Monkey the Explorer!

As mentioned yesterday I took Monkey on an exploring trip to a local conservation area to check out the waterfalls. I snapped this picture in the parking lot on our way to the falls. I loooovvvveeee this picture! He looks like such a little man here. It makes me wonder what the heck happened to my baby boy?

I'm very happy that I snapped this picture as right after my camera battery died! Mother of the year ;)

There's a lot of stairs to get down to the bottom of the falls, he was a little nervous if he was too close to the rail, but he did great at going up and down all by himself! He loved the waterfall once we got to the bottom, but wasn't brave enough to venture too far from me. We haven't had a lot of rain in the past few weeks so the water is pretty low, meaning all the big rocks are exposed to cross the river. He would have none of that! He stayed feet firmly planted on the bank.

Last Day Of Lunch!

Happy Friday! Here's the last lunch of lunch week here in Mommyland! On the menu for Bear today is waffles and maple syrup, strawberries, celery with cheese, cheese string, and crackers. Today's pizza day at our school. So his first break he gets a piece of pizza with his lunch. I always send money for chocolate milk on pizza day too. Kind of a reward for making it through the school week without giving his teacher a mental breakdown ;) Kidding...maybe lol.

Here's what I did for Monkey today. I decided to take him and a little guy I babysit to a local conservation area to explore the waterfalls, fossils and of course the playground! I had planned on doing a picnic there, but the bugs were pretty bad. So we came back to town, went to the park here for a picnic and a play. I had two of these bear bento boxes that I picked up at Old Navy last year for Bear to use for school. So their lunch consisted of peanut butter wraps, blueberries, grapes, cheese strings and 1/2 a nurtigrain bar each.

Day 4 Fail!

Ahhhhh I totally forgot to take a picture of lunch today! How dare I think that today is a normal day and I don`t need to take a picture of his lunch!

Monkey's Lunch!

Here's monkey's lunch for the day! I've found when food is cute and not just thrown on a plate, they tend to eat more. I purchased the Winnie The Pooh cutter from eBay back in the spring. Everything else is from Ikea and Amazon ;)

Lunch #3

Nothing exciting here today for this award winning lunch packer ;) On the menu for Bear today is an egg salad in a whole wheat tortilla wrap, blueberries and strawberries, carrots with ranch dip, a strawberry nutrigrain bar, triscuts, and then he has some yogurt in the big dipper (what the pasta was in yesterday) but it wouldn't fit in the box, so I'll just slip it in to the front pocket of his lunch bag. While packing my husband's lunch last night, I realized just how much I really like the PlanetBox. Here's why: My husband took 4 things, much like this lay out, sammie, cheese and crackers, yogurt, and cookies. I had to find 4 different plastic containers and their lids, they had to fit the food in, but not be too big, because it all had to fit in his lunch box to go to work. Then I put it in the fridge and it took up so much room! I had to rearrange things to make room for all the containers. Then tonight, when he gets home, he has 4 containers to unpack and empty, then I have to load them all into the dishwasher. Think of how much space I'm losing from those 4 goofy plastic containers! See where I'm going with this! With Bear's lunch, I don't need to worry about lids (granted the dippers, but they don't have to be packed) When he comes home I open the box, dump what ever is left in the garbage, rinse the dippers, and toss in the dishwasher. The PlanetBox itself takes up the same amount of space 2 plates would. When I pack the night before, it fits nicely in the fridge, I can stack it on top of something, or stack stuff on top of it. 

This is something else that I love about the PlanetBox! Keeping this layout in mind makes it so easy to pack a healthy well balanced lunch! But by all means, don't feel like you have to stick with this way of packing! 

It's Lunch Week!

As mentioned yesterday, I won a lunch packing contest! WOOT! So in honor I decided that this week is LUNCH week in mommy land! I even pulled out my real camera instead of just using my phone! Ya, we're going big around here kids!

So for today's lunch I packed some Alphagetti, grapes, a baby bell, vanilla yogurt, and ritz minis with cheese. And what lunch would be complete without a little treat? I threw a small package of smarties into the 'treat' area of his PlanetBox.

