Thursday September 30th

Whew! Been busy all day today! I helped out at school again today they needed extra help so I ended up staying there an extra hour and a half and man was that exhausting!!! The kiddos are doing some homework with dad, my little guy just went down for his nap so I finally have a few minutes to myself.  Oh and I also got a new egg mold for the kiddos lunches that I will have to try out tomorrow. And now onto the kiddos lunches...

Alaysia's lunch has some homemade pot-stickers (Kiddos and I made a bunch and keep them stashed in the freezer) some dipping sauce and a mini chocolate, kiwi flowers, a strawberry, baby carrots and some butterfly cucumbers.

Z's is a lot simpler just a few pot-stickers, halved strawberries, cucumber, pretzels and a mini chocolate. He wasn't in the mood for anything else:(... I think he may be getting sick because he is ALWAYS hungry. 

And this is what they look like all stacked up! Aren't they cute?!?!

Wednesday September 29th

Well again another rushed morning. I had an early doctors appointment so I didn't have any time to eat breakfast so I ended up making a little snack for myself! It's a good thing that even packing an extra lunch doesn't take any time at all. So here's what my kiddos are having for lunch...

This is Alaysia's lunch. Starting up at the top ketchup for the chicken patty, a few tiny cherry tomatoes from the garden, half of a banana muffin, strawberry chuncks, baby carrots, and half of a mini apple from grandpa's tree.

Z has the same thing except for the cherry tomatoes.

This is what their boxes look like when they're all closed up...I absolutely love these they are soo cute!

And this was my breakfast a few strawberries and half a sliced banana over a scoop of cottage cheese. Mmmm...

Tuesday September 28th

  Tuesday again, I get to go to school with the kiddos and volunteer, another busy morning so I prepared the night before just a little. The kiddos and I were busy baking last night even though it was VERY hot in my house. We had tacos for dinner so I saved a few spoonfuls of meat to make our taco cornbread muffins. We also had a few squishy bananas so we made some jumbo banana muffins. I did all of this in my little toaster oven which I absolutely love, love, love!! They got to have half of a giant muffing for breakfast along with some scrambled eggs, and I packed one of the taco muffins for their lunch:

This is Alaysia's lunch she has baby carrots, ham kabobs on tropical looking picks, mandarin oranges, kiwi flowers, grapes, and of course the taco muffin with a butterfly to keep with the flower tropical theme=)

And this is Z's suer lunch with, grapes, ham kabobs on his Mario pick, baby carrots underneath, mandarin oranges, and the taco muffin topped with a "life" mushroom!! He's gonna love this=)

Monday September 27th

Well today I am posting for Monday and Tuesday:) I was very busy but still wanted to share the picture from yesterday. The kids insisted on sandwiches:/(nothing against them I just don't like them) so thats what they had:

Alaysia has a heart, and Z has a star ham and cheese sandwich. yogurt with fresh raspberries, grapes, peanut butter filled pretzels, banana chips, Alaysia had cherry tomatoes and Z had baby carrots.  

Friday September 24th

  Yesterday when I was volunteering for my son's school some of the yard duties were telling me "Wow you have so much patience" and "Oh I bet that takes all morning...I'd never have time to do that". So this morning I thought I might share with you how I keep myself organized.
  It really isn't much harder than the regular old sandwich style lunch. Yes, it may be a little more time consuming to make a warm lunch but aren't you or your kiddos worth the little extra effort? I also like to pack little bits of leftovers in their lunches to same me some time. As we clean up after dinner I am always thinking about what I can reuse so I set small portions aside in tiny Tupperware. It may be a scoop of rice, a few meatballs and a spoonful of marinara. Slices of roasted chicken, or even steamed broccoli. All of this combined with a few pieces of fresh fruit and veggies make the perfect lunch. I alway have these on hand chopped up and ready to go. I also have canned fruit for those days when the produce doesn't look too good or I just don't feel like shopping. Here's a picture of what I have on hand in my fridge now:

Bananas, canned pineapple, canned mandarin oranges, cucumber,cherry tomatoes, chopped watermelon, fresh raspberries and figs, kiwi, grapes in a strawberry container, and strawberries

It also helps to have all of your boxes and accessories organized too. I set aside two drawers in my kitchen just for this. One for the boxes and one for their accessories like picks and cupcake liners:

This is my accessory drawer, as you can see I just used some old strawberry baskets nothing fancy:)
In here from top left to right I have assorted cookie cutters for sandwiches or quesadillas, etc., colorful pick, silicone cupcake holders, small fork style picks, paper cupcake liners and heart shaped silicone hearts, some round silicone liners, 3 xtra small storage containers on the edge, mini shot glass style green cups, mini shaped silicone holders, tiny shaped cutters, tiny condiment bottles and cups, and finally at the very top I have their  special picks and food color pens! Whew!!

