Food, Family, Fun.

Instead of a Spookie Halloween Lunch, I decided to make a happy one! Amy has a smiling Jack O Lantern sandwich today.

As excited as she was about her Spookie Ookie lunch, Amy didn't seem to eat much out of it. She was either rushed or not that hungry. In this Happy Jack O Lantern lunch I packed many of Amy's favourite foods. Cucumber and carrot sticks, honeydew melon and pineapple and both reg & green grapes. Her Happy Jack O Lantern sandwich is a ham sandwich. She ate more out of this lunch, but still not very much. I think she must be very chatty at the lunch tables these days!

Amy wanted a spookie Halloween lunch so this is what I came up with, a funky monster which looks sort of happy and lots of monster parts! Today's post is part of a fun Frightful Fall blog hop by the Bento Blogger's and Friends. At the end of the post click the button to hop over to the next Frightful Fall lunch.

Amy has mozzarella cheese & fruit leather fingers, spookie boiled egg eyeballs with grape slices and dried cranberry accents, apple and almonds monster mouth and a few grapes. The gummy candy Vampire teeth are made by the Natural Confectionery Company. Amy's sandwich is a turkey sandwich with lettuce hair, cucumber and candy eyes and a red pepper mouth.

Rose has a Haunted Pumpkin Patch Lunch.

I packed her a Wadson's Farms baby butter lettuce salad with cheese pumpkins, ghost cucumbers, skull carrots and grape tomatoes. She also has red & yellow pepper strips, grapes, strawberries, a couple of grapes and an owl shaped cheese sandwich. This lunch is vegetarian. I packed her a lunchbox love note from the Halloween Jokes series. Amy also had one but it didn't make it into the photo. Her joke went something like this - What kind of fruit do vampires love? Neck-tarines.  hahaha!

So here's how the hop works. Click the button below to hop to Sarah's blog Zoe's Lunchbox. Keep clicking the buttons to see all of the lunches. When you arrive back here you will have seen them all. There are 15 different blogs.



Since this is day 3 of the Bento Bloggers & Friends Frightful Fall hop, you can also go through the other 2 hops that went live earlier this week. Click here to start day 1, Click Here to start day 2. Each one will have 15 blogs so if you hop all 3 that's a total of 45 fun lunch blogs! You'll surely find lots of fun FallOWeen ideas ideas.

The girls are excited about Halloween coming up and they wanted me to start packing them some Halloween lunches. I ended up waking up really late and they were a couple of minutes late for school. oops! Here's Rose's Freaky Lunch.

Finger sandwiches, apple, lettuce and fruit strip monster. It's a happy monster. I also packed Rose her favourite red and yellow peppers, a boiled egg dyed purple using beet juice and decorated with nori, grapes and gummy Vampire teeth made by the Natural Confectionary Company.

Here she is cutting out the pumpkin shapes

Putting on some sprinkles

Rose decided to take her spider craft that she made last week, some turkey cut and paste and colouring pages, some information about her name and a list of some favourites, her favourite book Bugs A-Z, her favourite stuffed animal, lots of photos of her doing various activities - gardening, swimming, dancing, gymnastics etc, a CD of her favourite songs, some family photos including our pets and lots of pictures of her cooking in the kitchen. She's really the go to kitchen helper in the family.  Collecting the photos is the part where I did the most work to help. We talked about what she wants to bring photos of and then I just used the computer to arrange them on the pages and type a description where it's needed. We don't have to arrange these like a project. The teachers have a special board and they put them up each week :) 

So how did Rose make these fabulous sugar cookies? Easy peasy. We made our favourite sugar cookie recipe -- Wilton Roll Out Cookies -- and added some neon pink and regular yellow food colouring to make the dough bright orange. Then I helped roll out the dough as this recipe is a no chill dough and is very soft and a bit tricky for a four year old to handle. Rose cut out the pumpkin shapes, added the sprinkles and I did the oven work.

This is the pumpkin cookie cutter that we used:

Today the girls get to dress up for Halloween Character Day at school.  School doesn't celebrate Halloween  so for Character Day they can dress as a character from a book or a nursery rhyme. It's optional, but of course we're dressing up! I wonder if anyone ever opts out?

