Good Lookin' Out?

So last night my husband decided we should go out for tacos. He had just read an article from an LA based food critic who finds amazing hole in the wall places an added bonus is that we are already familiar with the Chef because he owns a restaurant in the next city. So we had to give it a try.  
It had already been a long hot day and although I agreed I was tired and could have just as easily gone to bed at 5pm. Bed was not an option. The family across the street, who my kids adore, was having a birthday party so first we were going there to give the father a card they made and wish him a happy birthday.
Hubby took the kids across the street while I put on some makeup and changed my shirt. That entire process took maybe 10 minutes max. I joined my family at the party. Said hello and visited for maybe 15 minutes before it was time to head out to dinner. Back across the road we all piled in the car and took off. We ate at this new taco place (fantastic food, but that's another story.) Thanks to the afore mentioned article from the LA based food critic, the other occupied tables had Silver-lake style hipsters.
ANYWAY, as we were sitting at our table recuperating from eating far too many amazing tacos the 6yo turned to me and said "Oh! Mommy I forgot to tell you!" Me, "what?" 6yo, "You have your shirt on inside out"

Henry Ford of Bento Lunches

We all live busy lives and I am no exception. As the school year really kicks into gear for my kids and my own work schedule picks up with travel around the Southwest my time to do the things I love, and my children expect becomes more precious. This week my husband is traveling for work so even though I'm more or less home its going to be a bumpy week. My 6yo daughter has been fixated on PB&H sandwiches made on Kings Hawaiian rolls since April. The week after Easter I used the left overs from our family dinner for her lunch. The rest is history.

Anyway, this actually makes my life much easier and I can now plan much of her lunches for the week ahead of time. Depending on how many side items I have to send I will either send her one or two of the sandwiches. 

It's too late to make this long story short, but my point with writing this post is to say, hey! I make things ahead and that's A-Ok. 

So here is my sandwich assembly line. 

I make the peanut butter and honey mixture in a glass bowl with a lid so I can grab it as needed. This size typically lasts two weeks.

The rolls are best cut with a serrated knife. Then it's simple! Spread the goodness and put them in the fridge for the week. 

Ta-da! And I'm that much closer to having lunch made!

 

First Day of School 2013- Teachers Gifts

This is an update to the Teacher's Gift from last year. The big jar was very popular so I thought I would do it again. This year both girls started school the same week so I made one for each teacher.
For F's preschool teacher

Here are the contents- pocket sized tissues, some post it notes, a packet of Airborne, a small box of Cepacol, hand sanitizer, a coffee cozy, a cooling scarf for hot days and a stripped scarf for the fall. 

For L's First grade teacher we made this one

So the girls loaded the jar with the goodies. They loved being part of the process.
Another first day of school is done!

And now we can see the start of the sequester's impact

The thing about early education is that it's impact is like an iceberg. You may see the smallest bit of it at the start but the true impact will go on and on.

Today on the radio I heard about all the children who will no longer have access to Head Start. It broke my heart. A generation of children are suffering from the unwillingness to compromise, our greed and need to war, and the mismanagement of our state and federal finances.

This breaks my heart. If we can not look after the least among us, our babies and youngest children, our elderly, those that are ill either physically or mentally, those that are hungry physically or mentally, what sort of society are we?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/head-start-eliminated-services-to-57000-children-in-us-as-a-result-of-sequester/2013/08/18/e1181810-06d9-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html

FIrst Day of School

Well, the new clothes are all washed and dried.
The backpack filled with the "donations" listed for 1st grade.
Lunch is made and waiting in the fridge.
Now my job is to be driver and cheerleader until 4:00 when I become tutor and coach.
Here is to the first day of school!

How you know your kids are smarter than you are....

Last night the 3yo and I were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on cable. If you know my kids or have read my posts you will know that although this may seem a strange choice for your typical 3 year old, F is far too creepy to be bothered by this movie. Anyway, if you have seen it you will know the scene when Ron has been taken into a tunnel under the Whomping Willow by the black dog and Harry and Hermione follow them until they all arrive in the Shrieking Shack. At which point we finally meet Sirius Black. A few moment's later (sorry if this is a spoiler for someone in 2013, who has managed to avoid both the book and the movie) Peter Pettigrew is exposed. 

All of a sudden F starts in, "Mommy, who is that?" 

I reply, "Peter Pettigrew"

her, irritated, "Mommy, who is that MAN?"

me thinking (right, she has not read the books and we have seen these all out of order), "Honey, that is Peter Pettigrew, he is also Scabbers" 

F taking it to the next three levels of annoyed with me, "MOMMY, THE MAN. Who is he?" 

Me, "OK. Peter Pettigrew was a friend of Harry's mommy and daddy at school. Everyone thought he died the same night that they died.."

F cutting me off, "NO!" now pacing in front of the TV

Me totally confused, "Honey come sit with me and watch the movie, it's OK." who was I kidding? This kid was not worried about that guy or anyone else in the movie. 

Now she was standing in front of a book shelf, "Mommy I need the movie book!"

Me (tired after a long day), "F please come sit down. We are not changing movies now. I'm sorry if you are tired of this movie, we can turn it off and find something else to do, but..."
F, "MOMMY I need the book! That man is in this book!" 

Me finally starting to understand, "The man who plays Peter Pettigrew is in another movie?"
F with such relief, "YES!" 

So I take down the binder with all the kids DVD's in it and she begins to sort through the pages beginning with A Adams Family, The. 

F touching each DVD lightly with one index finger, "not this one, not this one, not this one"
when she reached E she said, "This movie mommy! That man is in this movie!" As I said she is 3 and not reading yet (even though she insists she can read many words including Exit and party on the boat) so I went over to look.

There she was with the book open to 

F "Mommy! He is in this movie! Mommy what is the name of this movie?"

Finally! I understood! Me to F, "That's Enchanted. Honey, you have seen this man from Harry Potter in this movie?"

"Yes! Yes! He is a bad man in this movie toooooo!" I figured she meant the spineless man servant who betrays the prince for the faux love of the queen and congratulated her on her ability to recognize the actor so quickly. 

This morning, just to be sure I checked on IMDB. Sure enough Timothy Spall is in both Harry Potter and Enchanted as well as several other children's movies.  

So there you have it. 3 years old and she is already more observant than her mother. 

Fall Lunch Review- Skull Sandwiches

My kids are creepy. I say it all the time and people think I am kidding. 

But I'm not! 

When L was old enough to walk and talk (about a year old) she would hide in our dark hall and wait to jump out at my husband and me. F loved to pretend to be a zombie at 18 months and was even happier when I would pretend that hordes of zombies were lumbering down our street toward the house. We would scream and point and run to hide. This is how my children have entertained themselves since they were old enough to do so. I guess it's in their DNA. 

Last October I made a different Halloween lunch each day. Toward the end of the month I decided to do a lunch for Dia de Los Muertos. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead 

I made the sandwiches out of the kids favorite, pb&honey and sealed the sandwiches with my Wonder Bread Sandwich Sealer N Decruster (it's awesome, I got it on a random isle at our local grocery store and the darn thing cost less than $5!) 

 So here was my Day of the Dead lunch for 2012. I used red and green food coloring mixed together to make the brown which I painted on the sandwich with a small water color brush freehand. The details were painted with orange and purple food coloring.

On the side I included a popcorn mix that my husband picked up at costco, I put some small skull candies into it to skull it up. I also included a tiny snickers bar and several apple slices that I partially skinned.

As I was posting this F said "Oh! Is that my lunch for tomorrow?" and requested another for tomorrow. Silly wabbit!