Little Bites

Today's lunch is a variety of small servings of food packed to encourage the kids to eat a little bit of everything. I have noticed that sometimes their lunchboxes come back with one bite out of this and one bite out of that but nothing was really finished. Packing small amounts of a variety of different food groups hopefully will encourage them to eat more.

This lunch contains:

• Pirate Booty
• Apples
• Somersault crackers
• Carrots and celery
• a protein cereal bar
• and a graze apple&cinnamon flapjack

 They also packed yogurt and ice water.

And I added a special Lunchbox Love Note as well. It has been a long week already and two of the kids were out sick but they were good patients and hopefully we can end the week on a healthy note (:

What I used to make today's lunch:

A Happy Birthday Lunch

It's my Daughter's Birthday today and I had a very special lunch planned for everyone.
However, as it happens sometimes there was very little time this morning so I made this very simple birthday lunch for the boys and ended up taking her to lunch instead. Because she lunches now. She is so big. 4.

I packed Tangelos, a peanut butter sandwich and decorated with a few picks. They also packed yogurt and a cereal bar today. I am so glad for picks sometimes because they can dress up even the  most simple lunch!

Happy Birthday!

Funny Thursday

Simple sugar eyes and an air bubble in our bread made this lunch a lunch to giggle.

In addition to the funny bread we also packed crackers and cheese, strawberries and oranges and as always yogurt and ice water.

A snack for lunch

We packed lunch in our yumbox again today. This lunch is for my first grader who eats very little for lunch. He chose all the different foods himself and because I know that he will eat a warm snack once he is home I let him choose snacky foods today.

He chose popcorn, Berry Blossoms cereal from Kashi, a cereal bar, two mini grape jelly sandwiches and mini peppers cut up.

I found these cute mini cookie cutters on Amazon and I love how they came out!

I love using our yumbox at home as well. My 3 year old daughter wanted a lunch box lunch and what better box to use then our yumbox :)

We packed popcorn, apples, oranges, a small amount of vanilla yogurt to dip the apples in, pretzels, two mini strawberry jelly sandwiches and a half a banana. And now there is a very happy 3 year old munching on lunch :)

  

Vapur Review

Vapur generously sent me two of their Anti-bottles to review and I am so glad they did because it changed the way my kids think about water!

About two years ago when I first started this blog we put away all disposable lunch plastic bags and disposable drink containers and moved everybody to reusable water bottles and reusable lunch boxes in an attempt to reduce trash and be more eco-friendly. We have and enjoy many water bottles but these water pouches just top everything else in convenience and fun!

I love the Element Water bottle! It holds 0.7 l of water and is perfect for the gym or while out running errands! Plus, you can freeze the bottle overnight and take it with you and it will defrost much faster then other bottles which is great if you are like me and always forget to take the bottles out of the freezers in time!

I also love the fact that you can roll - yes roll! - all Vapur bottles when empty!

Being able to roll the bottles makes them perfect for on the go!

They fit easily in my small purse at the end of the day or to grab one to fill up while on the go!

Another feature I love is that they are dishwasher proof! Yes! Easy to clean thanks to their wide mouth opening once you remove the cap and we have washed ours regularly in the dishwasher - such a time saver!

I also find their spout really easy to drink from and love the tight seal of the cap!

Vapur also sent us the 14 oz Quencher for kids. A HUGE hit in our house!

It has all the same great features as the Element but with kid-friendly features! I love that the spout is just like any sports bottle which make it easy to drink out of and the best part for my kids were the stickers! They had so much fun making their very own water bottle!

They clip their water bottles to their backpacks and roll them after lunch! They are also great for our afternoon sports since they clip to all our backpacks, sports equipment and bags!

When I first received the bottles my 10 year old took a look at the Quencher and deemed it to "baby-ish." He immediately grabbed one of the Element bottles and claimed them for his own. However, when I asked him to let me take a picture of his bottle I found this:

An Element Water bottle with some of the Quencher stickers!! His brother had shared the stickers and he made his own "cool" bottle! The Vapur Anti-bottles are now approved by all kids 3-10 :)

And to give you an idea of the size of the Vapur bottles I took pictures in comparison to a regular water bottle:

Remember when I mentioned that Vapur changed the way my kids think about water?