Heidi is the Greedy Bee, Rose is the cat from Hey Diddle Diddle, 

Amy is Miley the Sylist Fairy from the Rainbow Magic Fairy series

Hope you have a fun day!

ham sandwich with a black sprinkle cat cut out, cucumber slices and carrot sticks, 

boiled egg, cantaloupe and strawberries

Heidi had a similar lunch
Hers stayed at home as usual and she ate it for lunch when she came home from school at noon

2 custard creme cookies, cucumber and carrot sticks, ham sandwich

bear shaped bunny, strawberries, cantaloupe and raspberries stuffed with tiny blueberries

Rose didn't want a sandwich and only wanted a rice cake!

She has all of the same sides as Heidi to go with her rice cake. I offered to put peanut butter on it but she said no, she only wanted a plain one. I think there is enough protein considering the egg so I didn't worry. Her little cup has ranch dip for the carrot sticks.  In case you are wondering why Amy didn't get any cookies -- she doesn't like them or anything else that I offered her instead! She was happy with her lunch as is.

Everyone is on midterm break right now and these lunches are actually from last week. I am very busy with work and haven't had time for much else. I am still packing fun lunches as Amy and Rose are at ballet camp, but I haven't been taking any photos. Since I have been working late, I just have not been getting up early enough to snap a picture. They actually have to leave as early as a school day since ballet camp is a farther drive than the 5 minutes to school!

Some items I used:

It's getting closer and closer to candy night! I can't wait to take the girls trick or treating.  Today is another lunch blog hop to get us all in the fun Halloween mood. Click the button at the end of the post to hop along to the next blog.

Here's Amy's lunch packed in a planetbox
carrot sticks, green grapes, gummy vitamin
strawberries & cantaloupe, witch finger sandwiches (ham) with fruit leather fingernails
She told me that she wanted lots of picks and things. So she has 2 bat picks, 2 witch fingers and 2 ghost rings

Halloween lunch for Rosie in a planetbox

Chex Mix (sort of looks like Jack O Lantern parts), green grapes, apple Jack o Lantern Mouth,
cheddar Jack o Lantern, pumpkin shaped cantaloupe, Jack o Lantern Pizza Pocket
The paper behind is a small wax paper treat bag.

Heidi's EasyLunchboxes Halloween Lunch

Heidi had apple monster mouth, grapes and a spider PB & J

The original plan was to draw a spider web on the circle cutout with a food safe marker and then stick in a spider pick. Well, my marker skills were lacking today so I flipped it over and used a spider cutter to cut a spider out and then left it all together so there was enough sandwich. The spider alone wouldn't be enough.

Of course the other side with the messy marker didn't have the little crusty bits of bread showing - DOH!

If you would like to see all of my Halloween lunches, crafts and activities click here.

Now on to the hop! Click on the button below to hop along to the next blog. I expect there will be lots of fun and creative Halloween lunches to see. I can't wait to hop through them all myself :)

Ok maybe they aren't so spooky - more like fun Halloween lunches! These are form last week. 

This is Rose's lunch.

pear slices, apples & diced peaches, mini cake ball, goldfish & fork for the peaches

cheese sandwich with a cheese jack o lantern topper. I used an upside down mini bird cutter to make the mouth, stamped side by side.

This was Amy's lunch.

She has all of the same ingredients except for the sandwich. Her sandwich is ham and I made a witch's hat, a bat and a black cat. This was all from one sandwich as the hat leaves a bit of extra bread around the edges.

Everyone has been getting Halloween jokes in their lunch boxes lately. This one is a free Halloween printable from Paper Glitter. I added the text jokes myself (google Halloween jokes for kids - there are tons) or you can go here and find ready made joke cards that you just have to print and cut. I recommend using index card stock for the best result. Also - I don't actually put the joke in with the food either - that was just for the photo. I usually put it on top of her lunch container. Amy can read her own jokes and Rose usually has one of the older children read her joke. They look forward to their joke everyday!

Heidi's lunch - the lunch didn't travel today - 

just was made and stuck in the fridge ready for her as soon as she got home

grapes and apple slices, mini cake ball, goldfish, gummy vitamins

Jack o Lantern Cheese Sandwich - One upside down bird mini cutter to make the mouth

Almost everything was eaten out of these lunches! 

