Lunches May 21st - 25th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.


My Dog Never Says Please by Suzanne Williams

Ginny Mae is very upset with her family. They always expect her to use her manners, wear shoes outside, clean her room, etc. She is jealous of her dog's easy life. Ginny Mae decides to join Ol' Red in the backyard and experience a dog's life. She soon discovers that what she had was not so bad. Boogs thought this was a cute story. He said he would never want to live like a dog but he might try living like a hamster for awhile. In the Laptop lunchbox: almond butter and jelly Ol' Red, Babybel cheese Ginny Mae, graham cracker dog bones, ham, tomatoes, kiwi, and yogurt.

Morris Goes to School by B. Wiseman

We still have a couple of weeks before school is out and summer officially begins. Boogs is very excited about the Barnes & Noble's Summer Reading Program. He wants to earn a free Lego book. He chose Morris Goes to School as his first book for his reading log. This book has a 2.0 accelerated reading level. Morris the Moose really wants to buy some gumdrops. Unfortunately, he cannot read or count. Morris goes to school to learn how to read and count so that he can buy his gumdrops. In the Laptop lunchbox: pb&j Morris, strawberies, yogurt covered pretzels, blueberries, and salad with radish stars.

 Fly Guy Presents Sharks by Tedd Arnold

Boogs discovered Fly Guy earlier this year and fell in love with the series. We have read all of them. Boogs picked out this book at his school's Book Fair. This book is a departure from the silly Fly Guy stories we have seen so far. Fly Guy and Buzz go to the aquarium and find out all about sharks. There are great pictures in the book and lots of shark facts. Boogs enjoyed reading about the different types of teeth sharks have. While I was making this lunch, Boogs informed me that my shark mouth must be a Cookie Cutter Shark because all of the teeth were lined up evenly and pretty much the same size as each other. In the ELB lunchbox: mini pb&j Fly Guy, ham & cheese shark mouth, pistachios, berries, salad, Pringles, and yogurt.

 If Not For The Calico Cat by Mary Blount Christian

Long ago in Japan, sailors believed that they might fall off the edge of the world when traveling by sea. To keep a ship safe, the sailors thought a calico cat must travel with the crew to bring good luck. The cabin boy of The Jade Lotus manages to catch a calico cat just before the ship leaves port. The crew believes that their good luck is guaranteed. They choose the wrong calico cat to bring aboard. This cat is nothing but bad luck. Boogs laughed at all of the trouble the cat caused. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly Calico Cat (made with the CuteZcute cutter), "BAD LUCK" spelled in cheese on a small piece of ham, Goldfish crackers, green bean chips, dried apricot, orange, tomatoes, and broccoli.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Boogs' Activities

Grandmaman - here are a few pictures of what Boogs has been up to for the past couple of weeks. 

Boogs saved up his own money to get a book that he wanted from the book store.

Boogs decided that Winter wanted to watch TV with him. He put Winter in a box next to him on his cozy chair. Boogs likes to put different obstacles for Winter to conquer to find her treats.

Boogs participated in the QUEST Fair at school. He had just finished swimming before the Fair and was still shivering and cold. He kept his hoodie on to warm up while he explained his poster to people who stopped by.

Boogs is still going to the Explorer's Club at the library. The project this week was to make a waterproof vessel to float in a tub of water.

 Boogs changed his design a little after putting it in the water.

We have had been enjoying the great outdoors on some beautiful and breezy sunny days.

I did not get the notice that last Wednesday's practice had been changed to a make-up game. Boogs was the only child there without a uniform or hat. He said it did not bother him at all. He still had fun playing.

Boogs had his first swim meet of the season this past Saturday. I can't believe how big he is getting.

 Ready for action!

Boogs swam hard in all of his heats. He knocked 9.56 seconds off last year's freestyle time, 15.67 seconds off last year's backstroke time, and 10.35 seconds off last year's butterfly time.

 

After the butterfly, he told me he was too tired to smile for a picture.

Lunches May 13th - 17th

Boogs' lunches are usually inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Things have been a little bit off this week. I started getting sick last Thursday and have yet to fully recover. This led to my husband ordering pizza Sunday night. Boogs took pizza to school for lunch on Monday. Then, he had pizza for dinner Monday night. Boogs did get a variety of fruits and veggies with each serving of pizza. At least he did not go hungry.

See-Through Reptiles by Steve Parker

Last week, Boogs had chickens hatch in his classroom at school. In this book, Boogs enjoyed reading about reptile eggs. There were a couple of transparency overlays that showed four different stages of baby crocodile development inside the egg. So I had to put an egg in Boogs' lunch. In the ELB lunchbox: 'reptile' boiled egg, muffin 'ground' used for the snake noodle to camouflage into, Babybel turtle (I tried), ranch dressing in an ELB Mini Dipper, broccoli, and mango.


