Easter lunches

My kids are getting so excited for Easter. At six years old I'm surprised that Claire has already figured out that I'm the Easter Bunny, but she still expects a little egg hunt this year! I've made a few Easter lunches for Claire which she has really been enjoying.

I made a Wowbutter sandwich on some oatmeal brown bread that I made. I added an Easter sticker to the top of her applesauce, a bunny ring to her container of grapes and some Annie's bunny crackers for a snack.

I picked up this new bunny cutter this year at Target (love that Target's in Canada now!) complete with a bunny tail. I added in a few grapes and bunny pick, some sugar cookies we made and a green apple.

More Wowbutter sandwiches cut into small flowers. An apple, some blueberries and a few chocolate Easter eggs in a pink plastic egg.

 This was her favorite lunch! The plastic eggs were filled with strawberries, blueberries, grapes and Annie's crackers. I cut her sandwich into small pieces and added them in the smaller compartments. I put a few chocolate eggs in there as well.

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make the bunny sandwich. Grapes, blueberries and strawberries were added to the lunch as well. I took the label off her Yop and drew a little bunny face on it. Drawing's not really my strong point :)

These lunches, along with all of my other ones, are packed in the fabulous EasyLunch Box containers that we love.

reindeer sandwiches 4 ways

 I, much like both of my kids, am so excited for Christmas. I've started packing Christmas lunches already (you know, since we celebrate Thanksgiving in October). Last week was my first week making Christmas lunches, and I decided to start with Reindeer ones :)

 For my first one, I used a gingerbread cookie cutter and turned it upside down to make a reindeer. (Thanks for the idea, Martha!) I melted a few chocolate chips and piped the antlers right onto the sandwich. Then I
made my usual marshmallow cut in half with a chocolate chip for the eyes and a red smartie for the nose. I also packed some gingerbread muffins a clementine, and an applesauce (not pictured, obviously.)

 I used the same techniques on this one, I just used a star cookie cutter. I also included a clementine (my kids can't get enough of these), some red and green grapes and some red jello that I made right in the container.

 This one was so simple, it might be my favorite one! I used a large circle cookie cutter to cut out the sandwich. I used pretzel letter E's for the antlers. I cut up some strawberries and sent Claire with another clementine and an applesauce.

 I love this reindeer pick. It was from a pack of cupcakes that I picked up last Christmas season.

 I used a heart cookie cutter and turned it upside down as well. I packed some red and green goldfish crackers, some grapes and a few marshmallows for a treat (it was Friday after all!)

fall & halloween lunches

Claire just started school this year and she is loving it. She's in French immersion and it's amazing how quickly she's picking up the language. Because we live so close to the school, I get to drop her off and pick her up every day, which means I get to see my friends everyday!

Just before Claire started school, I announced on facebook how excited I was to start packing school lunches. This caused outrage, as apparently, this in not common among my friends. I don't dare announce that I still love doing it a month into it.

For the month of October, I decided to do a month of fall & halloween themed lunches. To be honest, I'm sure Claire doesn't care what the lunches look like, but it makes it more fun for me when I set challenges like this. I am using EasyLunchboxes, which I just love. Everything that I send for Claire fits in this one container. It just makes it so easy! (This is not a sponsored post. EasyLunchboxes don't know who I am, I just love their product.)

This lunch was a Wow butter sandwich (no peanut products allowed in our school), some sliced apples, pumpkin mini donuts, and an organic cereal bar for her snack. I used my Wilton leaf cookie cutter to cut the sandwich.

When I actually include an ice pack in Claire's lunch, I like to make it count. So this lunch had some star shaped, ham sandwiches, a vanilla yogurt drink, carrots and ranch dip, and some crackers.

For some reason, Claire is obsessed with these packages of applesauce. I think that she saw someone else have them at school. Probably because she can eat them so quickly and then spend the rest of her time playing. This was a sandwich cut into the shape of a pumpkin, a clementine, some chocolate goldfish crackers and an applesauce.





For this lunch I cut the sandwich into a circle. Then I used a Wilton cupcake topper for decoration on top of the sandwich. I skewered a few grapes onto the skeleton picks that I found at Target. I packed a clementine, and some oatmeal spice muffins for her snack.