It was super easy and I only offered slight direction. We used a glitter medium and mixed it into the black paint to make black glitter paint. It's still sparkly and a bit neater than shaking glitter around. We were out of glitter glue, but you could use that also to make it sparkly without the mess of loose glitter. This was a minimally supervised craft so I was making it as easy as possible. They were working at the kitchen table and I was cooking in the kitchen.

Here they are adding the fun bits. They started to look less like spiders after a while!

Amy decided that hers needed a stinger like a scorpion.

Rose thought feathers would be just the thing for her spider. Usually we use an art tray when we work with the collage box materials. There was a slight mess on the table but they packed it away and then swept the floor. The art tray definitely contains the mess better. I was busy making pumpkin pie at the time and I just didn't think to get out the art trays.

Heidi finished first (top photo) then after she saw what her sisters were doing, she added some more embellishments :) Here are all three finished *spiders*. 

cookie (I didn't make these, my Aunt brought them over last night), string cheese with ghost rings,

gummy vitamins, apple pieces, honeydew melon

jack o lantern sandwich

The ghost rings were one of a few fun Halloween trinkets that I found at Party Plus on the weekend. 

Amy's Lunch

Amy's is the same as Rose's. Just a different cheese and no mustard on her sandwich. The cookie sure looked lonely in that compartment all by itself but there has been a little bit of uneaten food coming home lately, so I didn't want to overpack again.

.

Heidi had a cookie, grapes, apple pieces and a cheese pizza.

For Heidi I still made her lunch in the morning, but I didn't heat up the pizza until she got home from school. I am sure that this is the first of many Halloween pizzas I'll make this year as the girls always request them once Halloween nears. The ghost cutter below also makes a great Halloween pizza, cover it with grated mozzarella and sliced black olives for eyes and a mouth instead :)

Everyone ate all of their lunch except Amy, who left some cheese.

I made the girls a Halloween themed lunch. I don't usually end up doing too many Halloween lunches since school has often been out for midterm break right around Halloween. This year Amy & Rose will be going to ballet camp over the break so I should have plenty of opportunities to make some more Halloween lunches. These are Rose & Amy's first Halloween lunches of the year.

Amy's EasyLunchbox - Frankenstein

Frankenstein sandwich, carrot sticks and peanutbutter

jack o lantern clementine and apple slices

Rosie's EasyLunchbox

carrot sticks and tomatoes with dip in an easylunchboxes mini dipper (I decorated it with a few stickers)

ham sandwich on a really soft and delicious roll, nilla wafers

jack o lantern clementine made using a food colouring marker, apple pieces

Muffin Tin Meals for dinner before we go Trick or Treating. Easy, Fast, Fun!

Amy

pineapple, ham, diced peaches

mac & cheese, yogurt with sprinkles.

Rose & Heidi had the same

Peeps ghost, ham, diced peaches, mac & cheese, yogurt with sprinkles.

I intended to make them all exactly the same as it's faster but Amy didn't want a peeps ghost, a simple enough change.

Sharing on Muffin Tin Mom

Most of these activities were found on my quest for worksheets the other day. I put them all together this morning for some at home fun work. I did not get much sleep last night and am hoping to have an easy, relaxing day with the girls. I don't even have to cook dinner tonight as my Granny is dropping some off -- even dessert!

Pin Poking Pages

(a great activity to develop fine motor skills and concentration)

from Confessions of  a Homeschooler - letter of the week P

from abcteach

Fun with Power Magnets

(one to one correspondence and just plain fun)

from 2 Teaching Mommies

I also printed one from COAH - same idea - different picture, and some of the other ones from 2 Teaching Mommies. So now they have a choice. These sheets can also be used with Do a Dot paints but somehow those always end up in a mess. I'm trying to avoid a mess today. We'll just have to see how that goes ;)

Pumpkin Pie Scented Play Dough

I made this a few days ago and let it rest overnight. It always seems better the next day. I used the play dough recipe from My Montessori Journey and scented it with Pumpkin Pie Spice. I like a lot of scent so I used about 2 tablespoons. I also added some colouring to make it more orange-y. The pumpkin pie spice adds colour too so it's came out as a pumpkin pie orange -- perfect.  We've already played with it yesterday and I am sure it will be revisited today.