Naughty Little Monkeys by Jim Aylesworth

Boogs checked this book out from his school library. Naughty Little Monkeys is an alphabet book. The monkey's names begin with A and keep going until a monkey has a name beginning with Y. Each monkey is shown misbehaving in a way that begins with the same letter as his/her name. Brooke bounced on the bed, Danny swings on the drapes, etc. These 26 little monkeys cause a great big mess. Boogs laughed out loud at some of the antics the monkeys get into. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly naughty monkey sandwich, ELB Mini Dipper filled with hummus, carrots, kiwi, blueberries, yogurt, and fruit leather.


 We arrived home late from a baseball game and skipped reading our bedtime stories one day this week. So Boogs took grapes, broccoli, ham, cheese, crackers, and yogurt to school in and ELB lunchbox.

 Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see moe book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by. 

Lunches May 6th - 10th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.

The Inside Tree by Linda Smith

Mr. Potter has a nice cozy house. When he looked out his window and saw the dog looking in, he felt like he had to invite the dog inside. That left one little tree in the yard all by itself. Mr. Potter could not leave it out there all alone so he dug up the tree and planted it in a hole in his floor. This caused all sorts of trouble including the eventual collapse of Mr. Potter's house. Boogs laughed out loud at the cute ending of this story. In the ELB lunchbox: salami birds that have taken over the broken cheese house with a broccoli and Zbar tree growing through it, carrots, and applesauce. 


Dan's Angel: A Dectective's Guide to the Language of Paintings by Alexander Sturgis

Boogs is a big fan of mystery/detective stories. The main character, Dan, wants to be a detective. He is always looking for clues, even when he does not know why he is looking for them. When Dan enters a museum, the angel from The Annunciation, painted by Fra Angelico, hops out of the painting and leads Dan on a tour of many famous works of art. The book includes paintings by Rembrandt, De Goya, Van Gogh, Picasso, Botticelli and a few others. Dan has to use his magnifying glass and his reasoning skills to "read" the paintings for their meaning. The last two pages show a two-page spread with thumbnail pictures of all the paintings in the book. I asked Boogs, if he had to choose one to hang in his room, which painting would he pick. Boogs chose Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh. He explained, "I know my favorite one is the sunflower painting. I would hang that one in my room because it has nice yellow colors in it and yellow is kind of like a calming color. The whole painting is calming and that would be the best one for me to see when I am trying to go to sleep in my room."

In the ELB lunchbox: ham & cheese sunflower, roll, cashews, spinach, yellow tomatoes, and mango. My depiction of a sunflower is not so great. You have to see Karen's sunflower lunch at What's in Our Lunch Bags? Her Dr. Who/Van Gogh sunflowers are amazing!




Water Voices by Toby Speed

This book is kind of a guessing game. Every other two-page spread shows some form of water with a riddle that closes by asking "Who am I?" You have to turn the page to see what kind of water will answer the riddle. Boogs enjoyed this guessing game book. In the ELB lunchbox: salami & cheese raindrop sandwich, Goldfish Crackers from the lake, blueberry puddle with red strawberry rain boots, growing veggies soaking up the rain.

 What the Rat Told Me: A Legend of the Chinese Zodiac by Marie Sellier, Catherine Louis, and Wang Fei
"At the dawn of the dawn of the world... the Great Emperor of Heaven invited all the animals in creation to visit him." Rat was very cunning and sneaky. He arranged for Cat to miss meeting the Emperor on the day he would give out years for each animal to rule. Rat sneacked his way into first place in line to become one of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac. He was followed by ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. To this day, Cat still dislikes Rat for tricking him out of a place in the zodiac. Boogs and I talked about which sign goes with the year he was born. Boogs, my mom, and I were all born in Dog years. Boogs enjoyed reading this tale based on a Buddhist legend dating back to 206 BC.

 

Some days, the lunch idea image in my head of what I want a lunch to look like, is way way off of what I actually send to school with my son. My husband was in the kitchen when I was about to put the lid on this zodiac lunch. He teased about it by saying, "Ooo... I think you are slipping. What is that thing in the corner?" He is actually a really good sport about my almost obsession with story themed lunches. In the Laptop Lunchbox: almond butter & jelly rat sandwich (you guessed that was a rat, right?), tiger drawn on Babybel cheese, raisins, ham swirls, pretzels, and salad.


Boogs started daily swim team practice this week. I packed him a couple of quickly 'throw in a box' snack-meals to eat on the way to practice. These each took about 5 minutes to make and kept him fueled for swimming laps at the pool.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Boogs Has Been Busy!

Spring is such a busy time for activities for Boogs. Grandmaman, here are a few pictures for you.

The weather has been unseasonably cool. We have really enjoyed playing outside in the breezy sunshine.

 Boogs' baseball season is more than halfway over. Yesterday, he had three solid hits.

 He is really enjoying playing this year.

Boogs moved up to Level 2 at swim team evaluations.

Boogs lost two more teeth this past week!

