It's The Most Wonderful Time

Does it make me a bad mom if I completely identify with this commercial?

I hope not, because I do.  Oh so very much.  It's been a loooooong summer.  I could pretend and say that I'm eager for the princesses to return to school so they can continue to enrich their lives with education.  But actually I'm just relieved to have a break from the incessant whining about being bored and having nothing "special" to do (what the heck constitutes "special" anyway?)

Last year I was all Martha Stewart and did this for the princesses on their first day of school:

This year?  Uh yeah, notsomuch.  Cake for breakfast is highly overrated anyway.  And those suckers were hard to make!!  I think the princesses are ok with commemorating the start of a new school year with cereal.  That's what I did every year and I turned out fine (NO comments from the peanut gallery!). Do I lose my Supermom status now?

In any case, we are ready for another great year!

Look out 2nd grade and Kindergarten.  Here we come!

No Need For Lunchtime Panic: Guest Post by Another Lunch

So, Jamie didn't read my letter, but my friend Melissa did!  And who is Melissa?  She is none other than the author of the fabulous blog Another Lunch.  If anyone has suggestions on how to survive making lunches for kids, it's her.  And I'm thrilled to announce that in response to my freak out, she's here sharing her tips today!  I hope you enjoy her ideas as much as I do!

It was three years ago that my oldest child began Kindergarten. And like any mama about to scoot her baby into the scary world beyond the nest, I had a lot of concerns. Besides my fears of "Will he make nice friends?", "Will he get lost finding the bathroom?", "Will he be teased for having airplanes on his underwear?" was the worry "what am I going to pack for his lunch?!!".

Cue the bento box.

Bento box?

What's a bento box, you ask?

Well, I'm so glad you asked!

Simply defined, "bento" is a Japanese term for a lunch in a box. A bento box is generally comprised of a variety of foods, packed compactly, and in a single container. Think "Lunchables", but without all the excess packaging, preservatives and sodium. ;-)

Another positive aspect of bento-making is that the food is presented in an appealing way. For making bentos fun and kid-friendly, some ideas are:

* cutting the food into easy-to-eat bite sized pieces.
* using tools such as cute food picks to spear food and/or using cookie cutters to cut food into fun shapes.
* providing an assortment of foods: smaller portions of each, but with more variety overall.

Because a picture really is worth a thousand words...

"Noah's Ark bento lunch"
This is a simple bento lunch. It contains pickles, raspberries, cereal bar, homemade granola bite, wheat crackers and cheddar cheese.

"pizza pocket bento"
This bento box holds a homemade pizza pocket, organic baby carrots, pretzels, grapes, homemade granola bite, and fishy crackers.

"somethin' fishy is going on"
This bento box lunch is fish themed with a sandwich, fishy crackers, hard boiled egg, clementine orange segments and kiwi fruit.

To make lunch preparation run as smoothly as possible during the morning hurry-up-and-get-ready-before-you-miss-the-bus mayhem I get a quick "game plan" in mind the night before and get some quick prep work done before I go to bed.

* I decide on a bento box and set it on the counter, ready to fill.
* I decide on which fruit I'll pack, unearth it from the crisper and wash it so it's ready to chop/peel/spear/whatever in the morning.
* Crackers? Cereal bar? Granola bar? If it's non-perishable I put it beside the bento box on the counter too.
* Any cute shapes either get cut the night before (and stored in a covered container in the fridge) or, at the very least, I'll have the cutters laying out ready to cutesie up some cheese in a flash.

Doing some simple prep work the night before allows me to breeze right though lunch assembly in the morning. While the kids eat their breakfast I am filling bento boxes and getting their lunchboxes all ready to go.

A real benefit of packing bentos for kids is that their whole meal is presented to them at once, not unlike how they are used to eating on a plate. A noisy lunch room full of kids can be a little, um, distracting (to say the least!). The less "obstructions" between the child and their food helps ensure more of it will be eaten. There are no baggies to unzip, bags to pop open or lids to peel off in a bento box. Everything is just right there, ready to eat. The *cute* factor can also draw a child's attention back to their own food, rather than to the chaos that ensues in a cafeteria!