My kids love their bottles so much {and Vapur sent us two more so we have one for each child} they now fill their water bottles themselves and bring them everywhere. Therefore they drink a lot more water then before! We tote our water bottles everywhere and even use them around the house since they are all personalized with their own monsters and we can keep them apart easily.

To sum up, here are the features we love:

Pros:

• Made in USA
• BPA free
• dishwasher safe
• Supercap for a tight seal
• carabiner hook to attach to all bags
• flexible and freezable
• Quencher comes with lots of sticker
• Quencher has sports cap for kids

Cons:

• In my opinion: none!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

We packed very simple Valentine's Lunches in our Easylunchboxes this morning:

Mini Orange and Cranberry breakfast muffins topped with a chocolate heart from yesterday, strawberry hearts and a peanut butter and jelly heart pocket with chocolate decorations.

I added Lunchbox Love Cards of course to make this lunch extra special !

We also packed our yumbox again. Today we packed a Chobani Champions Strawberry tube with chocolate decorations, strawberry hearts, carrots with a big apple heart, mini sandwiches and a cereal yogurt bar. 

Valentine's Lunch

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day!
My kids are getting bigger and the boys did not want any "frilly" Valentine's Lunches this year so I tried to keep it simple and used melted chocolate to decorate ;)

First I melted some chocolate and piped simple chocolate hearts onto parchment paper. It is really easy and I did it this morning while having coffee and popped them in the freezer for a couple of minutes to harden.

For the two older boys I packed Easylunchboxes with Naturebox Cranberry Almond Bites, a half a red pear with a small hear cut out and heart shaped peanut butter and jelly pocket sandwiches. I decorated the sandwich with a small amount of chocolate and added a few of the chocolate hearts I had made earlier. Of course, as always, we packed ice water and yogurt as well!

For my youngest son I packed our yumbox with a cereal bar, mini heart sandwiches, a few Naturebox Cranberry Almond bites, apple pieces, carrots with an apple and carrot heart, a mini apple skewer and half a red pear with a heart cut out. I added a few chocolate hearts as well for decoration and he loved it when he saw it before school :)

I also added some Lunchbox Love Cards to sweeten their lunches and cannot wait to hear what their trivia was today!

100th Day of School

Today is the 100th day of school!
And of course we packed a special lunch!

I packed our yumbox for my first grader with applesauce, strawberries and oranges, carrots with a cheese 100, bus pepperoni sandwiches, a cereal bar and a few UnREAL chocolate candies! 

The older kids packed lunch in EasyLunchboxes and have a pepperoni sandwich with a cheese 100, 100 cheese bunny crackers and strawberries and oranges. Everybody packed ice water and a yogurt as well.

For the afternoon snack we packed pretzels, a cereal bar, a chocolate treat and an apple :)

Rainy Day Lunch

It is raining but I am not complaining because I know it is snowing many other places!
It is gloomy, cold and rainy and I packed a cheery fish lunch in the hopes it brings back the sun :)
You can even see the rain drops on my ELB lid!

We packed our Easylunchbox with sweet strawberries, orange slices, Naturebox Cranberry Almond bites and two Lunch Punch fish sandwiches with candy eyes.

Elephants & Pandas

Lunches were packed fast this morning since we all woke up feeling tired.
Coffee here I come!

My son wanted a lunch similar to this yubo lunch so packed him vanilla yogurt, chocolate shavings and Naturebox Orange Crush Granola and a Lunch Punch Elephant sandwich with a chocolate chip eye standing on a vanilla chocolate chip cereal bar. He also brough ice water in a thermos!

We also packed our new yumbox today which seems perfect so far for my small appetite first grader! He chose vanilla yogurt, oranges, carrots and apples, a yogurt cereal bar and half a pretzel bagel with cream cheese for lunch today. I added a chocolate heart as a special treat for today as well. He has ice water in a thermos packed in his lunch bag, too.

