I completed my version of the Midsummer Stitchalong with Studio MME at Feeling Stitchy. It was a relatively quick and fun piece to stitch.
My nieces gave me amazing handmade gifts for my birthday this year.
I received this hand decorated pillowcase (see above and below). My 8 year old niece used fabric markers to decorate both sides of a pillowcase. I love it! I think that her little lambs are very cute. She also made a letter K for me. So special!
Other Side of Pillowcase
Handmade Letter K
My 11 year old niece made a lamb ornament for me. She did it all herself. She made the pattern, cut the felt, embroidered the eye, stuffed, and sewed it. I love it! She also made a special bookmark. She drew and stitched two sheep. She sewed one and left one for me to stitch. So cute!
Handmade Lamb Ornament
Special Bookmark
Completed Bookmark (stitched by Niece and Aunt)
For a long time I loved the idea of making a vegetarian salad in a pasta shell. I finally made one. I don’t use avocados very often but I enjoy them. They are delicious in this filling meal.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Spinach
Shells: I mostly followed this recipe but I used pistachio instead of walnuts because I had some leftover from another meal. I used chives from my Mom’s herb garden.
Vegetable: Radish
Fruit: Green grapes
It is zucchini time! I don’t bother growing zucchini because I can count on receiving it from my grandmother-in-law, mother-in-law. and sister-in-law. I made this lunch for my husband. It has zucchini in each course.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Zucchini Pie:Zucchini and Cheese Pie, lettuce leaf
Salad: Zucchini, Tomato, and Corn Salad – I did not exactly follow this recipe but I used it as a guide (I did not use sugar, used a large tomato instead of cherry tomatoes and I did not exactly follow the amounts for each ingredient)
Dessert: Chocolate Zucchini Cake – did not use this recipe but it was similar (no honey, and I sprinkled chocolate chips on top)
My 11 year old niece flew by herself to her Grandparents (my parents) house for the first time. Of course I was there to make a moose themed pizza dinner in her honor.
The moose pizza had tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some moose had mushrooms. My niece requested shaped pizzas because she enjoys my tradition of making shaped pizzas for Christmas. I looked through my extensive cookie cutter collection and decided on my large moose cutter. I got this cutter a long time ago on a business trip to Minnesota (bought it at the Mall of America). This was my first time using it.
Moose Shaped Pizza
I used this recipe for the moose cookies. I used a plastic sandwich bag and cut off a small corner. Then I piped the outline of the moose. I used a basic butter and confectionery sugar frosting with some cocoa powder.
Moose Cookies
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I made this lunch for my teenage nephew as part of my Tips for Packing Food for Active Teenagers guest post for Diana Rambles. This one did not make the cut but my nephew enjoyed it. This is a LOT of food. It was heavy. I know that some people may not like to eat cold spaghetti but he did not mind. In fact, he requested this meal.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Plum
Bread: Pretzel roll (I made a pretzel lunch the same day and used some dough to make rolls)
Vegetable: Cooked broccoli with melted cheddar
Spaghetti: Spaghetti with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese
When I found the States and Capitals Educational Snacks at Whole Foods, I knew that I had to make a state themed lunch. When I was a kid, I was the nerd with the state capital cards trying to teach the other kids in the neighborhood. I made this lunch for my 11 year old niece.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
States & Capitals: Dick and Jane States & Capitals cookies, toasted white bread cut into state shapes – not to scale (Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee, and Kansas) with Nutella
Vegetable: Fresh from the garden cucumber and cherry tomato
State Fruit Medley: Blackberries (Alabama & Kentucky), blueberries (Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina), and strawberries (Louisiana, North Carolina)
I am happy today to once again guest post for Jackie at Loving Lunches. Please click here to see the Princess and the Pea lunch that I made.
I am thrilled today to have my first ever guest post for Jackie at Loving Lunches. Please click here to see the Uncle/Nephew themed lunches I made.
