A few months ago, Meg at Elsie Marley wrote about how she’s started using the mini blog site Tumblr to collect images she finds on the internet that inspire her. I was instantly smitten with the idea and started my own Tumblr site to do the same thing. I see so many beautiful images and projects online and it feels like they barely have time to register in my brain before they’re pushed out by something else. I love having a single place where I can save them and visit any time I need a creative jolt.

A few months into this project, some patterns have started to emerge. Here are some of the things I’ve discovered I like:

• Pretty food
• Pretty crafts
• Stripes
• Bright colors
• Brightly colored, stripey crafts

Erm…I guess there aren’t any big revelations here, huh?

Do you have a Tumblr blog? If you do, could you leave the URL in the comments? I’m always looking for more creative inspiration and I’d love to check it out!

Monday’s 1st grade lunch was two little turkey and cheese sandwiches (on mini hamburger buns) some grapes and melon chunks.

I sent a snack too — I’m sure of it! — but I don’t have a picture of it so I’m not sure what it was.

Tuesday

You learn a lot about yourself by blogging regularly and one of the things I’ve discovered is that I often make pasta with meat sauce for dinner on Monday night because it shows up in Tuesday bento boxes a lot.  True to tradition, the toddler’s lunch box had leftover pasta with meat sauce along with steamed carrots, fresh corn and some figs.

My 1st grader’s lunch had the same pasta (heated and packed in the Thermos) along with pretzel sticks, aged gouda cheese (which he surprisingly loves), and thawed blueberries from the freezer. This lunch was packed in the OOTS Lunchbox.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie’s lunch was packed with leftovers from his 2nd birthday party the night before, so it was chock full of some of his favorite foods. He had leftover pulled pork, watermelon chunks and BLT pasta salad (recipe here).

Wyatt also had leftover pulled pork (heated and placed in the Thermos). I also packed some mini buns and half a cupcake from his brother’s party.

He had strawberries for a snack.

Really, I did a pretty crappy job on this lunch. It didn’t seem so bad at the time, but there wasn’t a lot of nutrition there and Wyatt came home from school starving.

Thursday

Wyatt begged me to let him get school lunch all week and on Thursday I finally relented. We’ve agreed that Wyatt will be allowed to buy school lunch once per week and only if I approve the menu for a particular day. And when I say “we’ve agreed” I mean “I’ve laid down the law”. I won’t be giving my approval on days when things like “kookies”, flourescent blue Trix yogurt, or strawberry waffle grahams are on the menu though. Since that appears to be most days he’s not going to get it very often, I’m afraid. Thursday’s menu was:

• Choice of beefy bean dip or french bread pizza (he chose pizza)
• apple (which he ate!)
• carrot sticks (he didn’t pick any up)
• tortilla chips (he didn’t get these either)
• milk (he chose the chocolate, of course)

One argument for buying school lunch is that it’s easier for me in the morning but I actually found that was only marginally true. I still had to pack a snack (what you see above) and I had to root around coming up with exact change for lunch money because my wallet was inconveniently empty. It’s possible it would have been easier for me to make lunch, actually.

Wyatt’s verdict on school lunch: “It was the most delicious thing ever and I want to eat it every day!!”

Awesome.

Friday

Today, Wyatt’s lunch had leftover turkey taco meat with cheese sprinkled on top, tortilla chips to eat the meat with, a few chocolate chips, grapes and strawberries. This lunch was a big hit! I’ll be doing this again for sure.

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Monday was the last day of summer vacation before my big boy started 1st grade and my little guy went back to day care so we ventured out a little farther than we normally do to visit a park with a splash pad.  I packed a picnic lunch for all of us in the big Oots Lunchbox. The Oots box worked perfectly – we all helped ourselves from the different containers and we used the internal box lids for little plates. I packed: blueberries, strawberries, leftover barbecued chicken legs (2 for me, 1 for Wyatt and one chopped up for Augie), whole wheat pretzel sticks and a little tub of edamame hummus to dip the pretzels in. The hummus is a new-ish Trader Joe’s discovery. I’ve liked it for a long time, but the kids are suddenly cuckoo-crazy for it.

Tuesday

And then Tuesday we were officially back to school!

I feel ridiculous telling you this, but Monday night I froze up when it was time to pack the lunches. I went into the kitchen and I just didn’t know where to begin. Deciding what to put in the lunch boxes is always the hardest part for me and I completely blanked. Part of it was exhaustion from a lot of activity on a really hot day, part of it was that I didn’t have as much “lunchy” food in the house as I thought I did, and part of it was that after my “Back to School, Back to Lunch” series of posts last week I felt like I really had to bring it with the first day lunches. Silly? Yes! But I still was stumped.

