bento boxes

Pin It Here are some more bento's from the archives. I'll start posting new ones with some new bento boxes next week. I'm just trying to wean down my archive collection a little bit because I don't want to miss any of the really cute ones. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!



This outerspace bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. She had a container of outerspace goldfish crackers, a container of yogurt with a fruit leather spaceship with sprinkles and a container of blueberries with more outerspace goldfish. Even my little Cam thought this lunch was really cool. I wrapped the yogurt container in tin foil before packing it in her lunch bag.



Here is another morning bento. She had 2 baby bananas (I started the peel before I packed them in her lunch bag so she could easily peel them herself). Even though they have someone to help them with their lunches, Kirsten does not like to ask for help. If she can't get to something herself, it's likely to come home uneaten because she didn't ask for help. It's kind of frustrating. Anyway, she also had some green grapes with a frog pick and a cereal bar.



This was a bento for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. She had half a turkey and cheese sandwich with an adorable little bumblebee on top. I cut the bumblebee out of cheese using a sandwich cutter I have. I used my food marker to draw on lines (rather bad lines I must say!), used an icing eye and some white tortilla wings. She also had a flower silicone muffin cup filled with clementine orange segments and another filled with yogurt. I wrapped the yogurt in tinfoil before packing this lunch in her bag.



This colourful little bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. She had some fruit salad with a cute little elephant pick, a cereal bar, and some pretzel sticks with cute little cheese birdies.



And lastly, another morning bento. She had some plain cheerios, a container of raspberries and blueberries with a frog pick and a container of yogurt with a fruit leather frog (using a bear cutter) and icing eyes. I wrapped the yogurt in tinfoil before packing it in her lunch bag.

On another note, it seems that my beloved lock and lock lunch box with the 4 separate trays is becoming very difficult to find. I have even heard a rumour that it is being discontinued. I certainly hope not because it's a great little lunch box. They may have replaced it with this container:



It is the exact same size as the one I currently use, but they changed the word trays to divider. Whereas mine have 4 removable trays, these ones have a divider. I'm not sure if that means you can remove it, or whether it's a permanent divider in the lunch box. If it's permanent, I won't like it quite as much as the older model because I often remove 2 of the trays to put half a sandwich in, or larger portions of a certain food. It is an option though. If anyone does in fact buy this can you PLEASE let me know what the inside of the box is like. Are the dividers fixed or can you remove them? Thanks!!

Here are some supplies I used to make these lunches. Click on the pictures to get to the actual product:






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fun food friday - I love you

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I actually made this lunch a really long time ago. Seeing as I hadn't posted it yet, I thought now would be a great time with Valentine's day coming up. I just love my alphabet cutters and my kids always want their toast cut into letters. Here's how I made this simple lunch:

The I and U were made using out of peanut butter toast and my alphbet cutters. I used a heart silicone cup in the middle filled with yogurt and Valentine's sprinkles. Fruit leather hearts all over the plate.



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hershey's kisses

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Nothing says Valentine's day to me like Hershey's kisses. The kids and I didn't have any of the sweet treat, so we decided to make our own, kind of. They thought this craft was super fun. It was really easy to make and it's a great Valentine's craft. Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

cardstock
tin foil
scissors
glue
googly eyes
marker
glitter glue

Directions:

1. cut a Hershey's kiss shape out of your cardstock
2. cover your Hershey's kiss with a piece of tin foil
3. glue on 2 googly eyes and use a glitter glue pen to draw on a mouth
4. have your child write their name on a rectangular shape of cardstock and glue to the back of your kiss

Kirsten's kiss:



Camden's kiss:





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chocolate lip gloss and free printable

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My post popular post of 2011 by far was my Kool-aid lip gloss. Since so many people seem interested in making this cute little gift, I thought I would make some more for Valentine's Day this year. Kirsten and I decided to make some chocolate lip gloss this time, using the same steps as we did with the kool-aid. All you need is some vaseline, some cocoa powder, and a sprinkling of sugar for some sweetness. The colour is a nice chocolaty brown and leaves a very subtle tint on your lips. It doesn't really taste like chocolate, but the sugar gives it a little sweetness. When you realize how simple these are to make, you're going to want to make them for all your little Valentine's.

I had some leftover lip gloss containers from the last lip gloss we made and I made some brand new lip gloss labels if anyone wants them. I printed them on sticker paper and used my awesome 1" paper punch to cut them out. Here is what the labels look like:



If you want the labels, click here to get them for free!

