Bento Lunch & Hide-n-Seek Jar

I was in a mood today (industrious maybe? which is rare) and decided to make a quick bento lunch for Laural today. Micah was already in bed because some days he just gets too fussy and refuses to stay up for lunch which bugs me since the boy eats like a bird as it is! Anyhow, I decided to use Laural's princess sandwich box today.

She had a sliced red pepper, cheese stick cut in two, chicken nuggets, apple wedges and different colors of lettuce as baran. She was rather excited to be using her princess lunch box. I also have a small drink jug that matches but I didn't get a pic of that today.

One of our activities today was to use our Halloween hide-n-seek jar. I got the idea from Chasing Cheerios. I have seen similar things in the store for a hefty price and loved the idea but never even considered making something like it ourselves. So, inspired by Chasing Cheerios, I gathered stuff from around our house and I bought a few things too.

I arranged everything on a tray and took a picture which I printed out and laminated. The kids toss a button or small stone on the picture and whatever it lands on, they have to look for in the jar.

I used a Prego Spaghetti sauce jar and filled it with the Halloween theme goodies and black beans. I also threw a couple things in the jar that weren't on the photo as a surprise. Laural enjoyed it more than Micah but I think he was more hungry than anything else at the time I showed it to him. We will try it again tomorrow.

Micah is currently fascinated with pumpkins - how can he not be as they are everywhere this time of year - so the first thing he noticed was the pumpkin in the jar and had to point it out over and over. Then he pointed to the pumpkins I have in the middle of our table as a centerpiece and the big one sitting by the fridge that will be carved sometime tomorrow and made sure that I knew that those were pumpkins too. The boy loves his pumpkins!



Halloween Bento

I decided to make a quickie Halloween bento for Laural today while Micah was napping. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera died, so I had to use my phone which takes perfectly fine pics if there is plenty of light. It was, however, a very overcast day here in not-so-sunny western PA, so my pic is a little blurry.

She had: slimy worms, mummies with bloody feet, a jack-o-lantern and spider eggs in white goo.

Also known as green beans with butter, hot dogs wrapped in croissant strips with ketchup to dip in, half an orange with fruit roll features and vanilla yogurt with orange and yellow nonpareils. It was a big hit and she ate every last morsel. Mommy just had the leftover bits and pieces.

Slime Time!

I decided to make some good old fashioned slime to play with today. Ah, it takes me back to the days of my youth when kids would bring in a small tub of the stuff and distract class with it, driving the teacher to confiscate the goo until the end of the year. In our house though, slime is part of school, not something for the teacher to get upset over. It's actually pretty awesome to see what happens when 2 liquids are introduced to each other - a nice and simple science lesson for a 5 year old. It's super easy to make too.

Laural was afraid to touch it at first but then she had a ball with it - especially after she realized she could make "rude sounds" with it. We liked to set it up in various shapes and then watch it melt down and ooze back to a shapeless blob.

Slime is awesome!

One of the last things we did with it before putting it away was roll it into a long snake and then I draped it over my hands and we watched as the ends stretched lower and lower. Each time the ends reached the table, I'f lift the slime higher until we must have had at least a 6 foot long slime snake. At that point it broke and landed on the table in a messy pile. I can't decide whether it looked like a long worm or a pile of intestines. Either way, it looked kinda creepy - perfect for Halloween!

To make slime you need:

1 tsp borax

1 1/2 cups water

4oz of white glue

food coloring

Dissolve the borax into 1 cup of water, set aside. Pour glue into a bowl. Add 1/2 cup water and mix well. Add desired food coloring and mix. Pour the borax water in and watch it become slime. Mix it up with your hands. At first it will be really slimy and gross. Then as you mix it up you will have 2 seperate things - slime and liquid. Remove the slime and discard the liquid. Knead the slime a little and it will become one nice, smooth wad of slime. Then, have some fun!

Muffin Tin Meal - Halloween Edition

The current theme over at Muffin Tin Mom is Halloween and I've been looking forward to this one! There are just so many fun things you can do with a Halloween theme. Here is what we came up with:

Top: Jack-o-Lanterns filled with Red Eyeballs (oranges with grapes inside), Owl S'mores, Witches Brew (green smoothie)

Bottom: Severed Fingers (string cheese with almond slices), Candy Corn Pizza, Monster Mouths (apples with almond slices)

Laural loved every bit of it. She kept telling me that she didn't know what to go for first.

Micah really only was interested in eating the chocolate and candy corn off the owl. He was fascinated with everything and loved pointing it all out to me, but he refused to eat anything else. Even the pizza which he normally loves. I guess it didn't quite look right to him.

Aren't these Jack-O-Lantern oranges too cute? I forget where I first saw them - one of the blogs I peep in on or the Family Fun magazine website.

String Cheese Fingers are so creepy! I really liked these. You can see that I cut lines in for the knuckles in this pic. I think I got this one from Our Best Bites.

Monster Mouths are fun and easy. I saw versions of these in several places - some used marshmallows, some used almond slivers and some gave them eyes. I like how they look with the almond slices.

I saw these cuties at Living Locurto. I made mine with strawberry marshmallows (that's all I had), chocolate candy melts since aI had those on hand and little bits of white gum paste with a candy corn for a beak. Love 'em!

