Applegate HALF TIME Review {with Giveaway}

I am passionate about packing healthy, well balanced lunches for my kids. But there are those mornings when I wish there was a quick solution to lunch packing that was healthy and delicious. Because we all wake up with a head cold sometimes  have bad mornings sometimes and having a healthy lunch solution at hand can be a huge time saver!

This is why I am so excited that my favorite companies (Applegate, Annie's Homegrown and Stonyfield Organics) have teamed up to bring you HALF TIME - a lunch you can feel good about!

HALF TIME is available in 3 varieties:

• Turkey & Cheese
• Ham & Cheese, and 
• Bologna & Cheese

All three varieties include Applegate Naturals meats, Annie's Homegrown Buttery Rich crackers, Stonyfield YoKids Squeezers Strawberry and either Annie's Homegrown fruit snacks or graham crackers.

So we put HALF TIME to the test (actually the hungry Tween test. One hungry 12 year old vs HALF TIME Ham and American Cheese):

I have to admit that I was not sure if this would be enough food to feed my 12 year old son for lunch. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised when he finished and told me that he loved it AND that it was enough for lunch! He loved making cracker stackers and with the yogurt and cookies he felt full but not weighed down. SUCCESS!

What we loved:

• made with organic and natural ingredients
• free of preservatives, artificial flavors or colors
• all animals are raised humanely and without antibiotics
• the combination of yogurt, fruit snack and crackers with meat and cheese
• includes familiar brands we already buy
• enough for a tween for lunch

What to keep in mind:

• it does not include a drink (this was NOT an issue for me since my kids carry a water bottle to school every day) but it might make a difference to you.
• the current price is about $5 at our local Target, so a little on the pricey side. I still think it is worth the extra money to have a healthy lunch in the fridge for a busy morning or a better to-go food for car trips, after school activities, field trips, museum outings or ball park visits.

Would you like to try HALF TIME? Win an awesome prize pack!

Included in your prize package is everything pictured above:

• All three varieties of HALF TIME: Turkey & Cheese, Ham & Cheese, and Bologna & Cheese
• A draw-your-own lunch bag
• A set of permanent markers
• Coupons
• Activity book

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to US addresses only. Winner will be notified via email and has 24 h to claim their prize before a new winner is drawn. Good luck!

Disclaimer: Applegate provided me with a free HALF TIME snack kit. All opinions are my own.

Yumbox Lunches for the week of 9/15 - 9/19

Here is our round up of Yumbox lunches for this week. My daughter chose one of our German lunchboxes twice this week so I only have three lunch ideas for you but there will be more again next week since the Yumbox seems to just consistently work best for her.

1.) Yumbox Flower Lunch

We packed a flowery lunch containing:

• carrots
• strawberry yogurt
• Annie's cheddar bunnies
• kiwi
• 1/2 bag of fruit snack and
• a stamped flower sandwich

2.) I Have My Eyes On You Lunch

A silly mismatched lunch containing:

• three Energy Bites
• peach yogurt
• Snikiddy Mac'n'Cheese Puffs
• carrots
• 1/2 bag of fruit snack
• and a stamped Minnie Mouse sandwich 

3.) The Pudding Yumbox

This funny pudding Yumbox is packed with:

• pudding set right in the tray
• celery and grape tomatoes
• Annie's snack mix
• kiwi
• 1/2 bag of fruit snacks
• and a stamped Hello Kitty sandwich

How was your week? 

If you want to pack your own Yumbox lunches you can find what I used here (contains affiliate links):

Easy Lunch Ideas in Easylunchboxes

Somehow week 3 of the beginning of school is the hardest so far. Trying to keep up with everyone's schedule is harder then I thought now that I have 4 kids in 3 different schools (of course all with different school hours). I am still packing lunches every day (unless there is Macaroni and Cheese on the school menu and all four kids are batting their eye lashes to convince me to let them buy). How are you doing with week 3? Leave me a comment at the end of the post. I'd love to know your tips and tricks to stay organized and on top of things or hear what did not go so well this week!

