The Polar Express

Today is John's last day of school before winter break and they have a big day planned! All of the first graders will be caroling through the halls of their school and then they'll all be watching The Polar Express together before going back to their classrooms for parties. It's John's favorite holiday movie (and now also his favorite holiday book) so he's super-excited about getting to see it with his friends!

PB&J train sandwich with Empire Jack cheese letters, fruit snacks, grapes, Christmas cookies, chocolate Santa & not-Hot Chocolate (aka Yoo-Hoo)

Angry Birds Santa Pig

John still loves his Angry Birds and we've been playing the Angry Birds Seasons "Winter Wonderham" which is the inspiration for this lunch. He has a ham & cheese Santa Pig, Angry Bird Cheese Nips, Craisins & fruit snacks. Of course the pig was made with the amazing CuteZCute cutter. Every time John sees the set in the drawer he wants an Angry Birds Pig!

(This would have gotten posted yesterday but got bumped because of the Holiday Hop.)

  Made With CuteZCute:

Also available at AllThingsForSale!

Holiday Hop

When we first started talking about the Holiday Ho Ho Hop I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do and I was awfully glad I got a spot here in the last week of the three so I would have more time to ponder.
And then it came to me as if in a dream.... or a visitation by the Spirit of Christmas Lunch:

Blackadder's Christmas Carol!!!

Of course, I had to pack in +EasyLunchboxes using my pink pig cup from AllThingsForSale! 

noodles with mushroom gravy, turkey meatballs & provolone; Santa frosted brownie; caramel pudding & caramel filled Santa chocolates (even though they could be considered "utter crap")

 Since I know that not everyone is familiar (*cough*Netflix*cough*), here are clips:

Now click on the button and hop over to BentoForKidlet for some back-to-back holiday Black!

Snowman Pizza (and Oh, Christmas Tree!)

Wednesday's are typically Pizza Day at John's school but he passes in favor of lunch from home ... so today he gets both! He has a pepperoni snowman pizza on an english muffin with a "snowball" cupcake and grapes. The eyes and mouth of the snowman are from a black olive and the nose, of course, is a carrot.

Since I took Monday off for the Day of Remembrance, here's  what you would have seen then:


Friday John's class is going to go caroling to the other classes in his school and when I heard him humming "Oh Christmas Tree" while playing I knew exactly what he would have for lunch!

The tree is a simple pb&j sandwich with a colby jack star and Sixlets ornaments. In the tree snack container are yogurt-covered raisins and Craisins and it's surrounded by popcorn.

The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas

Not too long ago I mentioned this book on Facebook and how much I thought John would love it ... and before I knew it a dear friend had replied to say that it was on its way .... and we LOVE it! It was written by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter from the British band McFly and is probably going to be quite the holiday tradition for us now.

We read it (again) last night and decided that Chef Boyardee Mini-Bites Dinosaurs and some turkey meatballs would make for a perfect dinosaur poop lunch. I even covered John's Garfield Thermos jar with pictures of and from the book. He also has grapes and a chocolate Santa and an unpictured yogurt tube.

Scholastic's Noodles - I Love Christmas!

This was actually one of two books we read for homework reading last night. The other book was a bit too hard for him to read all on his own and that tends to frustrate him so I pulled out Noodles which I knew he'd be able to breeze through and enjoy -- and I was right! He loved it and now, of course, wants all of the Noodles books.

 The lunch is pb&j, grapes, fruit snacks and cheese (and an unpictured yogurt tube):

That cute little card on the bottom? It's a FREE Lunchbox Love Elf Joke I got just by visiting SayPlease! The link takes you to a sign-up page for their weekly e-mails but that isn't necessary to get their free printables. It does, however, keep you in the loop and gives you 10% off so I would highly recommend doing it ;)

Snow!

So far we've had a remarkably un-snowy December so I thought I would make it at least seem normal and we spent the homework reading time finding various poems about snow & made a snow lunch for him to take to school. Not surprisingly, John's favorite poems that we read were both Shel Silverstein's: "Snowman" from Where The Sidewalk Ends and "Snowball" from Falling Up.

PB&J on wheat, grapes, popcorn, colby jack cheese & chocolate snowman.

@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!

Rudolph With Your Nose So Bright ....

Today John is going on a field trip with his first grade class to see our local ballet school perform The Adventures of Rudolph! The show is a local tradition through-and-through. It was written and choreographed by the founders of the school and still is ... 34 years later. John is SO excited about it! They'll miss they're scheduled cafeteria time so will be eating lunch in the classroom and I thought it would be a great day for a truly festive lunch.

Rudolph is pb&j and was made using an upside down gingerbread man cutter. John thought that was truly genius of me ... but I think I first saw the idea from Martha Stewart. He also has star crackers, carrot sticks with spinach dip, raisins, Sixlets and a little Santa chocolate.

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!

Santa's Almost Here!

Only TWO DAYS will be left until Christmas when John will get this for his lunch tomorrow.

I was thinking of putting my own twist on one of the awesome Santa & Chimney lunches I've seen so far this season.

Like Keeley's ...

or Sherimiya's ...

but we don't even have a chimney to peek out of or fall down.

We have a front door...

with a Santa key.

Yep! 

When the Big Guy arrives he can just let himself in using his very own pewter key that gets hung with pride every year. Normally we wait until Christmas Eve but John decided we could put it out early. No one else will be able to use it, after all. You see, it's magic and the right-sized keyhole only appears for Santa.

So, no chimney for John this year. Or for Santa. Instead they both get the key.

(Close-up of the actual key.)

Mixed berry cream cheese sandwich for the key, Cherry AirHead ribbon,
with Star Cheese Crackers & mini Slim Jims on the side!

