St. Pat's BLOG HOP!

St. Patrick's Day is one of our favorite holidays! We go back to Savannah almost every year for the big parade! Taia LOVES it! We can't wait to go this weekend! In anticipation, she had a St. Pat's lunch on Monday!

She has:
-MY VERY FIRST (I think....haha) Checkered apple. If I've ever done one that I'm forgetting about, I'm sure it was it was even more sad than this one!
-Grapes with St. Pat's picks
-Shamrock sandwiches made with Trader Joe's pita bread. All 3 fillings are different. PB, hummus and turkey. The only one she ate was the Peanut butter. I was hoping she'd try the hummus because it was green! I actually got it when we were at Trader Joe's specifically for St. Pat's!
(If only my order from the Chocolate Craft Studio that I ordered yesterday was here, the sandwiches could be green!! That's what I get for procrastinating! Next year..... next year!)
-A Pot of Gold! (Yellow and orange dye free Trader Joe's jellybeans.)

Now go check out what cuteness Crystal's Ramblings has going on for St. Patrick's Day!!

Bento Stash and Organization!

A lot of my Bento Bloggere buddies have been posting pictures of their stashes and organizers. I got bento-organization envy. BAD. So I found this pink organizer at Target on sale for $17. It SCREAMED my name!
It's not complete. It's not perfect. But I love it!
There are a few pieces missing due to dish washing and other random reasons.... lost in the playroom.... But eventually, it will all be together in its home in the corner of the kitchen!
The first thing Dean commented on was how tacky the boxes of cookie cutters looked. Thanks to that comment, tomorrow we will be shopping for cookie cutter organizers! :) Hehehe!
At least I finally separated them into some sort of theme instead of all dumped into one giant container. Folks, THAT is progress! Before this, almost everything was in one big drawer in the kitchen! Now what am I going to fill that drawer with???

I have two little tackle boxes that store my picks, bento straps, baran and mini muffin liners. Do you see those two empty spots from me taking some holiday picks out? They MUST be filled.

And another tackle box for my smaller metal (and a few plastic) cutters.


The top drawer of my little organizer holds my boxes, muffin cups, and cupcake holders. (I think 3-4 boxes are missing and one cupcake holder. Yup I'm a dish slacker and Taia likes to play with them)

Drawer 2 contains sandwich cutters and presses, egg and ice cream molds and cookie cutters that are just small categories. (ie: stars and hearts, princess and hello kitty...)


The bottom drawer contains my tackle boxes and paper muffin cups!


There you have it. It's not much, but it's mine and I love it!

Some great dye free websites!

A friend called today and asked me about places to get natural dyes, information, etc. So I thought I would compile a list of the places I know of for information and shopping. PLEASE feel free to add anything I missed in the commentS!!


http://reddyefree.blogspot.com/

http://www.chocolatecraftkits.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=81 <---- Natural food dyes!

www.naturalcandystore.com <-- lots of dye free stuff but a tad PRICEY.

http://johnslunchbag.blogspot.com/ <-- Just did a great Natural Dye giveaway and referred me to Chocolate Craft Studio.


http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/02/23/synthetic-food-dyes-raising-health-concerns-among-doctors-parents/?utm_source=Fri+Feb+24+2012&utm_campaign=Newsletter+post+1-27-12&utm_medium=email


I find a TON of dye free stuff at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, Etc... way way cheap! They're the ONLY places I'll buy Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops. Trader Joe's is absolutely worth the drive!!! Almost the entire store is dye free!!!!!



This is just a quick post based off of an E-mail from a friend. Let me know what all I missed! I'm sure there are at least a few things!

Seuss Week Round up and a Blog Hop!

We LOVE Dr. Seuss! Dean and I actually had a Cat in the Hat themed wedding! So this is one of my favorite weeks!! I didn't find out what order they were studying the Seuss books in until Monday. So she wound up with two One Fish Two Fish lunches!

Monday- One Fish Two Fish
They actually read The Foot Book but I didn't find that out until after school!

-Two fishie sandwiches. One Nutella and One PB. Trader Joe's Fruit leather numbers.
-Red Goldfish. Can you believe they don't have BLUE! Natural blue stuff is so hard to find...
-Yogurt Covered Raisins with cardstock and fish stickers so I could put a blue fish... ha.
-Fish shaped strawberries!
All in an Easy Lunch Box.

Tuesday- A more lazy version of One Fish Two Fish...
Except this time I remembered that I had blue fish picks! :)

-Goldfish Sandwich
-Trader Joe's Saltwater Taffy
-Fish shaped watermelon with a blue fish pick... :)
-Goldfish
All in an Easy Lunch Box!

Wednesday- Wacky Wednesday - The kids dressed up all crazy and had fun so Dean and I made her a crazy lunch!
-Apple shaped watermelon
-Chocolate Chip Cookie sandwiches (Nutella sandwiches with raisins)
-Hot dog and Cheese "hats"
-Trader Joe's Joe Joe's and pretzels

Again, packed in an Easy Lunch Box!

This was after a FAIL involving a hot "dog" and a few other major lunch issues. Dean is helping me with lunches this week since I'm working full time now and CRAZY hours. It really makes it more fun to make bentos as a family!!



Thursday- My Many Colored Days
Truthfully, I've never read this book... BUT I googled it and it appeared to be about emotions.
So, Dean and I came up with this..... colorful and emotional...
Taia came home today and asked why on Earth I sent her a sad sandwich. Mommy FAIL.

This lunch is packed in her Bynto lunchbox!

Friday- The Cat in The Hat- Character Parade Day.
Taia will of course go as Ariel, the famous storybook character.... We'll be taking the Ariel book that the toothfairy brought her to prove that we aren't breaking the rules! :)

Friday's lunch includes:
-Two Elvis cookies... I mean Thing 1 and Thing 2
-Random cheese and carrots to fill the spot...
-Green Eggs and Ham
-Strawberry and Marshmallow Hats

Can you tell we love our Easy Lunch Boxes?

This is the snack we made for her class for tomorrow. Taia's "green egg" is a naturally dyed jelly bean ( As shown in her lunch above...) Everyone else gets M&M's. She is super excited to share these because she worked very hard assembling them and even made a second batch!

The Inspiration was found on pinterest, of course.

This is part of the Bento Blog Hop! Head on over to A Pocket Full Of Buttons and see what they have going on for Dr. Seuss' Birthday!