Meet the Dubiens

a Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit snack

2012-05-28T15:48:00.000-04:00

This Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit snack was this weeks submission over at Canadian Family. Come check out how I made it! Your kiddos will love it.

this week in bento boxes

2012-05-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

Well this post is a little late today. Better late than never though, right? What an incredibly crazy and busy weekend. My hubby just came back in town last night from a 3 week long work trip out of town. The last 3 weeks were absolutely exhausting without him. Kudos to single parents. I have no idea how you do it. I just about lost my sanity several times over the last few weeks. Whew, I'm glad he's home. This week is probably going to be crazy busy too. My little girl is turning 5 this week and we have a big birthday celebration planned for next weekend! If you know how I like to plan parties, I have a lot of work ahead of me this week! I am sooooo not on top of things lately. Anyway, here are some of Kirsten's recent school lunches. Nothing fancy, just easy and cute lunches.

This first bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top orange tier held some multigrain crackers and some tiny cubed marble cheese. The bottom tier held some butterfly cut cucumbers and baby tomatoes.

This cute giraffe bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some baby carrots. The bottom tier held a circle cut chicken sandwich. I cut a piece of marble cheese into a giraffe and added a food safe marker eye. The bottom tier also held some sliced cucumbers with a sweet little giraffe pick.

This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held a flower silicone muffin cup with jello (I prepared the jello ahead of time in muffin cups and have them ready to go in the fridge). The top tier also held some yogurt-covered raisins. The bottom tier held a homemade blueberry muffin and some fresh blueberries with a cute elephant pick.

Here's another bento for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held some unsweetened blueberry applesauce. The bottom tier held a silicone muffin cup with a sliced cereal bar and some sliced plums with a sweet little bunny face pick.

And lastly, an afternoon bento for a rainy day. The top tier held some fresh blueberries. The bottom tier held some crinkle cut cucumbers and a circle cut ham sandwich. I used a mini umbrella cookie cutter to cut an umbrella out of cheese and placed it on the sandwich.

Here are some of the supplies (or similar) that I used this week to make these lunches:

cute cupcake: butterfly

2012-05-26T07:36:00.001-04:00

Here's another cupcake for my weekly cupcake post. With the beautiful Spring weather we've been having, we've seen quite a few butterflies fluttering around our yard. This butterfly cupcake was incredibly easy to make using only a few easy to find candies. I took a prepared and frosted cupcake and added a sour gummy worm for the body, 4 candy-coated almonds for the wings, black gel icing colour dotted on with a toothpick for the eyes, and 2 chocolate sprinkles for the antennae. Couldn't be easier!

silly kid pictures

2012-05-24T05:30:00.000-04:00

Ahhh. This week has been so incredibly busy for me, I really haven't had time to post on here. The quickest post I could think of right now was to post a few silly pics of the kids I took a couple months ago and never got around to posting. So that's what you're going to get. Silly kids. I hope everyone else is having a great week!

a quick and healthy turtle snack

2012-05-21T16:21:00.001-04:00

Come check out this week's cute food submission to Canadian Family here. I made a really adorable turtle snack for the kiddos. You won't believe how quick and easy it really is!

a new bento box I love

2012-05-20T08:22:00.000-04:00

This week in bento boxes will be showcasing a couple new bento boxes that I just bought and I absolutely love. I bought them, and most other bento supplies I used this week at All Things for Sale. I really love and recommend their store. They have super reasonable prices, all the cutest bento supplies around, amazing customer service and reasonable shipping - even to Canada for me!! My blog readers are always asking me about what products I love, so when I find a new one I absolutely adore, I want to share it with you guys. Without further ado, here it is:

Let me show you all about it and why I love it:

It's a colourful 2-tier bento with adorable little marching animals on top. They come in 2 different colours (blue/green and red/yellow) and I love them both. They are really easy for my daughter (4 years old) to open at school on her own, and they have to be secured closed with a bento elastic band.