My 11 year old niece and I made these miniature stuffed animals. We used a large moose cookie cutter to make the pattern for the moose. My niece drew the pattern for the Teddy Bear. My niece stitched the eyes and mouth on the moose and Teddy. She used black seed beads for the Teddy’s eyes. We used fleece and a little poly-fill stuffing.
Small Teddy Bear Stuffed Animal
Small Moose Stuffed Animal
My 9 year old nephew loves Legos. When I noticed that the BOTW theme this week at Bento Blog Network will be Lego, I knew that I had to make another Lego themed lunch for him. I found the Lego pick idea at A Boy & His Lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Bricks: Pepper Jack Cheese and homemade crackers with cheese and carrots (recipe is from Baking Makes Things Better) I shaped them to look like Lego bricks. They were delicious!
Vegetable: Cucumber (I attached the small round pieces with spaghetti, it softens by lunch time)
Fruit: Kiwi with Lego picks
I made french bread pizzas for my niece, nephews, and myself one day at home. I thought it would be fun to make a french bread pizza bento. The kids loved their lunches!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Watermelon
Vegetable: Green beans
Pizza: Homemade french bread with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.
My 11 year old niece ate this lunch. This lunch incorporates some of her favorites. My Mom and I made this together.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Watermelon (stamped with butterfly pie cutter)
Vegetable: Peas
Macaroni & Cheese: Homemade macaroni & cheese with butterfly pasta garnish (carrot details)
I made this the same day my niece had the Flag of France bento. The pasta and toasted walnuts ended up in each of our lunches. This was fast to make and delicious.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Watermelon
Vegetable: Snowpeas
Pasta: Mini Farfalle pasta with olive oil, edamame, roasted walnuts, salt, and pepper
I made this Lion themed lunch when I took my 11 year old nephew to the zoo. He allows me to make any theme as long as he likes the food. He especially loves pistachio nuts and requests them in every bento I prepare for him.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Honeydew melon
Nuts: Pistachios
Background: Wegmans pasta nuggets with butter, peas, and Parmesan cheese
Large Lion: Flour tortilla painted with food coloring, baked until crisp
Mini Lions: Extreme Cheddar Lions Snack Crackers in Mini Dippers
A friend in Japan sent this box to me awhile ago. The text on the box means, “go anywhere together”. My 14 year old niece was here for the day and I wanted an easy lunch. We decided on onigiri in this box. My niece made the entire lunch.
You can see a glimpse of my house in this photo. Yes, I live in a purple house. I still can’t believe that I live in a purple house. We bought it this way almost 7 years ago. It does not need to be painted yet.
Continuing in my series of twice baked potato lunches, here is a football themed meal. I served this to my 16 year old nephew for lunch at home. It was his idea to make the goal post and field out of bell peppers. I love collaborating with my nephew. I think that it turned out great.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Lettuce
Footballs: Twice baked potato riced with a little butter, milk, Mexican cheese blend, salt, pepper, and cooked broccoli (turned upside down), football detail (cheddar cheese)
Fruit: Green grapes
Vegetable: Field (green bell pepper), goal post (red bell pepper)
Not Pictured: Ranch dressing for the lettuce
Other twice baked potato lunches
I needed to go shopping so this lunch was made from what I had in the house. The pita was in my freezer. Thrown together lunches can be interesting and delicious!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Main: Peanut butter in toasted Arnold Pocket Thins Italian Herb bread, fresh spinach
Dairy: Cottage cheese with cinnamon
Fruit: Cantaloupe
I used leftovers from my Tanabata party to make this quick and delicious lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Tortilla Chips: Blue tortilla chips, cheddar cheese (at the party I served the blue tortilla chips with salsa, the cheddar cheese was melted over the star rice balls)
Fruit: Red grapes (from the star fruit cups)
Black Beans: Sauteed onion, black beans, and diced tomatoes (this was the filling in the layered rice)
I wanted to make a wheel themed bento for the Bento Blog Network weekly theme. My 14 year old niece suggested train, so I made this lunch for her. I delight in making cute and healthy food for loved ones.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Blackberries
Vegetable: Orange bell pepper
Background: Mini wagon wheel pasta and green peas with a little butter and Parmesan cheese
Train: Food coloring painted on a flour tortilla baked until lightly brown and crisp
My 14 year old niece and I made this flag themed lunch. As usual, she did a great job cutting and arranging the food for this meal.
