Lunches November 26th - 30th

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.

Cutesy The Elf Lunch (not based on a book)

 Our mischievous little elf has come back to watch over Boogs this holiday season. He made Boogs a lunch this morning. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j sandwich with bread and cheese Cutesy sitting on top, Cutesy is holding a Babybel cheese ornament and a Jolly Rancher letter, strawberries, broccoli, and tomatoes. (If you click the "elf" label at the end of this post, you can see what mischief Cutesy caused last year.)


 How the Camel Got His Hump by Rudyard Kipling, Lisbeth Zwerger

We listened to this story a few months ago in the car on a cd. Boogs was happy to hear it again. The lazy and selfish camel would not work when all the other animals were working hard all day. A Djinn causes the camel to have a hump so that he could work three days straight without having to stop for food. The hump is his consequence for the camel's laziness. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j camel, Babybel sun, graham cracker desert sand, broccoli oasis, and mango.


The Surprise Visitor by Juli Kangas

Edgar discovers a small blue egg at his door one morning. He then sets out to find where the egg belongs. Boogs had fun guessing who the egg could belong to. In the Laptop lunchbox: cheese toast house, boiled egg, salad, grapes, and Pringles.


Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing by April Jones Prince

This book tells the story of the Brooklyn Bridge. It took 14 years to complete the bridge. After completion, many people were afraid that the bridge would not be strong enough to carry the weight of those crossing on it. P.T. Barnum came up with a way to prove the bridge's strength and promote his circus at the same time. He walked his 21 elephants across the bridge and proved that the bridge could withstand a tremendous amount of weight. In the Laptop lunchbox: pb&j elephant with cheese "21" on top, pretzel bridge, dried papaya, dried apricot, yogurt, and salad.



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.   

Cutesy the Elf is Back!!!

We have had some Christmas excitement this week. Boogs went and visited Santa at the mall yesterday. Then, when Boogs woke up this morning he found out that Cutesy has come back to keep an eye on him for Santa. Cutesy started coming to our house last year after Thanksgiving. Cutesy got up to all kinds of nonsense and mischief last year. Boogs was beyond excited to see him this morning.

Cutesy arrived swinging on a candy cane with a letter from Santa.

Boogs immediately wanted to read the letter.

He read it by himself. Santa told him that Cutesy has been to Elf School and should be better behaved this year. Santa asked Boogs to keep an eye on Cutesy while Cutesy keeps an eye on Boogs.

Boogs spent quite a bit of time playing with Cutesy on his swing. Yep, we got to school just as the tardy bell was ringing.

Boogs can't wait to see what Cutesy will do next.

You can find out how Cutesy was introduced to Boogs last year in this post. To see all of Cutesy's adventures from 2011, click on the "elf" label at the end of today's post.

Be sure to check out my sidebar for the fun sites I like to link to.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. We were able to spend time together as a family just hanging out. Having the week off really made me miss summertime.

The day after Thanksgiving is usually our Christmas tree decorating day. Boogs was a big helper while we were setting up the tree.

He enjoyed taking out all of the decorations and looking through all of the ornaments.

My husband helped out this year by putting on the lights and tinsel.

I love seeing all of out old ornaments and telling Boogs where each of them came from. Every year, I takes Boogs to pick out his own ornament. By the time he leaves our house, he will have a nice collection of ornaments for his own first tree.

Boogs puts the topper on the tree every year.

Boogs and Daddy had to take a puzzle break.

We spent part of the afternoon at the park playing with Frisbees.

The day was perfect for flying a kite.

We spent some time at the playscape.

On Sunday, Boogs and I went to another park. We spent about three hours there playing on the playscape, walking around all of the fields, playing on the bleachers, and hiking on the trail.

We played hide and seek. I thought this was a really good hiding place. A jogger came over to the tree and asked me if I needed help getting down. She gave my hiding place away.

Boogs decided that he needed to climb a tree, too.

We found this teepee on the park's hiking trail.

Boogs then spent part of the afternoon with his Daddy playing with his robotic arm. They came up with all sorts of challenges including trying to see who could make the highest stack of Legos.

It is so nice to have a long weekend off without any specific plans. We need to plan these more often.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Boogs has been out of school all week. I am thankful for the extra time we have been able to spend together. I only got around to making one story themed lunch this week and of course it had to be a Thanksgiving themed lunch.

Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown
Arthur gets chosen to be the director of the Thanksgiving play and things do not run as smoothly as he hoped they would. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j Arthur sandwich, cheese leaves, strawberry turkey wattles, and a turkey made of veggies.

We read several Thanksgiving themed books this week. One of my favorites that we read each year is The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward. Boogs and I also watched The Animated Hero Classics: William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving. Boogs and I discussed, compared, and contrasted these two stories about the first Thanksgiving.

Boogs was an excellent helper this week. He made sure his room and playroom were clean and ready for company. He also helped out in the kitchen on Wednesday while I was making a couple of pies.

Boogs insisted on eating a fresh cranberry and discovered how sour they taste.

He measured and mixed all of the ingredients for our Cranberry Apple Pie.

Boogs used a lot of muscle to core the apples with our apple corer.

He used his safety knife to slice apples. He told me it was much easier to dice apples into chunks than is it to slice them into thin pieces.

Boogs did a great job crimping the edges of our pie crust.

Tada! Our finished Cranberry Apple Pie. We can't wait to eat it today.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I better get off of the computer and get my turkey in the oven.