The top plastic lid with the animals on it comes off to hold some utensils, which is pretty awesome. The utensils have to be relatively flat and small, but you really shouldn't have a hard time finding some that fit. I love this feature.

Take the top lid off and it will reveal the top tier. It's a little larger than the bottom tier, and holds a good amount of food.

When you take the top tier off, it will reveal the bottom tier with a white lid on top of it. I'm not sure if these lids are totally leakproof because I haven't put any liquids in them, but they do seem fairly secure.

The white lid comes off to reveal the bottom tier which is slightly smaller than the top tier. With both tiers together, it holds a perfect amount of food for a lunch for my daughter. I love it!

And here's all the pieces!

This is why I love them

1) They're cheap! They are currently selling for $2.99 for the red/yellow one and $3.50 for the blue/green one. Can't beat that. I don't like spending a lot of money on my kindergardeners lunch supplies in case they ever get lost. These adorable little lunchboxes are cheap and great!

2) They're super easy for my daughter to open herself. Kirsten doesn't like to ask for help with her lunch at school, so if she can't open it herself, it won't get eaten. These open very easily and are held together with a bento elastic band.

3) They're colourful and adorable! If you know me, or can tell from my blog, I love bright, colourful and cute. These lunchboxes fit that bill exactly.

4) They hold a perfect amount of food for her. She gets two nutrition breaks a day, so two of these lunchboxes daily. I think they hold a perfect amount of food for her!

Here are some of the lunches I packed for her this week in these adorable boxes:

This adorable bento was for her afternoon nutrition break. The top green tier held a silicone cup of turkey bologna roll-ups, some whole wheat crackers and some bear-shaped marble cheese. The bottom tier held a row of baby carrots.

And here's the red/yellow one. This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The larger top tier held some watermelon chunks cut into flowers with blueberries. The smaller bottom tier held a sliced wholewheat and blueberry waffle with an adorable little bear container with maple syrup for dipping.

Here's another afternoon nutrition break bento. The larger top tier held a chicken sandwich cut into a rectangle. I put a cute piece of animal baran on top for decoration. Cute and easy! She also had some cubed marble cheese with a cute pick. The smaller bottom tier held a silicone pea pod with sliced carrots and some pretzels.

And lastly, another morning nutrition break bento. The larger yellow tier held some sliced pineapple and blackberries. The smaller red tier held a cereal bar and a silicone flower filled with yogurt-covered raisins.

Here are links to the boxes and the supplies I used this week:

cute cupcake: snail

2012-05-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

Here's another cute cupcake, perfect for Spring. It was super simple to make, using regular candies you can find anywhere. The snail was made out of a sour gummy worm, a hard candy for the shell, 2 chocolate sprinkle antennae, and black gel icing dotted on with a toothpick for the eyes. I also cut 2 green leaves out of green taffy to add a little more to the cupcake. Super simple and super cute for Spring.

Guess who's in Parenting magazine again???

2012-05-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

Can you guess??? Okay, it's me!! This time I was asked to create some fun summer cupcakes for them. You can check them out in the June issue of Parenting Magazine, on newstands right now. My cupcakes are on page 82 of the magazine. Here's a little peak at what it looks like:

I'm soooo excited. I think it looks fabulous.

a 'beary' cute hamburger

2012-05-14T17:13:00.003-04:00

Having a BBQ soon? Make your kiddos one of these 'beary' cute hamburgers and you'll be sure to get some laughs and smiles. These were surprisingly really easy to make too. Get the details over at Canadian Family.

this week in bento boxes

2012-05-13T07:18:00.002-04:00

Happy Mother's Day! I've got a busy day planned with my kiddos, so I'm getting this post up bright and early this morning before I forget! Here are some more bento boxes Kirsten has had recently:

This fun little bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some crinkle cut cucumbers. The top tier held a circle cut ham sandwich with 2 baby tomatoes on a cute cherry leaf pick. She also had some crackers and a babybel cheese with her initial 'K' cut out of it.