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or something else or nothing at all except for the week (or two) off from school, I hope you have a truly blessed whatever. We'll probably take a couple of days off for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ... and my extended family typically gets together the day after ... but it's highly unlikely that John will let me go the entire week he's off from school without something blog-worthy going into his belly!

A Snowflake Pizza Quesadilla Thing!

Out of curiosity I wanted to see if I could successfully cut a snowflake out of tortillas much like one would do with paper.  

Luckily I cut two sets since John's first idea of what to do with them (cream cheese and jelly) turned into a soppy mess. Then I grabbed a skillet, pizza cheese, sliced (and cut up) pepperoni, and turned the remaining snowflakes into a sort of pizza quesadilla type thing!

A little container of spaghetti sauce for dipping (especially since by the time it gets to school it'll probably be more like a chessy pepperoni snowflake chip) and some yogurt raisins are included.

3 more days!!!

Rudolph!

Way back when there were 19 whole days left until Christmas the marvelous Keeley made a reindeer lunch for Little Miss and I loved it! I don't have any mini-gingerbread man cutters so John is only getting Rudolph.

Rudolph himself is pickel loaf & cheese on wheat with a Holiday Skittel nose.  There are some more Skittels on the side with some grapes and a cheese "4" for the countdown.

I can't believe it's almost here!!!

5 Days To Go! The elves are getting ready!

As of tomorrow there are only 5 days left until Christmas!!!

I bet the elves are feeling as overwhelmed as the parents ... and as excited as the kids!

One elf in particular was busy getting his hat and slippers laid out and ready to go when somehow they ended up in John's lunch. Whoops! Hopefully he has a back-up set!

The cheese sandwich hat & slippers are joined by pepperoni cut into the word "ELF," some extra pepperoni slices, and a small piece of gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.

@Snoopy at Christmastime

If you hadn't guessed when Thanksgiving was upon us, I love Snoopy & Woodstock. Luckily, it didn't take much for John to appreciate their awesomeness as well so of course they need to make another lunch bag appearance!

Snoopy and his dog house are bologna and cheese sandwiches with an AirHead (of course) for the wreath.
Woodstock is drawn on a Nilla Wafer.
Also included will be a few more Nilla Wafers, a small handful of holiday Skittels, an apple and the always present juice.

Last week of lunches until 2012! Well ... last week of school lunches. I'll probably let him eat from time to time when he's off for the week, too.

BONUS: Gingerbread Fun!

One of my favorite purchases for baking has been the square muffin pans I found on eBay years ago. They were originally rather large and held 12 per pan, but I've had to cut them in half so they would fit my Easy Bake Oven On Crack. After Tom went to work & before John got home from school I decided to bake some goodies. Cracked open the box of Betty Crocker Gingerbread mix, got it mixed up & then realized that there was room in the gizmo for 6 muffins and one of the small toaster-oven pans I just got!

The small sheet cake just got frosted with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles ... but the muffins?

First I cut two of them in half on the diagonal ... then I placed one triangle on top each of the remaining squares:

I bet you can guess where we're going now, huh?

I gathered together some candy bits, sprinkles, frosting, and John.

It's a Gingerbread Muffin House!

And, yes. I let him eat it as part of his dinner. 

Sometimes you just need cake for dinner.

Mooseltoe (Palatini/Cole) @Scholastic

Friday's Story Time lunch is another favorite thanks to the Scholastic orders from school -- Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Henry Cole.

I have to admit I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I think it came out pretty well!

Mooseltoe is pickle loaf & cheese on wheat with food gel decorations 

and a star-shaped cheese cracker on top (thank you, CVS!).

The number "9" was written on the cracker for the Countdown.

Also more star crackers, Gummy Life Savers Collisions, & an Andes Peppermint Candy.

<Lunch got repacked in a new KlipIt Sandwich Box with some added grapes!>

The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas

This is such a sweet book -- especially for a 5 year old boy who loves dinosaurs! It's pretty much a cross between Night At The Museum and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and is the perfect snuggle and read and giggle book!

The last time we read it, of course, I knew John was looking at each picture trying to see if it was lunchable.

And then he found it:

Of course, the snacks the dinosaurs had at their late night Christmas Eve party would be perfect!

The sandwich is cream cheese & jelly with a mini candy cane, peppermint nougat and applesauce on the side. It really did turn out well, if I do say so myself .... but John noticed already that there's significantly less candy in the lunch than in the picture. Oh well :)

John's Dream Lunch

This took a lot longer than some lunches.

Not because of it being complicated in detail because it's not ... but because I stood there for a long time trying to figure out just how to do it.

John loves helping come up with ideas for his lunches. Most of the time it's picking out a book or character he would like. Monday as we stood waiting for his bus, though, he said he wanted "the earth and sun in Santa hats with smiles just like in (his) dream." Uh-huh. I was asked to put his dream into a lunch.

The sun is cheese and the sandwich is pepperoni & cheese. The Santa hats are cut out of pepperoni slices. Gummy Life Savers surround the two. Hopefully it comes close to what he was thinking!



(Although unpictured, there WILL be the countdown. Probably written on the fruit cup or applesauce cup ... whichever one he chooses!)

The Hallmark Stowaways: Hoops, Yoyo & Piddles!

One of our favorite new holiday specials this year is Hallmark's Hoops & Yoyo Ruin Christmas. I won't tell the whole story in case you haven't had a chance to see it with (or without) your little ones yet, but it's very much worthy of a lunch!

Hoops, Yoyo and their pal Piddles are made out of AirHeads, of course. I'm telling you I love the stuff for small bursts of tasty color.
They're peeking out of Santa's bag made out of a ham & cheese sandwich.
Also included are some SunChips and, not pictured, a small container of grapes & the always present juice pouch.