Boogs' First Kid K

A little over a month ago, I asked Boogs if he wanted to run a race with me. I would run the 5K and he could run the Kid K. Last time I ran this 5K a couple of years ago, Boogs was really interested in the kid race because each of the kids received a medal at the end of the race. He said he would run if he could get a medal. I signed us up for the race and invited a few friends and my mom to join us. Shortly after that, the Texas allergy season hit us hard. Boogs had a terrible cough that kept him up at night for almost a week. I was so worried about it that I took him in to the doctor's office twice within three days. I was not feeling well either. Two days before the race, I went to the doctor and found out I had a really bad ear infection. I had a reaction to the antibiotics and could not run the race or the Kid K with Boogs. Boogs was okay with going by himself.

This is the best picture I could get at the start line.

After I watched the kids start, I cut across the field to wait at the finish line. I expected to wait awhile because Boogs has usually been a slow runner in kickball and baseball. I was really surprised when the first few kids started coming in to the finish area. Boogs was the third runner to finish. WOW! I did not know he was that fast.

 He was barely winded after the race. He explained that he could have been faster but he was not sure exactly where the finish would be so he slowed down for a little while. Boogs is excited about being in more races.

 
 C, Mom, and Big Sis (C's oldest daughter) just before the start of the 5K.

My Mom was all smiles as she waved to Boogs.

While the others were running the 5K, Boogs found the bouncy house. He spent almost 30 minutes jumping while we waited for C, Mom, and Big Sis to finish their race. Where does he get all of that energy?

 C was the first of the group to cross the finish line.

 Big Sis and Mom came around the last corner together. I wish I had my video camera turned on. These two decided to run like Phoebe and Rachel for the last part of the race.

 Mom with a double thumbs up as she crossed the finish line. I love her goofy spirit!

The after photo was all smiles. Wait, maybe the smiles were for thoughts about Kerby Lane pancakes for breakfast.

I was really disappointed that I was unable to participate, but I was so pleased that Boogs had so much fun. We will have to check into a few more Kid runs for him before the Texas heat comes back.

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Lunches March 4th - 8th

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 Case of the Climbing Cat by Cynthia Rylant
Boogs really enjoyed this easy to read mystery. Raccoon Jack and Bunny are called by Miss Nancy to help solve the mystery of her missing binoculars. They followed the clues and solved the case. In the Laptop lunchbox: pb&j cat suspect sandwich made with the CuteZcute cutter, carrot for Bunny, fruit, ham binoculars, cottage cheese, and sesame sticks for their Chinese takeout noodles.

Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes, A Very Silly Alphabet Book by Brian Cleary
The title accurately describes this book. Each letter of the alphabet has its own page with a silly statement. Boogs enjoyed the B page: B begins birch trees with bubblegum bark. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j jellyfish sandwich holding small pb&j sandwiches, trail mix for camping, broccoli for evergreen trees, and berries to represent bubblegum bark.

Let's Eat by Robert Stewart
This story was in a first grade reader that Boogs brought home for homework. We decided to make the lunch in the book for Boogs to take to school. In the ELB lunchbox: ham & cheese in tortilla, rice & beans, grapes, green beans, and juice.

Make your own pizza lunch
Boogs asked if he could take pizza or buy pizza in the school cafeteria for lunch. I used an ELB lunchbox to easily arrange his toppings. He requested pizza sauce, pepperoni, black olives, sausage, and cheese. I also added a few tomatoes and a fruit cup. Since this was a spur of the moment request we did not have a book to go with this lunch.

 

Yesterday, Boogs took a special lunch based on The Wizard of Oz as part of a bento blog hop. See the details HERE. 

The Bento Bloggers & Friends group is having a second Wizard of Oz blog hop today. You can start today's Oz adventure with Eileen from Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys (it won't be live until 10 am).


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. 

Wizard of Oz Blog Hop

 Oz The Great and Powerful is coming out in theaters this weekend. Bento Bloggers & Friends decided this would be a wonderful day to do a Wizard of Oz hop.

Boogs and I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz together last summer. We waited to see the movie until after we finished the book. I remember waiting for the movie to be shown on television every year. My family would make popcorn and watch it together. Boogs and I watched it again yesterday for inspiration for this lunch. Boogs said he likes the movie better than the book. His favorite character in the movie is Toto. So, of course, I had to include Toto in Boogs' lunch.

In the ELB lunchbox: ham & cheese Toto sandwich in Dorothy's basket, dried mango yellow brick road, raspberry poppies, green broccoli for the Emerald City, red slippers on a marshmallow, and OZ spelled with cheese. Boogs did not think that Toto looked quite right, but he was still happy with this lunch.

Keeley is up next on the BBF blog hop. You can click the Yellow Brick Road button or click here to see Keeley McGuire's fantastic Oz lunch.