Container: Blue Box from Japan
Top Tier: Mini Farfalle pasta with olive oil, toasted walnuts, and red pepper
Bottom Tier: Blueberries, apple (dipped in orange juice), and red grapes
I made this lunch at my family’s lake house in the Adirondacks. It was a beautiful day so I took the photo from the elevated front porch. Lunch with a view!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Bread: Italian bread
Granola Bar: Kashi Dark Mocha Almond granola bar
Salad: Tomato Mango Salad – I followed the recipe except I did not use the green onions.
When I asked for twice baked potatoes theme suggestions my 11 year old nephew said, “blimp”. So I made this blimp themed lunch for him. This is my pistachio loving nephew so of course I had to include his favorite nut.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Sky: Blueberries
Blimp: Twice baked potato riced with a little butter, milk, Mexican cheese blend, salt, pepper, and cooked broccoli (turned upside down), lettering (carrot), other details (quesadilla)
Nuts: Pistachios
Vegetable: Carrot sticks
My newly turned 13 year old nephew designed and made this lunch entirely by himself when he was still 12. He looked through my cookie cutters, picked out a box from my collection, drew a sketch in my bento sketchbook, created a shopping list, made the quesadillas and styled this lunch. He enjoyed this lunch at my house.
Container: Sistema Slimline Quaddie Coloured
Background: Lettuce and almonds
Animals: Cheese quesadillas
Fence: String cheese
Fruit: Apples (see below)
Not Pictured: Salsa and ranch dressing in Mini Dippers
I made this lunch for my husband. In this case it was a planned lunch but also became dinner the night before.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Lettuce
Potato: Twice baked potato riced with a little butter, milk, Mexican cheese blend, salt, pepper, and cooked broccoli
Fruit: Green grapes
Cookie: Coconut Balls
Ranch Dressing: (Not pictured) in Mini Dippers
Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and for entering my giveaway!
Lindsey you are the winner of the $25 gift certificate to Bento USA by AllThingsForSale.com. I will contact you by email.
Kokeshi are Japanese dolls traditionally made from wood. I was excited to win the Kokeshi Bento Box Giveaway hosted by Shirley of Bento Singapore. (see below for an image of this adorable bento box) Shirley is very talented and features amazingly cute bento creations on her blog.
In honor of my first time using this bento box, I decided to make a kokeshi doll out of radish and spinach.
Container: Kokeshi box
Top Tier: Crunchy granola bar
Middle Tier: Nishiki rice with radish kokeshi and radish flowers, hair (spinach), face details (spinach and radish)
Bottom Tier: Blueberries, raspberries, and sliced almonds
Kokeshi Bento Box
Edited: The links I previously shared to the making friends website are no longer available. I now link to a watermelon pattern on another site. For the Smile Face and Ladybug, you should still be able to make these projects using my images and new links provided if you have some patience and knowledge of making pony bead projects. For other patterns go here.
Awhile ago I asked my nieces and nephews if they had an idea of a craft we could do together for my blog. My 11 year old nephew remarked that he would like to make something with pony beads. For his last birthday he asked for pony beads and we gave him some. This was my first time working with pony beads that I remember.
When we started the project I just watched him string on the beads (somewhat boring for me). Eventually we figured out that it was easier when we worked together to pull the strings/wire and to have my hand on the already completed lines of beads.
These three projects are very easy, there are no additional loops, just straight lines. I enjoyed spending time with my nephew while working on these projects. In the future I would like to work on advanced pony bead projects with him.
