Friday, May 11, 2012

Lunches May 7th - 11th

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 two books 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 Magic School Bus Butterfly and the Bog Beast by Joanna Cole
Boogs is a BIG fan of The Magic School Bus series. He likes the books and the PBS show.  In this book, Ms. Frizzle's class is trying to pick out a mascot for their soccer team. One person suggested "The Butterflies" and another suggested "The Bog Beast".  Ms. Frizzle takes the class to the swamp to find out more about butterflies and bog beasts. After reading this book, I had Boogs draw a few butterflies that could easily be camouflaged in his room. I taped them around the room and had him try to find them. Boogs already has a few ideas about how to make his next butterflies harder to find. In the lunchbox: almond butter & jelly school bus (I don't have a bus cookie cutter) sandwich, fish crackers from the swamp, butterfly cut out of wax on Babybel cheese, swampy foliage salad, and soccer ball decorated pineapple container.

Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki
Boogs brought this home from the school library because he wanted to be sure I got a chance to read it.  We read it a few times during the week he had it checked out. In the lunchbox: pb&j dinosaur sandwich, cheese stick bone, sesame stick bones, mango layers of rock, carrot bones.

AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontis
This is a cute alphabet book. It reminded Boogs of The Scrambled States of America because one letter (state) was unhappy with its arrangement so it made everyone move. At the bottom of each two-page spread was the true alphabet covered up with each additional mixed-up letter. Boogs and I had fun singing the alphabet song with the mixed-up order of the letter. Boogs thought it was really neat to try and figure out which letter was missing from the new alphabet line. In the lunchbox: pb&j letter Z & A sandwiches, fruit leather letters, cantaloupe letters on top of blueberries, pumpkin seeds, and broccoli.

No Such Thing by Jackie French Koller
A boy is afraid of the boy-eating-monster under his bed. A monster is afraid of the monster-eating-boy on top of his bed.  This book has such a sweet and silly ending that it did not scare Boogs at all. He was a little upset that the book "stopped too soon." I won't spoil the story for you. You'll have to read it yourself. Boogs and I discussed how we would have ended the story. In the lunchbox: scared Babybel boy covering his mouth with cheese wax hands while lying on a  ham/cheese/bread bed, monster carrot finger with spinach, scared kiwi monster covering his mouth with spinach tortilla hands, Goldfish crackers, broccoli, and raisins. The kiwi monster was inspired by Another Lunch's kiwi Frankenstein.

A Sea-Wishing Day by Robert Heidbreder
A little boy and his dog are playing in their backyard wading pool, pretending to have a sea adventure. The first line of the book, "I wished so hard to sail the sea that the sea sailed right to me!", started their adventure. After a couple of pages, Boogs yelled out, "Oh, I get it! This is an imagination book? Everything happens cause the boy is pretending." The boy meets rogue waves, a nine-headed sea beast, finds a treasure chest, escapes from pirates, and has many other adventures. I asked Boogs if there is something he wished would become a real adventure. He said he wished his Battle Cards could turn into a real tv cartoon that he could watch with his friends. The boys in his kindergarten class draw all sorts of beings with super powers and then tell each other whose power beats who. In the lunchbox: ham & cheese boat, Goldfish crackers, fruit leather Coconut Island, "coconut" pistachios, gold & jewels fruit, nine-headed sea beast tortellini with pesto sauce, and a small container of salad (not pictured). I put this lunch into my very first ELB.
This post is linked to Lunchbox Dad's Throw Back Thursday Lunch Link-up

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. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Sculpting With Clay

Boogs is really enjoying our Wednesday Learning Playdates. This week we decided to have the kids do something more creative and artistic. C and I were thinking about painting using pointillism. When I asked Boogs what kind of art project he would like to do, he immediately said, "We can make some things with clay and then paint those things the next time." That sounded like a great plan. Boogs helped me find a few books about sculpting at our library, we bought a ten pound block of clay from Michael's, and some wire (in case the kids wanted to use it to help structure their creations).

