The Templeton Twins Make a Scene - 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!

THE TEMPLETON TWINS MAKE A SCENE is book two of the hilarious Templeton Twin series written by Ellis Weiner and illustrated by Jeremy Holmes. If you have not read book one THE TEMPLETON TWINS HAVE AN IDEA we highly recommend you do! This book is filled with kid-friendly humor, suspense, silliness and many serious words. The narrator is as much part of the book as the reader and gives the reader a quiz after every chapter just to make sure you paid attention. This time around Abigail and John have to outsmart the Dean brothers again, rescue their father and dog and of course the important invention their father built for TAPAS. A must-read for all suspense loving readers!

We packed a suspenseful lunch for clever kids in our Easylunchboxes:

• The Narrator's Guacamole which is mostly coleslaw (recipe in the book) decorated with a few tools one needs to build clever inventions.
• An apple to stay healthy and smart with a Cryptic Crossword* and Cassie, the Ridiculous Dog.
• A very filling ham and salad sandwich with the Templeton Twins in bread, cheese and German edible paper - I know, I know you expected beef tacos** but ham sandwiches are much easier to eat on the go!

 

* Abigail loves solving Cryptic Crossword puzzles and this clearly stands for The Templeton Twins!
** If you read the book, you would know why. Go read the book!

I nearly forgot to show you our favorite page. Although nearly every page was our favorite page. But, this one was just a little more loved. It has the word "Poopyhead"on it so it must be the best page ;)

We really loved the blueprint inspired illustrations throughout the book and the enjoyed the details they added to the story. If you love guacamole or coleslaw and suspense, action and pop quizzes this book is for you! It was hard to put down for both me and my 9 year old! Go read it! You won't regret it!

Fun Halloween Fruit Parfait {with Tutorial}

There is only one day left before Halloween and with Halloween the season of treats and goodies will begin. Since I love yogurt and chocolate I thought combining the two to make a delicious fruit parfait could be fun!

  

Halloween Fruit Parfait:
~ makes four 8 oz desserts

• 4 cups of Orange Vanilla yogurt
• 1 pack of Italian lady fingers
• 8 oz of sweet fresh or frozen sliced peaches
• 8 oz of mini dark chocolate chips as is or melted.

How to make them:

First layer lady fingers into glass.

Add Orange Vanilla yogurt - about 2 tablespoons.

Add three sliced peaches.

Add either chocolate chips or melted chocolate. If using melted chocolate only spread a thin layer on the peaches.

Repeat until your glass is full and end with a layer of yogurt and chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

Best if refrigerated for at least one hour to let flavors combine.

My entire family loves this dessert so I decided to make some to give away as well.

 And of course some for my kids’ lunch boxes.

Happy Halloween!

This post was originally posted in 2012 as a guest post. Since it has been deleted from the original blog I am reposting it on my own blog today.

BBF Halloween Hop

2 more days until Halloween! Are you as excited as I am? I love fall and Halloween and I cannot wait to take the kids trick-or-treating! Today I am part of the annual Bento Bloggers & Friends Blog Hop. Click through to the next blogger at the end of each post and you will be able to enjoy 18 fabulous Halloween lunch ideas!

We packed a spooky Planetbox Shuttle bento box filled with:

• a spooky ghost vanilla yogurt with melted chocolate decorations
• grape tomatoes with spooky eye ball chocolates
• Peeps Ghost marshmellows
• eye ball grapes and
• CuteZCute chocolate spread bat sandwiches

I also added a fun Lunchbox Love Halloween Card to make this lunch extra boo-tiful!

And now please hop over to Sandra from One Crafty Thing to see what she created for our Halloween Hop:

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

Scratch-Off Lunchbox Note Review {and Giveaway}

My kids love lunchbox notes! There is just something special about finding a little note in your lunchbox with a reminder from home. My boys especially love jokes and silly lunchbox notes and the Inklings Paperie Lunchbox Notes add a whole new layer of fun with their scratch-off stickers! We couldn't wait to try these out!

