Successes and Fails

Well, although it is the first week of school, we are already thinking about our successes and failures (or at least I am) and so ironically this lunch shows both.

My first attempt at a dairy-free (usually eyes are most easily made from cheese) Phineas & Ferb was both of these things.  Phineas was a noted success... Ferb is a mini fail... but I'm sure my daughter won't mind.  In the future, I need to get to the store for the food writer pens or do this on a day when I have some leftover tortilla to use for the whites of the eyes.

Today was also a success/fail with Ruthie's hair.  I wanted to do something pretty with it... she didn't... she wanted it all just down.  I failed to convince her to do something cute... I succeeded in getting her to let me keep the front out of her face with a side braid.  That's pretty boring, so the picture is only of her lunch.

Pretzals and salad keep the guys in place in our tinkerbell sandwich box and some of the darker lettuce is ferb's hair.  Carrots (supported by the salad and Phin's head) are hair for Phineas.  She also has a ziplock rectangle container filled with orange wedges and a bottle of water.

Leftover Simple Lunch, and a Cute Simple Lunch

So I'm not usually THAT creative, but shaped sandwiches, a fun container or two, and switching up her lunch bags ensure Ruthie will eat well.  Today, her lunch was very simple

The cute part isn't shown... a few years back, we got reusable drink bottles (That came with lemonade in them) from the zoo.  Well, one is long gone and I don't remember why, but the other is a gorilla and I use it in her lunches.  It's a sports bottle top, so it doesn't leak.  She took water in it with this simple lunch of two (stacked) slices of pizza, salad, and orange slices.  I could have fit the oranges in the main container (my other betty crocker one), but they were really juicy and aromatic and Ruthie doesn't want her other foods smelling or tasting like oranges.


Today, the lunch is cuter, thanks to her Kotobuki Panda Bento Box (we lost the strap last year, so that's a hair tie being repurposed... she swears it looks more like Kung Fu Panda, so we're good) and a cute pink puppy pick.  In the panda box, we have peanut butter crackers in the bottom, apples in the top (it has a lid that keeps the moisture in, which is good... the face goes over it and the whole top container)  In her 4oz glad bowl are some green beans with a cute pick that is also a mini fork (which means no messy silverware in the bag).  She has water in her funtainer. You can find the bento box and picks on allthingsforsale.com or amazon.com.

All is packed in her smallest (but cutest) my little pony lunchbox.

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Healthy Eating Starts at Home: Review & Giveaway: Easy Lunchboxes: As all of you know, last August 31st, my blog turned a year old! YAY!! I made it. And I'm glad to have you around as I turned  ONE ....

1st Lunch of the YEAR!

Ruthie takes her lunch to school because she cannot have cow milk or she gets so constipated that she stops pooping completely and even if it doesn't go that far, it does cause discomfort in her gastrointestinal tract and affects her ability to focus and concentrate, and she gets dark circles around the eyes.  She doesn't have an actual allergy, but her body has pretty much declared that it will not tolerate or accept it.

I like to make her lunches cute.  Here is the first one I've made for the year... she'll take it tomorrow with a dora funtainer full of OJ/water (she also has a tiny hello kitty container of pretzels because there aren't a lot in the big box and in case she's hungry after school.)

Her peanut butter & grape jam sandwiches, I used food coloring (because Mommy forgot to buy the food color pens) so it is darker and the lines are thicker, are notebook paper with A+.  In the yellow Hello Kitty container she has salad and cucumber, and under her sandwich are some Phineas & Ferb pretzels

They are packed in a Betty Crocker container that I got for 50c at the grocery store and she'll carry them in her "big" lunch bag, which is an Embark bag from Target that retails for about 10 dollars.

New Year, Longer hair, New 'Do

First of all, expect these blogs to also be filled with lunch posts as I want to keep track of the lunches I make track for Ruthie, which tend to be somewhat bento-style.

Second, Ruthie's hair is long again and she's FINALLY allowing me to do stuff with it again.

Well, I got inspiration from another blogger, who got inspiration from Nastia Liukin - She has a video tutorial, so I'm not going to do a whole step by step, I'm just going to go over what I changed and how. - http://www.princesshairstyles.com/2012/08/gymnastics-hair-french-braid-ponytail.html - her blog is AWESOME, btw, and I give her full credit for figuring this out.

I wanted to try a quicker less-fancy version, so here is my FIRST attempt (yes, I'm going to try this again with my second attempt, which will be TUESDAY for Ruthie's first day of school)

First thing I decided to change was the braids... instead of french, I just sectioned the hair and did regular braids.  School mornings can be hectic and Ruthie can be super excited... I didn't want to worry about getting side french braids in on mornings we are rushed and I want to do this simple twist on a pony.

The second thing I changed was the front poof.  I don't like teasing and yet I wanted to do something simpler  that would stay put in Ruthie's hair and wouldn't show... SO... I sectioned the front, but then I divided it in two... the back section, I made into a pony with a rubberband... THEN... I took the front section and wrapped it around the rubber band and the pony... I did have to play with it a bit to get it JUST right... so the twisting I did AFTER I braided both braids... so I could hold it with the rest of the hair right where I needed the whole BIG pony to be for it to look right.

And yes, I did this while the sheets were still drying, so that IS my uncovered mattress.

Frenchbraid headband

All I did was section off the front area of hair... I used her natural part to separate them because her hair is only just 2" below her shoulders.  You could also part in the middle.

I started on her right - I bound each braid separately first... with longer hair, you could remove those later, but with hers, it was necessary to leave them in.

She loved this one

Quick 'do for Easter Egg Hunting with an impatient little girl

Okay, so Ruthie was NOT having the blowdryer and her hair will NOT curl with an iron if it's not dry... so please keep in mind that this was INTENDED to be done with curls.

Also, I'd been sick and NOT gone to the store... (though ironically as I sit here today, I have a piece of ribbon that would have gone PERFECTLY... it came on my mother's day bouquet of paper flowers that she gave me for Mother's day)... so I will add pics ASAP of this done with curls and ribbon to match the dress.

All I did were two braids, which I brought back to connect together... they could be braided any amount down the head... and could be brought together at a different point.  The intention was to use a ribbon to tie over the rubber band (or, if I had bought ribbon, perhaps braid it in), but there you are.

 (that is her brother behind her)