This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. She top tier held some sliced strawberries with a cute panda bear pick. The bottom tier held a silicone container of jello (I made a batch and poured it into silicone muffin cups for her lunch), and some pretzels.

This cute bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some cubed cheese and crackers. The bottom tier held a silicone flower with ham roll-ups and some flower cut cucumbers.

This was another afternoon nutrition break bento. The top tier held some sliced celery. The bottom tier held a silicone flower cup of cubed cheese with a cute little monkey pick and some crackers.

And lastly, another cute morning nutrition break bento. The top tier held some sliced strawberries with rainbow sprinkles. The bottom tier held a silicone cup with a sliced cereal bar and a peeled and segmented clementine orange.

Here are some of the supplies I used (or similar) to make these lunches:

cute cupcake: fly a kite

2012-05-11T17:45:00.000-04:00

Here's the next cute cupcake in my cute cupcake series. If you missed it last week, I'm going to be posting a new cupcake every week in a Spring/Summer theme for the next 3 months. I picked the kite cupcake today because of the beautiful Spring day we had today. Warm, gorgeous weather, perfect for flying a kite. All of my cupcakes will be simple to make. Here's how I made this cupcake:

What you'll need:

1 baked cupcake
white frosting
blue gel icing colour
4 different coloured starburst
black licorice lace

1. Take some blue gel icing colour and colour some white icing. Spread the blue icing on a baked cupcake.

2. Cut all four of your starburst candies and cut them into quarters. Use 1 quarter from each colour and arrange in a kite shape on your cupcake.

3. Cutt off a piece of your black licorice lace and place on your cupcake for the kite string.

grow mom a window herb garden

2012-05-09T18:26:00.000-04:00

We moms cook a lot. We are the ones who are responsible for putting a hot meal on the table most nights. The more I cook, the more adventurous I've become in selecting recipes. A lot of the recipes I choose to make call for fresh herbs, and I was constantly paying high prices for these at the grocery store. I really wanted to get into making my own window herb garden for my kitchen window, and I thought that would be a perfect project for my kiddos to make for me! Kirsten mostly helped with this one. She wrote out labels for the herbs, she helped plant the seeds, and she's been making sure they have enough sunlight and water. Every day when she gets off the school bus, the first thing she does is check on her little garden. It's become quite exciting for her to see the seeds sprout into plants. We used clear plastic cups and she loves seeing the roots through the cups. We started the whole process a couple weeks ago and I just snapped a picture of them this past weekend. In just 2 short weeks all 5 of the herbs have at least sprouted, and 2 of them have really taken off. The picture would have looked better had all 5 of them been well grown, but I wanted to post this before Mother's day! What a great little Mother's day gift for me from my kiddos. I look forward to using these herbs. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

5 plastic cups - you could of course use 5 nice plant pots, but I just used what we already had on hand
soil
seeds
white sticker paper
black marker
scissors

Directions:

1. pick out 5 varieties of seeds that you would like to grow.

2. fill all 5 cups with soil.

3. give your kiddo the seed packets with the names on them, and have them write out the names of the seeds/plants on the white sticker paper.

4. cut out the names from the sticker paper, peel off the back and stick on each of your 5 cups.

5. make a small well in the soil and sprinkle a few seeds in the centre. Repeat for all 5.

6. water your seeds and place in a window that gets lots of sunlight.

7. give your seeds sunshine, water and love and you'll have your very own little herb garden in no time at all!

cute food: a lollipop for lunch??

2012-05-07T16:56:00.002-04:00

Get the details of how I made this adorable PB&J lollipop sandwich on Canadian Family.

this week in bento boxes

2012-05-06T07:52:00.000-04:00

Happy Sunday everyone! Here are some of Kirsten's lunches this week:

This healthy and colourful bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some whole wheat crackers and some turkey bologna roll-ups. The bottom tier held some baby tomatoes, crinkle cut cucumbers, baby carrots, and some adorable little animal picks.