But back to lunch. Here are some lunches from this week. All in our Easylunchboxes for quick assembly line lunch packing:

My kids love the idea of Uncrustables so I often make my own (less expensive and so much healthier!). This lunch is packed for a superhero and contains:

• a Hulk pocket sandwich
• cheese crackers
• strawberries
• a kid sized cereal bar and a few fruit snacks

Have a Tween at home? They love big lunches and for this Easylunchbox lunch I packed:

• cheddar crackers
• grapes 
• a large pepperoni, spinach grinder
• a small container with veggie dip 
• and celery to dip

We all need a pick me up mid-week so I made pudding and let it set right in the Easylunchboxes over night. I sealed the compartment with a small piece of press&seal plastic wrap to prevent leaking and they all came home with huge smiles that afternoon. I also packed:

• snack mix
• a big wrap with turkey, cheese and spinach
• grape tomatoes and
• a fruit snack 

National Guacamole Day #GuacitForward

Happy National Guacamole Day! I have partnered with Wholly Guacamole® and Laptop Lunches to celebrate this fun holiday (we all need a reason to celebrate with guacamole, am I right? Psst, find the giveaway from last week or at the end of this post and win some yummy guacamole and Laptop Lunches Bento Buddies!)!

Wholly Guacamole® wants to celebrate National Guacamole Day this year by paying it forward and they need your help!

Use the hashtag #GuacitForward on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share how you are paying it forward! Together we can put a lot of smiles on people's faces! 

So, how did we celebrate National Guacamole Day?

We packed a fun Guacamole lunch in our Laptop Lunches Bento Box:

• Classic Wholly Guacamole® mini
• tortilla chips
• ham, cheese, salad and hummus wraps and 
• baby carrots and a piece of last night's corn

I also added a matching Lunchbox Love Card to encourage my kids to #GuacitForward today!

And to celebrate National Guacamole Day, you can win some fun Wholly Guacamole® and Laptop Lunches goodies:

• a set of Laptop Lunches Avocado Bento Buddies and 

• an awesome Wholly Guacamole® cooler full of:

• 3 Guacamole Trays (various flavors)

• 2 mini cups (various flavors)

• Chip Clip

• Avocado Squeezie

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Louise Loves Art - a Literary Lunch

This lunch is also posted over at The Little Crooked Cottage as a Literary Lunch. Head over to the fabulous blog of four children's book authors and check out the wonderful Literary Interviews with Mr. Pig himself! And if you want to find out more about Louise or are curious about what might be in her pockets right now, head over to her special interview!

Louise Love Art - written and illustrated by Kelly Light - is a beautifully illustrated book about the importance of creativity in all forms. In Louise's own words: "I love art! It's my imagination on the outside."

But working on a masterpiece is hard sometimes when your little brother is working on his own masterpiece at the same time. This sweet and imaginative story is a great book for all budding artist out there! My kids really enjoyed this book and could relate to the sister-brother relationship in this book (with four kids there is always a lot happening at once). As you can see our copy is well loved already and I know this book will be read many more times to come.

To celebrate all creativity we packed an Easylunchboxes lunch anyone could imagine for lunch:

• strawberries with a purple crayon decoration
• corn puffs with fruit leather hand prints
• and a Louise chocolate filled tortilla with melted chocolate and fruit leather decorations

Hope everyone's week is filled with creativity. Happy Reading!

If you want to make your own Louise Loves Art lunch, check out what I used to make my lunch (contains affiliate links):

National Guacamole Day Celebration with Wholly Guacamole and Laptop Lunches {with GIVEAWAY}

National Guacamole Day is this coming up this Tuesday and Wholly Guacamole® is celebrating by giving back to the community and encouraging others to do the same! With their #GuacitForward campaign Wholly Guacamole® wants to encourage everyone to pay it forward! They are also spotlighting their partners who contribute to charity and pay it forward. Wholly Guacamole® and Laptop Lunches have teamed up for an amazing Giveaway and you can win some fun and yummy lunch stuff while giving back!