*This lunch was the featured Bento of the Week at Bento Blog Network*
Be sure to check out the rest of the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches on Keitha's Chaos, 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.
 

                         *This lunch was the featured Bento of the Week at Bento Blog Network*

Seuss Inspired Meals

This week our lunches have been inspired by Dr. Seuss books in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. I posted lunches for Bartholomew and the Oobleck and If I Ran the Zoo HERE.

Boogs had a Seuss inspired breakfast one morning this week featuring The Cat in the Hat. The Cat's hat is made out of beet pancakes and bananas. I drew the Cat's face on Babybel cheese and added fresh berries to this breakfast. Boogs is not a super fan of beet pancakes, but he is a super fan of Dr. Seuss.

I thought I had read every Dr. Seuss book written but this was the first time I have read McElligot's Pool. Marco sits beside a small pool imagining all of the fish that will swim through an underground brook from the ocean to get to his baited hook. Boogs enjoyed studying the illustrations. He said the Dog Fish chasing the Catfish was his favorite fish in the book. I thought the Eskimo Fish from beyond the Hudson Bay were pretty cute. We had to have a fish themed lunch to go with this book. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly fish and seahorse, Goldfish crackers, tomato fish eggs in broccoli coral, and goldfish colored mango.

After school, we got out our Playdough to recreate some of the fantastic Seussian fish in McElligot's Pool.

Our very own ocean of fish!

For more Seuss food fun take at look at the incredible entries in these two linky parties:

Bento Bloggers & Friends

Bento USA by AllThingsForSale.com

This post is linked to Throwback Thursday Lunch Linkup on Lunchbox Dad's site.


Be sure to check out the rest of the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches on Keitha's Chaos, 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.

Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Dr. Seuss' Birthday is coming up this weekend. Boogs and I have been reading a few Dr. Seuss books and doing some activities with them.

 

Bartholomew and the Oobleck 

 

In Bartholomew and the Oobleck, the King complains about there only being four things that come from the sky - sun, rain, fog, and snow. The King commands his royal magicians to come up with something else. They create a green slimy substance that ends up threatening the entire kingdom. In the ELB lunchbox: Bartholomew discovering the falling oobleck drawn on cheese, ham sandwich, cucmber letters, apples & blackberries, carrots with dressing in a Mini ELB container.

Boogs thought the oobleck was so cool that he wondered if we could make some. He emptied a 4 oz bottle of white school glue into a bowl then slowly started pouring in 1/2 cup of liquid starch. Boogs kneaded that together with a couple of drops of green food coloring to make his own version of oobleck.

 It was cold and slimy. He played with it for quite a while before adding a few toys to it.

 Boogs had to help rescue some army men from the oobleck. They were trapped and starting to sink.

 He fashioned a special harness out of rubberbands to save them.

 Boogs played with this for probably an hour or so. The neat thing about this oobleck is that you can seal in a sandwich baggie or an airtight container and play with it again another day.

 If I Ran the Zoo lunch

Gerald McGrew thought his local zoo could use a bit of updating. He described all kinds of unusual animals he would discover to keep in his own zoo. In the Laptop lunchbox: ten-legged pb&j lion sandwich in a cheese cage, ZOO spelled in fruit leather, berries, goldfish, and spinach. Boogs also had a small container of cottage cheese, not pictured.

Boogs and I each drew a picture of one animal we would add to Gerald McGrew's Zoo. Boogs created a "Zok" and I created a "Woofoozle". Boogs would only let me take a picture of him in the Cat and the Hat outfit if he could also take one of me. Lovely (shudder).

Last year, (before I went back to work) I made several Dr. Seuss lunches that I think were better than the ones I made this week. You can see them out here.

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.

Lunches February 18th - 22nd

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.

Hey, Duck! by Carin Bramsen

I have been admiring Carin Bramsen's illustrations for the past several months. She has a website detailing the process of illustrating the book The Yellow Tutu. Hey, Duck! is the first book she has both written and illustrated. Boogs and I enjoyed reading Hey, Duck! I read the parts for the duck and Boogs read the parts for the cat. It is a sweet and simple story about friendship. Boogs really loved looking at the pictures of the cat's expressive face and the fuzziness of the adorable little duck. In the ELB lunchbox: cheese duck on toast, boiled egg cat, letters cut out of a piece of fruit leather, blueberries, tomatoes, and bacon.