Watermelon: We used a pattern from makingfriends.com. Edited: the pattern is no longer available on the Making Friends site. A similar pattern is found here.
Smiley Face: We used this pattern from makingfriends.com. We first tried it with cording but switched to wire which gave the design more support. Edited: the pattern is no longer available on the Making Friends site. A similar pattern image is found here. The link it directs to is the same I had so the link does not work.
Ladybug: We used this pattern from makingfriends.com. Edited: the pattern is no longer available on the Making Friends site. A similar pattern image is found here. The link it directs to is the same I had so the link does not work.
When I asked my niece and nephews for ideas using twice baked potatoes, my 14 year old niece said, “boat”. So I made this lunch for her. It was fun to make. If you want to heat the potato, you can easily remove it from this lunch and heat in a microwave.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fish: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers
Fruit: Green grapes
Life Preserver: Strawberry slice with white chocolate
Background: White rice, blueberries
Boat: Twice baked potato riced with a little butter, milk, Mexican cheese blend, salt, pepper, and cooked broccoli, mast (carrot), sail (yellow bell pepper)
I have a slight obsession with cookie cutters. My collection is so large that I have them organized by type and stored in plastic Ziploc bags. Awhile ago I picked up this hot air balloon cookie cutter. It lives in my “transportation” bag. Sometimes when I am thinking about possible lunch themes I look at my cookie cutters. My hot air balloon theme arose on such an occasion.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Sky: Blueberries
Hot Air Balloon: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread, cheddar cheese details
Vegetable: Snow peas
Fruit: Trader Joe’s Dried Baby Sweet Pineapple
Today is Eclectic Lamb’s 2 year anniversary. It also happens to be my 300th post. I am so appreciative of your visits to this blog.
AllThingsForSale.com (an amazing bento supply site) is generously offering one of my readers a $25 gift certificate. Check out this store! There are so many wonderful things available.
This giveaway is open to U.S. and international readers. If you win, the $25 can be used towards purchase and shipping.
To enter this giveaway just submit a comment. Please make sure that I have your email address so I can notify you if you win. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email. One entry per email address. The contest will end on Thursday July 25 at 8 am EDT. I will pick the winner using a random number generator.
It has been awhile since I stitched something to post here on my blog. I stitched a lot of baptism stoles for my Mom’s church but I already posted about that once. When I read about the Midsummer Stitchalong with Studio MME at Feeling Stitchy, I knew that I wanted to participate.
This is my in-progress photo. I decided to transfer the image with an water-soluble pen. I know that it may not be the best choice for every project but I used DMC thread on a flour sack towel.
I have liked birds since I was a small child. When I was 2, I had an imaginary bird named Tippy. Recently we put a new bathroom in our house and I choose flower wallpaper with parrots. I am enjoying working on this stitchalong.
This was part of my nephew’s 13th birthday lunch. I am guessing that many 13 year olds would not want a themed lunch at school due to peer pressure but this lunch was served at home and he loved it. He also feasted on french bread pizza and jam tarts for dessert.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Cheddar, corn and zucchini quesadilla (I sauteed the zucchini in a little olive oil and added corn) I painted the number 13 with a little food coloring and water.
Birthday Cake: Mozzarella quesadilla painted blue with food coloring and water, candles (carrot in the shape of the number 13), flames (cheddar cheese)
Snack: Mini Reese’s Pieces and peanuts
Fruit: Green grapes
I made this dinosaur themed muffin tin lunch for my nephew who is almost 5 years old. He loved it!