What's in the Inklings Paperie Lunchbox Notes bag? You receive 

• 20 lunchbox notes with a fun black and white herringbone pattern on the back, 
• 20 scratch-off stickers and 
• a very handy storage back. 
• Also, included were a card with directions and idea starters.

   1. Write your message or draw a simple picture (like Wendolonia).

    2. Cover your message with the scratch-off sticker.

    3. Add a penny or something else your child can use to scratch off their message.

I have to say these lunchbox notes are really fun! My kids love lunchbox notes in general and we often add pre-printed ones with trivia and jokes. Recently, I started adding these pre-printed notes to my pre-readers lunch and she would thank me for them every day. One of the mornings when I was carefully choosing a card I asked her who read the cards to her at lunch. She told me that no one was reading them to her but she knew they said "I love you!" I was so touched but also realized that it would be more personal if I would draw her a picture for lunch instead of sending a written note. These cards are perfect for just that! My older kids loved the extra fun part of scratching the sticker off to find the written message from me but from now on I will draw my daughter a note. Besides that, I like that the design is gender neutral so they are great for both my daughter and my sons. They are also age neutral - meaning both my 5 year old and my teen like the design. And if you have different aged kids you can do both: write a short message or simply draw a picture for your pre-reader!

Love the Inklings Paperie Scratch-off Lunchbox Notes? You can win some right here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to US residents only. Winner will be notified via email and has 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is chosen.

And if you cannot wait to get your own Scratch-off Lunchbox Notes, use my code "MAMABELLY20OFF" thru December 2014 to save 20% at Inklings Paperie.

Yumbox Lunches for the week of 10/13 - 10/17

We have a new YUMBOX and my little girl is so in love with her new purple lunchbox ( a former review with tips and tricks is coming soon!). I collected all the lunches we packed this week - plus a bonus lunch from last week!!

Our first Yumbox lunch contains:

• an organic yogurt tube
• orange slices
• an egg
• 5 mini sandwiches 
• carrots with purple carrot hearts and
• a few gummy bears

This Yumbox is packed with:

• A Chobani Greek yogurt tube
• orange slices
• mini sandwiches
• cheddar crackers
• broccoli and carrots
• and a few gummy bears

The chocolate Greek yogurt was so good we packed it again in this Yumbox with:

• apple "salad"
• cheese crackers
• stamped flower sandwiches
• carrots and grape tomatos and
• a few chocolate chips

It was "PINK" day at school this week and we packed our Yumbox with lots of pink:

• a Z bar with the letters P I N K
• kiwi with a pink Hellp Kitty pick
• mini sandwiches with a pink bunny pick
• pink Goldfish crackers
• and apple "salad" with a pink dolphin pink

My daughter picked Winnie the Pooh and Piglet bento picks for this lunch:

• another Greek yogurt tube
• kiwi "salad" with Winnie the Pooh
• cheddar crackers
• left over rice with Piglet
• baby carrots and 
• chocolate chips

Can you tell I adore my mini sandwich maker? This Yumbox is packed with:

• a mint Z bar
• vanilla yogurt with sprinkles
• mini sandwiches
• Baby Goldfish crackers
• cucumber spears
• and a few peanut M&Ms

If you are ready to pack your own Yumbox lunches, you can see what I used here (contains affiliate links):

Please also check BENTO USA for bento picks. They often have sales and sell the picks at a better price :)

A Library Book for Bear - 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! 

Can you ever have enough books? Not in my opinion but Bear from A LIBRARY BOOK FOR BEAR is not so sure. This sweet book written by Bonny Becker and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton tells the story of Mouse and Bear going to the library. Bear is quite sure he only needs the 7 books he already has while Mouse is trying to show him all the library has to offer. Will Bear check out another book? Find our in A LIBRARY BOOK FOR BEAR!