And then I looked at the lunch box idea list that was stuck to our fridge and I got a bunch of ideas. We eat our own dog food here at Wendolonia!

The toddler lunch had leftover wild rice from dinner, mixed veggies from the freezer, turkey meatballs and blueberries.

The 1st grader’s lunch was blueberries, a strawberry cereal bar (cut into chunks to fit) and turkey meatballs that I cut into quarters and threaded onto skewers. I also included a little container of catsup for dipping the meatballs in.

Wyatt has been crazy for dill pickles this week, so for his snack, I cut a couple into chunks and put them into a small box with some pretzel sticks. I was very careful to drain as much liquid off the pickles as I could and put them into a silicone baking cup so that they didn’t make the pretzels soggy.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie’s lunch was soycatash, leftover salmon chunks from dinner, a mini whole wheat hamburger bun and some cantaloupe chunks.

Wyatt’s lunch and snack were packed into the Laptop lunchbox: a Z-Bar, whole wheat pretzel sticks, cantaloupe chunks, corn, a mini hamburger bun and ham and cheese roll-ups.

Thursday

This 1st grader lunch had strawberries, cantaloupe stars, baked tofu, a mini hamburger bun and a box of raisins.

His snack had cantaloupe, a strawberry star, a few pretzel sticks (a little hard to see) and a cheese stick. I had to cut the ends off the cheese to make it fit in the box, and although I planned to use them to fill those little gaps, I ended up eating them because they looked tasty. Oops! Also, do you see what I did here with the stars? I was planning on using both types of fruit all along, so I just used each one to decorate the other. Easy peasy!

Friday

Wyatt’s lunch was pretty simple today. I packed leftover pulled pork into the thermos, then slipped that into the OOTS Lunchbox along with containers holding a mini hamburger bun to make a sandwich with and some mixed berries. I also threw in a Z bar as a treat for his snack. I cut the package open because either they don’t help the kids with their lunches in 1st grade, or Wyatt is too shy to ask for help yet.

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July 2, 2010: Augie runs across the back yard with one of his beloved plums. Our neighbor’s tree rained plums down on our driveway for several weeks and every time we went outside I spent the whole time trying to keep Augie from eating rotten plums.

July 3, 2010: Now here Augie chows down on one of the ones we picked from the tree. The other challenge with the plums was keeping the boys from eating so many plums that their digestive tracks blew out.

July 4, 2010: Wyatt got to try out his first sparkler on the 4th of July! We were at a friend’s house for the afternoon and in addition to putting on super hero costumes, the kids ran around the yard with sparklers (closely supervised, of course!).

July 5, 2010: Wyatt decided it was “red day” and collected as many red things as he could fit on the pull out cutting board.

July 6, 2010: Trying on Dad’s sunglasses. He looks a little Tom Cruise-y here, I think.

July 7, 2010: Wyatt and I had a free afternoon after his morning pirate camp (Augie was at day care) so we got lunch at his favorite restaurant, Denny’s (?!) and then we went to the bowling alley. He totally kicked my butt, but in my defense, he got the bumpers when he bowled and I didn’t!

July 8, 2010: I had completely forgotten about this incident until I pulled this photo up! Wyatt was up to one mischievous activity after another and finally got sent to his room to get his act together. He fussed and whined about it for a very long time, but then things went quiet. I knew better than to think he had calmed down so suddenly, but I was so thankful for the quiet that I decided to just let it go for a bit before checking to see what he was up to. Before long, he came out of his room, dressed all in white with his body pressed up against the white wall. He inched along for a bit, convinced he was camouflaged and that his dad and I couldn’t see him. I actually think that Augie didn’t notice him at first, but eventually he got to the oak bookcase and the jig was up! Busted!

After a fairly light summer, these weekly bento posts are going to start to get beefy again!

Monday

Wyatt begged and begged his dad for a Z Bar at the grocery store, so he got to take it for his snack as a special treat on Monday. He also got a few blueberries and strawberries.

Bonus Dad Snack:

My husband was working at home on Monday for the first time in several weeks and I was so happy to have another adult around that I made him this fancy snack plate (he’s usually on his own for lunch and snacks). I gave him apple slices, grapes, fake Triscuits with aged gouda (our new favorite cheese) and peppered salami slices.

Tuesday

For Tuesday’s day camp snack, Wyatt had nectarine slices, three blueberries for garnish and fake Triscuits.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s snack was a biscuit and blueberries. I drew a Batman logo on the biscuit with food markers. If you’re wondering why the bat is green, it’s because most of the markers in my set (including the black one) have dried up now. The pink still works OK, but there’s no way Wyatt is going to allow me to draw the Batman logo in pink. I think it’s time for a new set!

