Sunday, September 8, 2013

I have a Kindergartener!! And my new obsession... BENTO!!

It's happened. My oldest son, Canon started kindergarten last week. I was dreading this all summer- to the point that I think I was slightly depressed. I mean, my baby is starting his school years which kind of equals the end of him being mine. That may sound extreme but once school starts a great deal of independence comes along with it as well as new friends, adventures, and all of a sudden mom becomes a fixture at home instead of the center of your world.
Ok, so week one wasn't so bad- he still loves me and was happy to be home for the weekend. I'm feeling better about it too- I get a few hours of one on one with my youngest son, Colt who is turning two this month. And this is good for Canon, he needed this next step and I would never hold him back, but I will secretly mourn the loss of him being solely mine. Colt also needed to have some uninterrupted mommy time and I needed it too.
On the upside, I've discovered a new interest- packing his school snack. I'm pretty sure I'm going way beyond snack with the bento creations I've been making but I am ok with that- whatever he doesn't finish at school he finishes when he gets home. Plus, being mission green mom I want him to have healthy, organic real food instead of processed "snacks". Enter the awesome Yumbox!
There are a ton of bento choices out there but ultimately the Yumbox fit what we were looking for perfectly- not a ton of pieces that probably would get lost, a no leak design and easy to open so my son can do it on his own.
Heres the first week of snacks that I packed-- I also packed a mini version of each of these for my youngest in a Green Sprouts lion bento :)

Top Left;
Day One- all organic and non-gmo- cheese slices, grapes, raspberries, graham bunnies, homemade sunbutter (for the bunnies) and Yummy Earth gummies as a treat.
Top Right;
Day Two- all organic and non-gmo- apples, mini pitas, sunbutter, peppers from our garden, vegan cream cheese dip, hard boiled egg shaped into a heart.
Bottom Left;
Day Three- all organic and non-gmo- ants on a log with our sunbutter, homemade vegan & gluten-free carrot, oat and chocolate chip muffin, grapes, half a yogurt tube, all fruit leather and a love note.
Bottom Right;
Day Four (Friday)- all organic and non-gmo- olive oil popcorn, cheese stars, grapes, raisins, cucumber stars (from our neighbors garden), yogurt dip.

I pack these before bed and store in the fridge- I add any bread or popcorn/cracker in the morning. It's been a lot of fun and my son really loves this style of eating. It's made him more receptive to vegetables too which is AH-MAZING.

If you want to check out Yumbox you can find them on facebook or amazon... this isn't sponsored- I'm just a huge fan :)

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