Ocean Life in @EasyLunchboxes (Thanks, @Storia_eBooks!)

Last night we were trying to figure out what to read for John's homework and swung over to the Storia store where we saw that they have Ocean Life -- for free! Of course we got it and loved it and he had to have it for lunch today.

John has tortellini with colby jack cheese sea creatures, veggie sticks with sour cream & onion Goldfish, grapes, mini cookies and his Omega 3 fish gummies. All, of course, in an EasyLunchbox!

John Nickle's The Ant Bully (@Storia_eBooks)

John has seen the animated version of The Ant Bully at least a dozen times. When he saw that the original book version was available for his Storia app he was thrilled and asked to have it added to his bookshelf. I was afraid it would be too advanced for him but he read it with very little help .... and then asked for lunch. Actually, he asked for lunches so there may be more Ant Bully appearances this week!

In his lunch today John has Lucas made out of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, veggie chips, grapes, fruit snacks with Omega 3s, and monterey jack letters.

Easter Eggs Everywhere! (@Storia_eBooks in @blackblum)

Today is John's last day of school before Easter so what better than a fun Easter book themed lunch? Thanks to Scholastic's Storia John read Steve Metzger's Easter Eggs Everywhere! last night (for free!) and knew immediately that it needed to be lunch ... especially when we both "oh my goodness"-ed over the cube shaped egg that made an appearance!

We had some eggs already hard cooked in the fridge so I ran one under hot water for a couple of minutes and then put it in my egg cuber and let it set overnight. Perfect cubed egg ready for coloring! I also used an egg-shaped cookie cutter for his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and colored them, as well, using the AmeriColor markers. Added some Tings, dried fruit crisps, Omega-3 Gummies, a mini chocolate bunny & white chocolate eggs and he's got lunch all in a black + blum bento box!

Fluffy Meets The Dinosaurs - @Storia_eBooks in @EasyLunchboxes

John is in the midst of reading Fluffy Meets The Dinosaurs on his Storia app on his iPad (which used to be mine until I got a mini). I remembered that I had the dinosaur picks and he suggested I make a Fluffy one by printing a picture & attaching it to a random pick. I think it turned out great!

Packed in an EasyLunchbox Bright, John has mini ham & cheese sandwiches, colby jack "Fluffy," Bugles, a hard cooked egg that almost looks like a star, grapes and fruit snacks with Omega 3 gummies.

Used for this lunch:

Ready, Freddy Reader: Good Morning, Groundhog! (@blackblum @storia_ebooks)

Here is the lunch in our black+blum bento box:

Based on this book on his Storia app:

He loves the Ready, Freddy Readers and is thrilled to know that there's a more advanced series of Freddy books when he's ready for them!

He read it - he made it! (Most of it, anyway!)

Last night John read a Scooby Doo Reader book on his Storia app -- A Very Scary Valentine's Day! After he went to bed I started working on his lunch for today by drawing Shaggy & Scooby on some Empire Jack cheese & making a heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and then I went to bed before finishing.

Not to worry, though, because when we woke up this morning John finished making his lunch!

Along with his sandwich and cheese he picked out two heart picks and a french fry pick (for the fries Shaggy snagged from the cafeteria in the book), grapes, Turkey Bites, a few Mini Reeses, Veggie Sticks, his Omega-3 Gummies and, of course, Scooby Snacks!

Does your kid ever make lunch? Have you (or have they) made fun Valentine's meals? Have you made anything for lunch this week?
Link up along with me!

@Storia_eBooks Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? (and Giveaway Reminder!!!)

John reading Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? on the Storia app!

PB&J sleigh, provolone kangaroo & "hop"s, chocolate Santa, orange slices & cherry yogurt with sprinkles all packed in an EasyLunchbox with the yogurt in ELB's Mini Dipper.

Tonight the amazing Storia eBooks Giveaway ends!

Click HERE to go enter while you still can!

Scholastic @Storia_eBooks Giveaway!

John with his lunch for Monday and the Storia eBook it's based on: Learn About Weather: Snow

 Unless this is the first time you've been here I'm sure you already know what HUGE fans John and I both are of Scholastic's new eBook service, Storia. When I was growing up I would always get excited when the Scholastic Book Fair happened at school or those Book Club order forms would get sent home to my folks. John started to get those same order forms sent home with him when he was in preschool and I always try and make sure that he has at least one item with his name on it when the orders come in.

Now we don't have to wait!

With Storia eBooks I have 24-hour access to their online store where I can always find a great book to add to his "bookshelf." And he loves them. The app download is free and comes with five books of varying reading levels. This isn't just a beginning reader app ... this goes from 3 up to 14! (And even older if, like me, you still enjoy a well-written "young adult" novel from time to time.) Some of the books are even enhanced with added bells and whistles and activities for the kids to click on!

From Scholastic's online press kit:

 You can also check out the far more complete "About Storia" page!

(Not sure if you're device is compatible? Give them a call at 1-855-STORIA1 -- they have AMAZING Customer Service reps and I'm sure they could tell you!)

Now a cute pic of John and some of his Storia-inspired lunches:

And NOW the big huge exciting news!

I contacted the good folks at Storia via Twitter not too long ago and asked if they would be willing to sponsor a giveaway here at What's In Our Lunch Bags? 

