My boys woke up excited for their Valentine's Day parties at school today. It will be a day filled with fun and lots of candy I'm sure!! I didn't really want to contribute to the candy overload at school today so for the past few weeks I was searching for non-candy Valentine ideas. Finally, I stumbled across a Mad Libs project my sister pinned on Pinterest. Oh, how I love that place! Considering how much my son LOVES Mad Libs I knew it was the perfect treat for him to pass out to his friends at school. We had fun putting them together and he was pretty anxious to trade Valentine goodies with his friends today. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Today's Mad Lib lunch includes: turkey/cheese sandwich, cheese, carrots, grapes, strawberries, peanut butter/chocolate mini muffinsall packed in a Planet Lunch Box

Tomorrow is a big day for my son's kindergarten class as the letters Q & U tie the knot in a cute ceremony that bonds the two letters together to make the "kwa" sound. This is a much anticipated event for the kindergarteners and because I took on the roll as class party planner this year I am busy pulling together fun activities for tomorrow's celebration. I have several stations planned where the kids will get to do a variety of "Q & U" activities along with some Valentine's Day crafts. The kids will make bookmarks with a poem about the letters Q & U on them, decorate letters, go on a scavenger hunt to look for words that start with Q & U, and make paper mice at the "QUiet as a mouse" station. Over the weekend as I was organizing the supplies I had my kids make up a few of the crafts to make sure they were doable. Both of the boys really liked the mouse craft so I thought it would be fun to make a heart-shaped mouse lunch in honor of tomorrow's celebration!

This lunch includes: peanut butter mouse sandwich with white american cheese accents, celery and peanut butter (if nut allergies are a concern you might try sunbutter), grapes, cottage cheese, almond flour chocolate chip cookie, dark chocolate squares

Here's the little craft that inspired the lunch.

It's Friday which means it's Family Game Night at our house. Over the years we've gone through a lot of "game" phases including countless games of Chutes and Ladders, UNO, Skip-Bo, Scrabble, Stratego...the list goes on and on. After a while the boys get bored with a game if we play it too many times but there is one game in our closet they like to pull out time and time again...Hungry, Hungry Hippos! Oh, how they love this one! It's a chaotic and loud game but I have to admit it is a great stress reliever especially on a Friday night after a long work week.

I'm sure we'll kick off tonight's game night with a round of Hungry, Hungry Hippos so I thought it would be fun to send a hippo themed lunch to school with my little man today. Keeping with my "heart theme" I created a hippo sandwich (I used an upside down heart for the body, an oval for the head, and I cut the top part of a piece of heart shaped cheese to make the nose), cucumbers, strawberries/grapes, almond flour chocolate chip cookies (I love these because they are loaded with protein and healthy fats) all packed in an Easy Lunch Box

Over the weekend we took our boys to see the play "How I Became a Pirate", a play based on a book by the same name that I've been reading to them since they were little. That book led us to start some quirky family traditions like "Talk like a Pirate Day" and even "Pirate Day Lunches". Pirate Day Lunches happen when there are no ladies around and the boys sit at the table and eat and act like pirates. I've never witnessed one of these lunches but from the stories I've heard I'm happy not knowing the exact details of what takes place! When I saw that the Eau Claire Children's Theatre was putting on the production I knew we needed to take the boys. The play was adorable and the boys belly laughed their way through it...especially when the pirates talked about needing to clean the "poop deck". Go figure!!

So today I made a "pirate lunch" including a pirate sandwich with a heart shaped eye patch, celery and peanut butter (use sunbutter if peanut allergies are a concern), grapes, taco flavored Ellsworth cheese curds, almonds packed in a Planet Lunch Box

My boys were up at the crack of dawn this morning to see whatPunxsutawney Phil decided about the length of the winter season. Because we have had less than 14 inches of snow this year compared to the 60+ inches we had last year, the boys were REALLY hoping for a longer winter (complete with snow if at all possible). They seemed to be putting a lot of hope in the fact that the little groundhog in Philadelphia would declare 6 more weeks of winter so they had more time for winter fun. We all watched in anticipation this morning and when they announced "6 more weeks of winter" the boys erupted in cheers! Maybe there is a chance for more snow this year after all!

Today's "Groundhogs Day" Lunch includes: peanut butter sandwich (if nut allergies are a concern you might consider using sunbutter), Trader Joe's chocolate almond for the nose, white American cheese for the cheeks and string cheese for the teeth, cucumbers, peanut butter/chocolate chip mini muffin, Trader Joe's letter/number cookies, and a homemade fruit roll up all packed in an Easy Lunch Box. You'll notice that I did, in fact, manage to find a way to sneak in another heart shape in today's lunch.