This post is linked to the Bento Bloggers & Friends Thanksgiving Linky Party

MOMables

Have you heard of MOMables?  Several of my Bento Blogger Friends have been raving about MOMables for months. So, when the opportunity arose for me to receive a free trial, I jumped on the chance to see what all the raving was about. MOMables is a menu planning service that creates five day menus with delicious and healthy lunches for school-aged children. Every Friday, they feature the next week’s menu plan. The menu plan is downloaded as a PDF file, and can be saved and printed for multiple uses. The menu plan includes a convenient shopping list, recipes, and a picture of each meal. I love having the shopping list each week! I don't use every recipe, but Boogs enjoys looking at the pictures of each meal to see if it is something he might like to try.


If you are a regular visitor to my blog to see the story themed lunches I make for Boogs, then you know I sometimes get into a pb&j rut. MOMables has been great because it provides simple, kid-tested recipes that including a variety of foods. It is so easy to log on and download the weekly menu. Boogs' lunches have definitely benefitted from MOMables.

Lunches using MOMables recipes:

Spinach and Cheese Mini Quiches

Momables mini quiche in That Bad, Bad Cat! lunch

Momables Grilled Shrimp and White Bean Salad

Momables Pork, Apple and Cheddar Meatballs inside the little hamburger buns

Momables Thai Lettuce Cups

Momables Chicken Pesto Flatbread

Momables inspired Make-your-own Pizzable


  You should head on over to MOMables and give it a try. With the click of a button, you can get access to a free sample week of menus.
 

Explorer's Club

Boogs has been enjoying Explorer's Club at the library. Here are a couple of the projects they have done lately.

Paper Mache Bowls - Boogs loved getting his hands dirty while making his bowl. He reminded me that he wants to make, no buy, a pinata this year for his birthday. He wants to help build it this time.

Rocket Blaster made out of a water bottle, bicycle inner tube, tape, and a paper rocket. This was such a cool craft. Boogs is having fun shooting his rocket all over the house. I think we might make this the craft at his next birthday party or at least at a playdate.

They also made Gak one week.

 

I have been forgetting to take my camera with me and the photos from my phone are not very good. Grandmaman and Grandpapa, we hope you are enjoying these pics of Boogs.

Lunches November 12th - 16th

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.

Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes by Margaret Atwood

I absolutely fell in love with this book! Long, long ago... I had read The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I did not realize that she also wrote children's books. Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes is a tale filled with an abundance of words beginning with the letter 'r' or beginning with the letter 'r' sound. Each page could be a very long vocabulary lesson. Boogs thought the description of the food served by Rude Ramsay's relatives was revolting - "While Ron read the racing results, Ruby and Rollo regularly rustled up the repasts. They roasted rice, raisins, rutabagas, and rhinoceros. They rolled out reptiles with a rolling pin. They refrigerated rhubarb and broiled ribs, ravioli, and reindeer rinds on the rotisserie. The rice was rock-hard, the ribs rubbery, the ravioli wrinkled, the rhinoceros raw. The  reptiles were still writhing, the rhubarb was runny, and the reindeer rinds were rotten." That quote is not even one page of the book. Boogs and I had a great time reading this story. We read it over two nights because we kept having to stop and discuss or look up some of the words. I now know that the rubicund rodent means the red-nosed rodent. Refulgently was another word I had to look up. Boogs thought it was funny when the rambunctiously rotating radishes roared at Ramsay. In the ELB lunchbox: raw rhinoceros ham, pb&j rolled out reptile, roaring radishes, Rude Ramsay Babybel cheese, carrots (it couldn't all start with 'r'), raspberries, and raisins.


A Is For Salad by Mike Lester

I did not realize the top picture for this book was so dark. When I tried to lighten it, it made the book pages too bright. Luckily, I had two pictures of this lunch. This little alphabet book is kind of like a simple guessing game. The letter on each page stands for the animal pictured but the words on the page do not begin with that letter. Boogs thought this book was very silly and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He thought the lion blow drying his hair was especially funny so I wanted to include that picture. In the lunchbox: applesauce covered with a lion drawn on a cupcake liner, pb&j moose, cheese 'M' & 'Cowboy Boots', boot picks in grapes, blueberries, and veggie pancakes.

P.J. Funnybunny Camps Out by Marilyn Sadler
P.J. Funnybunny and his friends decide to go camping. When P.J.'s little sister asks if she can come along, P.J. tells her that camping is not for girls. Boogs thought that was a pretty good idea. Boogs already has plans to own a boat when he grows up that he and his daddy can use for fishing. He has told me it will be a NO GIRLS ALLOWED boat except when "the men" need sandwiches. Then Boogs will let me come aboard to make sandwiches for him. Gee thanks! Anyway... in this story, P.J.'s little sister decides to show the boys that they aren't so tough. She and her friend scare P.J. right out of his tent and all the way home. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j P.J. sandwich, Babybel full moon, broccoli forest with ranch dressing in a Mini Dipper, grapes, and two small cereal ghosts.

Scholastic News Weekly Reader: Winter in the Wild
Boogs read this to me. He wanted me to turn it into his lunch. In the Laptop lunchbox: ham & cheese toast owl, marshmallow mouse, Pirate's Booty, salad, and pineapple.

The details for this lunch can be found HERE on the post for the Bento Bloggers & Friends Thankful Blog 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. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.