Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

Tomorrow is the birthday of Dr Seuss! Today John wanted a snacky lunch but we couldn't let the occasion go unnoticed so he has a Snacky Seuss. It's a bit of a mish-mash of his favorites. How many can you pick out?

Linked to:

Seuss Week All-In-One, Snack Day & Blog Hop Fun!

This week was Seuss Week but John couldn't wait! 

Instead of having five bentos, we ended up with EIGHT!

From The Lorax to The Cat we've sure had fun ...
but since Snack Day is Monday we're still not done!

Fun cups, fun napkins, One Fish Two Fish Gummies and more...

(I changed all of the packages - you can't buy these at the store!)

*super cuteness ends here*

After spending over a week focusing on Dr Seuss lunches for John I decided there was no reason not to do one for myself to take to work tonight!

I've got Green Eggs & Ham Muffin Cup Omelets, tomato and monterey cheese slices stacked to look like the Cat's hat, and Bar-ba-loots (aka Teddy Grahams) in sugar-free vanilla pudding ... all in an Easy Lunchbox.

I'm adding this to the Seuss Hop since there are other bento blogs Seussing it up today!

Now hop on over and take a look

at the fun stuff Bento Minions

made from Dr Seuss books!

Seuss Week Day Five: Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

Friday brings Seuss Week to a close as it's the 108th Birthday of the amazing Dr Seuss!

What would be better, then, than a birthday party in a box?

In an Easy Lunchbox:

 In the top left is a Super Simple Cupcake with alternating red & white stripes in the batter, red frosting & sprinkles. Under the cupcake is white cheddar popcorn tossed with red sprinkles. In the large compartment "Dr Seuss" is cut out of colby cheese (painted red with natural color) using mini cupcake cutters for the D and S and little letter cutters. The Cat in the Hat cupcake sandwich is ham and cheese cut with a large cupcake cutter with the top slice italian and the bottom slice whole wheat. In the rectangle container is alternating wild berry and plain applesauce. (I also Seuss-ed a juice box -- turning Hawaiian Punch into Seuss Juice!)

Come back to tomorrow for a roundup of all the Seuss lunches, a peek at what John will be taking to school Monday for a belated Seuss birthday snack day and a very Seusstastic Blog Hop!

Seuss Week Day Four: Yertle The Turtle

Is it just me or has this week been flying by for anyone else?

Tomorrow is ALREADY Thursday?!? Seuss Week is almost done?!?

I think I'm going to be suffering from separation anxiety, but first....

Yertle The Turtle!!!

Yertle and friends (?) are bologna and cheese on whole wheat.

Yertle's name is colby cheese.

The top left is fruit salad.

The bottom left is celery & carrots with some Biscoff in the small container.

I kept it pretty simple because I've got big plans for Friday and I need to store up my creative juices as best I can. I'm thinking big thinks for the birthday lunch ... and hopefully I'll be able to pull at least a couple of them off!  Come back sometime tomorrow (quite possibly late afternoon or evening) :)



Seuss Week Day Three! Fox In Socks

John became a fan of Fox & Knox not because of the book Fox In Socks, but from watching The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss! (Jim Henson's son takes after his daddy quite well! I'm still bummed it only lasted two seasons but VERY thankful that Netflix has those two!)  Originally our Knox & Fox lunch box was going to based on the characters a la the tv show, but then John saw a picture from the actual book of "Knox in box" and "Fox in socks" and decided he would rather have that. So here it is!

The sandwiches are Biscoff and jam on whole wheat. The names are cut from American cheese with the mini alphabet cutters. The side container has LifeSaver Gummies and grapes.

Seuss Week Day Two: The Sneetches!

Thanks to finally finding a lunch bag big enough for the Easy Lunchbox but small enough for him to take it to school in his backpack, tomorrow John will get to take one for the first time! The bag in question is Built NY's Tasty and while it's a tight fit, it's a fit! He's even practiced taking the box out without dumping it all over.

So, the ELB will get to make it's kindergarten debut in all of it's bagged glory with my favorite Seuss characters:

The Sneetches!

 The Sneetches are drawn on American cheese with natural food color with stars cut out along the side using one of the bonus cutters from the little alphabet cutter set I mentioned yesterday. They're joined in the large compartment by star shaped cheese crackers from CVS. The top right holds a clementine with a star drawn on it and a mini York Peppermint Patty (just because). The bottom right has cocktail weiners skewered with pretzel sticks for the Sneetches' frankfurter roast! Yes, John actually likes them cold (he's his daddy's boy!). I will be nuking them a little bit before the final lunch packing tomorrow morning, but only enough to make me feel better. (I know they say they're already fully cooked in the package ... it still skeeves me out a bit to watch the male half of the household actually eat them right out of the package!)

Seuss Week! Green Eggs & Ham in Lock & Lock!

It's the start of Dr Seuss Week!!! Theodor Seuss Geisel's 108th birthday is Friday and we're doing an entire week of Seuss lunches to celebrate (plus two from this past week because John didn't want to wait)!

