Laptop Lunches

Part of my plan to streamline our life this fall as we dive into (slightly) more formal homeschooling is to prepare and pack our lunches and snacks every evening as if we were going out to work/school.

Enter the Laptop Lunch. I fell in love with Bento boxes and specifically these adorable lunchboxes while reading the current issue of Mothering. So far I have two full sets and several "Bento buddy" sets. I would like to buy one more full system soon. They have been a dream come true to quickly pack snacks and lunches for both on the go (playgroups, errands, appointments) and at home. Here are our first attempts:

Snack for an appointment. Big brother had cheese slices, Cheddar Bunnies, and carrot sticks. Little brother had chunks of cantaloupe (in silicone muffin cup), chunks of cheese, and apple cinnamon Teddy Puffs.

Lunches for a picnic in the park. Big brother had ham (finally found some nitrate and nitrite-free for a reasonable price!), Kashi crackers, cheddar cheese, organic carrot sticks with yogurt dip, and organic grapes. (Oops, forgot his napkin in this picture! It should be in the flatware space.)

Mine...same as above.

Little brother had SunButter on brown rice bread, cheese, and grapes. We all had water too, of course!

Check out this Flickr group for some truly awesome Laptop lunch creations!

Just in case anyone is interested in buying a set, I heartily recommend the new 2.0 sets as they offer more inner containers with lids and the extra "buddies" for more configurations.

August Flying By...

It's been a very busy and rather rocky month for us, but I'm tentatively hopeful things are looking up.

After a long stretch of wet, chilly weather we had some hot days. We've been trying to take advantage of as much as we can amidst the chaos.

A few weeks ago I spent a morning at the beach with my firstborn. The baby had a special morning at home with Grandma. It wasn't until our beach trip last week that he started to warm up to the idea of all that water. Baths and water table are fine but pools and the lake are quite different!

The rocky beach in our hometown...

Someone left (broken) sand toys!

It was a breezy morning and the (rather small!) waves were a little overwhelming for M. His first experience with a current!

Playing with Our Food

Last week I ordered some egg molds from Japan via Hong Kong and they arrived Friday! The boys and I decided to try them right away.

Here are two in the package:

After hard boiling eggs, quickly remove the shells (don't burn yourself!) and place them in the molds. Then pop the molds into cold water for ten minutes:

They didn't come out perfectly as you can see the shapes weren't well-defined. Next time I'll try larger eggs. Here are the best results:

The boys enjoyed their afternoon snack, though!

Someone had a birthday!

Organic nectarine cobbler with homemade ice cream!

Thank you for the shirt, Aunt Whit!

Satori Smiles: Reading Room

A few months ago, I shared a new favorite blog of mine, Satori Smiles. If you haven't been over there lately, go now and check out their new library reading room! It's wonderful!

We have a display bookcase, but I'd love to put up rain gutter bookshelves for more display space.

My Week in Review

Wednesday Afternoon: M. falls out of swing and cuts lip.

Friday Afternoon: N. gets finger stuck in vacuum and rips skin off. Call 911 and discover that they "don't do anything for broken fingers so just watch it." It's not broken but bleeds intermittently for two days.

Sunday Lunchtime: N. falls out of booster chair, fortunately to the side and not forward into table.

Sunday Bedtime: N. attempts to dive off of changing table. Fortunately, I have a hand on him and catch him as he is hanging upside down. Reflexes like a cat.

I think I lost five years off my life (at least). I need a cookie. And a hug.

Sharing Nature Camp

This summer I signed M. up for a once-a-week preschool nature camp at a local nature center. There are five sessions, and after two weeks I can say that we love it! It's about an hour and a half long and each class includes a nature walk, activity, and craft.

Our first class was on frogs, and today was ponds. After a short hike, the children tried pond dipping!

They found a lot of neat things: tiny mollusks, nymphs, lots of coontail, some fish, water striders, and maybe a small frog or two.

We hiked back toward a pavilion, and the kids were able to make their own "ponds." M. is doing very well at arts and crafts lately. He created his design all on his own, though I think the favorite part of each child was sliding the "button" to cut his or her own piece of plastic wrap for "water"!

The nature center has a visitor center with mounted animals typically found in the area surrounding it including a beaver, coyote, and muskrat. There are also tanks with various turtles, crayfish, and snakes. Our favorite, though, is the beehive. I think M. could watch it for hours.

Next week our topic is turtles. We can't wait!