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This lunch was made for my nephew on his last day of being 12. This was a lunch at home. My 16 year old nephew helped me assemble this. This meal has so many possibilities. We choose to make it this way but many fruit and vegetables would make great parts for Mr. Potato Head. The potato can be eaten cold, at room temperature, or heated. You can also have the parts ready to put on after heating the potato in a microwave.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Lettuce
Mr. Potato Head: Twice baked potato riced with a little butter, milk, Mexican cheese blend, salt, pepper, and cooked broccoli (turned upside down) hair (broccoli), eyes (grapes with Wilton candy eyes), ears (sugar snap peas), nose (strawberry), mouth (red pepper), feet (green grapes)
Fruit: Strawberries and green grapes
Vegetables: Green beans, yellow bell pepper, sugar snap peas
I was inspired by a reader suggestion to make a Little Red Riding Hood bento. I was not sure about how this turned out but my 14 year old niece loved it.
Container: ECO Lunchboxes
Background: Rice covered with raw spinach leaves
Trees and Plants: Broccoli and asparagus
Little Red Riding Hood: Red Hood (red pepper), hair (spinach leaves), head, hands, & feet (Nishiki white rice), face details (chocolate & red sprinkles), body (Nishiki white rice with tomato sauce)
Grandma’s House: House (Arnold Pocket Thins Italian Herb – toasted), windows & doors (carrot)
Path: Peanuts
Fruit: Strawberries
My Mom, brother and two cousins from Ireland visited for a few days. We did a lot of sightseeing but I still wanted to prepare homemade meals for them. I made 5 versions of this same lunch in the morning and it was an excellent meal between visiting attractions. I desired an easy lunch but also wanted my guests to experience my bento lunch because cute lunches have become such a part of my life. I savor showing my love with healthy and cute food. I made this easy and cute by creating simple garnishes for each section.
My Mom prepared the pasta and my cousin Peg helped me assemble the 5 lunches.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Pasta: Mini Penne with Zucchini Pistou (My Mom made this while I cooked breakfast for everyone). We used toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts, reduced the garlic to 2 cloves, and we forgot to add the shaved Parmesan on top. I added a cherry tomato half and small basil leaf as garnish.
Vegetable: Diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese with a little olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. A mozzarella cheese flower was the garnish.
Fruit: Strawberry Melon Spinach Salad – We added the dressing right before eating. It was delicious! When I prepared the melon for this salad, I cut flower shapes for garnish. I added a fresh blueberry with a small piece of angel hair pasta. It softened by lunch.
My 8 year old nephew requested a Hyena lunch for our day at the zoo. He helped by painting on the eye and dots with a mixture of food coloring and water. I made the fact card to go along with this lunch.
Container: ECO Lunchboxes
Background: Homemade cheese pizza slices, snow peas
Hyena: Cheese quesadilla, eye & dots (black food coloring)
Elephant & Giraffe Picks: Black olives
Nuts: Pistachios
Fruit: Pineapple
My 14 year old niece requested a muffin tin meal. They are now popular among my niece and nephews. They love my bento lunches and muffin tin lunches provide “something different” for lunches at home.
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Tanabata is a Japanese star festival. According to a folktale, Hikoboshi (star Altair) and Orihime (star Vega) were lovers and separated by the Milky Way to only meet once a year. Typically people celebrate on July 7.
Since I was a kid I loved learning about other cultures and especially holidays. In college I studied Japanese language and culture. I have lived in Japan and visited many times. I love celebrating holidays and throwing parties. I enjoyed my Hinamatsuri party so much that immediately afterward I started planning this Tanabata party. A friend who lives in Japan was amazing and sent me many fun Tanabata things to use. Eight children and three adults attended this party.
We made decorations, wrote out wishes, and hung them from bamboo. I had so much fun searching for, coming up with and making themed food for this party. My young guests were thrilled to celebrate with us and learn a little about this Japanese festival.
Table setting:
Tanabata Table Setting
Drinks:
I choose dark drinks to be reminiscent of the night sky.