This bento was also for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some whole wheat crackers, turkey bologna roll-ups, and some cubed marble cheese. The bottom tier held some sliced baby carrots and an adorable silicone pea pod filled with frozen peas. The peas will have defrosted by her lunch break for a delicious snack.

This fun little bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. She had a frozen smoothie, which helps keep her lunch cold and defrosts by her break. She also had a sliced cereal bar in a silicone muffin cup and some sliced pears with some rainbow chips and a cute little pick.

Here is another bento for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some crinkle cut cucumbers. The bottom tier held a chicken sandwich cut into a circle with a cheese and sprinkle flower on top and some sliced baby carrots.

And lastly, another bento from Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held some blueberry unsweetened applesauce. The top tier is leakproof, so it's great for things like applesauce. The bottom tier held a sliced cereal bar in an adorable flower silicone muffin cup and some green grapes with an adorable lion pick.

Here are some of the supplies I used (or similar) to make these lunches:

cute cupcakes: caterpillar

2012-05-05T08:51:00.000-04:00

I've recently gone a little "cupcake crazy" in my house and I have made about a million cupcakes. They aren't fancy cupcakes, just white cake mix and white icing, but the designs on top are something special. I will be sharing 1 cupcake once a week for the next 3 months. All these cupcakes will have either a Spring or Summer theme to them. They are easy to make, cute to look at, and delicious to eat. Can't beat that! With the gorgeous Spring weather we had here yesterday, I thought this cute little caterpillar would be the perfect cupcake to start off my cupcake series. Here's how I made it:

What you'll need:

1 prepared cupcake with white frosting
5 skittles
green taffy
2 chocolate sprinkles
black gel icing
toothpick
knife

1. Take your prepared cupcake and place 5 skittles on top for the caterpillar's body.
2. using your knife, cut 2 leaves out of your green taffy - you can also use your knife to make a line down the center of the leaf - don't cut through it! Place the leaves on the cupcake.
3. add 2 chocolate sprinkles for the caterpillar's antennae
4. dip your toothpick in black gel icing and dot on 2 eyes.

fingerprint pussywillows

2012-05-02T16:44:00.001-04:00

This is one of two crafts I managed to salvage from my camera's memory card when my hard drive malfunctioned. I lost so many awesome crafts that I did with the kids. I'm really devastated about that. I did find this little gem on my camera's memory card though. I saw the idea of making fingerprint pussywillows in this month's issue of Disney Family Fun and knew it would be a craft we would enjoy. We love all crafts that involve handprints, footprints, fingerprints and thumbprints. This is a really simple Spring craft to make and it looks really pretty. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
brown markers
light grey paint (I mixed white and black together)

Instructions:

1. using your brown marker, draw some pussywillow stems on your canvas

2. get your light grey paint and have your child dip their finger in the paint and stamp all along the pussywillow stems

3. allow to dry and display your masterpiece

Lisa Leonard giveaway winners

2012-04-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

Here are the 2 lucky winners of a $50 gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs good for anything in her store!

Lucky winner #1

#71 - Patty C

Lucky winner #2

#33 - Shaka

Congratulations ladies and thank-you so much to everyone who entered. Ladies, I will be in contact with you shortly to send your gift certificate your way.

Don't forget the 20% off coupon code to get you 20% off anything from Lisa's site. Enter dubien20 at checkout until May 2nd.

Thank-you so much to Lisa Leonard Designs for hosting this giveaway! Happy shopping ladies!

I'm a new food columnist for Canadian Family

2012-04-30T17:49:00.000-04:00

I'm really excited to be sharing this with you guys. I am extremely honoured to be a new food columnist for Canadian Family. I have a weekly column (every Monday) where I will be sharing cute foods and ideas. My first post launched today and this is what I shared:

Come check out my column on Canadian Family here to get the details on how I made this pretty as a peacock snack!

this week in bento boxes

2012-04-29T08:02:00.002-04:00

Here's some more bento boxes. These are packed in my amazing EasyLunchboxes. If I haven't told you already, I really love them. I love the bright and colorful lids, my daughter is able to easily remove the lids herself, and they hold the perfect amount of food for her to eat.

