Panda Cookie!

Dinosaurs and Pandas. While not technically Lunar New Year themed, my kids enjoyed it!  Lunch consists of a PB & J sandwich, pretzels, strawberries and a panda cookie from Sogo Bakery.

Lunar New Year Bento

Gung Hay Fat Choy!  Happy Year of the Dragon!

I tried to make a cute dragon bento for the first school lunch of the New Year.  Unfortunately, it looked more like a hungry caterpillar!  I guess that is what I get for deciding to do a dragon at 11 pm the night before.... Next year, maybe I will plan better.  Or maybe I will wait for an easier zodiac sign.  Dog, rabbit....anyone....

 Anxious Dragon

The kids' lunches are identical.  They consist of a deconstructed "dragon" cheese sandwich, a strawberry, a clementine and a fortune cookie.  Below the red napkin is an applesauce pouch.

Perturbed Dragon

Christmas Bentos

Rudolph cheese sandwich with cheese stars, pretzel antlers and an m&m nose.  Hedgehog sandwich and strawberries.

Candy cane sandwiches made using two kinds of cheese, deli ham, grapes and a little marshmallow snowman. 

Christmas tree cheese and crackers or hawaiian bread.  Teriyaki meatballs, grapes and Christmas Jello jigglers. 

Cars Playmat

My son wanted a play mat like his sister's farm mat.  So, I made him a quick Cars mat.  Sorry for the crappy picture.  Basically, I used this fabric to sew the roll:

Then I added iron-on fabric pictures of radiator springs. My son showed me where to put the road and the Cozy Cone!  His roll contains three pockets. I had to adjust the size of one pocket to accomodate Mater.

Not the most professional job, but not bad for an hour of sewing!

Halloween Bentos and a cute boy

Some cute Halloween themed bento boxes for the kids.

The faces are ham sandwiches.  The tongue is made of ham and the eyes are marshmallows.  Scrabble Cheez-its, grapes and applesauce with chocolate sprinkles.  The boy did not like the "monster face" sandwich.

Easy Jack-o-Lantern sandwiches.  One is cheese, the other is peanut butter.  I used cutters from Williams-Sonoma.  Also included are grapes, pretzels (which look rather skull-like!) and fruit roll-ups.

Mummy Milk Box - I used electrical tape and googly eyes.

The Cutest little Jellyfish EVER!

Costume was made for under $5.  I bought a kids' cowboy hat from the thrift store.  I covered the hat with bubblewrap and some blue tissue paper.  The tenacles are made from strips of bubblewrap, streamers and metallic ribbon. 

A bunch of random bentos

My kids like to have choices when they eat.  They also like cute food.  I like having re-usable containers and packing lunches that produce less waste.  Hence, cute bento boxes.  They aren't super-fancy, but they get the job done!

Doggie Cheese sandwich lunch.

This is our standard lunch, deli meat, cheese, hawaiian roll and fruit.

B week at school. 

My boy got a B lunch too!

C week at school

This must have been a lunch in October.  Note the orange and black sprinkles on the pretzels.

Cars Birthday Party - Serious Labor of Love

My son wanted a Cars themed #3 birthday party.  I was happy to oblige.  I love a theme!   I went a bit overboard, the main culprit being these cardboard race car boxes.

I estimate it took me six hours (in small increments) to make six cars.   I created Lightening McQueen, Sally, Red, Mater, Guido and Luigi.

Below are some photos of the building process.

I then decorated the backyard with cones, a racecar "audience" consisting of cars characters printed out and taped to the house, and race flags.   We also had 're-fueling stations" for drinks.  Guests could drink Rust-eze water, Cars juice boxes, motor oil (iced tea) or old fashioned beer and wine for model-T cars!

Lunch was served in "Flo's Cafe"  We had Dinoco dinosaur nuggets, McQueen's Mac and Cheese, Filmore's Peace Fruit Salad and Prince Wheel-iam's cake!  There was also a tower of mini-chocolate donuts to represent Luigi's tire shop.

In addition to playing outside with the cars, kids could visit Mater's tow shop to play with toy cars or Ramone's detailing shop.  At Ramone's, guests could get Cars tattoos and decorate little wooden cars to take home.

Each guest got a goodie bag with Cars fruit snacks, a hot wheel and some Cars stickers.

Yes, I realize I spelled TOW-Mater incorrectly.  I got distracted, work interfered with my social life, I have no excuse.