Grape Juice
Food:
Tanabata Fruit Cups
Tanabata Pasta Pie
Tanabata Layered Rice
Make Your Own Milky Way Pasta
Star Cheese Onigiri
Star Snack
Dessert:
MilkyWay Candy
Grape Tanabata Tartlets
Star Bownies
Tanabata Cookies
Decorations:
Tanabata Bamboo
Tanzaku (Wishes)
Tanzaku Paper and Ties
Tanabata Net Decoration
Tanabata Decoration Kit
Tanabata Decorations
Favors:
Tanabata Folder with Stickers
Back of Tanabata Chocolate
Tanabata Chocolate Open
Tanabata is a Japanese star festival. According to a folktale, Hikoboshi (star Altair) and Orihime (star Vega) were lovers and separated by the Milky Way to only meet once a year. It is common to celebrate with fireworks. I made this bento lunch for my 14 year old niece.
Container: Blue Box from Japan
Hikoboshi & Orihime: Cooked lasagna noodles (cut with circle cookie cutter), food marker details
Milky Way: Angel hair pasta with a little butter and Parmesan cheese, carrot and cucumber stars
Fireworks: Strawberries and blueberries, Greek yogurt with multi-colored sprinkles
My 12 year old nephew and I made this lunch. I wanted something quick and easy to prepare. He cut the the carrots and helped make the nachos. This many not look pretty, but it is a fast and different option for lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Nectarine
Vegetable: Carrots
Nachos: Baked tortilla chips, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, black olives – broiled on baking sheet until cheese is melted
Not Pictured: Granola bar
I made this red, white, and blue lunch for my 14 year old niece. It is very rewarding to make themed meals for my niece and nephews since they enjoy them so much and show their appreciation.
This meal was easy to make. I used an United States shaped cookie cutter for the tortilla chips.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Salsa: (not pictured) in Mini Dippers
Nuts: Hazelnuts
United States Shapes: Homemade flour tortilla chips
Vegetable: Radish slices
Fruit: Blueberries
I made this 4th of July Muffin Tin Lunch for my 12 year old nephew. He requested a Muffin Tin meal. I know that usually Muffin Tin Lunches are made for younger children but anyone can enjoy this fun lunch at home. As a maker, I enjoy coming up with different things to put in each compartment.
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Today is Meteor Day so of course I made a meteor themed lunch. This was my first time trying Forbidden Rice and starfruit. I thought that they were alright but not my favorites. I would eat them again if I wanted it for a cute lunch but otherwise I would not have them again.
Container: Blue Box from Japan
Meteor in Sky: Black Forbidden Rice with cheddar cheese details
Fruit: Starfruit (Carambola) with blackberries
I made this meal for Paul Bunyan Day. Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack and an American folktale character. The story says that he had a blue ox named Babe.
My 8 year old nephew actually had this for dinner at my house. My husband drew Paul’s flannel shirt and came up with the pretzel yoke idea. My nephew placed the letters. This was my first time using this box I bought at Target.
Container: Turtle Box from Target
Lettering: Carrot
Babe: Pancake dyed blue (used cow cookie cutter), yoke (pretzel)
Paul: Horseradish cheese with food safe marker details
Fruit: Kiwi slices
Axe: Green pepper
Wood: Carrots
Syrup: NY Maple syrup in red container
I was inspired by the pizza tarts here at INGENUITY. My 12 year old nephew and I made them for dinner. They were delicious for dinner and also made a wonderful leftovers for lunch meal.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Vegetable: Salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, grated carrot and cut sugar snap peas
Fruit: Raspberries
Pizza Tarts: I made a butter pie crust and fit it into standard sized muffin tins. I used a crust recipe for a double crust pie and it made about 18 tarts. (You could also buy pie crust and roll it out.) We filled the unbaked tarts with some small raw pieces of broccoli and tomato sauce. (of course you could leave out the broccoli or add something else) Then we covered it with Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses. We baked them at 375 for about 20 minutes.