For Monday we've got Green Eggs & Ham in John's new Lock & Lock box from the greatest bento store online: AllThingsForSale (he even got the Lock & Lock water bottle which he insists on taking, too, even though he'll need a teacher to help open it!). It's a nifty little box with two removable compartments each divided into two so it can be used in a couple of different ways.

As soon as we opened the box and I started showing John the different configurations he immediately laid out how his "Sam I Am" lunch needed to go ... and here it is (with water bottle on the side)!

On the top left is the "green ham" which is actually Hormel's Pizza Style Canadian Bacon and below that is the green egg. They were colored by being soaked in some water mixed with all natural green powder. The egg is actually already cut in half and devilled with some ranch dressing mixed into the yolk and also colored with the powder so when he takes it apart ...

 The sandwich is cream cheese and jelly (and, yes, he had me color the cream cheese green, too) with Sam I Am punched out of colby cheese with cute little alphabet cutters, also from AllThingsForSale!

Tomorrow: The Sneetches! (It was originally supposed to be The Lorax, but he had that this past week so wanted something new and we love The Sneetches!)

Another Pre-Seuss Week Special: Thing 1 & Thing 2

John is SO excited about Seuss Week coming up. He's been off school for the week which would normally mean slacking off on the sandwich art for the lunches but thanks to the new natural colors and John's "pretty pretty please"s, slacking isn't on the menu this week. (Maybe the weekend ... we'll see ...)

Today John's having Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat In The Hat in one of his Fit & Fresh boxes.

Thing 1 & Thing 2 PB&J with cotton candy hair and Goldfish (Krinkelbein, Norval, whatever).

He'll also get fruit and probably carrot sticks when it comes time to eat!

WARNING: The cotton candy used for the Truffula tree tops yesterday and the hair today? Don't try sending it to school! I had his lunch for today sitting out since this morning -- hair and all -- just like it would be if it was a school day and by the time lunch rolled around it wasn't hair anymore but a pile of sugar dust. REAL glad I tried at home before I tried sending!!!

Dr Seuss' Lorax (a pre-Seuss Week special!)

After we were done at the museum yesterday we stopped in to the drugstore by the bus stop to grab a couple of things. Mostly, we went in for Angry Bird Gummies that we noticed earlier when we ran in to grab a pack of pocket tissues for a little boy's runny nose ... but then I saw something I knew would be perfect for Truffula tree tops:

Of course, John knew immediately what I was thinking when I picked up the bag and he agreed ... and asked for The Lorax for today (even though he had already put it on the schedule for next week!).

I put together the body last night with the new natural food color and finished it up this morning. I made sure it was done by the time John would normally be heading for his school bus so we could see how everything held up being left out like it would be on a school day.  The love for the natural colors continues!!! In fact, no new powder was used today ... I just added a drop of water to yesterday's that had dried up and it sprung back to life!

 Clockwise From Top Left (in an Easy Lunchbox):

* pretzel sticks (for Truffula trunks)

* pepperoni bites topped with colby cheese painted with "I speak for the trees!"

*The Lorax bologna & cheese on whole wheat with American cheese mustache standing on a pepperoni bite log, Truffula Trees and tops, and grapes

Horton Hears A Who

Is there anyone who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? If there is, I don't think I want to know them.

Friday's lunch features Horton holding the clover that Whoville is caught on.

Horton is a turkey sandwich.

The clover is a Life Saver Gummie with an AirHead stem & speck.

On the side are pretzel sticks, yogurt & some more LifeSaver Gummies.

How The Grinch Stole ... Lunch?

One of my favorite aspects of blogging John's lunches is the amazing community made up of other moms who get creative with their kid's food.  A lot of them have more experience than I do. A lot of them do more traditional bento style boxes. All of them have amazing ideas.

Keeley makes lunches for her Little Miss and does some of the cutest lunches out there! This past Monday she posted about how she was going to do a countdown to Christmas in each of Little Miss's lunches. I loved the idea and asked if I could use it with John. In her awesomeness, she said I could.

I decided to start the countdown with tomorrow's lunch since it's the first of December and also the day we'll officially start the Wintery/Christmasy lunches ... and put up the actual Advent calendar!

We're starting with the classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas from Dr. Seuss.

The entire family loves the tale and both the cartoon version and the modern live-action movie with Jim Carrey get watched repeatedly each year. What better way to start things off?

The Grinch and Max are small bologna and cheese sandwiches (Grinch on white, Max on wheat).

Max's reindeer antlers are a broken up Rold Gold Cheddar Tiny Twist Pretzel, which he'll get more of on the side in a separate container.

Cindy Lou Who is made out of a cut Nilla Wafer with a Pink Lemonade AirHead for her pajamas and the bows in her hair.

An Orange AirHead was used to make the 24 for the big countdown!

As usual, I used AmeriColor Food Gels to do all of the coloring and detail work. (Which reminds me, I'm running low on white. VERY low. Santa? If you happen to glance at my blog at all you can take that as a big ol' hint! Actually, just get me an eBay gift card so I can stock up on gels and other lunch goodies. Mkaythanksbye.)