Boogs is definitely busy. He has a few more Lego Robotics classes, QUEST Fair and presentations are coming up this week, daily swim team practice begins tomorrow, he is still in a weekly swim lesson class, we have three more baseball games, and we are making sure to schedule "do nothing" time and hang out with the hamster time. One more month until summer break begins.

May the 4th Be With You Blog Hop

Last year, Bento Bloggers & Friends had so much fun making our Star Wars Bento hop that we decided to do it again this year. We had so many in the group want to participate that we had to break our hop into two separate hops. Names were given to differentiate both parts of the hop, Bento Lunches... the Way of the Jedi and Come to the Dark Side... We have Bentos. The names do not denote villains only in one hop and good guys in the other.

I am in the Come to the Dark Side hop and I did not put any villians in this lunch.

 

Boogs likes Star Wars almost as much as I did when I was his age. He has several Star Wars books and has seen Episodes IV, V, and VI. I put Boogs' Star Wars lunch in an ELB. In the lunchbox: Little Debbie Star Crunch Chewbacca with chocolate chip features and peppermint teeth, boiled egg R2D2, ham & cheese Yoda sandwich, Yoda shaped Now & Later, cheese SW for Star Wars, pretzel light saber, kiwi, and salad with broccoli trees for the Ewoks home planet.

 

I had fun making this lunch, but I think last year's Star Wars lunch was better. Boogs said he really liked this year's Star Wars lunch. He ate every bit of it.

Here is last year's lunch. The right hand side of the lunch depicts the trash compactor scene in Episode IV.

In the lunchbox: marshmallow storm trooper, carrot stick light sabers, nori Darth Vader, Yoda spinach tortilla quesadilla, leftover rice/beans/cheese/sour cream "garbage" with Luke, Leia, & Han cheese heads, chocolate Teddy Graham Chewbacca, pretzel rod to brace the walls of the compactor. The M&M filled light saber was for a treat after school and did not go to school in Boogs lunchbox. Boogs also had a few apple slices not included in the pictures.

You must click on the Come to the Dark Side button to hop over to Biting the Hand That Feeds You. I can't wait to see what Star Wars themed meal Kendra has created!

Once you have completed the Dark Side hop and returned to this post, I am sure you will want to see the Way of the Jedi hop. Just click this button to view the second Bento Blogger & Friends May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Hop.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. To view other Bento Bloggers & Friends hops, click the "blog hop" label at the end of this post. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Lunches April 29th - May 3rd

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.

I did not make Boogs a lunch on Monday. We had the day off from school and went out to lunch with friends.

13 Words by Lemony Snicket

This book begins with the word Bird. Word #2 lets you know that the bird is Despondent. Boogs used context clues to figure out that despondent means sad and gloomy. The next eleven words (cake, dog, busy, convertible, goat, hat, haberdashery, scarlet, baby, panache, Mezzo-Soprano) are supposed to cheer up the little bird. But being a Lemony Snicket book, the last page tells you that the bird is still despondent. By looking closely at the last illustration, Boogs was able to give me a reason for the bird's sadness. We put part of that reason into his lunch today. There are many opportunities for vocabulary discussions throughout this book. Boogs especially liked verve and swagger. He did not like it when I sang the words (opera style, of course) that the Mezzo-Soprano sang in the story. In the Laptop lunchbox: blue bird (yes, that blue blob is supposed to be a bird, I should have used a cookie cutter) ham & cheese sandwich staring mournfully at the broccoli tree with pretzel trunk, 13 Words written in cheese, orange slices, and yogurt.


White Is For Blueberry by George Shannon

Reading this book is kind of like reading a book of riddles. In very simple text, the author makes a statement that at first does not seem to be true. The first page has a picture of a large black crow but the text says, "Pink is for crow." I asked Boogs to try and guess why that color might be true for crows. When we turned the page, it showed a nest full of pink, featherless  baby crows. Boogs immediately guessed why black is for poppy - "Oh those flowers have the little black seeds that get stuck in your teeth when you eat them on a muffin." Boogs really enjoys these types of books. He loves playing with words and figuring out riddles. In the ELB lunchbox: blueberries, salad, bread ham & cheese sandwich swirls, dried apricot, and raisins.

What's That Awful Smell? by Heather Tekavec

There is a horrible smell coming from the barn. The animals investigate and discover a new piglet in the barn. They try everything they can think of to make the piglet smell better but nothing seems to work. The animals are forced to stay outside, huddled together under the little bit of shade in the yard. Eventually, the animals figure out that it is not the piglet who smells.  The illustrations in this book are adorable. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly CuteZcute sandwich, Pringles, blueberries, broccoli, kiwi, and yogurt.

I am not posting Friday's lunch until tomorrow. Bento Bloggers and Friends are getting together to have another May the 4th Be With You Star Wars hop. It will be fun to see all of the creative ways my bento blogger friends have turned lunches into Star Wars images. Check back tomorrow at noon to start the hop on my blog.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.