10 months

Maia is 10 months old today!

Ryan's
lunch:
pbj
sandwich;
water-
melon;
broccoli;
vanilla
soy
yogurt.

I admit
it was
easier
to keep
the
rest of
the
crew
home today when one needs to be out sick from preschool.

We put our first work hours in at the farm over the weekend. Here are some highlights:
























We
brought
cannellini
beans for
the
communal
Stone
Soup,
plus
sand-
wiches,
rice
balls, &
a bento
with
straw-
berries;
meatless
meatballs;
asparagus; carrots; pickles.

The bees are busy pollinating the blueberry bushes:
The raspberry bushes are coming to life again:The mobile greenhouse is sheltering lots of early scallions, beets & carrots:
And there are lots of things
growing in the fields already,
like one of my favourites,
rainbow swiss chard...

One month to go until our
first sharer pick-up!

Month of Me, Post 2

Let me explain the past 3 days in 3 phrases: Mother's Day, kid-puke, Star Trek. Understand my absence? Good.

Now, I am also without current pics from the past 3 days due to camera download crappiness--though I have them in a backup location, I am having trouble uploading them from there to Blogger, so bear with me. Today's lunch pic may appear later in the week...or not.

My subject for today doesn't need any current pics though. Instead of talking about motherhood (or kid-puke...or even Star Trek, about which I could dedicate another blog entirely), I'm gonna talk about another fave of mine:

Hello Kitty!

I have been collecting Hello
Kitty since I was 4 years old.
Let's just say that's ALMOST
since the beginning...Hello
Kitty and I are similar in age.

As you've probably noticed,
Hello Kitty is in my avatar with
me. That was taken in Puroland
(in Tama, a suburb outside Tokyo),
the Sanrio theme park.

There's was lots for a Sanrio
geek to do in Tokyo, and we
visited the Pokemon center,
public parks (it was just the
beginning of cherry blossom
season), kabuki theatre...but
really I just relished nabbing
Hello Kitty items en masse; I
had to check an entire second bag for the flight home!

Eating vegan in Japan is a
little tricky at time, especially
when my Japanese is limited
to a couple dozen words. Lots
and lots of onigiri, fresh fruit
kabobs, soba, cold tofu,
grilled mushrooms, edamame,
and sake of course.

At sushi bars in late winter I ordered kappa maki, inari, and tea. I did find a random health food store with soy milk, and rice crackers are everywhere. And the grocery store I frequented carried Trader Joe's items (translated into Japanese on the side)!

Next time I will follow the recommendations on Just Hungry for vegan travelers.
Though thank goodness I'm done having kids as far as I know, so I won't be having any babies at the Hello Kitty maternity ward!

Some of my favourite
collectibles are my set
of Hello Kitty drawers
from the late 70's, which
hold many of my tiniest
items. And my Hello
Kitty birthday mug from
Yokohama. Though a good
deal of my stash came from Bloomingdales in NYC of all places.

Anybody else collect kawaii/cute items? Do you have a favourite character? Where do shop?

Pajama Day

Day 5 of school Spirit Week is Pajama Day. I found it unacceptable that the school principal was NOT directing drop-off traffic in pjs and bunny slippers...how rude! Anyhow...what better food is there for a pajama party than pizza! We ordered pizzas from Gianni's last night and had a few slices leftover. So I cut one down to bento size...Ryan's lunch, top tier: leftover spinach, mushroom, black olive pizza; snap peas...bottom tier: vegetable potato chips; orange slices; carrots; meatless meatballs.

Ryan wore his winter
animal pajamas. The
5th grader next door
was flaunting big dog
slippers. There were
lots of plaid flannel
pants seen lining up
for school this morning.



Nate has followed his brothers'
lead and has started picking me
flowers. AJ already picks me
dozens of dandelions daily, while
Ryan has made it his job to spread
dandelion fluff everywhere he can
via a new Dandelion Tag game he's
invented.


I'm sure our other neighbor
must watch from inside
hyperventilating that one of
the dandelions will seed itself
in his all-green dandelion-free
yard.

Silly Hats

It was
Nate's
teacher's
birthday,
and I
realized
I'd never
done
anything
special
for her
during
the past
3 years
of school.
So this
time I
made
some
tiramisu cupcakes from VCTOTW, taking the liberty to add some chocolate sauce between layers, and omitting the crunchy coffee bean on the top. I liked being able to give her something she didn't have to share with the kids!
FYI, if you ever make these, take the time to sit down, alone (or at least without the kids), and really enjoy them. It reminds me of our favourite Italian restaurant, Marino's, in N. Cambridge that unfortunately is now closed. My husband ALWAYS ordered their tiramisu.

I didn't give away a complete
dozen--I frosted this one up
for Nate for his class' cupcake
celebration.

Then I presented his teacher
with her own cupcakes, with
instructions not to eat them
around children--which as a
former preschool teacher
myself I know is easier said
than done! You wouldn't want
to have this happen! But
these cupcakes are not for
kids, with vanilla cake
drenched in coffee and
Kahlua, and enough sugar
(and fat probably) to
necessitate peeling your
child off the ceiling an
hour later...
...no, that's not Photoshop
tai chi, just my husband
(& Nate) after "testing" one
of the alleged cupcakes.