I made this lunch in honor of Eric Carle’s birthday. I liked the idea of “The Tiny Seed” themed lunch but I had never read the book. I borrowed “The Tiny Seed” from the library to prepare. A majority of my lunches are created for loved ones but I actually ate this one on an outing with my 12 year old nephew.
I added leaves and butterflies as sides for this lunch because I was inspired by the following quotes::
“All summer long the birds and bees and butterflies come visiting.”
“And the wind carries yellow and red leaves past the flower.”
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Leaves: Carrot, cucumber, and radish
Butterflies: Apples
Background: Couscous with Trader Joe’s Dried Baby Sweet Pineapple and sunflower seeds.
Flower: Flour tortilla painted with food coloring and baked until lightly brown and crisp
When I brainstormed ideas for a summer themed lunch, I landed on lemonade stand. I packed this lunch for my husband. The pasta and tartlets have lemon. I added raspberries because my husband loves raspberries and I think that raspberries go great with lemonade.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Neely’s Lemon Pasta Salad I omitted the asparagus and used yellow tomatoes instead of red because I wanted the color of lemons.
Lemonade Stand: I cut a flour tortilla to shape and used a food safe marker and food coloring for details. I sprayed a cookie sheet and tortillas with cooking spray and baked at 400 for about 5 minutes until browned.
Lemonade Pitcher & Glass: Gumdrop type candy
Lemon Tartlets: I used this recipe but did not put powdered sugar on top.
Fruit: Raspberries
Not Pictured: Lemon yogurt
The theme for our fourth and last day of Aunt Kathy’s Preschool Camp was Under the Sea. Our previous themes were Australia, Dinosaurs/Volcanoes, and Outer Space.
I made this lunch for my 28 month old nephew. I was running out of time so I quickly cut the sandwich freehand. My nephew enjoyed everything except the pepper.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Fruit: Strawberries
Vegetable: Red bell pepper
Background: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Pretzel and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Baby Crackers
Crab: Peanut Butter sandwich on wheat bread, Wilton candy eye, and food marker smile
I made this lunch for my nephew who is almost five. I was running out of time so I quickly cut the sandwich freehand. I was going for shark but I think that it looks more like some type of fish. My nephew did not mind, he gobbled up this lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Background: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Pretzel and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Baby Crackers
Shark: Peanut Butter sandwich on wheat bread, Wilton candy eye, and food marker mouth
Vegetable: Corn (I think of corn as a starch not a vegetable but my young nephew is limited with vegetables he will eat and he requested corn)
Fruit: Blueberries
Preschool: Our focus of the day was anything that is Under the Sea but we also had fun with sand. We played with Play-Doh, sand and water. We ate fun and healthy food. We used hands to create cute painted crabs. We pretended to walk like a crab, swim like a fish and used snorkel equipment.
We used Play-Doh to imprint shells and pose laminated paper sea creatures.
Shell Imprint in Play-Doh
Laminated Sea Creatures in Play-Doh
I created a quick sandbox from a plastic tote. We added some sand toys and plastic gold coins to find in the sand. It was a rainy day so we played on my side porch.
Sandbox
I created a water table of sorts from a plastic tote. Old and young kids all enjoyed this so much! We had things that floated (sponges, cork, plastic boat, watering can) and things that sunk (flat marbles). This activity was a huge hit!
Water table
I found cute Under the Sea themed chocolates at The Fresh Market. They were a fun addition to our food for the day.
Crab and Fish Shaped Chocolate
Since it was our last day, I bought a watermelon and designed and carved a simple Shark/Under the Sea themed fruit bowl. Our fruit salad contained watermelon, red grapes, and pineapple. It was delicious and all enjoyed a fruit feast!
Under the Sea Themed Carved Watermelon
We made an Ocean in a Bottle and filled it with small shells and small plastic sea creatures I found at The Dollar Tree.
Ocean in a Bottle
We found this cute crab hand print idea and did our own version. The young nephews enjoyed picking out googly eyes.
Crab Hand Print Craft
Eclectic Lamb 
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