Last Day!

If you want a chance to win a new Spiderman lunch set, today is the last day to enter my giveaway! I'll be closing the contest at 6pm and letting Nate will choose a winner from a hat. I'll post the winning entry tomorrow morning!

I'm now on the last days of summer vacation countdown before school starts here. 6 days for Ryan. 7 days for AJ. 19 days for Nate. (And about 384 for Maia! LOL)

It's always fun to get a little something new to surprise your child(ren) during the fall. So I ordered a few new bento items to excite the kiddos:Spongebob nestable containers were a great deal for us. The yellow 450ml size will work well for Ryan, who became hooked on Spongebob while we were in Florida this spring. He can use the blue 280ml size if he is bringing a Thermos of soup, ravioli, or ma po tofu. The orange 180ml size will be great for Nate's preschool snack, plus he loves the color orange. And the pink 100ml size is perfect for little Maia to carry a snack in.While Ryan will probably choose to use his lunchbox, I couldn't resist the set that included the Spongebob lunch bag. Then I chose some new food picks: letters (I probably should have ordered 2 sets to spell Maia's name and certain words, but they were a bit steep for plastic toothpicks), chicks & ducks, pandas, ocean animals (including a starfish, a la Patrick from Spongebob).
Should keep lunch prep and consumption lots o' fun!

But what if you're on a really tight budget? Or maybe you don't want your lunch decorated with colorful kawaii characters? Or maybe you like to pack larger lunches like salads that have a lot of air space? Then you can still create a beautiful lunch bento-style in a simple reusable plastic leftover container like the kind you find at the supermarket. Look for a variety in the plastic wrap, foil, waxed paper aisle, or in the cooking supplies aisle if there is one. Also check the $1 bins and lunchbox areas of stores like Target for good deals. Sometimes party stores, bed & bath stores, or Wal-Mart type mega-stores will also carry cheap lunch items. Craft stores and educational toy stores usually stock a few bento style items, often from Sanrio. And if you have a local asian market, check it out, you might be surprised.