Linked up with: Tatertots and Jello, Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons, Six Sisters, Skip to my Lou

sandwich kabobs

Gah! I can't believe that it's almost time for Claire to start school. I'm trying to squeeze in as man fun things with her before school starts. Yesterday was a rainy day, but the kids were pretty excited to sit down and eat this back to school lunch.

I used these school bus print outs for a little back to school party that I hosted for Claire and a few of her friends. They are so cute. You can buy them here. They only took about 10 minutes to cut out and put the two buses together. I had cut a small piece of floral foam to fit in the bottom of the bus (for the party) and thought that I would use these again to make a lunch for the kids.

I skewered a few grapes and strawberries for Claire and Simon. I cut out a few hearts out of some brownies that I had a baked a few days ago and put those on a skewer above a strawberry. I also cut some hearts out of cheese, which would have been just as cute cut into cubes. I cut the sandwich into stars, but again, cutting it into 9 little squares would have had the same effect. You see, all food tastes better when you eat it off a stick!

Easter egg lunch

I hosted a little Easter lunch this week for Claire and Simon. I invited one of my good friends whose kids are the same age as my kids. I love planning parties, and waiting from Claire's birthday in February and Simon's birthday in May is way to long not to plan a fun get together for the kids. 

I of course did not come up with this idea of putting food in Easter eggs, but I think that it's brilliant. The kids LOVED their Easter egg lunch. The great part is that you can use whatever you have on hand. I stuffed mine with blueberries, strawberries, grapes, clementines, cheese, and small bits of sandwiches.

 See! He loved it. First thing that Simon did was open every egg and try to see how many had clementines in them.

I also included a joke with each egg lunch for the kids. I used the jokes found here at I Heart Naptime.

 Since I knew that I would need to keep the kids entertained while Sylvia and I made the lunches, I printed out quite a few colouring and activity sheets for the kids to do. My kids love colouring, so this did keep them occupied for quite a while. I used colouring sheets from Style Me Gorgeous and Disney Spoonful. I also had some Easter stickers on hand for when colouring alone got a little boring for them. 

 I covered my tea party table with kraft paper, and added a little washi tape to add some colour. Check out Jillian's post and see the sweet Easter party that she did for her kids. 

 Sylvia made these Easter basket cupcakes for the kids after lunch. She used chocolate chip cookie dough that she pressed into a mini muffin tin. Then she put some icing on top of them, followed that by some shredded coconut. She topped the baskets with a few eggs (jelly beans) and then made basket handles from pipe cleaners.

 Lastly, I printed this banner from Sandy Toes and Popsicles last year, and hung it up again for our lunch this year.

The kids had a great time at the lunch. It was so cute to see how each child had their own approach to opening and eating their eggs.

Who else has super excited children, just waiting for the Easter Bunny to come?

flower sandwich

I can't believe how quickly Easter is approaching! While I prepare a few posts on some of the Easter crafts that we've been making, I thought that I would share this easy spring, flower sandwich with you.

Recently I was shopping at our local dollar store, when I came across a set of nesting flower shaped cookie cutters. I was so excited, they immediately went into my shopping basket (along with the nesting square ones!)

This sandwich was so easy to make. I made Claire a ham sandwich (her favorite) and then I picked out the three smallest flower cookie cutters. I was able to cut out these three shapes (plus one more small flower) from a regular size sandwich. Just for fun, I added a few piece of washi tape to the top of a toothpick, as well as a bit of tape to the plate. It just makes everything prettier. Like closets.

Now if only Mother Nature would cooperate with us and give us a little spring weather here. It has been snowing all week. We are ready to see the sun (and the grass again)! What's the weather like where you live? Warmer? I'm jealous.

rainbow lunch

How about a rainbow of fruit for a St. Patrick's day lunch? I'm always looking for ways to make the holidays extra special for the kids, and making a few cute lunches is something that they really enjoy. They don't take that much extra time to prepare, and the kids usually sit down and eat the whole thing. This rainbow of fruit was so easy to make, and obviously you can use whatever fruits you have on hand.

I made a ham sandwich for Claire, and cut the two shamrocks out of the one sandwich.