Pumpkin Graphing Game

from 1+1+1=1

Amy is kind of obsessed with graphs.  I give her the one that goes up to 10 and Rose the one that goes up to 5. That usually works out evenly on time and they like to do it together and discuss their graphs and make predictions as they go. There are many styles of these available on the website and the dice are very easy to put together.

Monster Craft

I have a few of these left that I bought AGES ago from Oriental Trading. Years even. There are several monster styles packaged in kits. Everything is pre-cut and you just glue them to create a monster face. They always come out funny looking and everyone always enjoys this craft.

I also expect to have the kids ask to play with the Halloween Sensory bin again, so we'll enjoy plenty of sunshine today as well - as that is an outside activity, which will lead to more outside games I'm sure!

I've also already had one request to print more cutting strips from the other day since we used them all up. So I imagine there will be some more cutting and gluing today once I get that accomplished.

I have been doing my best to keep the girls entertained this week. I am not too keen on taking Emily out and about too much as she's only 3 weeks old so we have been working on fun activities at home. Here's a few things that we have done so far.

All of these activity ideas were found on Counting Coconuts. I lack the time to be creative on my own right now!!

Cutting tray

I purchased these graphics here and then made some very simple cutting strips. All three girls enjoy cutting so this was for everyone to work on. I didn't realise how much they loved cutting and I had to make tons more strips. Heidi chose to cut directly through the pictures and then cut her paper into 100s of little pieces, Rose cut hers neatly on the lines, and Amy cut out around the objects. Then I gave them all another sheet of paper and some glue and they glued their cuttings.

Tweezing Spiders

These little plastic spiders are getting a workout this week! Very easy activity and everyone is excellent at lacing but they still thought this was fun.

Pencil Sharpening

A family favourite activity. I only had two Halloween pencils around so only Amy and Rose had a turn. Heidi didn't seem to notice.

I also went online and found several different Halloween worksheets - colouring, cutting & pasting, patterning, etc. I printed some from abcteach and Enchanted Learning where I have memberships,  plus 2 Teaching Mommies, Confessions of a Homeschooler, and 1+1+1=1, This photo shows a few of them. If you are looking for some fun worksheets and activities,  I recommend all of these sites - not just for Halloween.

I should mention that our house does not have an area set up in the Montessori way with these trays all laid out in a certain spot. I do however appreciate the value of using a tray to define their workspace and contain all of their work items so we use them often for crafts and activities. They are especially practical for cutting activities and activities with a lot of parts. So on this day I set up the trays and put them all on the table and let them have at it.

I have some other crafts & activities planned so hopefully I'll have the time to get out my camera and share them! 

They were very simple to make. Paint the toilet paper rolls and leave to dry.  Cut the hair, glue on the googly eyes and buttons, and draw on a mouth. I helped Heidi with hers and Amy and Rose did theirs by themselves. It was a bit messy during the painting but that was my first time painting with all three girls since having our new baby. I had waited until she was asleep to start - but that turned out to be a very a short nap. In any case, Heidi painted a lot more than just her toilet paper roll but it was all in fun - and it WAS washable paint ;)

Updated Oct 2012: There is a spider craft on there too - we made it also.

Who knew this would be such a hit!?! I decided to make a Halloween sensory bin for the girls to  play with outside this week. They LOVED it. It was very inexpensive to make since I had a ton of misc. Halloween items about; leftovers from Halloween parties past, trick or treat goodies and some pom poms from our craft bin. The only purchase was the black beans and yellow split peas.

There are too many items in here to list, but I will tell you about the most popular.

Foam pumpkin with pop out features (from a Halloween hopscotch game we have), plastic cauldron, scoops, wooden spoon, shovels, rats, bats, spiders, plastic flies, skeleton bones, pom poms, plastic witches fingers & plastic fangs.

All 3 girls spent a long time making up witches brews and hiding the "gross" items by covering them with the black beans and yellow split peas and giggling as they served me. I made sure that we played with this outside after the coloured rice disaster of months passed. It was surprisingly not very messy. Probably because the beans and peas are much larger than the rice, and I did remind them that there wasn't any more so if they spilled it all in the grass there wouldn't be enough left to play with tomorrow.

I think I'll make some more of these bins in the future -- but I am staying away from the rice!