a great year already

Woohoo! Thanks to Jenn
at Bento for Kidlet for my
new blog award! What a
great way to start off the
new year. If you want to
see some nifty food
marker art, check out
her blog!

I hope no one minds that
I don't have time right
now to list 10 things about myself or pass along the award. Life is busy busy busy! But how cool is it to receive a blog award with cupcakes on it?!

In case you haven't noticed, I've been packing Ryan's lunches in tall slender bentos recently. His metal lunch box broke, and he's presently using one of my old soft lunch bags until we can afford him a new one. His regular single tier bentos don't fit without being tipped sideways, so I'm using only the longer variety bentos for now...
Ryan's lunch: vegetable gyoza; brown rice; steamed broccoli; fresh pineapple; cold tofu w/soy sauce; cantaloupe chunks.

Goods Friday

Got the day off? (unlike my husband, but that's self-imposed) Got time to burn? (I don't, but I'm here anyway) Short on cash? (Aren't we all.) Don't want to leave the house? (But maybe you should--I hear Target has Hello Kitty plastic eggs!)
Then get in on some more bento & kitchen goods giveaways!

* First up, double bento prizes over at Mission: Vegan in celebration of Earth Day this month! Vegan AND bento....what could be better! ;-)

* Didn't win last month? There's another chance to win a Kids Konserve lunch kit on their blog!

* Win a Shinzi Katoh water bottle over at I Love Obento!

* How about an expensive Breville immersion blender--contest ends monday--over at Meal Makeover Moms' Kitchen.

* Or try to score a Glamorous Groceries reusable shopping bag on Joyful Money Saving.

Even if you're at work, I'm sure you can sneak in the time to enter for some cool stuff! :::wink wink:::

No school today.
Husband's lunch:
watermelon; soy sauce
for various sushi;
honeydew melon;
broccoli; edamame.



And here's my own friday dose of goodness...





















clockwise: Ryan - 6 1/2, AJ - 5 1/4, Nate - 2 2/3, Maia 8+ months.

My First Bento Giveaway!

For my upcoming 10,000th hit (yep, that's it folks) I wanted to give away a little token something. So from now until then (some time this week I assume), leave me a comment answering the following questions:

What is your favourite winter holiday/celebration?
What food do you eat/cook to celebrate?

The lucky winner will receive these 2 food pick sets:

I am not a big football
fan, (okay, I did have
season tickets one year
at Syracuse University),
but I know many people
are. The Superbowl is
coming up on Feb. 1st,
so I should have plenty
of time to ship these to the recipient. Besides the obvious bento applications, these would be great for Superbowl party appetizers, sandwiches, or cupcake toppers. Have fun!

I'll use my super high-tech random 6yo-pick-a-number out of the winter hat generator to determine the winner this sunday, January 4th. So spread the word!