This lion bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The lion sandwich was a turkey bologna sandwich cut into a circle. There's matchstick carrots for the mane, fruit leather for the whiskers, mouth and ears, turkey bologna for the nose and mozza cheese and food marker eyes. The lion rests on a bed of romaine lettuce. The other compartments held a silicone muffin cup with blueberries and a lion pick, and some cucumber and carrot flowers.

Here is a sweet little birdie bento for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. She had a sweet little birdie sandwich with carrot legs, a cheese heart wing, sprinkle nose and icing eye. The birdie rests on a bed of romaine lettuce. The other compartments held a silicone muffin cup "nest" of matchstick carrots and sweet little cheese birdie and sliced kiwis and strawberries with a tree pick.

This "You are my sunshine" bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The large compartment held a sun sandwich on a bed of romaine lettuce. The sun sandwich was made using a flower comfort grip cutter with a circle cheese face. It also had icing eyes and food marker mouth and cheeks. The other compartments held baby carrots and sliced strawberries with rainbow sprinkles.

This cute little bear bento was also for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The larger compartment held a bear sandwich on a bed of romaine lettuce. The bear sandwich was made cutting a chicken sandwich into a circle. I added fruit leather ears and nose, cheese face, icing eyes, sprinkle cheeks and food safe marker mouth. The other compartments held crackers with cheese-shaped bears and sliced celery.

And lastly, a cute little piggy bento for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. She had a piggy sandwich cut into a circle on a bed of romaine lettuce. The face and ears of the pig were made with turkey bologna. The piggy also had icing eyes and sprinkles for the nose. The other compartments held sliced kiwis and sliced cucumbers.

Here are some of the supplies (or similar) that I used to make these lunches:

fun food friday: say cheeeeese

2012-04-27T15:47:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I know I said last week's fun food friday might be the last one for awhile. I lost a lot of fun food friday's I had already made when my computer's hard drive crashed, and to be totally honest, I've been lacking some motivation there for awhile too. I'm sure I'll jump back on the band wagon again soon. I did find some motivation this week though... I was at the bulk store last weekend, when I saw another kind of lip pops. It was like it was fate. As soon as I saw this cheesy little smile, I had to scoop it right up. Kirsten had Spring picture day at school this week, and I thought it would be hilarious to make her a huge cheesey-faced smile sandwich. Kirsten tends to do pretty cheesey smile herself when she is forced to smile, lol. Both of the kids thought this was really cute. If you haven't seen my posts, I've made quite a few lunches lately using the leftover plastic piece from lip pop lollipops. I think they're really great. Those posts can be seen here and here.

Here's how I made this lunch:

Chicken and cheese sandwich cut into circle shape. Fruit leather eyebrows, cheese and fruit leather eyes, lip pop smile, and carrot stick hair. Super easy and a hit with the kids!

Giveaway from Lisa Leonard Designs for Mother's Day

2012-04-25T05:53:00.000-04:00

I know, another giveaway! I don't usually do giveaways on my blog, but I was so excited when Lisa Leonard contacted me to do this giveaway, that I couldn't say no. Seeing as almost all of my blog readers are either mothers or grandmothers, or have a mother or grandmother, I was really excited to bring you this giveaway from Lisa Leonard Designs just in time for Mother's Day. Lisa's store is filled with gorgeous necklaces, earrings and bracelets that any woman would love. If you're not really into jewelry, she also carries gorgeous key rings, home decor, as well as wedding keepsakes, jewelry and decor too. There really is something for everyone at Lisa's store. Lisa is generously offering my readers (2) $50 gift certificates to her store. This will be a short-running giveaway, ending Monday April 30th. Orders must be placed by May 2nd to be eligible for Mother's Day delivery, so I wanted to squeeze this in so you guys could meet the deadline for delivery. Lisa has also generously offered my readers a 20% off coupon to her store until May 2nd. Enter the code dubien20 at checkout to receive your discount. This offer is for absolutely anything in her store. Visit Lisa's store to start shopping here

Need some inspiration? Here are some of my favourite pieces from Lisa's store (click on the pictures to bring you to Lisa's website):

Jewelry - aren't these necklaces absolutely gorgeous?!?! I think any mother/grandmother would be thrilled to receive any one of these.

