Slow but steady we get there

Whew we made it through another fun-filled birthday weekend and now its back to school. I don't know about you but hosting parties drains me, don't get me wrong I love them, our friends, and our kids, but they wear me out. So lunches and blogging have been...well...a bit slow.

Magic Show 

The magician that performed at our 4yo's birthday this weekend was so entertaining that Green monkey requested a magic show in his lunch today.

In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and jelly Magician's hat with apple rabbit ears
• Roast beef and string cheese Magic wand
• Ace of hearts apple
• Magic flower salad - cucumber, carrots, and broccoli
• Ironman candy sticks for the new movie release (not that we had time to go see it yet)

Jabba the Hut  

A little more dark side fun, since little blue got Pizza the Hut. big green gets Jabba

 In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and jelly Jabba the Hut, peanut butter crisp thrown
• Grapes and light saber
• Boba Fett apple

 Splash Day 

An end of year tradition at preschool, and who loves splashing more than dolphins and fish? Toddlers.

In this lunch : In our Yubo lunch box

• Colored goldfish
• Peanut butter and jelly Dolphins and heart
• Apples with swedish fish
• Peanut butter crisp bar with Swedish fish. Already used 1 bar for big kid lunch so little had to have it too.

Cookies 'N Milk 

No not really ;)

In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and jelly with nutella "chocolate chips" piped on top
• Milk - ranch dip (yes it gets a tupperware lid before packing)
• Grapes
• Carrots

Petting Zoo 

Field trip for little blue and I with our moms group to a little local petting zoo

In this lunch : in our Yubo lunch box

• Peanut butter and jelly CuteZCute Piggy with salami belly, swimming in "mud" pretzels
• Grapes with cucumber bunny
• Cucumbers with duck

Skylanders - Pop Fizz 

In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and jelly Pop Fizz on Cookie Crisp cereal
• Carrots
• Apple beakers

Crab 

Unfortunately this one was unnecessary as they had a party in class, but with our crazy day it made a great after school snack.

 In this lunch/snack :

• Blueberry bagel with candy eyes on Cookie Crisp sand
• Carrots
• Crab apple...get it? Well it made me laugh this morning.

In case you're still looking for teacher appreciation gift ideas. Our elementary school is celebrating this week with a different theme each day. Since I had already done the flower cups for the preschool, I let my big kid interpret these themes himself and bring different gifts in. Sure they aren't picture perfect or crafty as the things on pinterest, but they are heartfelt and made by a 6yo who loves his teacher.

Monday - Books for the classroom - He picked out 2 of our books and brought them in to add to the classroom reading nook along with a note that said "Thanks for helping me learn to read"

Tuesday - Favorite flower - My son picked some roses and jasmine from our garden and sent a note that read "Thanks for helping me grow"

Wednesday - Favorite snacks - We wrapped a can of coke with twizzlers and a note that said "Thanks for being so sweet to me"

Thursday - School supplies - Our classroom is always running short of basic supplies, so we sent in clorox wipes, kleenex, and Expo dry erase markers. I brought rotisserie chicken and pasta salad for the teacher appreciation pot luck. Then I spent the day volunteering in the classroom in between other appointments, distributing homework, helping them make their mother's day gifts.

Friday - Thank you note - Today he drew a picture in a thank you card and signed a note thanking her for being his teacher and included a movie gift card.

No matter how you choose to appreciate your teachers, I hope you give them a little shout out this week and say thanks for all they do.

Love in your lunch

So this week needs a disclaimer that I am completely burnt out and rundown. I need to recharge my robot batteries. The monkeys don't mind though they still love me and don't even notice when I mess up. Which reminds me that no matter how many plans I have in my head they are pleased with anything and it doesn't matter if I never catch up on the "to-do" list. I set the bar high because they deserve it, sometimes gravity just knocks you off your toes. I did not get to any of the 100th day of school ideas I had pinned, but we made up for it the next day by celebrating 101st day of school HA!

Monday  - 100th Day of School!!! Green monkey requested a Buzz Lightyear, the artwork is...hand sketched and I can't draw so use your imagination.

In this lunch :

• Babybel star
• Ham and cheese star with hand sketched Buzz Lightyear
• Grapes
• Pirates booty

Tuesday - Since Green Monkey wanted Buzz on 100th day ... here's to 101!

 In this lunch :

• 101 Day of school! Peanut butter and jelly 1's
• Jelly and butter bagel 0
• 101 cucmbers
• 101 apple

I love you in our Yubo lunchbox for blue monkey

In this lunch :

• I brownie - Had to use up the football brownies from Superbowl week
• New toast stamp from Target, but it was hard to read on our jelly toast, so I added jelly to the heart and colored in "you" with edible markers,
• "V" carrots
• Heart watermelon

Wednesday - I love you Oodles 
We love Doctor Who so this is our Valentine Ood lunch for Green Monkey

In this lunch :

• Jelly and butter bagels
• Cheese letters
• Heart strawberries
• "X" carrots
• Heart brownie

Thursday - Happy Valentine's Day! You're a heart-breaker In our Yubo lunch box for blue 

 In this lunch :

• Broken heart PB&J
• Fruit roll-up fortune cookie
• Heart strawberries
• Broken heart brownie

Eat your heart out for Green monkey

 In this lunch :

• Inverted heart PB&J
• Heart Babybel
• Fruit roll-up fortune cookie
• Heart strawberries
• Heart brownie

Awesome fruit roll-up from She Knows for fruit roll-up fortune cookies. I couldn't resist making them once a fellow BBF Jeana at  The Tiny Princess Lunch Box mentioned it, thanks for the idea! These are just brilliant and I happened to have mini strawberry fruit roll-ups in the pantry and parchment paper on hand.