We packed a lunch today that is perfect for a walk to the library:

• a chocolate spread bear sandwich,
• an apple slice with the words READ,
• a small basket with snacks for bear and mouse: pretzel FISH and CHEESE,
• also packed are some library books made out of a cereal bar and fruit leather

I Wish, I Wish for Fish - Wished Lunches on Wednesday

My kids generally take lunch without requesting something special. Today everyone was tired and hard to motivate but when I offered them to help packing lunches they all wanted a say and to help. It was a lot of fun and hopefully this means the lunches all come home eaten!

My Kindergartner's Yumbox is packed with:

• a Z bar
• vanilla yogurt with sprinkles
• 5 mini chocolate spread sandwiches
• cucumber spears and
• 3 peanut M&Ms

My 3rd Grader is not a big sandwich fan and requested a no-sandwich sandwich. I packed his Easylunchboxes with:

• cucumber spears
• Baby Goldfish
• 4 chocolate spread mini pancake sandwiches and
• a bag of Somersault snacks

My middle schooler grabbed his Easylunchboxes with:

• Baby Goldfish
• Applesauce
• a Z bar
• and a Turkey, Swiss cheese and lettuce wrap

How did your morning go?

To see what lunchboxes I used, you can go here (contains affiliate links):

"Halloween is Near" Easylunchboxes

Halloween is only 22 days away and I decided it's time to break out the Halloween decorations. Mornings have been hectic and time is not always on my side, so these are all "5 minutes or less" lunch ideas. Adding a few cupcake rings or fun wooden spoons can dress up any regular lunch and make it spooky, fun or festive.

My son thought a Hulk sandwich would be perfect for a Halloween themed lunch and we packed his Easylunchboxes with:

• a delicious chocolate spread Hulk sandwich
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• an apple sauce
• and a few of our Halloween lunch decoration.

This is as simple as it gets. The same lunch as above with a cute ghost and glow-in-the-dark spider cupcake ring. 

My youngest son wanted an orange lunch in his orange Easylunchboxes and we packed:

• Annie's Ceddar Bunnies
• applesauce
• mini sandwiches
• and an organic Z bar with Halloween wrapper

If you want to spruce up your lunches with a few fun decorations, you can find what I used above here (contains affiliate links):

German Brotzeit Lunch

As many of you know, I am from originally from Bavaria, Germany. We have a second breakfast before noon that we call "Brotzeit" or literally translated "bread time." Traditionally, pretzels, pretzel buns, pretzel sticks or a hearty bread are served (or packed to go) with lunch meat, fruit, cheese, vegetables and more. I grew up loving Brotzeit and I thought the kids would enjoy a Brotzeit lunch since a few of my kids eat on the early side at school.

I was able to find pretzel sticks at Wegmans a few towns over and packed our Easylunchboxes with:

• a few veggie chips
• carrot sticks
• A pretzel stick with butter, Salami and lettuce shreds

The kids are excited for lunch and I hope to pack more Brotzeit lunches in the future.

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up - 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 Leroy or are curious what he would pack if he was stranded on a desert island, head over to his special interview!

This post contains affiliate links.

Meet Leroy, the dreamer who wanted to be a cowboy, from LEROY NINKER SADDLES UP written by Newbery Medal winning author Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

Leroy is the lovable protagonist in this story, dreaming of being a cowboy just like the movie stars in the drive-thru movie theater he works at. But a cowboy is not a cowboy without a horse. Leroy sets out to buy a mighty horse but falls in love with Maybelline, an old four-toothed mare. When Maybelline disappears because of his negligence he must rescue the horse of his heart, and lasso loneliness for good. This heartfelt and hilarious book is a must-read for all ages!

We packed packed a lunch perfect for rescuing the horse of your dreams in our Easylunchboxes:

• carrots for Maybelline, the horse
• popcorn from the Bijou Drive-in Theatre concession stand Leroy works at
• and a Leroy Ninker Salami Sandwich

And if you want to make your own LEROY NINKER SADDLES UP LUNCH you can check out here what I used to pack lunch (contains affiliate links):