Happy Halloween

Halloween sort of sneaked up on us this year. We finally made it to a pumpkin patch to pick out a couple of pumpkins to carve tomorrow. This is the first year since Boogs has been alive that we did not make it to a Fall festival. I guess I am just being a slacker mom this year. My husband asked Boogs if he really wanted to go trick-or-treating tomorrow. Boogs responded,"This is my childhood, you know. This is when memories are made for a lifetime." I love my silly boy!

I did manage to make a couple, okay two, Halloween themed lunches this week.

In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j tombstone sandwiches on Zbar ground, witch pick flying over a Babybel moon, creepy forest of doom broccoli, and zombie brains blackberries. Boogs told me this lunch was not very creepy.

In the ELB lunchbox: dried scabs beef jerky, zombie head boiled egg, Babybel zombie, fallen limbs grapes, body part Chex Mix, and veggies. Boogs thought the description of this lunch was creepy, but did not think it looked very creepy.

So, I tried to scare him with this lunch in an ELB: Eeeeek dried seaweed! (that scared him a little, but not in a creepy way), floppy bologna, cheese stick, fruit leather, Zbar, carrots with salad dressing, and a blueberry pit of despair. Boogs told me the only thing scary about this lunch is all of the wrappers in it because they just add to our landfills.

I have promised to take the Halloween decorations out of the attic next year and go crazy decorating the house because, you know, it is his childhood memories.

Lunches October 13th - 17th

Boogs lunches are often inspired by the books we read together. As Boogs gets older, I find that we are making fewer story themed lunches each week. Boogs has requested that I make at least one each week. I usually pack his lunches in ELBs and Laptop Lunchboxes.

This Is A Moose by Richard T. Morris

In this book, an off-page director is trying to get a "natural" video of Moose for his documentary. Moose keeps doing un-moose-like things. The director gets really mad and yells, "Will somebody please find me an animal that acts like it is supposed to!" Turns out the director is an animal who is not acting like an animal is supposed to.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: ham & cheese moose, apple, Chex Mix, salad, yogurt, and salad dressing.


The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco

Boogs and I took a rainy walk a few days ago and visited a bee tree. I remembered this Patricia Polacco story about a bee tree and knew I had to share it with Boogs. In the story,  a young girl is bored with reading. Her grandfather suggests she takes a break from reading and help him search for a bee tree to find some sweet honey. They capture a few bees in a jar and release them one by one so they can follow them to the bee hive. Pretty soon, many people and animals from town are following along. Boogs noticed that this story ended like one of Patricia Polacco's other stories began. The grandfather slowly poured a bit of honey on the cover of a book and told his granddaughter, "There is such sweetness in that book too! Such things...adventure, knowledge and wisdom. But these things do not come easily. you have to pursue them. Just like we ran after the bees to find their tree, so you must also chase these things through the pages of a book!"

In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly bee sandwich with fruit strip stripes, fruit strip, pistachio leaves, Zbar tree trunk, broccoli trees, dried apricot & dried mango 'honey', and dried cranberry bees in the hive.

Here is a picture of the bee tree on a trail near our house.

Quick & Easy Regular lunches:

In the ELB lunchbox: garlic bologna, yogurt, pistachios, Chex Mix, raisins, strawberries, and broccoli.

In the Laptop lunchbox: Zbar, salami, pumpkin seeds, hummus, carrots, cheese stick, strawberries, and grapes.

In the Laptop lunchbox: avocado tuna, cottage cheese, cheese crackers, carrots, tomatoes, apple sauce, roasted edamame, and half of a raspberry fig bar.

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.

Rainy Saturday Morning

We had a huge rainstorm this morning with a little bit of thunder. Boogs and I decided to grab a few blankets and settle-in on the back porch to watch the rain. We eventually went and brought a few books to read while we listened to the rain.

Then Boogs remembered how much he enjoyed the walks we used to take in the rain. So, we suited up and headed outside. The first thing we had to do once we got in the rain, was find the perfect leaves for leaf racing. Leaf racing never gets old.

We stopped by the little park on the next street for a few minutes. The playscape was too slippery to climb on.

 Next, we took the trail to the bigger playground. It was very, very muddy.

 Boogs managed to stay upright and not get covered in mud.

We stopped by the bee tree to see what the bees were doing in the rain. They were covering the opening to their hive. We were able to get really close to observe them.

The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we made it to the big playground. Boogs enjoyed climbing up and down on its slippery surfaces. The park was closed last week. They just put the big awning over the playscape.

 We wanted to see if any water had accumulated in the big ditch. Usually, there is only grass here.

 The water was just deep enough to wash all of the mud off our boots.

 We found a lot of snails enjoying the wet weather.

Boogs took off his wet weather pants off for the walk home. Yes, he was still wearing his pajamas. That is what Saturdays are for.

About halfway home, Boogs decided to put his jacket over his face and let me lead him home. I only ran him into a couple of wet bushes. :-)

We had a great time on our two hour rainy walk. I was ready to get home and eat lunch.

I am just happy this walk did not turn out like one we took last year after a rainy day.

This post is linked to:

Lunches October 6th - 10th

Boogs lunches are inspired by the books we read together. I usually pack his lunches in ELBs or Laptop Lunchboxes.

3 Below: A Floors Novel by Patrick Carman

This is the second book in the Floors Trilogy. Boogs was super excited when I brought this home from my school library. He could not wait to start reading it. Leo and Remi are back for more strange adventures in the Whippet Hotel. At the end of the last book, Leo became the owner of the hotel. In this book, Leo must follow Merganzer Whippet's clues to come up with enough money ($7,000,000) to pay the back taxes on the hotel. Leo and Remi have to venture into the little known floors hidden beneath the hotel. Boogs really liked reading the chapter in which Leo and Remi seek help from the mad scientist, Dr. Flart. Dr. Flart has invented some whacky things. Flart's Fizz is a special type of drink that can cause burps big enough to scare away man-sized ants. We could not read through that chapter without laughing. Boogs asked for a lunch that showed Leo and Remi's adventures with Dr. Flart.