More than anything, a bento is simply a box full of yummy food to fill a hungry tummy. No trash left behind, bentos are a waste-free lunch choice that is healthier for the planet too. :)

Letter to The Naked Chef

Oh dear Jamie, how I do love you.

First, your cooking show was called The Naked Chef.  What's not to love?

Second, you have that ridiculously adorable British accent.

Third, you are passionately committed to changing the way people eat food.

And I love that.

But you have totally messed everything up.

Your show, The Food Revolution?  Loved it.  Ate it up, literally.  Completely made me want to throw out all the crap in my pantry and fridge and start all over.

And I did, sort of.

But now, reality is upon me.  In THREE DAYS:

SCHOOL.  CAFETERIA FOOD.  PACKING LUNCHES EVERY DAY.

Jamie, I've got 4 littles at home.  2 will require a lunch while at school, 5 days a week.  My third will require a lunch at school a handful of days each month.

I used to boldly declare that I couldn't wait until I could just send all the princesses through the cafeteria line so I'd never have to make lunch again.

Your show has cured me of that (did anyone else see that chicken nugget segment?  ~shudder~).

But now what?


See what I mean?  You've messed everything up.

I fear I've just committed myself to a 9 month sentence of being chained to the kitchen (as if I'm not in there enough already).

I'm totally panicking at the thought of having to make fun and filling meals that can be packed into lunch boxes every day.

Help me Jamie!! 

(and please don't hate me if by December we're back to cafeteria food.  We'll just skip chicken nugget day.)

You're Closer To God in the Mountains

So, a couple of weeks ago we went on vacation to Colorado.  God's country.  

No, not Texas.

  

COLORADO.

We spent 13 looooong hours in the van getting there.  We're crazy like that.

You start doing goofy things after 13 hours in a van

We hung out in Denver with our best friends and their kids.  6 kids total.  That was, um, exciting.

The kiddie crew minus Princess #4

We ate at a restaurant together where Princess #1 actually WON the claw game.  A big blue bear!  I didn't think anyone won those things.

3 year olds kind of rock

We did "Colorado-y" things like sitting outside on the patio after dark in hoodies and sipping coffee.

My dear friend A and I trying to decide if we can do the 80's again.  We voted no.

We did that in the morning too.

Bad to the bone.

We went to feed the giraffes at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.

The princesses were equal parts fascinated and grossed out.  Me too.

And mostly we just enjoyed being together.

Vacations are good for the soul.

Flashback Friday: That Nagging Feeling

That Nagging Feeling

*originally posted April 2008*

Well, I should have known.   After having several days pass by with nothing interesting to blog about, I should have known that a doozy was coming.  If only I had been prepared...

I ventured to the mall today with all 3 princesses in tow.  Hubby was working and I was sick and tired of being stuck in the house, so I thought, why not?  Before heading out we did the usual routine:  First we changed out of the mismatched shorts and tees from our "crap clothes" drawer and into something better suited to "going out" (which, if you know me, you know our "going out" clothes hang from wooden hangers in the closet and are reserved for, well, going out.  Today's choice:  Matilda Jane.  Seriously, if you have a princess at home, you MUST indulge.).  Secondly, hair was combed and fastened in twists and pony tails and whatnot.  And finally, princess #1 and #2 sat on the couch and listened to me give my speech about turning on listening ears and obeying and the promise of fresh store-bought cookies and pretzels if the above two expectations were met.  And with that, we headed out to the van, with a freshly changed princess #3, stocked diaperbag and 2 stuffed animals.