Isn't this ring just awesome!! You could put your kiddos names on it - or even you and your hubby's too. Gorgeous.

How about these amazing cupcake toppers!! I adore these.

Now these are just a few examples of some of my favourite things. Lisa's store is filled with many, many more options, so make sure you check it out.

Are you excited?!?! Do you want a chance to win?? Lisa has generously offered (2) $50 gift certificates, so there will be (2) winners to this giveaway.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Leave a comment telling me who you would love to win this giveaway for.

Want to earn additional entries? Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry you complete. If you already do these items, please leave a comment indicating so.

2. Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect in the sidebar.

3. "Like" Meet the Dubiens on Facebook here

4. "Like" Lisa Leonard Designs on Facebook here

5. Sign up for Lisa Leonard's newsletter on her website here

6. Share this giveaway on either your blog and/or facebook page

7. Tweet this giveaway

Wow!! You can have a total of up to eight entries!!

This giveaway will close Monday April 30th in the evening. 2 winners will be drawn that evening and posted here. Please make sure you either leave me your email address in your comment, or ensure that your name links to your email address.

DON'T FORGET - orders must be placed by May 2nd to be eligible for delivery by Mother's Day. Also, don't forget the 20% off coupon code that is good until May 2nd - dubien20 at checkout.

Good luck and have fun shopping! Thanks again to Lisa Leonard Designs for hosting this awesome giveaway!

bento giveaway winner announced

2012-04-24T21:33:00.000-04:00

Again, what an outstanding response to this bento giveaway. Thank-you so much to everyone who entered. It seems there are lots of people out there who want to make these cute and healthy lunches for their little ones. The lucky winner of this giveaway is:

Lucky commenter #297 - Nicole@http://theclarks-nicole.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Nicole! I will be emailing you shortly to find out your choice of color of bento box and elastic strap so your package can be sent to you.

Didn't win the giveaway, but still want to get the products from the giveaway?

They can be purchased from All Things for Sale for awesome prices - just click on the picture to get to the product on their website. All Things for Sale has an amazing assortment of bento supplies. You can find anything and everything you need to get your bento-making started or help you continue what you're already making. Here are the items that were in the giveaway:

Thanks again to All Things for Sale for hosting this amazing giveaway!

this week in bento boxes

2012-04-22T08:03:00.000-04:00

Don't forget to enter my amazing bento giveaway here if you haven't already. It closes on April 24th. I think it's been a couple weeks since I've shared some bento boxes. I lost a very large collection of bento boxes I had made when my hard drive crashed. I was really bummed, but I do make so many of these every week, I knew I could recover this weekly post pretty quickly. Some of the bento boxes this week have an Earth Day theme - to celebrate Earth day today! Kirsten really got a kick out of her Earth day lunches this week because they were celebrating Earth day at school all last week too. Here are some of this week's lunches: This Earth day bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier had a silicone flower filled with frozen peas and yogurt-covered raisins. The peas will defrost by her afternoon lunch break for a fresh and healthy snack. The bottom tier held a chicken sandwich cut into a circle with some sliced cucumbers. One sliced cucumber with an adorable tree pick on the sandwich. This Earth day bento was for one of Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held a cereal bar with a heart and EARTH cut out of fruit leather. The bottom tier held blueberries and green grapes. This Earth day bento was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The bottom tier had a circle-cut ham sandwich with a fruit leather recycle symbol on top. It's never too early to learn to recycle and my kids help me put the recyclables in the blue and yellow boxes every night after supper. They love helping out. The bottom tier also held a silicone muffin cup with sliced cucumbers. The top tier held a silicone cup of yogurt-covered raisins and some plain cheerios on either side. These next 2 aren't really Earth day bento's, but I'm sharing them because they're in green boxes, lol! This bento was for Kirsten's morning nutrition break. The top tier held sliced kiwi and blueberries. The bottom tier held a silicone muffin cup with a sliced cereal bar and some plain cheerios. And lastly, this little floral bento box was for Kirsten's afternoon nutrition break. The top tier held some cucumber cut flowers with carrot centers. The bottom tier held a flower silicone cup with cheese chunks and some triangle triscuit crackers.

