Lunches May 27th - 31st

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.

 Heat Wave by Eileen Spinelli

This book had an appropriate theme for our weekend. Our air conditioner went out Saturday evening. Luckily, it was back on by Monday afternoon. Boogs could not believe the people in this story lived in a time without air conditioners. Everyone in the town was doing their best to stay cool during the heat wave. Some people dragged their mattresses out on the porch to sleep. Other people slept on their fire escapes. When the hot weather dragged on and on, the townspeople headed down to the riverbank to sleep beside the cool river. Everyone in town was hoping for the same thing... rain! In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j sandwich with cheese sun on top, dried apricots and veggie chips to show how the plants looked during the heat wave, blueberry river, vibrant salad to show how the plants looked after the rain.


With Memorial Day, the end of the school year getting closer, swim team, and everything else going on this week, I sent Boogs to school with "regular" lunches most of the week. Here they are:

In the ELB: Match N Munch Puzzle Cutter almond butter & jelly sandwich, Pringles, fruit leather, raisins, carrots, Babybel cheese, and ranch dressing.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: melted ham & cheese on an English muffin, broccoli, carrot, tomatoes, and blueberries.

Wednesday afternoon we had a bit of The Little Red Hen going on in our house. I asked Boogs if he would like to help me make some homemade stromboli and he said, "No, not I." Not really, he just was not interested in being in the kitchen. I mixed up a quick bread recipe and let it rise while we were at swim team practice. When we got back, I rolled out my dough, added ham, salami, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and Italian seasoning. Then I folded the dough over and sealed the edges. Boogs helped brush on a little egg and sprinkle on the poppy seeds before we put it in the oven. Yum! In the ELB lunchbox: stromboli, Pringles, broccoli, strawberries, salad dressing, and yogurt. 

All of these lunches were quick and easy to make. I linked them up at Bentos on the Bayou's 15 Minute Linky Party.

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.

Memorial Weekend

The weather did not cooperate with our plans this weekend. Friday night, I kept checking the hourly reports to see if Saturday's Swim Meet would be rained out. I really did not want to wake up at 5 am if the Meet was off. Boogs woke up a little before 5:00 ready to swim. During the first event, it started to rain a little. Then it really began to pour. I think about 7 heats were completed before the first crack of lightning stopped the Meet. It was another 20 minutes after the lightning before the Meet was called off. Getting all of the tents and equipment down in the downpour was interesting. Boogs and I were soaked to the skin by the time we left the pool. He was only wet from the rain because he never had a chance to get in the pool. We spent most of Saturday hanging out together playing games, reading, and watching tv.

Sunday's weather was gorgeous. It was sunny, breezy, and cool. Boogs and I went to Toy Joy for their Frankentoy event. The shop collects and keeps all of their broken pieces of toys for the kids to use to build their own new toy. Some of the pieces were: Barbie legs, heads from dolls, wheels, random plastic pieces, rubber ducks, beads, silly putty eggs, metal pieces, eyeballs, broken wind-up toys, and all sorts of odds and ends.

 It was crowded, so getting your turn at the hot glue gun was a lesson in patience.

Boogs used a long blue plastic piece as his base then added a sunglass lens, rubix cube pieces, a wind-up toy winder, half an eyeball, a brown ring, and a plastic top to his creation. He called it "Floating Space Junk".

Boogs really enjoyed doing this. I will have to see when they have their next Frankentoy event.
 
It was so beautiful outside, we decided to stop at the Central Market Playground on the way home.

 The patio had live music when we first arrived. Boogs and I had to dance!

 Boogs said he was a wild animal trapped in a cage.

 Later, he told me he was "a bat sleeping in the in the rafters of the playscape".

 

 We cooled down with some pink lemonade with prickly pear cactus juice while we walked on the trail around the pond.

There were at least 50 turtles in and around the pond. We had a fun time watching them bump into each other and swim around.

Then we came to the best climbing tree EVER! Many of the branches have grown all the way down to the ground. This made it perfect for Boogs to climb.

 He tried several different starting points before he found one that would help him reach the trunk.

I was a little bit scared when Boogs climbed over this part. It was at least 12 feet off the ground. He said, "Momma, if feels a little scary right here. You will catch me if I fall, won't you?" I said yes, but I know I would not have been able to. Yikes!

Luckily, the branch sloped towards the trunk. Boogs said he was no longer climbing at this point, he was letting gravity pull him to the trunk.

Success! Boogs made it to the trunk. There was a puddle of water at the center. He played there for about 20 minutes before he let me help him down.

My sister and I used to spend hours in the trees in the woods behind our house. We would climb so high that the branches would barely support our weight. My mom told us to have fun climbing but don't expect her to want to watch. We managed to make it through childhood without any broken bones. I am sure I will have to adopt my mom's 'you can do it but I don't need to see it' philosophy for Boogs daredevil adventures.


This post is linked to Country Kids From Coombe Mill's outdoor linky party. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar.

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.

This moose lunch won Bento of the Week!

 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.