This lunch was linked to the Lunchbox Dad Throw Back Thursday Lunch Linkup

Erroll by Hannah Shaw

Bob picked up a package of Nutti Nutt bites at the store and discovered a talking squirrel named Erroll in the package. This was the beginning of all kinds of silliness. There is a two page spread with a maze-like drawing showing how Erroll was sucked out of a nut tree, put in a box, sent to Nutti Nutts factory to be processed & packaged, and finally end up in a bag on a store shelf. We must have gone back to that two-page spread 15 times this week. Erroll causes all kinds of trouble at Bob's house. Boogs had a good laugh about Bob trying to use his mom's toothbrush to wash off Erroll. Boogs promised he would NEVER use or touch my toothbrush for any reason. Erroll eventually returns to the wild. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly Erroll sandwich, pistachios, cheese crackers, carrots, pineapple, and yogurt.

Baloney (Henry P.) received and decoded by Jon Scieszka, visual recreation by Lane Smith

Henry is frequently late to school and his teacher has had it. She tells him if he does not have a good excuse for being late, then he will have permanent lifelong detention. Henry comes up with an amazing excuse that involves alien abduction and so much more. Throughout the book, there are non-English words. Boogs and I talked about using context clues to see if we could figure out what those words could be. At the end of the book, there is an explanation stating that the author received this entire story directly from a transmission from deep space. The non-English words in the story are from many different languages on Earth and there is a glossary at the end of the book to decode them. In the ELB lunchbox: Henry sandwich made from spinach tortilla with ham & cheese, cheese stick 'zimulis' (pencil), pineapple, and a cucumber 'szkola' (school) on top of veggies.


What Really Happened to Humpty? by Joe Dumpty as told to Jeanie Franz Ransom

Detective Joe Dumpty, Humpty Dumpty's brother, is trying to solve the case of his cracked up brother. He is convinced that Humpty was pushed off the wall. Joe's investigation leads him all over Mother Gooseland. He catches the culprits and his brother survives the fall. Boogs was able to follow Joe's clues and guess the identity of the culprits before Joe revealed it in the story. Boogs also enjoyed the egg jokes and interaction of the nursery rhyme characters. In the Laptop lunchbox: Joe Dumpty boiled egg wearing a tortilla trench coat while examining the ham & cheese wall, blackberries with Little Miss Muffets spider pick, and salad.


Amazing Buildings by Kate Hayden

When Boogs was small, we had a Little Einsteins book that showed landmarks all over the world. Boogs was able to identify several of the buildings in Amazing Buildings  because of that Little Einsteins book. I think it is so neat that he makes connections between the books we have read together.  Today's lunch is very simple. In the Laptop lunchbox: salami & cheese Egyptian pyramid sandwich, pretzels for the Roman Colosseum arches, orange for the Italian Dome of Florence Cathedral, Chex Mix to represent building supplies, and broccoli for England's Eden Project biodome. 


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.

Flying Lesson

For Christmas, my husband gave me a gift certificate for a flying lesson. We finally had gorgeous, clear weather so I booked my flight. I was pretty nervous. My husband and Boogs went with me to the airport. My instructor, Mikhail, said that my family could ride along if they wanted to. They did! Just a little added pressure not to crash the plane. :-)

I spent a little bit of time in the classroom becoming familiar with the design of a Cessna 172. Then we headed out to do a pre-flight inspection on the plane. Wow, there is a lot to remember! The cockpit instrument panel looked intimidating.

Boogs looked even more nervous than I did to board the plane.

Once we were all aboard it was time to take a deep breath and enjoy the experience.

I felt like it was a challenge to keep the plane in proper position while we taxied to the runway. I did not do such a great job using the foot pedals to keep the plane centered on the yellow line. It made me very nervous about the actual flight. Mikhail talked through each step of the procedures for taking off. I kept my hands and feet completely to myself so I would not accidentally bump anything important while Mikhail took the plane up. It was pretty amazing to be up in the air.

I got to take the controls and take the plane up to 3500 feet and keep it steady there. I also executed two turns. Then Mikhail asked if we wanted to feel zero gravity. I explained to Boogs that it would feel like an elevator going down fast. Mikhail added that it would feel like the elevator cable had snapped. Boogs said he did not want to do it, but we did. Boogs screamed a little but thankfully did not throw up. 

Flying in the pilot seat of a Cessna is a neat experience. I was ready to have my feet back on the ground when Mikhail demonstrated what it would feel like if the engine went out. Then he instructed me to keep pointing the nose of the plane up, let it level out, point it up again, and let it level out. He explained, "If you don't panic you will have plenty of time to figure out your problem or use the fire extinguisher between the seats to put out a fire." Yeah, I was really ready to be back on the ground after that bit of knowledge.

It was VERY windy today. Coming back down for a landing was a bumpy ride. Mikhail explained each step for the landing, I kept my hands and feet to myself and just observed. The landing was smooth. I got to steer the plane back towards the flight school. After we stopped, Mikhail asked if I would be interested in taking a full course of flight lessons. I told him I did not think flying a plane was for me at this time. I would much rather be a passenger in a much larger plane. 

I have to say a big thank you to my sweet husband for giving me this flight as a Christmas gift.

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