valentine lunches

I love making valentines lunches. Oh wait, I just love packing lunches in general. All of these are packed in my EasyLunch Box containers. They make packing lunch SO easy.

 I cut Claire's sandwich into two hearts using a sandwich cutter that I picked up at the grocery store. I added a few pretzels to the top of the sandwiches. I skewered some blueberries on heart (cocktail) skewers. I added a few grapes to a silicone cup and added some heart shaped strawberries.

 I used a penguin cutter to cut Claire's sandwich into penguins. I added a heart sprinkle to each penguin. Using a heart silicone container I gave Claire some blueberries and grapes.

 Claire was asking me to add some sprinkles to her lunch, so I cut off the crusts of her sandwich and used a small heart cookie cutter to cut a heart out of one piece of bread. I made the sandwich using WOWbutter. After I put the sandwich together I added some chocolate sprinkles through the heart piece. I packed some more blueberries in a silicone cup and added in a few chocolate chip cookies for a snack. I also added in an applesauce.

I cut her sandwich in the shape of a heart, as well as the apples :) I used a bit of washi tape to make a little skewer flag for her cup of blueberries.

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

train themed Valentine bookmarks

In years past, I've made a lot of different Valentine bookmarks with them. Last year we did a fruit themed series and the previous year we made some animal themed ones. This year, Simon and I made some train themed ones, after his favorite show, of course!

It can be tricky to find or make Valentines that aren't made of pink and purple hearts and covered with lace  glitter. I tried to incorporate Simon's interests to make these bookmarks. If you watch the Thomas show at all, I hope that you can recognize all of these trains! The ones in the above picture are Charlie, Thomas, James and Percy. The trains below are Gordon, Duncan and Henry.

These are so simple to make. Start by cutting a piece of white paper into 6x2" pieces. Decide what trains you'd like to make and have your child stamp their finger in the paint and then onto the paper. Once all of the colored dots have dried, have your child stamp their pointer finger into some grey paint and then onto the center of the colored dot. Once that paint is dry use a thin black marker to decorate the train's face. Don't forget to add the funnel, buffer (use a red marker) and some wheels. I added a bit of washi tape to the bookmarks because I love it. And have to start using my hoard collection of tape. If you have any questions about the bookmarks leave it in the comments and I will get back to you!

Happy crafting :)

Linked up with: Tatertots and Jello, Six Sisters, Skip to my Lou

footprint Santa & Rudolph

I love Christmas crafting. Surprise! This is one of my favorite crafts because one footprint is Claire's and one is Simon's. I love that the project incorporated both of them on the same paper.

To make the Santa, I paint the heel of Claire's foot cream colour and the rest of her foot red. Then I painted Simon's foot brown and stamped it next to Claire's footprint. Note: When you're doing this try to make sure you line up the toes of the footprints, otherwise you'll end up making stairs for Santa and the reindeer to walk up :) After I stamp their feet on the paper I have a face cloth right next to me to wipe the paint off of their feet. I always use Crayola paints and it wipes right off. We usually head up for a bath shortly after these projects so that I don't have to worry about getting all of the paint out in between their toes.

Once the paint was dry I started to create the reindeer. I used a brown Crayola marker to draw antlers, ears, arms, and a tail. I used a red marker to draw boots and a smile and a blue one to dry a hat. I added some googly eyes and a sequin for the nose, it is supposed to be Rudolph after all. Then I cut up some patterned paper so that Rudolph could carry some presents. Now while I think that the reindeer looks wonderful, Claire (she's 5) feels like he's not authentic. "Mommy, Rudolph doesn't wear boots or a hat and he DOESN'T carry presents. That's Santa's job." So maybe consult your little ones as to whether Rudolph wears boots and a hat :)

For Santa, I used a black marker to drawn Santa's boots, belt and nose. I used a red marker to draw Santa's hat, smile and arm. I drew his mitten and toy bag with green markers. I glued a sequin on Santa's belt and added some googly eyes. Then I ripped apart a cotton ball to make Santa's beard, the fur on the top of the hat and the ball on the end of the hat.

Winter lunches

 I love Christmas time. I'm so excited to be making new winter/Christmas themed lunches. I just wish it wasn't so cold here! My hands still haven't warmed up after dropping Claire off at school.

About a year ago I had picked up this penquin sandwich cutter at Walmart. It's nice because if you're using square bread it just cuts the crusts off, which Claire doesn't care to eat anyway. I skewered a few blueberries, added a clementine and some chocolate goldfish to her lunch. I added a snowflake pick that I bought at the dollar store, of all places.

 I used my Wilton tree cookie cutter to cut out Claire's sandwich. I gave her some grapes, blueberries, and a few M&M's. I also added in a banana for her snack.

 I used a Wilton cupcake topper to make this lunch. I just cut the sandwich into a circle and placed the snowman on top of the sandwich. I skewered a few more blueberries and added a chocolate chip muffin. I also sliced some green and red apples for her snack.

Lastly I gave Claire a snowflake sandwich. I skewered a few grapes on picks that I bought at the dollar store. I gave her some blueberries and an applesauce ( I added a few stickers to the top to make it a bit more festive).

These are all packed in my favorite Easy Lunch Box containers. They make lunch packing so easy. The only hard part is making sure that Claire and her friend Madison have the same colour lid :)

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!)

Halloween lunches part 4

 I'm almost done making Halloween lunches and it's a good thing as I'm just about out of ideas :) I can't wait to start making Christmas/winter ones!

 I'd seen this idea on Pinterest, but I have no idea who thought of it first. To make this one I had to keep the fake teeth wedged in my spice rack for a few days so that they didn't burst out of the sandwich. When I made the sandwich, I just cut a hole in the sandwich and placed the teeth in the hole. I added some grapes, strawberries and apples to Claire's lunch.

 This was my attempt at a skull sandwich. Sometimes these things turn out so much better in my head than in actual execution. I used a piece of a fruit chew for his mouth and marshmallow eyes. I skewered some grapes, added in some blueberries (and my ghost cut out of a milk carton), and a chocolate chip cookie.

 I decorated a yogurt drink again for Claire's snack. We had made pizza for supper the night before and I rolled out the extra dough, cut out some pumpkins and baked them. I included those in Claire's lunch with some shredded cheese and peperoni. She also had some clementines, grapes, and a few smarties.

I think that this lunch was Claire's favorite one. I included a gingerbread waffle and a little bit of syrup for her to dip them in. I skewered a few grapes, and added in a few blueberries and strawberries.

thumbprint witch

So a couple of years ago Claire and I made the footprint witch craft. This year we made a thumbprint witch.

What you need:
Card stock- I used white card stock cut into 3x4 inches (hello project life insert cards)
Cream and white coloured paint
Markers
Googly eyes (optional)

Have your child stamp their thumbprints on the card stock, one on top of the other one. See picture below.

Once the paint is dry, you can start to decorate it. I started by drawing the broom. Then I used the black marker to draw the witch's arms, legs, and hat. I added some stars and hair using yellow marker. I used a fine tip marker to draw the smile and nose. I finished it off with some googly eyes. There you have it. An adorable Halloween card or a super cute Halloween project life insert :)