We quickly went through our two sculpting books and then just let the kids create. E was especially interested in the Egyptian sculpture pictured in The Story of Sculpture.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera this week. So there are not very many pictures and the pictures I took with my phone did not come out all that great.
B went to her room and got a bowl she had made
at school to help her figure out what to make.
Boogs kept making and squishing his creations.
He finished working on a bowl.

E wanted his creations to look just like the
pictures in the book.

Boogs used his tools to carve images on the side
of his bowl.

C made a dolphin.

B also made a clay version of her dog.

Thumbs up! It's a hollow thumb that fits on your hand.

E's Nefertiti sculpture.

I made a coil pot out of clay. I work much better
with food. So, the next day, I madeBoogs a lunch
based on sculpture with a breadbowl, carved carrots,
and sculpted cereal bar hearts.

The kids are excited about painting their clay next week.

Friday, May 4, 2012

May the 4th Be With You! Star Wars Bento

Bento Bloggers & Friends are celebrating May 4th by having a May the 4th Be With You Star Wars themed blog hop. I can't wait to see all of the cool lunches these ladies have come up with today! I remember when I saw Star Wars the first time at the movie theater way back in 1977. Yes, I know I am old. One of my favorite scenes was the escape from the trash compactor. My sister, brother, and I used to act that scene out with an old cardboard box and a broomstick. Part of today's lunch is based on that scene. I think it is pretty neat that my son told me that was one of his favorite parts of the movie, too. Boogs and I read two Star Wars books this week - Star Wars Clone Troopers in Action by Clare Hibbert and Star Wars Heroes published by Scholastic.



In the lunchbox: marshmallow stormtrooper, 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.

Be sure to click the May the 4th Be With You button to see the cute Star Wars bento at Zoe's Lunchbox.


MayTheFourthBeWithYou
This lunch is linked to Lunchbox Dad: Throwback Thursday

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Lunches April 30th - 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 two books 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 Silly Story Of Goldie Locks and the Three Squares
by Grace Maccarone

Boogs enjoyed reading this book and using his homemade geoboard to create the shapes listed in the story.  Shapes were everywhere in the 3 Squares house. There were triangle, rectangle, and square noodles in the bowls instead of porridge. In the lunchbox: pentagon pb&j house, circle pepperoni bed, cheese triangle noodles, oval kiwi, rectangle chair pita chips, broccoli, and rectangle bed box of raisins. 
Boogs' pentagon house and rectangle
noodles.
Boogs showing me how Goldie slid right
off of the triangle chair.


A Seed for Sid by Jenna Walton

This was Boogs' reading homework for the week. Sid finds a mystery seed and plants it to see what will grow. In the lunchbox: Sid the squirrel cheese and salami, pumpkin seeds, orange "pumpkin", Chex and pita chip ground in the garden, broccoli shrubbery, and yogurt.
We planted a mini herb garden.
It contains five different kinds
of seeds. We examined the seeds
before putting then in then soil.
None of them looked like Sid
the squirrel's seed.
We are going to watch and measure
the growth of our herb garden over
the next few weeks.




The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
by Trenton Lee Stewart

This is the second book in the Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy. We listened to this story in the car over the past several weeks. Boogs enjoyed this sequel as much as the first book. Four children must fight against the evil world domination plans of Mr. Curtain to save their mentor, Mr. Benedict. We had many great discussions about the difference between right & wrong, standing up for what you believe in, trying your best, and perseverance. In the lunchbox: marmalade and almond butter Shortcut ship, broccoli jungle on the island, four apricot children, homemade pretzel Kate's rope, Babybel cheese clock because time is running out, and strawberries.