I love that this lunchbox has so many small compartments! My son felt overwhelmed with the bigger lunchboxes and he loves this 6 compartment box. Less food but more choice!

Lunchbox Love Winner

And the winner of my Lunchbox Love Card Giveway is...

Laura R. - please check your email! 

Lunch Munch

We were gone Monday and Tuesday to visit with family but this morning we are back and packing lunches, snacks and a second breakfast!

Also, this is the last day to enter my Lunchbox Love Giveaway! Don't miss it!

We packed popcorn, apples and a puzzle peanut butter sandwich for lunch. They also brought yogurt and ice water and today I also added a Lunchbox Love Card! Yay for left handed Polar bears :)

Lunch #2 also has popcorn, apples, yogurt and ice water but for my oldest I packed a nitrate free ham and salad sandwich. He also has a Lunchbox Love Card which gives a whole new meaning to the mini van ;)

We are so excited that our yumboxes came and packed our first lunch in it today. I packed my first grader some of the new Chobani Champions tubes, apple bunnies, Naturebox cinnamon almonds, two mini chocolate chip cookies, two bear peanut butter and honey sandwiches, carrots and a few chocolate chips. He also has ice water and of course a Lunchbox Love card. Well, and now we know that we will never see a crocodile sticking it's tongue out at us, lol!

Since we have to catch up on some things and run errands I also packed my 3 year old a yumbox with a second snack breakfast. She has cheese, apples, carrots, Naturebox cranberry almond bites and some nitrate free ham.

My oldest also needed a snack today so we packed apple bunnies, a cereal bar and Naturebox cashew power clusters in our Lunchbot Trio.

Have a great day!

Lunchbox Love Review and Giveaway

If you read my blog on a regular basis you know that we love our Lunchbox Love Cards!
My kids love reading them and I love that they bring them back home to show me the trivia on the back and we always have a great conversation starter after school!

A Lunchbox Love Card adds just a little extra love to your lunch and puts a smile on your child's face!

This is a very simple lunch in an Easylunchbox containing strawberries, Goldfish crackers and a Pepperoni sandwich but the Lunchbox Love card adds the special touch I couldn't add with picks or designs that morning!

There are so many different sets and I always find just the perfect card to say what I feel!

This card was absolutely perfect for the National Peanut Butter Day lunch I made!

Lunchbox Love Cards also have seasonal cards like sets for Christmas and Thanksgiving but also for Valentine's Day! Wouldn't it be fun to add a special Valentine's Lunchbox Love Card to your kid's or loved one's lunch? Find out how you can win some at the end of my post and

Make every day Valentine's day with Lunchbox Love!

I have been thinking about Valentine's Day a lot. Because I have 3 boys. In 1st, 2nd and 5th Grade and they have already told me: no smootchy, girly lunches for Valentine's Day!

So, I was standing in my kitchen trying to think of a way to pack a lunch or snack for Valentine's Day without red hearts, doilies and lip picks. And then I stumbled upon Susanne Kaluza's post about crackerbread and knew what I wanted to do:

I baked some heart shaped crackerbread (thanks for the inspiration Susanne!), made some hot and crispy oatmeal bars (recipe on the blog soon!), grabbed the delicious Eleanor's Apple Crumble snack mix from our graze box and a red pear (which are my kid's favorites right now. They are incredibly juicy and sweet!). I also added a chocolate heart (it is Valentine's Day afterall) and cut a small heart into the pear. I did sneak one heart pick in there but I think overall it is a very sweet and manly Valentine's lunch!

Our lunch is packed in an ECOlunchbox and of course I added a Lunchbox Love Valentine's Day card to finish the Lunch with Love :)

But now the exciting part:

Lunchbox Love Cards generously is offering you the chance to win some Lunchbox Love Cards of your own! 

Just enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below and Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Giveaway is open to all readers in the US and Canada. I will email the winner and you have 48 h to respond. If you do not respond to my email I will re-draw a different winner!