Doesn't this Shrimp pasta salad look delicious? For fun lunch ideas using Wholly Guacamole® head over to their website. When you get there, select Lunch ideas and you can scroll through all the Grown-Up and Kid's lunch ideas. If you click on the recipe name, a convenient shopping list pops up to make it easier to pack your own yummy Wholly Guacamole® lunch!

I let my kids look at all the fun lunch ideas and this deconstructed Nacho lunch was their favorite. I am glad there is an easy printable list on Wholly Guacamole®'s website and I am always looking for new lunch packing ideas. Would your kids love this?

For more ideas on how to pack a great National Guacamole Lunch go to Wholly Guacamole®.

And to find out more on how to  #GuacitForward:

So what can you win?

• a set of Laptop Lunches Avocado Bento Buddies and 

• an awesome Wholly Guacamole® cooler full of:

• 3 Guacamole Trays (various flavors)

• 2 mini cups (various flavors)

• Chip Clip

• Avocado Squeezie

Enter my easy giveaway below! Good Luck!
(Shipping address has to be in contiguous United States).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner will be notified via email and has 24 h to claim their prize before I will draw a new winner!

Joe and Sparky Go to School - a Literary Lunch

This lunch is also posted over at The Little Crooked Cottage as a Literary Lunch. Head over to the fabulous blog of four children's book authors and check out the wonderful Literary Interviews with Mr. Pig himself! Plus, if you want to know why the interview with Joe and Sparky turned out to be a little awkward, head over to Mr. Pig's interview!

Do your kids have the back to school jitters? You can help make them feel better about school by reading "Joe and Sparky Go to School" by Jamie Michalak and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz to them. You can be sure that the giggles won't stop! My kids loved to imagine what would happen if Joe and Sparky came to their school and they all have their own favorite parts in the book!

This book is so funny and sweet and the two mismatched friends can make everyone relate! Sparky, the turtle, is cautious and careful and his fun-seeking friend Joe, the giraffe, loves to discover new things. When Sparky gets stuck on the roof of a visiting school bus the friends learn quickly that there is a lot to learn about school. Who knew the math peas were not a snack?

My kids especially love the part in the book when all the kids (and Joe and Sparky) get send for a bathroom break and Joe and Sparky discover the "magic pond." 

To celebrate back to school we packed a Joe and Sparky lunch for school in our Easylunchboxes:

• gold cheddar stars which Joe so badly wants to earn at school
• a green Sparky turtle kiwi
• and of course a Joe the giraffe peanut butter and jelly sandwich

We love this book (as you can see from last year's post) and I highly recommend the entire Joe and Sparky series! They are a great read for all ages but best read aloud for the best giggle fun!

Want to make your own Joe and Sparky lunch? Here is what I used (contains affiliate links):

Our week in Yumboxes (almost)

My daughter started Kindergarten this week. I spent some time with her over the weekend talking about the foods she wanted to have in her lunchbox. She picked kiwi, cheddar bunnies, cucumbers and mini sandwiches. I tried to keep her lunch looking familiar and filled with the foods she picked while switching it up a little for variety. The first week of school is exciting enough so I wanted to make sure lunch was predictable but yet fun. So, these yumboxes all look somewhat alike but not quite. How do you make your kids feel comfortable the first week of school?

MONDAY:

The theme of our Monday yumbox is "Hello Kitty on a Farm" - packing lunch with a 5 YO is so fun!