After the kids were done eating their fruit, they got the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which was a bowl of jello. They didn't waste any time eating the jello!

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op& Tatertots and Jello 

Valentine's Day lunch

This was a quick little lunch that I made for the kids the other day. Naturally, the kids started with the chocolates. Wouldn't you?

I used my pancake mold to cut their sandwiches into hearts. I filled a heart shaped silicone cup with blueberries, which just happen to be my kids favorite berry.

I had planned on making a countdown to Valentine's day calendar for the kids, but that didn't end up happening. So, I used the chocolate kisses and stuck some stickers on the bottom of them and added them to the kids lunches. I got these stickers from the It's Written on the Wall facebook page.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day. I'm off, and can't wait to enjoy the day with my kids!

valentine jello cubes

Who doesn't love jello? My kids get so excited when they see a bowl of jello in the fridge (it's usually been poked a few times to see if it has set yet.) I've never made jello jigglers before, but they were so easy to make!

While the kids were eating breakfast, I boiled the water. I used two packs of jello (4 serving size) and mixed the jello packs with 1 1/3 cups of water. Once it was all mixed together, I poured it into a glass loaf pan. Jello jiggers don't take as much time to set as regular jello. Somehow this batch of jello evaded any poking!

When it was time to eat the jello, I ran a knife along the edges of the pan to loosen it up a bit. Then I put a bit of hot water in the sink and sat the loaf pan in the water to help loosen the jello from the bottom of the pan. I did end up using a spatula to help the jello come out of the pan smoothly. I just put the block of jello on a cutting board and cut it into squares for the kids.

The result? They loved it. Obviously. I mean, jello that you can eat with your hands, is a clear win.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op& One Artsy Mama  & Tatertots and Jello 

groundhog day sandwich

It's almost groundhog day, and Claire and I have been busy working on some writing activities related to groundhog day. This was a last minute lunch that I made for the kids today (clearly, as it would have been more groundhoggy if it had been made from whole wheat bread.)

To start, I melted a few tablespoons of chocolate chips in a bowl, on intervals, in the microwave. Once melted, I poured the chocolate in a small ziploc bag, and then I piped a few little hearts, and small ears onto a piece of wax paper. I popped the wax paper in the freezer while I finished making the sandwiches.

I made the sandwiches, and cut them out with a heart pancake mold (my biggest heart shaped cutter.) I cut a small marshmallow in half and placed mini chocolate chips on them to make the eyes. I cut another marshmallow in half to make the teeth. Then, I took my chocolate out of the freezer and carefully pulled the shapes off of the parchment paper. I assembled the sandwiches, and then added a few strawberries to the plate.

Side note: Claire informed me that she does not like strawberries shaped like hearts, she only like strawberries cut in half. She did end up eating them though!

So what do you think, will the groundhog see his shadow? I sure hope not. It's freezing here, and I'm ready for an early spring!

Reindeer sandwich

My kids loved this lunch! Leave it to Martha to think that you could turn a gingerbread man cookie cutter upside down and make it look like a reindeer. Take a few extra minutes to make this lunch, and really get your kids excited for Christmas.

To make:

Melt a few tablespoons of chocolate chips in the microwave, on 20 second intervals, until the whole dish of chocolate is melted. Pour the chocolate into a small plastic bag, and cut the corner of the bag. On a piece of wax paper, pipe some small antlers. Place the wax paper in the freezer while you make the rest of the sandwich.

I made a ham sandwich for Claire. To make the eyes, I cut a mini marshmallow in half, and stuck a mini chocolate chip on each marshmallow. I placed a red smartie on the tip of the sandwich for the nose. Take the wax paper out of the freezer, and carefully peel off the antlers, and place on the sandwich.

That's it! I hope that your kids enjoy it as much as mine did.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello  & Rust & Sunshine

Rudolph sandwich

I love making these cute lunches for my kids. They don't even think twice about eating them. They hardly take any extra time to make, this one took just over 5 minuets. That's it!