And maybe Nate was
just excited about the
visit from a fire truck
at school for everyone
to "ride" in...if only I'd
thought that through...
I should have given his
lunch guy a firefighter hat!

Nate's lunch: poppyseed
& thyme crackers; steamed
broccoli; strawberries; an
olive; face sandwich.

AJ's snack: crackers; broccoli;
face sandwich...AJ has never
been a fan of berries sadly!
And at Ryan's school,
Day 4 of "Spirit Week"
was Silly Hat day. So
I lent him my ski hat
to wear, which worked
well with the cool, rainy
morning...


Ryan's lunch (below):
steamed broccoli; Tofurky &
lettuce face sandwiches w/
strawberry hats; baby
carrots.

I was going to give each guy
a cool bunch of designs on
each hat, but I just didn't
have any more time!


Yesterday evening while
moving some big sitting
stones across the yard to
the new picnic spot, I
unearthed a perfect
visible ant colony (who
are now more than a
little pissed at me I'm
sure). Ryan enjoyed watching
them do their thing. I
think they're pretty cool
too--after all I won first prize
in the science fair in 5th grade for my project about ants. I'm sure my parents were glad I did too, after squashing half my project when they ate their way out one night and colonized half the kitchen.I think I prefer this outdoor observation method...though I'm sure our pest control service would like the opportunity to run up our bill.

Sports Day

So I've done football, soccer, mini golf, pool, and basketball twice. I wasn't ready to do a stellar baseball bento, even though it's the season for Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. So what to do...

Bowling!

Ryan's
lunch:
baby
carrots;
soy
cheese
pins w/
red bell
pepper
stripes;
cucumber
slices;
rice
ball
covered
in nori
for the
bowling ball; poppyseed & thyme crackers; Tofurky pom pom; snap peas & steamed asparagus.

Ryan loves candlepin bowling
at the Acton Bowladrome,
so this was perfect! He didn't
having a bowling shirt, so he
just wore a sports shirt with
a baseball, basketball, &
soccerball on it, and his Celtics
cap.

AJ's snack: flat pretzels; steamed
asparagus; baby carrot; poppyseed
& thyme crackers; soy cheese squares;
Tofurky pom pom;
cucumber slices.

AJ was happy it was a
rainy morning so his
class would be playing
indoors--he loves the
big hall with bikes, mats,
and kids' volleyball net.

school colors

Day 2 of school Spirit Week for Ryan is Red & White Day. I made an effort today because I didn't realize just how much of a big deal this is at his elementary school--apparently one of Ryan's friends in his kindergarten class WON A LAPTOP yesterday for wackiest hair!!?!!?! Whoa. In the immortal words of Ming-Ming ducking, This.Is.Sewious.

So I ditched my Cinco de Mayo bento plans, and went with Red & White...but it's also National Chocolate pudding day, which I couldn't resist. Not nutritionally balanced, but not gonna hurt anybody either...Ryan's lunch: chocolate striped ZenSoy pudding; strawberry & banana skewers; red bell pepper strips; white soy cheese cubes; apple slices (checkerboard & "Spirit" patterns).

Here's Ryan on the
way to school.

No bento for AJ today.
His preschool class had
a fieldtrip to the Concord
Youth Theatre, so I just
tucked a juice box &
pretzels in his jacket
pockets.

Nate's lunch: strawberries;
apple "bunny"; soy cheese
cubes; meatless meatballs;
baby carrot; cucumber
slices.




And Maia tried some water
in a sippy cup for the first
time. She thought it was
great fun, but very little
actually went in her mouth.

I replaced any bad plastic
sippy cups in our house a
few years ago with BPA-free
ones like this Foogo.

To help decide about safe
sippy cups, read the reviews at Zrecs.

Wacky Hair Day

For once I didn't recycle the school cafeteria menu immediately upon its arrival home in Ryan's backpack on friday. I decided to check out the month's choices and do a few healthier similar meals. Two options on the menu today were chicken patties and veggie sticks...
Ryan's lunch: steamed asparagus; carrot sticks; cucumber wedges; yellow bell pepper strips; snap peas; chicken-free pattie w/ketchup on wheat bun.

AJ's snack: 1/2 a
chicken-free pattie
w/ketchup on wheat
bun; cucumber wedge;
carrot sticks; steamed
asparagus; chocolate
bears.




This week is Spirit Week
at Ryan's elementary school.
Monday's theme is Wacky
Hair. So Ryan wanted his
hair sticking out in a circular
pattern around his head.
Funny, because when he
arrived at school the other
Ryan in his class had the same
hairdo done with gel.

I used the excuse to play with
Maia's hair too. Here she is
sporting a piggie tail on top.

----

There are a few giveaways
I want to give everyone the
heads-up about...

The Kiwi Bento blog is giving away a lovely white clover bento--and yes, she'll ship internationally! Check it out! You have the entire month of May to enter to win.

Another I noticed was in the April edition of Vegetarian Times magazine (sorry, a bit late, I don't have lots of free reading time!). They are hosting a giveaway of all 5 cookbooks from their 2009 Dining Out regional winners (restaurant cookbooks of readers' favourite veg restaurants in the U.S.). Enter here for a chance to win!