I'm often asked for the recipe for the homemade fruit roll up so here it is (this is from Maria's web-site HERE)

• 4 cups strawberries


• 1/2 c. water


• 4 TBS natural sweetener (I prefer Wholesome Sweetener Zero)

It's the 1st day of February and I thought it might be fun between now and Valentine's Day to show different ways to make fun and creative lunches using heart shapes. My goal is to find several uses for this heart cookie cutter set I added to my collection earlier in the year. Since I have two boys who wouldn't want to be embarrassed with a glaring heart and "I LOVE YOU" messages in their lunch I'm going to have to get creative and find some sneaky ways to add heart shapes in their lunches. Today's lunch is for my littlest guy who absolutely ADORES puppies. We don't have a dog but I have a friend who let's her dog come over to play with our boys every once in a while. It's always a huge treat for my son and he loves nothing more than taking the dog for a walk, playing fetch with him and feeding him lots and lots of ice cubes (this particular dog loves ice cubes)!

The puppy lunch includes a turkey and cheese sandwich with upside down heart nose cut out of cheese, I cut one large heart out of a piece of cheese and sliced them to look like ears, grapes, cottage cheese, celery and peanut butter (you could use sunbutter if nut allergies are a concern), and a peanut butter/chocolate chip mini muffin The lunch is packed in a Planet Lunch Box which is available HERE

A few months ago a photographer friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer. From what I've heard from other cancer patients one of the most difficult parts of chemotherapy treatments is trying to stay nourished when the smell of food is simply nauseating. So began my search to find a resource for my friend to help get her through the months of chemo ahead. Someone recommended I check out the HopeFull Company which was started by two women right here in the Twin Cities who developed a product specifically catered to children and adults who have a hard time eating due to cancer and chemotherapy. The HopeFull Gift Pack they designed gives people the tools to create colorful popsicles filled with nourishing ingredients that would satisfy hunger, soothe mouth sores and fill cancer patients tummies with healthy fat, protein & calories. It seemed to be a fitting gift for me to send off to my friend who would soon be starting chemotherapy treatment.

Since then I've found myself thinking a lot about that product and thinking it would be great for us to have here at home. The whole concept behind combining healthy foods into a frozen pop seemed brilliant...especially since both of my kids love popsicles! Imagine my surprise when the owners of the HopeFull company contacted me to announce the release of a new line they were set to release called the BellyFull Gift Pack. It is a new version of their product but specifically designed for kids! They sent a kit and I must tell you it far exceeded my expectations. I found myself pouring over the recipe book that came with the Gift Pack and by the time I was done reading the first page I was a big believer in what these gals are doing. Here's a little snippet of what I found:

I have a busy day planned at the studio so I knew today's lunch needed to be quick-and-easy! With that in mind I made a hearty soup for dinner last night knowing I could send the leftovers to school for lunch. The soup I made contains kale which I talked about in my last post as being one of the best vegetables in season this month. I love kale because it's loaded with iron and it's so easy to prepare...especially when you're throwing it in a soup. The recipe I made last night is one I found onthis site:

Kale and Bean Soup:

As part of our transition to a healthier lifestyle I find myself wanting to teach our boys about how food is produced, grown and/or raised. Throughout the summer and fall we make frequent trips to the local farmer's market and I love that the kids notice when certain foods are "in season". When we start our trips in June they see a lot of peas, asparagus, rhubarb, etc... and as we move into the fall months they start seeing squash, lettuces, and root vegetables. It's been a great talking point as we explain that different fruits and vegetables thrive in different weather conditions so farmers plan accordingly and grow different things in different seasons. The tricky part is during the long winter months when there isn't much of anything growing up here in the Northwoods. It's hard to know which foods are "in season" when all we see on a daily basis is a blanket of white snow. Luckily, I found a web-site dedicated to educating people about which foods are in season and when calledEat Seasonbly. The web-site is jam packed with information about seasonal eating and they include a lot of tips and recipes for using seasonal fruits and vegetables. I downloaded the following chart from their site and have it hanging on our refrigerator to serve as a reminder of which fruits/vegetables to watch for during the next few months.

If you look at the Eat Seasonably web-siteyou'll see that the two vegetables named as "January's best" are kale and carrots. Kale is packed with iron and it's a great food to add to soups and stews or you can make one of our family favorites...kale chips! Simply remove the stem from each kale leaf, cut each leaf into chip size pieces, spray a cookie with olive oil, lay kale pieces flat on the cookie sheet and lightly spray the kale with olive oil, sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese over the top and bake at 250 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is melted and the kale is crispy.

Today's lunch includes: peanut butter roll up on flaxseed Lavash bread, Ellsworth cheese curds, carrots and hummus, kale chips, 2 squares of dark chocolate packed in a Planet Lunch Box