I'll be back with all the party fun we've had this week. But for now, off to do those room-mommy crazy things. Happy Valentine's Day!

February 4 - 8 Lunches

The monkeys were off school again this time for teacher training conferences. So I went back to just a weekly post this week. I did include a few of my on-the-go lunches as well, because hey Momma has to eat too!

Tuesday - We headed out to the Austin Nature and Science Center with some friends to play.

 In my lunch :

• Garden salad with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower
• Tuna butterfly with string cheese
• Trail mix - almonds, pistachios, yogurt covered raisins, dark chocolate goji berries, dark chocolate acai berries
• Grapes and strawberries

In Green monkey's lunch :

• PB&J sandwich with string cheese Tic-Tac-Toe
• Teddy grahams
• Grapes and strawberry
• Pickles - He wanted a pickle sandwich I talked him into a side of pickles instead

In Blue monkey's Yubo lunch box:

• PB&J with string cheese Tic-tac-toe
• Teddy grahams
• Grapes and strawberry
• Carrots

Wednesday - We were supposed to go play but they chose to stay home instead. I had already packed lunches.

In my lunch:

• Salad with broccoli and S carrots celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year - Year of the snake
• Ham and cheese and turkey and cheese roll-ups
• Almonds and pistachios
• Grapes and strawberry

In Blue monkey's lunch :

• PB&J Snake with candy eyes and fruit leather tongue
• Veggies straws
• S shaped snake watermelon

In Green monkey's lunch :

• PB&J AT-AT (front view) with pretzel guns
• Pirates booty
• Droid watermelons

Thursday - Back to school for Green monkey, back to errands and gym for little blue and me (We ate out).

In Green monkey's lunch : Time lords love twice as much

• Layered heart sandwich ham, turkey, and cheese and TARDIS topped with cheese and marshamallow
• Double heart cheese and crackers
• Heart watermelon, strawberry, and grape

Friday - Green monkey buys lunch at school, Blue and I come picnic with him.

 In my lunch :

• Salad with carrots, ham and turkey roll-ups, Cheese cupid hearts
• Almonds and pistachios
• Grapes

 In Blue monkey's Yubo lunch box : He asked for a planet

• PB&J Earth with cheese hearts
• Grapes
• Carrots

Since Valentine's day is next week I've been sneaking hearts into their lunches all month. Next week is filled with parties stay tuned for our homemade valentines coming up this weekend.

Diary of Stink Dog - By Elaine M Phillips

 

Diary of Stink Dog

by Elaine M Phillips

 

Follow along with Stink Dog, as he discovers why he is so different than his eleven litter-mates. Is Stink really half-poodle and half-pig? Discover the explosive truth about Stink Dog! Stink also uncovers his own top secret abilities! Has Stink discovered the truth about green energy?  Guaranteed to jump start your smell detectors! Created to attract new readers to the magical world of imagination and creative learning. Great for all ages. Guaranteed to burst into laughter! Fun for the whole family. Beware of sudden explosive giggling to follow!!

While hunkered down waiting out Green Monkey's Flu B quarantine, we sat together and read this hilarious book.  It's a quirky adventure of one mighty stinky dog. As you can imagine anything that centers around fart jokes is going to be a hit with 2 little boys. Not to gender-bias this at all, since all children will be giggling as he learns to use his special gifts. In a round about way he learns that just being himself is pretty special. Perhaps he can even solve the world's energy problem.

My monkeys giggled through every sound effect as I read. Green monkey loved the illustrations of burp boy as they reminded him of Johnny Test. Blue monkey said it was funny that Stink dog tooted all the time. The book is 50 pages long with lots of illustrations, perfect for early readers in 1st or 2nd grade.

I tried to get a picture but sitting still when you've been cooped up indoors, well that's just asking too much of 2 little monkeys. So instead I made a lunch in tribute of Stink Dog in our new Yubo.

In this lunch: 

• Jelly pig with candy eyes
• Peanut butter Burp Boy
• Nutella Stink dog
• Green Grape stink
• Pirates booty and natural chocolate candy "Soya beans"

Diary of Stink Dog is available both as an eBook and book at Amazon.com. You can find more books by Elaine Phillips at elainemphillips.com and eBooksforthefamily.com. Or follow her on Facebook.

 

Superbowl XLVII - Baltimore Vs. San Fransisco

While my Bears may not be in the Superbowl this year (Booo, there's always next year!) we still got in the spirit of the big game. So who are you rooting for?

We would like to thank Mamabelly's Lunches with Love for our new Yubo lunch box. My little monkey couldn't wait to take his lunch to school today. The flat ice pack keeps the whole box cold, each container has a separate lid (not pictured) so its spill-proof, and the whole thing comes apart for easy clean-up. While it didn't have room for his juice box we cleverly tucked it in the handle wrapped in his napkin which I always leave a little love message on.

Baltimore Ravens

In this lunch:

• Peanut butter and jelly with cheese field sandwich and Ravens logo
• Fruit leather XLVII
• Chocolate dipped pretzel goal posts
• Football brownie
• Carrots
• Grapes

VS.

San Fransisco 49ers

In this lunch:

• Peanut butter and Jelly helmet
• Football brownie
• "49" watermelon
• Chocolate dipped pretzel goal posts
• String cheese and peanut butter celery field
• Fruit leather XLVII

My big kid is home sick with the flu but that doesn't mean he has to miss out on the fun theme we had planned for today. 

Whoever wins may your food be fabulous, and the commercials be funny :)