this week in bento boxes

Pin It Don't forget to enter my amazing bento giveaway here if you haven't already. It closes on April 24th. I think it's been a couple weeks since I've shared some bento boxes. I lost a very large collection of bento boxes I had made when my hard drive crashed. I was really bummed, but I do make so many of these every week, I knew I could recover this weekly post pretty quickly. Some of the bento boxes this week have an Earth Day theme - to celebrate Earth day today! Kirsten really got a kick out of her Earth day lunches this week because they were celebrating Earth day at school all last week too. Here are some of this week's lunches: This Earth day bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier had a silicone flower filled with frozen peas and yogurt-covered raisins. The peas will defrost by her afternoon lunch break for a fresh and healthy snack. The bottom tier held a chicken sandwich cut into a circle with some sliced cucumbers. One sliced cucumber with an adorable tree pick on the sandwich. This Earth day bento was for one of Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held a cereal bar with a heart and EARTH cut out of fruit leather. The bottom tier held blueberries and green grapes. This Earth day bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The bottom tier had a circle-cut ham sandwich with a fruit leather recycle symbol on top. It's never too early to learn to recycle and my kids help me put the recyclables in the blue and yellow boxes every night after supper. They love helping out. The bottom tier also held a silicone muffin cup with sliced cucumbers. The top tier held a silicone cup of yogurt-covered raisins and some plain cheerios on either side. These next 2 aren't really Earth day bento's, but I'm sharing them because they're in green boxes, lol! This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held sliced kiwi and blueberries. The bottom tier held a silicone muffin cup with a sliced cereal bar and some plain cheerios. And lastly, this little floral bento box was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some cucumber cut flowers with carrot centers. The bottom tier held a flower silicone cup with cheese chunks and some triangle triscuit crackers.

Here are some of the supplies I used (or similar) to make these lunches:















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grasshead ladies

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I have bad news about my computer. Nothing could be recovered. My hard drive malfunctioned and everything was wiped clean. I'm definitely learning my lesson the hard way. I've spent the last few days trying to get some posts back together. I was very thankful that I have the last month's worth of pictures on my camera memory card. That helped a lot. But I lost so many pictures, photoshop actions and brushes, purchased clip art, storyboard and blog frames, blog posts, etc. I always knew I should back up my stuff more often, but life always got in the way. Now that I've lost so much, I realize that I should never be too busy to do a backup. Ughhh. I hate learning lessons the hard way. Anyway, enough about my whining, and onto the craft. Here's a great craft for earth day that uses recycled materials around the house.. We used empty yogurt drink containers and turned them into pretty ladies. Kirsten really enjoyed this craft and has enjoyed watching her grass grow. We bought some awesome soil/seed mix by Scott's and the grass grew in no time. That stuff was amazing. Here are the instructions to make your own:

What you'll need:

empty yogurt drink containers
scrap fabric
scissors
googly eyes
glitter glue
glue gun
grass seed/soil

Directions:

1. remove labels and wash and dry your yogurt containers



2. decorate your little ladies however you want. We used fabric scraps, googly eyes and glitter glue. I hot glued the fabric and googly eyes on for quicker drying.



3. put some soil/grass seeds in your empty container and water it.



4. place your container in a sunny place and water as needed.

5. your little grass lady will have hair to style in no time!





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hand(print)s around the world

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With Easter over, we've been doing a few crafts around here to celebrate Earth day next Sunday (April 22nd). I absolutely adore this one. It turned out exactly as I had hoped it would. The earth and the people around it are actually their handprint stamped around in a circle 4 times. This isn't really a save the planet kind of craft for Earth day, but more about teaching our kids that there are people of different color, race, and religion all over this world, but we are all the same and we need to treat everyone kindly and with respect. I know my kids are only 3 and 4, but it's never too early to teach your children those important life lessons. They thought this craft was really cool, and they are proudly displaying these masterpieces on canvas in my living room. Here's how to make this really simple craft:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
paint - blue and green for the earth, and 5 different colors for the fingers (people)
paint brushes
markers or sharpies

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm with some green and blue paint. Then paint each of their 5 fingers a different colour.

2. have your child stamp their hand around in a circle 4 times. You may have to add more paint to their hands after 2 stamps (that's what I did).