Thursday

On Thursday I packed a whole wheat hot dog bun and strawberries. The inside of the bun is spread with a layer of home made plum jam.

Friday

Finally, I packed this snack for Wyatt’s last day of day camp. There were blueberries and as a special treat, he got a big handful of cat cookies.

See you next week with lots of lunches!

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Wyatt was swimming at camp on Monday so I wanted him to have an extra big snack. I packed tofu cubes, blueberries and whole wheat pretzel sticks. Gotta get that protein in him, don’t you know!

Tuesday

On Tuesday, the toddler’s lunch had turkey roll-ups, strawberries, mango chunks, shrimp fried rice (pulled from the freezer) and soy-catash (also from the freezer).

Edited to add: Donna pointed out in the comments that shrimp fried rice is not a dish that would be safe to pack in a lunch box and eaten at room temperature and she is absolutely right! It was safe for me to pack this for my little guy because his lunch is refrigerated at day care and then reheated for him at lunch time. I would not put this in a lunch box that was sitting in a backpack all morning though — with or without an ice pack!

Wyatt’s day camp snack was turkey roll-ups, pita crackers, clementine wedges and three (3) decorative blueberries.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had clementine wedges, deli turkey, a banana chocolate chip muffin (extra healthy with the addition of whole wheat flour and flax meal), grapes and soy-catash.

Wyatt was scheduled to go to a full day of camp on Wednesday, but ended up staying home sick at the last second. I packed his lunch the night before though: pita crackers, a banana chocolate chip muffin, strawberries, blueberries, snap peas and tofu with his name cut into it with cookie cutters.

Thursday and Friday

I am at the BlogHer conference in NYC right now, so I wasn’t home to pack the kids’ lunches, but my husband assures me he fed them. No pictures (though Daddy makes bentos for them too!).

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For Monday’s snack, I sent Wyatt to camp with a cereal bar (cut in half and stacked), some blueberries and his beloved salami.

Tuesday

The main part of my toddler’s lunch for day care was a stuffed pepper half that was leftover from dinner the night before. I chopped the pepper up and mixed it in to the stuffing so it would be easy for him to eat. Blueberries and peas went along as the side dishes.

Wyatt’s snack was a biscuit (leftover from breakfast), some deli turkey and a yogurt tube.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had melon, strawberries, a banana chocolate chip muffin (pulled from the freezer) and leftover pasta and chicken in his lunch.

The five-year-old’s snack also had cantaloupe (his new super-favorite), a muffin and some deli turkey for protein.

Thursday

Augie had an extra day of day care this week to make up for last week when we were on vacation. His lunch had: chicken, green beans, a rice ball, blueberries and half an avocado. I dabbed the surface of the avocado with a little lemon juice and then wrapped it in plastic wrap to keep it from browning.

Wyatt (and Lego Woody) enjoyed blueberries and salami for snack. “There’s a blueberry in mah boot!” says Woody!

Friday

Seriously — this is so annoying! I took a bunch of pictures of Wyatt’s snack but I didn’t notice the memory card wasn’t in the camera. The snack today was pretzels, cantaloupe chunks and some deli turkey. You’ll have to use your imagination to visualize it, but I can assure you that it was extremely elegant in it’s graphic simplicity.

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Monday

Monday’s snack was a pile of blueberries and “ham-mers” (cubes of hams on pretzels). When I came to pick Wyatt up at camp, the head counselor told me she had to give him an extra snack because he was still hungry after he ate this.

The SHAME!

Seriously though, I can never tell how much that boy is going to eat. At least once a week I open his snack box to find it untouched.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Augie’s lunch had corn, leftover rice, some grapes (I always half or quarter them to ensure he doesn’t choke — I’m not taking any chances), strawberries and some chopped turkey meatballs.

Wyatt had an extra big snack on Tuesday because I didn’t want him to starve at camp: whole wheat crackers, baked tofu chunks, strawberries and a few cat cookies.

He didn’t even come close to eating it all. There were even cookies left!

Wednesday

Wednesday’s toddler lunch featured ham chunks, frozen peas, little peanut butter sandwich crackers (Trader Joe’s version of Ritz Bitz) strawberries and some crazy good cantaloupe.

The five-year-old’s snack had salami, strawberries and some cat cookies.

Thursday

Thursday we flew to Iowa! I took two kids on two planes all by myself! It was just awful, but not nearly as bad as I expected. For example, there were multiple screaming fits and one of the kids ran away from me at O’Hare, but there were no blow-out diapers so that was a win.