We packed our Hello Kitty lunch together with:

• Annie's Homegrown Bernie's Farm Animal Crackers
• sliced Kiwi
• Annie's Cheddar bunnies
• two mini Hello Kitty chocolate spread sandwiches
• cucumber slices
• and 1/2 a packet of fruit snacks

TUESDAY:

Tuesday we were running later than usual and just as I was trying to take a picture my daughter reminded me that we had not done her hair yet. So you will just have to take my word for it. It was cute and filled with more:

• Hello Kitty themed sandwiches
• kiwi
• cucumber slices
• Annie's cheddar bunnies
• apple slices
• 1/2 packet of fruit snacks

WEDNESDAY:

I tried to switch it up a little and my daughter had requested banana slices since another child had brought them in their lunch that day. We packed a Melody themed yumbox with:

• Annie's Homegrown snack mix
• banana slices sprinkled with Fruit Fresh (to prevent the banana from browning)
• baby carrots
• Melody stamped chocolate spread sandwiches
• kiwi slices and
• 1/2 packet of fruit snacks

THURSDAY:

My daughter laid out the food picks for me the night before and this is what I packed in her yumbox:

• a Stonyfield Organic Cherry Yogurt tube (fits folded into the compartment)
• kiwi slices
• Annie's cheddar bunnies
• two heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• cucumber slices and carrot flowers
• and 1/2 packet of fruit snacks

FRIDAY:

Today my daughter requested a "cute" lunch and I packed her a panda themed meal:

• Annie's snack mix
• vanilla yogurt with sprinkles
• a vanilla chip cereal bar
• two Mama and Baby Panda CuteZCute Pocket Sandwiches
• cucumber slices
• and 1/2 packet of fruit snacks

Things I used to make this lunch (contains affiliate links):

Goodbyn Hero Review {and Giveaway}

I am so excited to share the new Goodbyn Hero with you! We love our Goodbyn lunch boxes (they were the very first we started packing lunches in) and could not pass up the opportunity to try out the new Goodbyn Hero and give you a chance to win your very own!

My kids could not wait to unpack the Goodbyn Hero when it arrived. The box included the lunch box, two dippers, a drink bottle, a spork, and of course a sheet of stickers. My daughter immediately took off with the spoon to eat yogurt so it never made it into the picture but here it is by itself:

My kids love spoons and sporks and this was perfect for them. The spoon is deep enough to be great for soups but also yogurts, applesauce or other spoon worthy foods!

We packed some fun foods for school to try out the new Goodbyn Hero. This lunch contains:

• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• Cucumber slices
• Sunflower bread with salad and pepperoni and decorated with a CuteZCute bear made of cheese
• a happy banana
• and a yogurt (not pictured but that is what the spork is for)

My younger kids did not want to be left out of the Goodbyn test so I packed a smaller lunch for them:

• a Goodbyn bottle with 1/2 water and 1/2 grape juice
• strawberry yogurt
• granola as topping for the yogurt
• a pepperoni sandwich stacked
• and some champagne grapes

Our Verdict?

We love the new Goodbyn Hero just as much as the Goodbyn Original and the Goodbyn Bynto. Since I have 4 kids different ages I love that I can make the lunchbox fit for everyone! If I add the dippers and bottle to the lunchbox my Kindergartner can take it and have enough food and a drink packed conveniently all in one box. If I pack for middle school I can pack the lunch box to the top and add the dippers separately to the lunch bag to give my son the extra fuel he needs. And for the other two kids I can personalize it as well by adding the dippers and bottle or sending them separately. A real grow-with-you lunch box! The only thing to be aware of is that the lunchbox is large. It will not fit into a regular lunch cooler. It fits best into the Goodbyn Insulated Lunch bag! We have the insulated lunch bag that fits both the Bynto and the Hero so I had no issue with the size but wanted to mention it. 

And as always, the Goodbyn Hero is:

• dishwasher safe
• BPA- and phthalate free
• 100% recyclable

Want to win one for your child? Enter here! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

US Residents only. Winner will be notified via email and has 48h to claim their prize.

Disclaimer: Goodbyn sent me a Goodbyn Hero prize pack to review. All opinions are my own.