January 14-17 lunches

Another fun filled week has flown by. I swear as the school year rolls on time speeds up. I blink and the week is over. This may be due to the lack of sleep that comes with the early wake-up calls of public school making your week into 1 reallly long day, but I digress....back to lunches.

Monday  - Captain America

In this lunch:

• Star Jelly toast sandwich with Captain America white cheddar cheese on top
• Babybel cheese shield
• Carrots "A"
• Gala apple shield

Tuesday - Let's Eat Pooh! Happy Birthday A. A. Milne

Friday there will be a linky party over at Biting The Hand That Feeds You. 

At the end of this post you'll find the linky party for anything A.A. Milne related, not just Pooh.

 “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh 

Green Monkey gets to eat Pooh (It never gets old)  -

• Winnie The Pooh jelly toast with cheese and black olives on top
• Hotdog tree with broccoli and cauliflower
• Pooh in his honey pot made from a hollowed out gala apple and cheese letters
• 3-2-1 cake from Duncan Hines with Teddy graham Pooh bears and cheese Pooh letters

Tigger: Hello, Rabbit! I'm Tigger. T-I double guh...
Rabbit: Please! Please! Don't spell it! Oh dear, will you just... just look at my beautiful garden!
Tigger: Yyyyyuck! M-messy, isn't it?
Rabbit: Messy? Messy? It's ruined! It's ruined, Tigger! Why won't you ever stop bouncing?
Tigger: Why? That's what Tiggers do best! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! 
-A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too

Blue Monkey gets Rabbit tending his garden

• Rabbit Jelly toast sandwich with cheddar cheese and ham on top
• Hotdog with broccoli and cauliflower
• Tigger bouncing in the carrots and grapes
• 3-2-1 cake for dessert with cheese letters. 

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.”
― A.A. Milne

Wednesday - Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr. !

 I posted this separately on Wednesday but wanted to keep it in the weekly round-up for this week. Here's the original post.

In this lunch:

• Heart Jelly toast heart sandwich with  Martin Luther King Jr. cheddar cheese on top 
• Carrots with fruit leather letters
• Grapes
• 3-2-1 cake with frosting peace sign

Thursday -Penguins
Blue Monkey was learning about penguins at school today. When I mentioned it for lunch Green Monkey wanted one too instead of a Benjamin Franklin birthday tribute. Happy Birthday Benjamin Franklin I hope you liked penguins.

In this lunch:

• Igloo waffle - after cutting the igloo, I buttered it and added syrup then flipped it over so the gooey bit was unseen. Powdered sugar and marshmallows for snow and of course he eats goldfish.
• Chocolate waffle Penguin - I added 1 tsp of unsweet cocoa and a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips into the waffle batter. Sprayed a penguin cookie cutter and cooked on the skillet like a pancake. Added a little frosting and candy eye.
• Goldfish
• PB celery
• Grapes
• Babybel cheese
• Black Olive Penguin - I used this tutorial from Serious Eats, large olives, babybel cheese, and baby carrots

In this lunch:

• Waffle Igloo with powdered sugar and marshmallow snow
• Chocolate waffle Penguin with frosting and candy eye
• Goldfish
• Carrots
• Grapes
• Babybel cheese
• Black olive penguin

Now for more A.A. Milne fun let's check out the linky party over at Biting the Hand That Feeds You

Happy Birthday A. A. Milne

Today is author A. A. Milne's birthday. So we sent a Winnie The Pooh lunch honoring Christopher Robin's famous balloon, and some of his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods.

Christopher Robin's Balloon 

“Some people care too much. I think it's called love.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Balloon - Peanutbutter and jelly sandwich with pirouette cookie and Winni the Pooh ring
• Peanutbutter and celery with Tigger ring
• Heart strawberries with Piglet ring

Last year we made Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit to celebrate.

My friend over at Mamabelly's Lunches with Love is having a linky party. So head on over and see all the wonderful creations, and add link up your own. It's going to be a fun birthday day, come along.

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Bento Bloggers & Friends Top 13 of 2013

Happy New Year! What a year it has been. This is our second year of blogging our lunches and being a part of a wonderfully talented group of bento bloggers over at Bento Bloggers & Friends. To celebrate the new year we've all compiled our favorite lunches from 2013 and are having a linky party. Once you check out our picks, please click the button and continue the party over at Bento Bloggers & Friends where each thumbnail in the linky will lead to a different blogger's collection of their 13 favorite bentos. The talent in this group is amazing, so to narrow it down to just 13 selections each is a feat all its own. So let the countdown to 2014 begin!

Last year I let the page stats pick our top 12 of 2012, those receiving the most page views according to blogger and repins on pinterest. This year I went through and visually picked my favorites as I scrolled through my board on Pinterest. But picking them is like going through your kids photo albums, while you remember the love that went into the moment some just didn't photograph as well as others, mostly due to me having no idea how to use our camera and poor lighting sources, but I'm learning. So if there are other favorites you've seen this year feel free to show them some love in the comments section. I have added the original post links to the titles so you can click through and read the details of each lunch there. Here in no particular order are my top 13 favorites of 2013.

1. Incredible Hulk 

This was the first time I froze yogurt to send in a lunch and I really liked the grapes.

2. Captain America

This was my first really fancy babybel cheese art

3. Martin Luther King Jr. 

This was the best cheese art of any I've done

 

4. Winnie the Pooh 

New fun cored apple idea

 

5. Mr. Potato Head 

Best attempt to try and get my kid to eat spinach

6. There's a Wocket in My Pocket 

I loved turning a pocket pita into a pocket

7.  Plankton and Squidward

Enjoyed doing someone other than Spongebob and Patrick

 

8. Spock 

Really clean lines on cheese art

 

9. Sulley

First textured sandwich technique

10, Gru

1st time I ever decorated a twinkie or sent one for that matter

11. Berry

First molded cheese in ice tray and loved the layering of the sandwich

12. Plants Vs. Zombies 

Who doesn't love a zombies and I got better with photo editing on Picmonkey

13. Count Dracula

I think the artwork turned out well

So those were my favorites based on visual appeal. I hope next year the creative muse will up the game once more and the monkeys pick some fun themes to challenge me.

I wish all of you a happy healthy 2014! Now click the button and hop through all the Best of 2013 Bloggers & Friends. Thank you to all the readers who have supported us in this fun adventure.

I've also added a new page for 2014. At the top header you will find a blog hop page. A fun place to revisit all the wonderful hops we've participated in.

100th Day of School!

Hidden within the week filled with Valentines day parties is the 100th day of school for our 1st grader. Obviously they didn't push it out to account for the recent bad weather days. On the upside I actually didn't miss it this year. Last year, again caught up in valentines day prep activities I missed it and had to celebrate 101st day with him instead ...he didn't mind. :)

Tonight I hijacked one of his shirts, and added 100 stickers to it. I also packed him a baggie with 100 pennies because it just made cents buh dum cha.

100th Day of School

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• 100 - Jelly sandwich, yes he requested just jelly so I left one peek-a-boo 0 and 1 filled with mini M&Ms, 100 M&Ms to be exact
• Heart strawberries
• Peanut butter and celery with "You did it!" pick

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

― Winnie the Pooh