This was Monkey's lunch yesterday. We went with a teddy bear theme. We had cheese bear sammies with chocolate chip eyes, next up is teddy grahams with frosting dip (that's a mommyland take on dunkaroos) and then some mini ritz with cheese. Again, what is a lunch without a treat! Sticking with the bear theme, I threw on a few gummi bears.

What's on the menu for tomorrow? You'll just have to come back and see!

Yum! Lunch!

Last week was super exciting for me! Remember Bear's first day of school lunch that I shared here, well I WON a contest because of it! I entered it into Epicure's Superstar Lunchbox contest on their Facebook Page. I got an email from them last Wednesday that I had WON!!! I never, ever win anything, ever!

So today I thought I would share another lunch from a few weeks back. This was sort of a modge podge of what I had kicking around the house. This lunch consists of two english muffin pizzas (I have wax paper separating them so the cheese didn't all stick, diced peaches in the little dipper, a chocolate chip oatmeal muffin, plum tomatoes, rolled ham with food picks spelling yum, and a cheese stick cut into 4.

Now not to forget about Monkey in all this lunch funness, here's one of his lunches from quiet a while ago. It's just a peanut butter sammie with a Winnie the Pooh cutter, pretzels, and cheese spread for dipping.

Bear Turns 5!

September 16, 2007 after 29 hours of labour we welcomed our beautiful 8lb 1oz baby boy into the world. Little did we know how much this child would teach us about ourselves and life. Life with Bear hasn't always been fun and easy, but I wouldn't trade a moment of it for anything. Birthday's are a big deal around here. When Bear was born, Dr's told us he was pretty sick. Luckily, when he was 3 weeks old we found out that they were wrong and he was a completely healthy, happy, baby. The thought of how quickly life could be different is never far for us. We always go all out on birthdays, not only are we celebrating another year older, but we're also celebrating another year that we're all here, together, and healthy!


Bear is BIG into cars right now! I found this cake on Pinterest and knew he had to have it! I emailed the picture to a neighbor of ours who is an amazing cake decorator! She nailed it! He had no idea what to expect for a cake, so he was completely shocked and ecstatic to see the cake!!!

And lastly here's a picture of him trying to blow out his sparkler candle! All in all it was a great day! I still find myself saying to the hubby can you believe we have a 5 year old!? I don't know, 5 just seems HUGE!

Monkey Starts Preschool!

It was a sad day in Mommyland! Our little Monkey started nursery school. He was so excited to go! As long as he can remember (and his whole little life for that matter) he's watched Bear truck off to preschool and then big boy school. Like any little brother he's always been wanting to go right along with Bear. Finally last Tuesday Monkey's day came! He's going to nursery school 2.5 hours a week for the time being. Last week he went right in and hung his backpack up like a big boy and then went in a played. This week, I wasn't so lucky :( As soon as we pulled into the parking lot he grabbed the buckle on his car seat and was saying no, no, no, no. As soon as I undid him he lost it! I had to leave him there screaming! And I mean SCREAMING! I could hear him outside when I was walking to the car! Just call me mother of the year :D Bear was home sick today, so I just keep telling myself that he wanted to stay at home with him, right?

Back to School!

 Well yesterday was a big day in Mommyland! Bear started Sr. Kindergarten! He was pretty excited when he woke up yesterday morning. I wanted to make an extra special lunch for him. I wasn't sure how his day would go, so I wanted to send a little smile for him in his lunch. Our school does a 'Balanced Day'. This means he has 2 nutrition breaks instead of the standard lunch break. So it may look like a lot of food for an almost 5 year old, but believe me, he eats it allll!

So to go along with with his last day of school, I had to make a first day of school sign. It worked out really well, not just for us but another little boy at our bus stop is in Bear's class. His mom was there taking pictures of him, so I offered her our sign. I mean we only have one day with it, might as well get the most of it!

Now don't get me wrong! I was beyond excited to have him go back to school. I do have mixed feelings about him going every day at such a young age. But he likes it and I know he can handle it, so I guess I'm okay with it. But yesterday morning when the boys were still in bed and I was gathering all the last minute stuff and getting things together for breakfast, I started to think about how 5 years ago I was pregnant waiting for the arrival of my sweet baby, and now I'm sending him off to school every day. I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear.