Fabulous Food Friday

Wow! It has been ages since I have done a Fabulous Food Friday feature. This one has been in the works for a while. I have been super excited to show you the new bento lunch boxes Andy brought back from Japan...I haven't had much luck finding them locally (except online) and I am so glad I asked him to look for some, cause he (and Taly) found some great ones.

He also brought back some rice molds, dividers and picks to add to my growing bento collection:

Rice molds, sandwich cutters (found at Target and Uwajimaya) and lots of fun containers

Sauce containers and fun food picks

Since Natalie is really the only one who currently takes a lunch to school, she was treated to some fun lunches lately. She wanted me to leave all the labels and stickers on the boxes so all her friends could see that they came from Japan!

Here are my first attempts at bento lunch making:

Carrots and cheese and mini peanut butter and honey sandwiches cut like little flowers, rice with soy sauce.

This bento contains a hard-boiled egg, whole wheat tortillas, humus, carrots and strawberries

Here we have a rice bunny with a carrot nose, edamamme, apple slices and cottage cheese with a cherry on top
This one has a sticky rice ball with nori face and carrot nose and strawberry hat with edamamme, whole wheat Ritz crackers, cheese and pepperoni slices.

Although I am having tons of fun with these lunch ideas, I am really feeling good about the food she is eating. Not just pb&j all day every day...no convenience/processed food either...it's all healthy food.

One of my favorite things about this type of lunch is the fact that I am not using one single disposable lunch bag. I hate the thought of all that plastic wasted every day. I also have stopped putting juice boxes in their lunches. If you think about it, that is not only more expensive to purchase, but it really adds up to more garbage. It really hit me this year as I have been around the school more and seen how much really gets thrown out. Fortunately, Natalie's school has an amazing recycling program, but I feel better knowing I am not contributing to all the garbage...just wash and use over again!

The Last Day...

I've never really liked the "last day" of anything. Whether it was school or summer camp or the last day of a vacation. The last day always means that something fun is about to end. I can still remember feeling sad even on the last days of school. I would miss my friends and my teachers and all the fun things we did.

I kind of feel sad even on the last day of school for my kids, no not because they will be home all summer, but it is kind of bitter sweet to see them complete another year of school. It still seems weird to me that Zander is all through with preschool now. In all the business of the spring field trips and programs and memory book coordination, it flew by so fast and now he is done!

Let me catch you up on some of the recent happenings in the life of Zander. Warning...lots of photos! I'm kind of behind!!!

During the last Chapel, Zander received his certificate and his memory book. Look for the memory pages on my Paper Caper blog.

On the last day, all the 4 year olds got to have a picnic. Zander was so excited to use his new bento box that Uncle Andy brought back from Japan. Hayden is using his too.

One last chance to play with friends Karly and Carson.

Field Trip to the Farm

We got to hold the baby chicks!

The baby sheep were just a few weeks old and were jumping all over the place. I've never seen sheep jump...didn't even know they could jump.

Here's another one on the left jumping and playing with all the sheep under the tree.

Zander got to plant some flowers too.

After snack, Zander had fun playing with his good friend Carson.

Bubble Day


Zander and his teachers.

Henry and Mudge Play
We all went to New Hope church to see the play. Here are the kids in front of the stage.

T-Ball

Eye Appointment
Here's Dr. Holland checking Zander's eyes. When his eyes are dilated he can see if his optical nerve has any preasure on it, thus indicating a problem with the shunt. Fortunately, he didn't see any thing wrong with Zander!!!

Here he is with his "robot glasses." He got to look through all different kinds of glasses, including 3-d glasses. It was obvious by watching him do the vision tests that he doesn't see 3-d. I also noticed this at the 3-d Muppet movie at Disneyland...he was the only kid not reaching out to try and touch things. The doctor says he still has depth perception, just not 3-d.

Grandma and Grandpa Roush came to watch Zander on Monday.

Grandpa tried Zander's helmet on and it fit!

Where'd she go?

I'm still here and I think about blogging all the time...but I am a little restricted right now. My camera's display is not working, so I'm sending it back to be repaired. In the mean time, I am borrowing a camera, but there is not much room left on my hard drive to down load the pictures...so I feel kind of stuck.

I have pictures of Natalie's zoo field trip, Zander's farm field trip, funny pictures of Natalie, Natalie's mother's day program, Zander's t-ball games, Zander's eye doctor's visit, etc...just waiting to be blogged. So to all of you who keep asking when I'm going to blog next...soon, I hope.

This is a busy time of the year as school is wrapping up. Lately Zander has been working on him math skills at home. He can't get enough of math workbooks and activity pages. He is one smart cookie. He loves to spell words too and creates work pages filled with all the words he knows. He has been learning the "fruits of the spirit" with Dan and has them all memorized.

Natalie loves to write stories...and she does a great job illustrating them. She is taking an after school class on Wednesdays where she gets to create fun projects like making magnets and working with fimo clay. She is really progressing in her reading and just finished a big report on Hummingbirds that she had to write, illustrate and present to her class.

Hayden is growing up so fast and will be starting preschool in the fall. He loves to be active and wants to play t-ball just like his big brother. One of his favorite tricks is to turn on the hose outside and get himself all wet. He thinks this is so much fun. He is talking up a storm and is getting a little better about communicating his frustrations instead of being a grumpus and throwing temper tantrums. This can be challenging at times!

So that's a wee little update for now...I really am looking forward to when I can start blogging more regularly...so stay tuned!