The outing started out well.  We made our first stop at the Apple store to play on the kids computers.  We met up with hubby while he was on his lunch break and toured the Disney store (which we miraculously made out of alive without purchasing a single Princess-laden item!).  After hubby returned to work, I decided it was time to reward the Princesses (and myself) by stopping off at Mrs. Fields for cookies.  Against my better judgment, I allowed Princess #1 and #2 to get the M&M sugar cookie with the huge HOT PINK icing princess crown.  10 minutes later Princess #1 had finished her cookie and Princess #2 had quite (UN)appetizingly licked the entire crown off her cookie leaving a soggy mess.  Yum.  With the soggy leftovers deposited in the trash, the Princesses and I continued on to Gymboree where I labored for way too long over whether or not it was necessary to purchase all 3 Princesses something just so they could match (the Gymboree vortex I tell you), and instead settled on a single romper for Princess #3 that was half paid for by a store credit and coupon.  So far, so good. 

At this point, a nagging feeling began to pound in my sub-conscious.  There was something I was forgetting.  But of course, this is not at all uncommon and usually is nothing serious.  So, we continued on.  This time to ride the elevator up to the second level where the food court was waiting for us.  By this point it was near dinner time so we stopped off for Auntie Anne's pretzels (I SWEAR, I normally do make my children eat healthy meals... but sometimes I like to treat them too).  Those were polished off in no time.  By this point Princess #3 was beginning to get rather antsy in her stroller and was no longer interested in doing anything with the bites of pretzel I was giving her other than tossing them onto the mall floor.  I took that as a cue that it was time to get moving.  

As we're strolling along, I make a last minute decision to stop in The Gap (note to self: last minute stops are NEVER a good idea).  There were a few things I had seen online that I wanted to check out in person and although it's never fun to shop for myself with all the kids along for the ride, I thought I'd just make a quick stop.  HA!  The Princesses were beginning to get a little rowdy....  most easily blamed on the sugar high from the cookies I let them eat.  I instructed them to stand in front of a mirror to amuse themselves while I sifted through a rack of tank tops.  And that's when IT happened.  IT.  The very thing that had been nagging me.  The one thing that I SHOULD have thought of.  Before we even left the house.  Before I let the Princesses share a drink with me.  Before I ignored the nagging feeling and walked into The Gap.  

Pee.  All down Princess #2's beautiful Matilda Jane leggings.  Into her shoes.  All over the pristine Gap wood floors.  And we're not talking a *little* bit of pee.  We're talking a PUDDLE.  An "oh dear God make it stop" puddle.  A "mommy hasn't made you sit on the potty to try to go for at least 3 hours" puddle.  For a moment, I froze.  I mean really, nothing can prepare you for a fiasco like this.  In a matter of nano-seconds, Princess #1, who is beginning to develop self-consciousness, shrieked and covered her eyes and hid under a rack of clothing.  Princess #3 thought it would be the prime opportunity to declare her dissatisfaction with being belted into the stroller and began to scream at the top of her lungs.  And Princess #2, standing in a puddle of pee, began to well up with tears.  

At some point, mommy-mode kicked in.  I grabbed the nearest employee I saw and hissed to her that we had had an accident.  Her eyes got huge as she surveyed the mess and left to get some supplies to clean it up.  I stood there for what felt like an eternity while waiting for her to return, all the while saying to Princess #2, "This is not good.  Why did you not tell me?  This is not good!"  The poor (no doubt childless) employee returned finally with an arsenal of paper towels, disinfectant and rubber gloves.  At that point I REALLY was just ready for the floor to open up and swallow me.  I stripped Princess #2 of her leggings (thankfully she had a skirt on as well - there's a reason behind layering people!) and shoes and stuffed them into a Gap bag.  We somehow managed to get the mess cleaned up and I made a quick stop at Baby Gap and purchased a pair of flip flops and a package of clearanced panties in Princess #2's size and got her changed.

I have no idea how we made it out of the mall.  It's all such a blur.  One of those profound mommy moments when you realize how TRULY important it is to listen to those nagging feelings.... I KNEW there must have been a reason I came thisclose to buying the Princesses some panties at Gymboree earlier that day.   I will say that this little outing has cured me of the need to go to the mall anytime soon.  And I'm not sure I'll ever be able to walk into The Gap again...  And you better believe I will never ever let Princess #2 walk out of the house without sitting on the potty first.  Lessons learned.