I was thinking maybe a couple of books ....

They're giving 20!!! 

That's right, boys and girls. One extremely lucky reader will be receiving their choice of TWENTY Storia eBooks to load onto their virtual bookshelves! Perfect timing for the holiday season, too! 

Have more than one kid? No problem. You can set up multiple bookshelves within the app easy peasy lemon squeezey (as John would say)!  

 

Storia will be providing a list with over 100 titles to choose from. I must admit, I'm more than a little jealous of whoever wins. I would probably stock up on books John would enjoy reading now and grab a handful for when he advances in his reading skills a bit more!

Entering the contest is as easy as a couple of comments. They are both mandatory entries. If you don't do them, you don't win.

MANDATORY ENTRY #1: Follow Storia eBooks on Pinterest and leave a comment here with your Pinterest username so I can check.

MANDATORY ENTRY #2: Follow Storia eBooks on Twitter and leave a comment here with your Twitter username so I can continue to stalk you.

That's it! No need to share (although that would be nice) or to like or follow me (although those would be nice, too). 

Leave those two comments any time between now and 11:59 PM ET on DECEMBER 10, 2012 (which happens to be my birthday -- I like giving stuff away on my birthday) and on December 11th I will notify the winner of their awesomeness. (Which means that I need some way to contact you. If your email isn't linked to your profile or I don't somehow already talk you on a regular basis, I need to now how to get you.)

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, Storia is available to be downloaded by anyone in the United States and those with APO/FPO addresses only.  Sorry my international peeps!

Give Thanks For Each Day (@Storia_eBooks)

Although I grabbed Give Thanks For Each Day for John thinking it would be a great Thanksgiving read, it really is an every day book ... and will probably be read and re-read throughout the year!

 I had John pick out which page he wanted, of course, and got all warm and fuzzy when he picked out the one of the Mommy bear with her cubs.

 PB&J on wheat, grapes, colby jack cheese stick and Teddy Grahams. It's his last day of school before Thanksgiving and they'll be getting a special treat for snack time so I didn't want to give him a very heavy lunch!

The Littlest Pilgrim (from @Storia_eBooks)

Thank goodness yet again for Storia! I realized that John only has one Thanksgiving book in his collection so I hopped over to Storia and grabbed a few more for him -- one of which was The Littlest Pilgrim. It's a sweet story that little ones can relate to so well. John loved it when he read it last night so today it's lunch!

 PB&J sandwiches on colby jack leaves & pepperoni slices with grapes and Indian Corn.

Wednesday afternoon we had his first Parent-Teacher Conference of the year and one of the things talked about was how they would like him to improve with how he writes about stories that he has read or heard. I decided to expand his normal reading log for his homework (date, title, read alone or with a parent and then level of difficulty) to include a spot on what the book was about. He didn't even complain about the change! (And yes, I know he misspelled "said." I was so impressed that he just went to town writing that I wasn't going to nitpick -- although I did tell him the correct spelling after the fact.)

In case you're curious, this is the new log. I added lines after he was finished doing the one for The Littlest Pilgrim since the end of his lines went a bit haywire ;)

The Spooky Wheels On The Bus (a @jemills1 book on @Storia_eBooks)

John reread J. Elizabeth Mills' The Spooky Wheels on the Bus on his Storia app last night for part of his nightly reading homework. I'm absolutely blown away with how much better he's getting at reading. He still needed help with a couple of words but not nearly as many as he did when we first got the book a few weeks back. My boy is back to being excited about every new book that comes into his possession and that thrills me beyond belief! (He's NOT a big fan of having to return library books, though. Once he gets one he loves he wants to keep it!)
For lunch he's got a ham & cheese spooky bus, pretzel sticks, grapes and fruit snacks. He's also getting a yogurt tube and juice.

Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt

When John came home from school today he had two new Storia eBooks waiting for him on my iPad. The pick of the night (and, therefore, tomorrow's lunch): Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt!

(Can you tell I was having fun playing with my new Nikon COOLPIX S4300 with Eye-Fi card?)

Max is pb&j on wheat holding a football head pick. The flower bed is SnaPea Crisps with fruit snack flowers. There are also grapes, veggie cream cheese for dipping, and alphabet cookies spelling out Max.

The Mixed-Up Alphabet (@Scholastic - Metzger & Ho)

No school today because of Columbus Day or some such ridiculousness so John got to have a little more input than he usual for his Tuesday lunch. His first decision: the book had to be The Mixed-Up Alphabet which he read last night on his Scholastic Storia app!

Packing in the Lock & Lock box made things super-easy. Each of the four sections has 3 layers: a side, a quarter of a bologna sandwich, and then a colby jack letter (accessorized as closely as I could to how they are in the book).  Clockwise from top left the bottom layers are: grapes, alphabet cookies, Totally Ranch Munchies, and yogurt raisins.

John is thrilled with it! He loved the book and it's great for a beginning reader. There were quite a few words that he didn't know but when some of them were repeated later in the story he nailed them without hesitation. One of John's big issues has been retention. He can be told what a word is on one page and two pages later have to be told again. He pays such great attention with fun books like this and the others that we've read on Storia so far that even the hard words don't discourage him as much as they used to. He'll either ask, click, or work on sounding them out because he cares that much about getting to the next part of the tale! (Can you tell I'm thrilled???)