Here are some of the supplies I used (or similar) to make these lunches:

fun food friday: it's mater!

2012-04-20T14:45:00.000-04:00

This may be the last fun food friday post for a bit, unless I get my act in gear. I had so many fun food friday posts saved on my old computer, and well, they're gone now. It bums me out so much, I've kind of lost my motivation for now. I only have this one because it was on my camera's memory card. This was the one I was supposed to post last week. Hopefully I'll feel inspired to make more fun food friday's this week - no promises though. I think I need to stop being angry and start getting productive again. It's just so frustrating knowing how many I've lost :-( Anyway, this fun food friday was for my little man. He's a big fan of cars, so I knew he would love this sandwich. It all started with the bunny lip pops a couple weeks ago, and then I remembered that I had those same lollipops with mater teeth on them. Cam got a couple in his stocking at Christmas. I saved the teeth for some reason and had no idea what I was going to do with them, but knew there must be something. So glad I came across the brilliant idea to use them for bento and sandwiches. Making a mater sandwich is still a little bit of work and cutting, but the teeth just give it that extra something special without any effort at all. Anyone who knows me, knows I love the easy way. Quick, easy and fun is generally my motto. I don't really have instructions on how to make mater. It was more or less a ham and swiss cheese sandwich, that I turned into mater by using a knife and a lot of cutting. The crust was used for details like the bumper, wheels, mirrors, etc. I used 2 cucumber mini circles for the eyes and a swiss cheese circle for mater's 1 good headlight. The mater teeth brought it all together simply and easily. They stick right into the sandwich and stay there nicely until your kiddo takes it out. They are washable and reusable and just perfect! Here's what they look like:

grasshead ladies

2012-04-18T19:14:00.003-04:00

I have bad news about my computer. Nothing could be recovered. My hard drive malfunctioned and everything was wiped clean. I'm definitely learning my lesson the hard way. I've spent the last few days trying to get some posts back together. I was very thankful that I have the last month's worth of pictures on my camera memory card. That helped a lot. But I lost so many pictures, photoshop actions and brushes, purchased clip art, storyboard and blog frames, blog posts, etc. I always knew I should back up my stuff more often, but life always got in the way. Now that I've lost so much, I realize that I should never be too busy to do a backup. Ughhh. I hate learning lessons the hard way. Anyway, enough about my whining, and onto the craft. Here's a great craft for earth day that uses recycled materials around the house.. We used empty yogurt drink containers and turned them into pretty ladies. Kirsten really enjoyed this craft and has enjoyed watching her grass grow. We bought some awesome soil/seed mix by Scott's and the grass grew in no time. That stuff was amazing. Here are the instructions to make your own:

What you'll need:

empty yogurt drink containers
scrap fabric
scissors
googly eyes
glitter glue
glue gun
grass seed/soil

Directions:

1. remove labels and wash and dry your yogurt containers

2. decorate your little ladies however you want. We used fabric scraps, googly eyes and glitter glue. I hot glued the fabric and googly eyes on for quicker drying.

3. put some soil/grass seeds in your empty container and water it.

4. place your container in a sunny place and water as needed.

5. your little grass lady will have hair to style in no time!