3. allow for the handprints to dry

4. using your markers or sharpies, turn the fingers into people by adding eyes, mouths, hair, and arms holding hands





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fun food friday: Happy Earth Day!

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Ahhh, it's Good Friday, it's Earth Day, and it's a vacation day from work. Can't complain. I'm sharing an Earth Day lunch for Fun Food Friday today. I pretty much like it, but my planet earth did not quite turn out how I envisioned it would. I'm pretty sure I've wiped out entire continents here. It's hard making kiwi continents you know! The kids still loved it and that's all that counts around here. Here's how to make it:

Planet earth - half an english muffin toasted with peanut butter and blueberry jam. Kiwi continents.

Bowl of blue jello and bowl of blueberry and kiwi fruit salad. Yummy!

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playdoh planet earth and some babbling too

Pin It Hello my fabulous readers! Sorry for my long hiatus. I wanted to take some time off to get some Spring cleaning done and start myself on a workout routine. I'm happy to report that I got both done. Since I started this blog I haven't taken more than a couple days off at a time and it really felt good. Truth be told, I even contemplated giving up the blog all together. A lot of people who read this blog don't know that I actually work full-time, Monday to Friday, outside the home. I keep this blog up on the weekends and before and after work. The more popular this blog became though, the more work it became. I was having a hard time keeping up and things in my personal life (like working out and taking time for me) were the things that were being pushed aside. I missed this blog and you guys too much though. Some of my fabulous readers convinced me to come back to my blog, but just ease up a bit. I won't be posting as often as I used to. I won't be following any specific posting schedule. If I do something fun with the kids, I'll post it. If I make something cute, I'll post it. If I take an adorable picture, I'll post it. If I don't, I won't be posting. You get the picture. I hope this will bring more of a balance for me.

Okay, enough babbling, now onto the craft. With Earth Day coming up this Friday, I thought this would not only be a great activity, but I could also throw a little science lesson in there too. I made this playdoh planet earth for the kiddos and they actually loved it. Although the science lesson part of this with me explaining what all the layers of the earth are probably went WAY over their heads, they at least look interested while I was telling them. That at least counts for something, right? Here's how you make this:

What you'll need:

play doh - blue, green, black, yellow, orange, red

What the earth layers are:

RED - inner core
ORANGE - outer core
YELLOW - mantle
BLACK - crust
BLUE AND GREEN - land and water









They thought it looked cool enough when I just showed them the blue and green planet earth. When I actually cut into it and showed them the layers, their faces really lit up. When we were done, I let them play with it and they completely destroyed it. But that's ok, that's what playdoh is for!

I actually did get this idea from somewhere on the web, but for the life of me I can't find where to give proper credit. Please let me know if you've seen this so I can give proper credit!



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Let's celebrate Earth Day!

Pin It Today is Earth Day. Today is a perfect day to think about what you're already doing to help preserve the earth and what more you could be doing. James and I are fairly environmentally conscious but I know there is so much more we can do. It's so important to make these changes so we can protect the planet for our children and future generations. My kids are still too young to really understand what any of that means, but it doesn't mean that we couldn't do something special. We decided to make a handprint earth craft and have a special dessert of dirt and worm cups.

Craft: handprint earth

What you'll need:

paper plates
blue paint
green paint
glitter and glue (optional)

Instructions:

Paint the back of a paper plate blue. Allow to dry. Paint both of your child's hand (palms) with green paint and stamp on blue paper plate. Allow to dry. Then if you're like Kirsten and want a 'sparkly planet' put some glue on your paper plate and sprinkle with glitter/sparkles. Done!

Kirsten's sparkly handprint planet earth (she insisted on the glitter!)



Camden's handprint planet earth




Recipe: Dirt and worm cups

What you'll need:

2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
15 OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
10 gummy worms

Make it:

POUR milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Let stand 5 min.. Gently stir in whipped topping and 1/2 cup of the cookie crumbs.

SPOON into 10 (6- to 7-oz.) paper or plastic cups; top with remaining cookie crumbs.

REFRIGERATE at least 1 hour. Top with gummy worms just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator. Dirt Cups can also be served frozen. Prepare as directed; freeze 3 hours or until firm

Recipe from kraftrecipes.com





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