Candy Corn Pizza! Ok, it only looks like candy corn - no candy in this pizza. It's a simple cheese pizza - mozzarella in the middle and cheddar around the edge. I saw this somewhere a long time ago but forgot about it until seeing it on Our Best Bites again a few days ago. I sometimes wish I had cuter plates to put things on, but honestly, I don't have the space or the money to go out and buy a variety of plates and dishes for every holiday so my good old flowery Corning Wear will have to do!

I've decided to start doing our muffin tin meals whenever I feel like it rather than only on Monday. I actually intended to start this a long while ago, but I'm a procrastinator in everything that I do. I'll still try to participate in the themes and post to Muffin Tin Mom Blog but getting them done on Monday is just too much of a rush for me since our weekends tend to be so busy.

Don't forget to go on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what is being served in tins around the world!



Halloween Sensory Tub

I decided to retire the fall/apple theme tub and put a Halloween sensory tub together today. Both kiddos were hovering as I added the elements. Both kiddos were dying to get their hands into the tub! I think it was nearly torture for them to have to wait until I took the picture.

Our tub contains: 4 pounds of black beans, various plastic spiders, bugs, & lizards, a wood scoop, 3 wood bowls, a jack-o-lantern container, green & purple pasta and a green plastic spoon. I removed the large pumpkin and replaced it with a cute pumpkin basket (yard sale find) just after I took the picture.

To say that the kids really enjoyed this tub would be a serious understatement. I think this one will remain popular as long as it is in use. I think there might even be a revolt if I try to replace it after Halloween is over. I think I will have to make the new one under cover of night. I think I'd better include something similar to beans in it as well.

Menu Plan Monday

Here I am, taking another stab at trying to keep up my menu planning! This is what's on the menu at our house this week:

Monday:
Breakfast: Muffins & Fruit
Lunch: Muffin Tin Monday - Pumpkin Theme
Dinner: Pork Chops, Roasted Potatoes, Carrots

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Pancakes, Smoothies
Lunch: Out at a Memorial Luncheon
Dinner: Soft Tacos with Lettuce, Avocado, Sour Cream & Beans

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits with Homemade Granola
Lunch: Fish Fillets, Potato Skins
Dinner: Pork Roast, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Beans

Thursday:
Breakfast: French Toast, Sausage, Fruit Smoothies
Lunch: Egg Salad/Boiled Eggs, Toast, Broccoli & Carrots
Dinner: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Peas
 
Friday:
Breakfast: Cheese Omelets, Bacon, Toast, Orange Juice
Lunch: Mini Burgers on Bun, Baked Fries, Carrots & Celery
Dinner: Probably will have dinner out with family for Brother-In-Law's Birthday
 
Saturday:
Breakfast: Homemade Breakfast Bars, Smoothies
Lunch: Ham, Cheese & Spinach Pinwheels, Snap Peas
Dinner: Baked Salmon, Zucchini Rice Casserole, Beets
 
Sunday:
Breakfast: Cereal, Milk, Banana
Lunch: Mini Pizzas
Dinner: Sweet & Sour Chicken, Rice, Broccoli

Muffin Tin Monday - Pumpkin Theme

I think today's theme was pumpkins, but I only half checked last night before bed. Usually I plan a little better for our muffin tin meals but with my dad's surgery this past week and all the other stuff that's been going on, I just didn't get to it this week. So, here is what we had:

Top: Grapes; Spinach, Green Pepper & Cukecumber Salad; Green Smoothie

Bottom: 2 Cheese Tortilla Pumpkins with Green Pepper Stems, Vanilla Yogurt with Pumpkin Sprinkles

Also in the pictures are the pumpkins that the kids each decorated at the Fall Fest in Grove City this past weekend.

Laural, as usual, ate everything and then some while Micah ate only the yogurt. He snagged some bread and butter at my parent's house while we were there dropping lunch off to my dad, so he wasn't all that hungry. I was really hoping that he would enjoy the green smoothies, but he isn't too happy with them. They're plenty sweet but I think it has just too strange of a texture for him. Laural loves them though!

In case anybody would like to try a green smoothie, here is my recipe:

GREEN SMOOTHIE

1 small banana, broken into chunks

3 or 4 large strawberries, hulled & halved

1/2 cup of grapes

A big handful of spinach leaves (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Put into a blender (I use a Magic Bullet) and blend until smooth.

This makes about 2 1/2 cups of smoothie.

It's an awesome way to get some extra veggies into a picky kids diet - unless they are the pickiest child on earth, like Micah.

Don't forget to check out Muffin Tin Mom for more muffin tin meal fun!

Muffin Tin Monday - Circus Theme

It's Monday which means time for a meal in a muffin tin! This week's theme is circus. I looked at last year's tin and decided to do a lot of the same thing since I'm sure the kids really don't remember it all that much.

Top: Strawberry Marshmallow base with Pretzels and Carrot & Grape "Balloons", Cheese and Raisin Confetti, Popcorn

Bottom: Circus Animals Performing in the 1st Ring (peanut butter with an icing ring), Apple Clown, Confetti Yogurt

The kids both thought this was great! As usual, Laural ate everything and Micah picked a few things that he was willing to eat - the yogurt, popcorn, pretzels, and some of the cheese, crackers and peanut butter.

Micah loves popcorn!

Laural licking a carrot like a lollipop.

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