In this fuzzy picture:) I have a bunch of the kiddos lunch boxes ready to go. I also helps if you put them away with their lids so that you can find everything you need.

  Well I hope this helps someone out a little! With the right preparation it really is not hard to do at all, and here's the picture of What my kiddos had in their lunch box today...

Both kiddos had the same lunch but Z's on top has cucumber slices with one lone giraffe, Fresh figs (from grandpa's tree) strawberry yogurt with sprinkles, some watermelon, and a ham and cheese frittata.

Thursday September 23rd

Today was just one of those madness kind of days. I had to get up extra early to work out, get the kiddos all cute and dressed up for school's picture day, get myself all cleaned up after working out  to help with with my son's kindergarten classs, make the kids their breakfast (including baby Ezra)and make lunch all before 7:45. Whew...but I managed to get it all done! And here's what I made:


So today we have half of a PB&J sandwich cut into quarters, cheese chickie crackers, baby carrots, a ham and turkey kabob, a couple raspberries, and finally some fresh chopped strawberries for Z and kiwi for Alaysia. I really don't understand why Z hates kiwi but oh well maybe next time!

Wednesday September 22nd

With my refrigerator nice and full of fresh fruits and veggies I was able to make this lunch a lot quicker. It is easy to have a unique and healthy lunch when you only need to include a few bites of something, and even better when those few bites are of something hearty and healthy.

So here we have half of a turkey sandwich decorated with a few shapes of cheese, some cauliflower, pineapple chunks, and a few raspberries I added to kind of hold everything together.

Tuesday September 21st

Today is my first day to volunteer for Z's kindergarten class! I am very excited since I didn't get to help with Alaysia. So this morning I had no food and no idea what I was going to make them! All I had was four pineapple chunks, a few mandarin oranges and half of a banana for fruit and two slices of ham. So with some creative thinking I decided to try something new, and I am very pleased to say that this turned out extremely well! 

I decided to make some mini ham and pineapple pizzas on an english muffin, mandarin oranges, chocolate pudding with bananas, and carrots sticks(this was even my last carrot too!)

Monday September 20th

Today I decided to use a real camera lol... It was a fun morning I had the kids helped me out with their lunches while we waited for our waffles to cook.

This is Z's lunch with animal shaped watermelon, and Alaysia's with hearts of course!

Watermelon shapes, steamed cauliflower, peanut butter filled pretzels and raisins, and octopus wieners with some ketchup for dipping.

These are some more recent pics...

Mini turkey wrap, grapes, chickie crackers, orange, and cucumber with a tiny bit of salt in the cute little bottles



Alaysia has tuna salad, pineapple, crackers, honeydew, and a homemade oatmeal cookie. Z got the same thing except he HATES tuna so he got elephant shaped cheese and turkey instead.

They both have mini meatballs with ketchup, cute mini cinnamon roll, carrot sticks, chocolate pudding with sprinkles, mandarin orange, and a few grapes.

Past lunches:

These are a few of my lunches that I made for my kiddos, sorry a few are dark because I used my camera phone:

 Homemade turkey pot-stickers, apple slices, baby carrots and cucumber, a little ranch and some mini cookies

This was chicken taquitos, pineapple chunks, cherry tomatoes, a homemade chocolate cookie, and a side of yogurt.

Ham and turkey wrap, grape kabobs, cucumber and some honey dew.

This day they both had some homemade meatballs with ketchup, green beans, strawberry, pineapple, and a few cheese ritz.

Alyasia's sandwich, baby carrots and edamame, grape kabobs and some mixed melon salad.

Sorry this is a terrible picture:) But anyways...they had mac n' cheese, steamed broccoli + cauliflower, pineapple and a homemade "corn dog muffin". Alaysia's also had some fresh strawberries.

Ham and cheese frittata, cucumber, baby carrots, grapes with mandarin orange, plum, and banana chips....yummy!!

Alaysia's has octopus wieners:), kiwi flowers, carrots and tomatoes, pb&j sandwich, and ranch. Z doesn't like kiwi or tomatoes so he got plums.

Chicken patty, green beans, honeydew melon shapes, mini cookies, and ketchup. Alaysia also got some grapes!