* some people who made the kool-aid lip gloss were having trouble getting the drink crystals to dissolve. It seems if the melted vaseline is too hot you'll have trouble dissolving. I took more pictures this time of the process and hopefully it helps!*

What you'll need

vaseline
cocoa powder
sugar
microwave safe bowl
lip gloss containers
labels printed on sticker paper
1" paper punch



Directions:

1. put about 1 cup vaseline in a microwave safe bowl



2. heat the vaseline in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between each heating (this is very important, don't just throw it in the microwave for a few minutes!). It took me about 7-8 minutes the batch of vaseline. It will be liquid when it is fully melted. Make sure you wear gloves or oven mitts and make sure children are being supervised. This is what it will look like when it's melted:



If you find the vaseline REALLY hot you may want to let it cool for a bit before you mix in the cocoa powder. I didn't and didn't have any trouble dissolving the cocoa powder but some of my other readers had trouble dissolving the kool-aid if the vaseline was too hot!

3. stir in a couple spoonfuls of cocoa powder and a sprinkling of sugar for some sweetness. You don't need exact measurements here. Just put some cocoa powder in until you reach your desired colour. I used a couple small spoonfuls. Stir until it is all dissolved. This only took about 30 seconds. If it's not dissolving the vaseline may be too hot. Let it cool a bit.





4. if starting to solidify you can heat again for another 30 seconds - skip this step if it is still liquidy

5. pour into your lip gloss containers and leave to solidify - a couple hours

6. print out labels on sticker paper

7. using either a 1 inch punch, or scissors, cut out the circle labels and attach to your lip gloss container



8. give to all your favourite people, but remember to save a few for yourself too!





If the lip gloss containers that I used above are sold out (as they sometimes tend to be), here are some other options you can use:



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this week in bento boxes

Pin It Okay, the title is kind of a lie. These bento boxes were made quite a while ago, but I've got so many of them to post! I've actually purchased some new bento boxes that I'm excited to show you guys but want to finish posting some of these older ones first. Thank-you all for your well wishes for my little Cam. He's actually starting to feel so much better. Unfortunately I've now caught something and am a little under the weather. It's tough looking after your sick kiddos when you're sick too. Anyway, here are the bento's:



Here's an adorable little piggy bento she had for her afternoon nutrition break. She had half a ham and cheese sandwich and then I used some of my tiny cutters to cut a piggy out of the ham. I used my food safe markers and sprinkles to decorate him. She had had some crinkle cut cucumbers and a peeled clementine.



This was a really simple bento I made for her morning nutrition break. She had a cereal bar, a container of chocolate graham goldfish and a container of plum and pomegranate seeds with a cute little bear pick.



Here's a cute little bento she had for her afternoon nutrition break. She had a whole wheat tortilla with turkey and cheese cut into 3 sections and held together with cute little animals picks. She also had a container of baby carrots and a container of graham crackers with a cute little bunny shaped cheese.



Here's another bento for her afternoon nutrition break. She had a babybel cheese with a cute little fish shape cut out of the wax, a container of goldfish crackers, a container of turkey bologna roll-ups, and a container of baby carrots.



And finally, another morning nutrition break bento. She had a banana that I decorated with cute flower stickers (start the banana peel on the back so little fingers can peel it easily), a container of graham crackers with a fruit leather and sprinkle flower, and a container of red grapes.

Here are some of the supplies I used to make these lunches - click on the pictures to take you to the links:





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fun food friday: winter wonderland

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This post will be short and sweet because my little Cam is sick with strep throat right now. He is pretty sick and miserable right now so I'm rushing this post in while he is resting. This was a simple winter lunch to make and the kids thought it was delicious. Here's how I made it:

snowflakes - cheese quesadillas on white tortillas cut into snowflakes using my wilton comfort grip snowflake cutter. Silicone cup with a peeled clementine, silicone cup of yogurt with snowflake sprinkles, and a mini silicone cup with chocolate covered sunflower seeds.



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play doh lid bird feeders

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When I saw these on Silly Eagle Books last Winter, I immediately bookmarked it because I knew my kiddos would have a blast making these. This craft was so much fun and the kids are still having fun weeks later checking every day to see if there are any birds at their feeders. We saved our play doh lids for a few months (yes, we go through this much play doh) and made these awesome bird feeders. They look awesome hanging outside from our trees. Thanks Vanessa for another awesome craft idea. Check Vanessa's play doh bird feeders out here . Here's how we made them:

What you'll need:

play doh lids
yarn or string
scissors
glue gun
peanut butter
bird seed



Directions:

1. lay out all your play doh lids



2. using your scissors, cut pieces of yarn or string that you will use to hang your feeders

3. using your glue gun, glue the yarn or string to the back of the play doh lid (the indented part will be the part you want available for the peanut butter and bird seed). Allow to dry.





4. fill the indented part of the play doh lid with peanut butter and then press it into some birdseed. If you're my kids, you may taste some of the bird feeders. I *think* he only ate the peanut butter, lol. Repeat for however many feeders you're making.









5. get your feeders all together and bring them outside and hang on your trees.











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