I had to pack food for the plane, of course, because there was no way I was going to trust United to have something I could feed my kids (Augie’s got problems with dairy) or that I was willing to feed my kids (Wyatt would happily fill up on chips and cookies from a purchased snack box but that wouldn’t have worked so well mood-wise). So I made bentos for everyone. What I learned is that bentos are awesome for the plane for a five-year-old or for a grown woman but they are not so awesome for an  almost two-year-old. There was no way at all that I could put a box of food down on the tray table in front of Augie, unless I wanted it immediately dumped on the floor and I couldn’t even have it on my neighboring tray table very easily because he kept trying to kick it. Bleh. I somehow got everyone fed though. (Though keeping them fed did involve a stop at McDonald’s at O’Hare where I bought two gigundo boxes of fries and told the kids, “Eat as many french fries as you want! Yay! Isn’t it fun to travel alone with Mommy??” O’Hare was kind of rough.

Anyway….

Wyatt got some salami, strawberries, grapes and a sandwich of home made plum jam on a half of a hamburger bun.

Augie had strawberries, grapes and PB&J on the other half of the bun.

I had whole wheat crackers (August ate all of them), grapes, one strawberry and a cream cheese and plum jam sandwich.

Back to my vacation! The cicadas are chirping and I am finally starting to get tired. I’ll be back next week!

June 25, 2010: Augie dug my 10 year old king monkey beanie out of one of my dresser drawers and the kids spent minutes — minutes! — playing with it. I think Wyatt looks insanely cute in this picture.

June 26, 2010: I spent some time clearing off my super-scary messy desk and managed to get enough free space to do some scrapbooking.

June 27, 2010: Wyatt lost his first tooth! He’d loosened it up a lot a few days before when he was eating corn on the cob so we were on high tooth alert around here. It came out at some point while he was eating dinner and he must have swallowed it because it was no where to be found.  The swallowing of the tooth was a cause of great concern for Wyatt because: a.) He was afraid the tooth fairy wouldn’t come and b.) he was worried it was dangerous and would make his tummy hurt. I told him the tooth fairy would understand, but he wrote a note to her explaining the situation just in case.  She came through, as I knew she would and she left him $3:

• $1 for his tooth
• $1 extra because it’s his first tooth
• and $1 extra because he accidentally swallowed it and it gave him a psychosomatic tummy ache.

So I guess he’s officially a big kid now!

June 28, 2010: Plums ripening on the tree that hangs over into our back yard. The property this tree is on is empty right now, so I’ve gone crazy harvesting the fruit this year so it won’t go to waste. I always pick the plums on our side of the fence but because the house is empty I’ve also snuck into the other back yard a few times to get the fruit I can’t reach. So far I’ve made plum crisps (in jars of course) and plum jam and I’ve got my eye on this plum chutney too.

June 29, 2010: Bed time stories.

June 30, 2010: Wyatt and I spent the morning in San Francisco with the Help A Mother Out folks and a stunning number of diapers. For those of you who haven’t heard of Help a Mother Out, they are a non-profit that works to supply diapers to families who can’t afford them. (You can learn more about diaper need and the stresses it puts on families here.) The people at Huggies made a huge donation to my favorite non-profit so they invited supporters to come by and help pass diapers out to some of their partner agencies. The diapers you see here may seem like a never ending supply — and don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic donation — but these pallets of diapers don’t even come close to filling the need in the Bay Area.

July 1, 2010: Augie’s favorite book at the moment is Go, Dog. Go! and as I was reading it to him one night I realized that it is a perfect match for Wyatt’s reading abilities. Bing! A light bulb went off! I could have Wyatt read it to Augie! They have since spent several happy mornings reading it together.

No camp on Monday, so no snack to show.

Tuesday

Wyatt headed off to pirate camp on Tuesday morning with this snack box tucked into his back pack. It had plum from the tree that hangs into our backyard and some pretzel sticks.

Augie was home from day care because he had a fever on Monday, so no bento box to show.

Wednesday

Augie’s lunch was almost entirely made up from leftovers from dinner on Tuesday night. There were steamed snap peas (from our garden! They’re the only thing that’s growing worth a darn this year.), pork tenderloin, rice and then some farmers market berries. Check out the size of those raspberries — they’re almost as big as the strawberries!

Wyatt had some blueberries and sliced turkey wrapped around pretzel rods.

Thursday

Thursday’s snack was exactly the same as Wednesdays — just rearranged. Blueberries, pretzels and turkey.

Friday

On Friday, Wyatt took the last of the strawberries along with a banana chocolate chip muffin.