain chicken on kitten and puppy picks. There was liberal use of picks in this meal to try to get her to eat; usually she is more willing to try things if they are served on a stick or in a creative way.

And last, a meal that she prepared herself. She selected, washed, and arranged blueberries, celery, yellow pepper slices, tomatoes, purple grapes, cucumber slices, and raspberries.

Food for Another Trip in the Car

My daughter had this on another trip. The left half of the box held cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and a few blueberries. The right side had a tulip shaped peanut butter sandwich and some green grapes.

Quick Food for Friday

In the LunchBots Duo above, my daughter had a triceratops-shaped peanut butter sandwich cut with a sandwich cutter from the Dollar Spot at Target. The sandwich was on top of a peanut butter cookie. The bottom section held a few cherry tomatoes, a slice of cucumber, some blueberries, and a mini Krackel bar.

My husband had cucumber and tomatoes in the first section and kiwi, raspberries, and blueberries in the second section. The large section held a turkey sandwich, pretzel crackers, and a couple of mini chocolate bars.

I had the same veggies and fruits as my husband along with pretzel crackers, almonds, a string cheese, and two pieces of dark chocolate. I also had a little chicken leftover from dinner the night before.

Food for Another Day at Work With Mommy

This was my daughter's breakfast.In the Sistema box, she had frosted mini wheats, almonds, an applesauce pouch, and blueberries and grapes on a pick. I like those picks (purchased at the Dollar Tree) because they are the perfect length for this box. 

For lunch, my daughter had a butterfly shaped peanut butter sandwich along with blueberries and grapes in the bottom tier. The top section had goldfish crackers and tomato and cucumber slices on picks. This was packed in an inexpensive bento box purchased through Amazon.

My lunch was in a MyBentoMeal box. I had turkey and muenster on a bagel with tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, and grapes. My daughter swiped most of the carrots; I should have given her more veggies in place of the goldfish because they went uneaten.

This was a lunch for me in our Planetbox. Similar to earlier this week, I had turkey and muenster on french bread with carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber slices. I also had blueberries, grapes, and a strawberry in the fruit section and a few pretzel crackers and a little ranch dip in the top section.

This was a lunch I took to work in our Planetbox. I had a turkey sandwich on french bread along with strawberries, carrots, yellow pepper strips, cherry tomatoes, green grapes, and blueberries. We love the Planetbox because it is easy to pack, easy to open and close, and washes very well in the dishwasher.