When I Grow Up

The kids are busy with school and we are finally falling into a routine for this year. Things have been crazy at this house, but I think we are on the right track! ;)

Okay, now please mind the mess on Joshua's shirt. He made pancakes for everyone that morning and so he had a little bit of a mess going. He has had this idea that when he moves out and is on his own, he won't know what to do. So, he has insisted on learning every single recipe and day-to-day task until that day! Lol. I love it! 

The kids are getting ready for this big event at school called the Hat Day Parade! Every student makes a hat and they parade them in front of the whole school and parents. This year's theme is When I Grow Up. 

Michael has decided to go with HERO! - I think by this he means military man.

Joshua is going with either scientist or football player. LOL

Alexandra has settled on Author/Illustrator and has since written 5 little books. ;)
Now if I can just figure out what I want to be... 

What Is Virtual School?

Okay, I wanted to do an update on this sooner, but life got so busy! ;) We will not be attending public schools this year after all... After advice from a few reliable sources and another assessment for Mr. Cool, we have decided that our kids will attend a virtual school this year. We have enjoyed the example lessons...

Our official 1st day will be August 30th, giving us more time to prepare. I'm excited about it and I think it will be a nice change from the homeschooling we were doing the last couple years. So, what exactly is virtual school? Our lessons are prepared and ready each day for each subject. We follow an over all lesson plan that helps us stay in line with the course material that they are supposed to learn over the year. We will have enough time left over each day to do some extra activities or additional lessons if we decide to. This will give us the opportunity to spend time on areas that need extra attention or to study things that are not covered in the state curriculum. This should be fun and I look forward to sharing some of our experiences! ;)

Sesame Street eBooks Review

I was invited by Impelsys to review the new Sesame Street eBooks. I will be using the service for the next few weeks and will put up a review on this and my hair blog. I'm excited about this and so are my kiddos! ;)

"Elmo loves his eBooks! Elmo can choose from so many stories, and sometimes Elmo can even hear a friend reading to him! Elmo loves that he can read his favorite eBooks wherever Elmo's mommy or daddy can go online!"

Lunchtime Again

Another bento lunch. This one is really simple and took hardly any time to prepare.

On the bottom was bismati rice with roasted black sesame seeds and a touch of braggs (soy sauce alternative).

A few veggies with dip, olives, pickles... yum. ;) I added a few extra veggies later.

And then we had some fruit: nectarines, cherries, golden & fugi apples.

The kids really like this meal! They asked for more, though so I think I need to make sure there is meat in every lunch. ;)

A Happy Snack! ;)

Okay, so this was actually part of lunch one day for the kids, but it would also make a great snack! All of the parts are pretty obvious here: tomato ears, black olive eyes, carrot mouth... Veggies to dip: carrots, celery, broccoli... with fat free ranch dressing.

I stuck these in my kids' sandwich boxes. We don't have sandwiches all that often. ;) Anyway, the cool part is the little sauce cup! I found these at the grocery store. They were sold in a pack of 2 for $2 as a food prep item. The best part is that these are soft squeezy silicone, so they can easily fit into any container and fit around the other items. Mostly, their just fun! ;)

The kids love this one! What are your thoughts?

More Bentos! Lunch or Snack

You all might be getting sick of these, but I am having a blast. ha! This one was really easy and the kids' favorite so far. The bottom layer contains rice and cucumber shapes with veggie-bobs. I made these rice shapes with cookie cutters by pressing sticky rice into the cutters while on a flat surface. You want to squish it as much as you can and I got pretty sticky myself. Rice molds are a much better idea, but I just don't have any yet! ;)

The veggies are tomato, avacado, and black olives. Yum!

The top layer was for fruit... Green grapes, mango, fugi apples, and bing cherries. Oh so good! ;)

Once again, I used parchment paper to divide the layers. I'll have to do a post that is just about my materials some time. And perhaps some of you can give me some ideas! ;)

I haven't really ever taken pics of food before and I have to admit it is pretty fun! ;) So, what do you think of my artistic photos?

Bento Success! ;)

I have made a few lunches since my last post that the kids were pretty with, but this was the first that I actually liked the looks of. So, I took some pictures! ;)

We have celery sticks with peanut butter, craisans, & All Bran Cereal. (These were a huge hit with all three of the kids, and Miss Sass doesn't even like celery! ha) We also had 1/4 of a nectarine and a frozen strawberry.

I made a top layer in their box by cutting a piece of parchment paper (not too precisely, I might add) into a rectangle a little bigger than the box. Then you cut slits in the corners, going in an inch or so toward the middle. This allows it to fit quite nicely. ;) Right, so we have some avacado slices sprinkled with "Musical Jumping Beans" which are actually peppercorn medly, freshly cracked. If your kids watch Little Einstein, you'll know about the "beans"... I added a sweet butter pickle and a fun pick with a grape tomato and two green olives. I don't have any kid picks yet, so I used these footballs we had left over from our Super Bowl party that didn't happen last year. heh.

This definitely would not be enough food for Mr. Cool, so I gave each of them a second box with rice and left over chicken and veggies from last night's dinner. Over all the meal was a super success! The kids loved it and ate almost everything! Miss Sass has even started trying some of the things she wouldn't try before. Yay! ;)

Packing lunches... practice makes perfect!

For some strange reason, I feel that it is my duty to pack lunches for my kids. Part of that might be that I have home-schooled for the last three years and feel a little like an outsider since they are attending public schools this year! heh. I know sandwiches, mac'n'cheese, granola bars, chips, etc. That stuff is really easy. However, I'd like to send meals that are creative and different so the kids don't get bored. I also want to include lots of fresh foods that will give the kiddos lots of long-lasting energy....
Anyway, today was my first attempt at filling their bento boxes. ;) I'm not completely certain I would call it a success, but it's food. Lol, the kids thought it was cool. I am not sharing pictures; it was way too disasterous for that! But I am certainly going to try again. I figure I have a couple weeks left to get it figured out before school starts and they are actually taking the lunches with them where I won't be able to fix things, add to, whatever... So, feel free to join me on this silly journey toward healthy lunches. ;)