Lunch Box Fun!

At Maggie’s preschool, the kids can stay for “Lunch Bunch” once they are potty trained. It’s extra time to play & have lunch with friends. Last school year, this was a big incentive for Maggie to potty train & not wear a diaper to school. She was so excited the first time she was able to “bring lunch”. I was excited the first time I packed her lunch! I was so proud she was ready to go diaper free to school & also really excited to pack my first school lunch. My mom was an awesome lunch packer & I couldn’t wait to do it myself. This year, she will be in school 3 days a week & I plan to let her stay once a week for lunch. Here’s a few things we’ll be using for lunch:

Lunch box:

Last year Maggie got a lunch box from Conniption Prints. It’s personalized, well made & has a chalkboard inside to write her notes! We’ll be using it again this year. Conniption Prints has so many awesome lunch boxes & other personalized school & home gear. We’re excited that they will be participating in this weekend’s Yellow Friday shopping event. They have a GREAT deal, that we’ll be revealing Friday morning. 

Personalized Snack cup & Sandwich Holder:

The Mom behind one of my favorite blogs, Total Tippins Takeover, has started an Etsy shop! Amy, a very talented mom of 2 (soon to be 3) little girls, creates personalized products with vinyl decals. In her shop, One Good Name, you’ll find everything you need to pack a fun lunch! You can also order the cute decals on their own, it you have something at home that you’d like to add a name too. I ordered these sandwich & snack containers for the pool this summer & I’ll be using them for school too. I’m excited that One Good Name will also be part of our Yellow Friday event this weekend!

Reusable Snack Bags:

We love reusable snack bags at our house. We use them for snacks, pacifiers, small toys, breakfast on the go, etc. We pack snacks & a lunch everyday for the pool & I realized this morning that we haven’t used one plastic baggie yet this summer! I love the bags from LilyPie Baby. They have velcro closures (easy for little hands), have a great lining inside & come in great patterns/colors! They have some cool sets that come with 2 different size bags. These are great for school lunches. LilyPie Baby is also participating in this week’s Yellow Friday, so keep an eye for their fantastic deal!

Also, I recently learned two easy, healthy lunch packing tips! I attended a wonderful Back to School Style event with Momtrends at the fabulous Freshmade NYC. Freshmade hosts kids’ cooking classes & birthday parties. They kicked off the event sharing some great tips for healthy food for kids. Two of my favorite tips were:

1. Recreate leftovers for lunch:  I don’t know why I never thought of this! Maggie’s favorite lunch is peanut butter sandwiches, which we don’t pack for school because many kids have peanut allergies. I’m often at a loss for what to pack instead. Using leftover chicken for a sandwich or making leftover pasta into a pasta salad would be a hit with Maggie! 

2. A fun way to drink more water: Add fruit! Again, don’t know why I never thought to try this. I love  lemon or cucumber in my own water. So, for the kids water + fruit = tasty, easy & healthy. My girls love juice, but I don’t like them drinking a lot of it. Adding fruit to their water makes it taste more like juice without all the sugar. Today we used frozen fruit in our waters to keep them cool at the pool & it was delicious & refreshing!