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.

Farm Play Mat

I wanted to make a travel play mat for my daughter.  She loves animals, so I created this farm play mat.   Sorry, there is no pattern.  I free-handed he actual roll using leftover fabrics from her baby quilt and a piece of Baby Gap ribbon.  The farm scene is free-handed from felt pieces that I glued on using liquid stitch. I really wanted to keep the sewing to a minimum!  The roll has three pockets to store her small plastic farm animals. The barn opens up to reveal a chicken, a stall and some carrots.

A day of baking!

I took the day off work and spent eight hours in the kitchen, kid-free!   I whipped up a double batch of King Arthur Flour Morning Glory muffins,  Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread and Jamie Oliver's Fantastic Fish pie.   What a great, productive day.  It made me happy to bake again.  

Christmas Lunches

Couple of cute holiday meals for the kids. Note the fancy, vintage plates! The gold trim plate is 1900's pre-war Germany.  The fish plate dates from the 1950's.   Yes, I let my kids eat off these plates. You cannot enjoy stuff you don't use!  

Halloween Lunch

Ok, not the best photo, but it is the only one I have. This is a little lunch I made for the kids to celebrate Halloween. Cheese on toast (cut out free-hand!) and some Scrabble Cheez-its!