In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly man-sized ant, Babybel Remi burping after drinking a Flart's Fizz, four almond floogers, yellow pepper monkey hiding in the salad, iron box filled with salad dressing, blueberry and kiwi lighted tunnel.


Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy

 

I bought a package of Astronaut Ice Cream this past summer and have been waiting for a chance to put some ice cream in Boogs' lunchbox. The Astronaut Handbook is a short informative book which describes how to become an astronaut. It talks about how important it is to have a good education, to be able to pass fitness tests, to have good social skills, and training. It tells what kinds of food you might have while you are in space and even has a detailed diagram of a space toilet. This book was a little bit young for Boogs but he still enjoyed reading it. He really liked the "Fascinating Facts" page at the end of the book. He also really liked the astronaut ice cream. He said it tasted super creamy.

In the ELB lunchbox: salad with radish stars & moons, strawberry planets, ham & cheese roll-up planet rings, dried apricot moons behind dried mango stars, and astronaut ice cream.

I Scream Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

 

This was a fun book of word play. It has sets of phrases that sound the same when you say them but have different meaning. The author calls them Wordles. Boogs and I had fun trying to guess what the matching Wordle would be before we turned each page. Some were easy - reindeer/rain, deer. Others were a bit harder - princess cape/prince escape. The Wordle I liked best was peace mittens, pea smitten. Boogs HATES peas and told me he would never be smitten with them. Boogs is trying to come up with a few Wordles of his own to share with me. I can't wait to hear them. 

In the Laptop Lunchbox: salad, plums, heroes okra chips, he rows pretzel sticks, Babybel I Scream boy, astronaut ice cream, peace mitten pb&j sandwich, and pea smitten peas. The only thing in this lunch Boogs did not touch were the peas.

This is my "Oops, slept until 7 better throw food in a box" lunch.

In the ELB lunchbox: crackers, cheese, dried mango, pistachios, ham, nectarine, hummus, and carrots.

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.

October already?

Boogs keeps asking me how many days until Christmas vacation. He wants time to speed up, I want time to slow down. We have been enjoying our first bits of cool air in central Texas, the air conditioning is not running ALL day and night. Boogs spends every possible second he can hanging out with the neighborhood kids.

What's keeping us busy?

Swimming - we hung out at our neighborhood pool as much as we could before it closed for the season on September 30th.

Boogs is really improving his technique (not in this picture) with year-round swim team practices.

This weekend, Boogs participated in a swim meet for his year-round swim team. He improved his times from last year.

He remembered to go for a two-hand touch at the end of his butterfly swim.

Tang Soo Do - Boogs received his first stripe on his belt. He is very proud of this accomplishment.

Library Explorer Club - with the change in days for swim team practice, Boogs has been able to go back to the Explorer Club at our local library.

We have been spending a lot time outside. The weather is nice enough to eat dinner on the back porch. I found this gigantic badminton set. Look at the size of that birdie. It is soooo much easier to use than the real one. We love it!

Lunches Sept. 29th - Oct. 3

Boogs lunches are often inspired by the books we read together. We set aside time every day to snuggle up and listen to each other read. We have been reading more chapter books so I have been making fewer story themed lunches. I usually pack Boogs' lunches in ELBs and Laptop Lunchboxes.

World War Won by Dav Pilkey

Even though I made a mess of this lunch, I wanted to share it. (I accidentally smeared the cheese drawing when I was getting ready to put this lunch in the lunchbox.) Boogs is practically obsessed with reading comics and cartoons.  He really likes Dav Pilkey's books - Captain Underpants series, Dog Breath, Dogzilla, Kat Kong, and Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving. We found World War Won at our local library. It is a book published by Landmarks for the Written & Illustrated by Awards Contest for Students. The contest ran from 1985 to 1999. Dav Pilkey won the 1986 14 to 19 year old category for World War Won. The book is a beautifully drawn tale about two kings who want to rule everything. They try to outdo each other in weapons stockpiling. In the end, they realize that peace is a better alternative. This book reminded me of Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle Book. Boogs enjoyed this book and it inspired him to make his own cartoon book. The last two pages in the book show the book covers and faces of the winners from age 7 to age 19. It really intrigued Boogs that kids were able to have their own books published.

In the ELB lunchbox: grilled ham & cheese sandwich with (melted and smeared) cheese drawing on top, okra & carrot chips, strawberries and blueberries.

DIY lunchable in an ELB lunchbox: salami, cheese, yogurt pretzels, goldfish crackers, okra chips, carrot chips, pickles, and grapes.

The Best Homemade Kids' Lunches On the Planet by Laura Fuentes

This is a lunch friendly cookbook from the amazing force behind the Momables website. Momables is a very helpful lunch menu planning service. I bought this cookbook a few weeks ago and Boogs and I have been enjoying some of the recipes in it. One of his favorites is tuna mixed with avocado. I never would have thought to pair those two foods but Boogs loves it. In the Laptop lunchbox: Zbar, crackers, blackberries, salad, and tuna with avocado.

Puzzle lunch in an ELB: pb&j puzzle sandwich, cheese puzzle pieces, kiwi, yogurt, tomatoes, and broccoli.

Boogs asked if he could buy lunch at school because pizza is on the school lunch menu. So, I did not make a lunch today.


You can see all of my story themed lunches by clicking on the Lunches label at the end of this post or by visiting My Story Themed Lunches Pinterest page.