Start Sculpting by John Plowman 
Boogs and a few of his friends began working on a clay sculpting project during our Wednesday learning playdate. This was one of the sculpting books that we looked through to get ideas and information about sculpting. One of the things Boogs made was a clay bowl. I tried to turn the fun of sculpting into Boogs' lunch today. In the lunchbox: bread bowl filled with ham & cheese, carved carrots with spinach, sculpted cereal bar hearts, pistachios, and applesauce.


Friday's lunch will be posted later as part of a Star Wars themed bento blog hop. Check back later to see how the force is with Friday's lunch. 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. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Birthday/Wine Tasting Party

My husband turned 44 this weekend. We decided to celebrate his old age by having a birthday/wine tasting party. The rules for the wine tasting were included in the evite:

We were looking for an excuse to drink copious amounts of wine so we decided to throw a wine tasting party and mask it as P's birthday party.  To make it interesting and educational we implemented some rules.

1. Each person/couple brings a bottle of wine and must not spend more than $12 on it.
2. The bottle must not be from California
3. The wine can be red or white
The bottle identities will be hidden and each bottle will be numbered.  Guests will sample each and score them from 1 to 5.  A prize will be given out to the person/couple who brings the bottle with the highest score.  Hopefully we will discover some great inexpensive wines from regions other than California.

It was such a fun evening spent with great friends! CS was a wonderful co-host! At first, everyone was nervous about not having adequate knowledge of wines. That did not last long!
As the guests arrived, I had everyone write their name on the label of their bottle and then tape it inside a brown bag. We put the numbers on the bags after we received all of the wines so people would not know which one was their own during the tasting.
We gave each person a notepad to
score the wines.
Two hot mamas!

44 looks good on my husband!
So nice to hang out with old friends.

That's my Cousin Leigh!

Me and my sweetie!


So many smiles, that must not be wine
#10.


These two decided a spreadsheet was
needed to calculate the winner.
Everyone wanted to know if their wine
was the chosen one.

What is Cousin Leigh doing?


Enjoying the patio.
Each person/couple was given a number
to write a comment on the white board
for that numbered bottle. The comments
got more "interesting" as the evening went
on. I edited a bit (not much) of the white
board before posting this picture.

There was a prize for last place, a bottle
apron with opener and stopper. Don't
they look happy to receive it? Bottle
#10 Fall Creek Chardonnay 2010
Bottle #14 won first place - a binocular
flask!

The birthday boy.
Summoning his wishing power.


The winner - Bottle #14 Root:1 Carmenere Chile 2010


The line-up after the labels were revealed. Some were empty
and some (#10) were not!

It was an amazing evening of great friends, good food, and good/bad wine!!!


My husband is going to post the spreadsheet here when he gets around to it.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Robotic Arm


Boogs received birthday money from his Grandpapa, Grandmaman, Aunt J and Uncle R. This past weekend he went shopping for his present. Boogs decided to buy the Robotic Arm Edge.

My husband and Boogs worked on it for several hours on Saturday and several hours on Sunday. It was very precise work.
There were a ton of pieces.

Boogs helped Daddy carefully read the instructions.

Putting the motors together.

Attaching another piece.


Tightening some of the final screws.

Ready for a trial run. Boogs got some Lego pieces for the arm to sort into two cups by color.

Boogs also moved the cups around with the arm.

It took practice and concentration to move the levers just right.

Success! Boogs got the blocks into the correct cups.
I was reading a few reviews about this robotic arm, one person used it to hold a Sharpie pen and write. We will be coming up with different tasks to do with it. Boogs had a good time putting it together. He did get tried and had to take "nap breaks" to rest his brain. He would go lay on his bed for a couple of minutes and then go back to the robotic arm to keep assembling it. He figured out that he had to use a lot of brain power to get it together correctly. Boogs' Daddy said that he really enjoyed working on this with him. For the past couple of years, Boogs has stated that he wants to be a robot scientist when he grows up. He is fascinated by this kind of thing. Thank you GP, GM, AJ, and UR for the great project!