What you'll need:
bread (I used whole wheat and white bread)
1 mini marshmallow
2 mini chocolate chips
1 red smartie/m&m
heart cookie cutter (could use a large circle one)
small circle cookie cutter

We always have a million loaves of bread here, so I used a whole wheat bread for the big part of the sandwich, and white bread for the nose. Use what you have on hand. As you can see from the picture above, I used two slices of whole wheat bread and made a (peanut butter and jam) sandwich, and just one piece of bread folded over to make another peanut butter and jam sandwich.

Use the large heart cookie cutter to cut the large sandwich. Use the smaller circle cookie cutter to cut a circle from the small, folded over sandwich. Cut the marshmallow in half, and stick a mini chocolate chip on each sticky part of the marshmallow. Use the leftover crusts to form the antlers. Then it's time to put it all together. Place the heart on the plate, upside down. Add the antlers to the heart. Place the small circle on top of the heart sandwich to make the nose. Add the red smartie on top of the small circle sandwich. Add the eyes above the nose.That's it! It took me longer to write this blog post than to make this adorable lunch.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

sailboat sandwich

My kids loved this lunch. I think the sea and the sun were their favorite parts. (My kids loved shredded cheese.) It was an easy sandwich to make if you're making sandwiches for two kids, or want a fun sandwich yourself. I made two (peanut butter) sandwiches. I cut the crusts off of one of them, then I cut it into triangles. I used a large circle cutter to cut out the other sandwich. 

Then have fun putting it together. I made a sea of blueberries, with a few gold fish in the sea (we didn't have any of the cheese ones.) Arrange the boat how ever you like it. I used a straw for the mast, but you could use a piece of crust if you don't have any straws. I added a few mini chocolate chips to make the little window ports on the boat. I cut out a piece of cheese using my smallest circle cutter. Then I shredded a bit of cheese to create the sun's rays.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

fun Easter lunches: part 2

 Claire enjoyed the last lunches that I made for her so much, that I decided to try making a few more for her. She loved the butterfly lunch. I made a ham and cheese sandwich and then used a heart cookie cutter to cut out four hearts. Since I've recently discovered that Claire loves eating raw carrots with ranch dip, I served this lunch with carrot sticks. I used one stick for the middle of the butterfly. To make the antennas, I ran the carrot peeler down the edge of a carrot stick. Then I cut it in half to make the two antennas. The eyes are marshmallows cut in half with chocolate chip eyes (her favorite part of lunch). I used my small flower cookie cutters to cut the cheese, and then added carrot stick stems.

 

Claire liked her bunny sandwich so much that I decided to redo it in pancake form. This was so simple to make too! I just made two regular circle pancakes, and then cut them with my heart cookie cutter once they were cooked. I cut one of the hearts in half for the ears. I used marshmallows for the eyes, and teeth. I used a pink M&M for the nose. I did use the syrup do draw a smile, but it's hard to see in the pic. That doesn't really matter though, as soon as she sat down to eat she requested there be more syrup anyway!

Don't remember the first set of lunches I made? Check them out here.

Linking up with: Rust & Sunshine & Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello

fun Easter sandwiches

I am so excited that spring it finally on its way. I have been enjoying the bits of warmer weather here, and I'm ready for all of the snow to be gone until next winter! I decided to try making some fun lunches for my kids, after being inspired by the ones that Jill's makes on her blog. I just love the fun lunches that she creates for her kids.

The chick was so easy to make. It's based on one of my crafts from last year. I just used a circle cookie cutter to cut out the sandwich. I cut a marshmallow in half and stuck a chocolate chip to it to make the eyes. I cut small sticks of cheese for the legs, and made a little triangle cheese nose. I used my mini flower cookie cutter to cut a piece of bread and ham for the comb-y thing on top of the chickens head.

 I actually thought of this bunny sandwich around Valentines Day, when I created my puppy dog valentines. I used a heart cookie cutter to cut two hearts out of the sandwich. To make the ears, I just cut one of the hearts in half. I cut a piece of ham to go on top of the bunny ears. Once again, I cut a marshmallow in half and stuck a chocolate chip to it to make the eyes. I cut triangle out of cheese for the nose, and used a few chocolate sprinkles for the whiskers. That's it. These sandwiches only took a little bit longer to make and Claire loved them. I can't wait to think of some more fun lunches to make for her!

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Linking up with:  Six Sister's Stuff & Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Tatertots and Jello