World Animal Day Hop: A Seahorse & Friends

October 4, 2012 is World Animal Day.

That calls for another Blog Hop.

My fellow Bento Bloggers and Friends prepared lunches of varying animals on each hop. So brace yourselves as we amuse you and your kids with the different animal lunches showcased on this special day.  This is like virtual animal museum of the Bento World.

Summer Mealtime: Seaside Bento

We had a seaside adventure one Saturday afternoon. Our cravings for shelled foods brought us to the Reondo Pier. Since new moon hit the 4th of July, we thought it would be the best time to eat some crabs at the pier this weekend. It's the time when the crabs could eat better, thus meatier catch for the fishermen. Lucky none of us have food allergies, so we hit the road without hesitations. I just have to pack lunches for the kids who were both not a huge fan of shelled foods.

I packed sliced crab-meatloaf with ketchup, carrot slices & Ranch, 

strawberry hearts and cherries.

Grandma's in charge of the rice and corn, so I skipped that.  

And that's part of their lunches.

For us, I packed brown rice, diced tomatoes and cilantro salad, soysauce and lemon dip. Then we bought huge meaty crabs, red snapper fillets, and clam chowder soup for everyone to share and enjoy.  It was a fulfilling meal that everyone had. 

After, we headed to the beach side for some water and sand play,

while the oldies relaxed and de-stress.

Have a wonderful day!

~Marie 

Summer Mealtime: Under The Sea

If you have been reading my blog, I'm sure that you already know that I have an incoming kindergartner who's quite picky with foods school lunches.  To be honest, I have been on the internet as much as I could to find the most adorable lunches I could that would work for my little girl to encourage her to eat in school.  I didn't have issues with her when she was in preschool because the preschool served healthy warm lunches. Thus, she eats what everyone's eating.   So this summer I have taken the opportunity that I could to practice several bento skills I need to learn for the following school year.

I made an under the sea breakfast today.

 Sissy had 3 fishes cut from 1 sandwich bread, 

and 2 octopuses (as Cute Foods for Kids call them).

I cut some Nori sheets for seaweeds background, which my kids love

to have in every meal.  I also found a good tutorial on how to make an octopus

out of hotdogs thru Cute Foods For Kids which can be found here.

Big G had 2 dolphins cut from 2 sandwich breads,

and 3 octopuses. With similar ingredients for the seaweed and background.

If you notice I lack eyes and mouth for the octopuses.  That's because we run out of big straws that can cut the right dimensions. Next time I'll show a better picture for you.

I even forgot to place hat picks for him since he was in a rush to dig into this.

But everyone's happy and didn't even notice what I did.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

~Marie