'twas the night before 2nd grade

'Twas the night before second grade, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even the pug.  His backpack was hung from the dining room chair, loaded with notebooks and back to school gear.  Monkey butt was nestled, all snug in his bed, while visions of zombie killing pea shooters danced in his head. Regi and her Mac book, and I, with iPad, had just settled down for an episode of Breaking Bad. Then in the kitchen there arose such a clatter, I sprung from the sofa to see what was the matter. Away to the doorway I flew like a flash, tripped over the vacuum and caused quite a crash. The moon light reflecting off Hootie the Beta's fish bowl, illuminated the counters, and floor down below. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a new, shiny red bento, and cutlery set from last year. With tofu bunnies, and penguins, and frog, atop of rotini they sat like a dog. With agave in a bear, and a sliced pink pearl apple, and chocolate almond milk, so much better than Snapple! There was a sprinkling of Oppenheimer white chocolate chips, and carrot expressions on the tofu critters, to cross over his lips. Sliced olives, and rotini, in a smoky tomato vinaigrette sauce,and a little note card, with a funny joke about math, I thought "Surely this is a lunch he won't toss." And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the stove, the zipping of a sparkly Spider-Man lunch bag; what a trove! As I drew in my head and was turning around, down onto the floor it fell without sound.  He was made of green paper, of the construction sort. In a green hue similar to that of a caper. An origami yoda to help brighten his morn, "Great first day of school, have you will" he would say. His eyes, they were drawn on, and his mouth was too. His ears were crumpled bits of tree pulp, but alas, the poor fellow's saber was gone.  I folded, and creased, and used a bit of tape. i hope in the morning, the boy's mouth is agape. i shall hide him some where, with out a rest break. i know, by the potty, that's his first stop once he's awake! Now I am quite tired, and anxious with delight, so  Happy eve of school to all, and to all a good night!

10/6/11

So my lunch today was left over Malaysian curry with white rice. (First pic is a close up so you can see the tofu, onions, carrots, potatoes and green peppers. Little man had steamed rice with a splash of soy sauce, yogurt, carrot sticks and giant green olives, and a fruit strip, with Vanilla silk. Making challah dough to bake in the morning. Kind of wishing I had some tonight...

Day 5

The outfit for today was a vintage styled cars t-shirt with camouflage shorts. The lunch was a runza (he actually ate a few bites this time!), crackers, vegan marshmallows, sesame sticks, baby carrots and green olives. The word for the day was look. He went to the library again, and is sooo proud of himself that he is learning to read!

Day 4 Art Class

Today is day 4. Art class! Outfit for the day is a grizzly bear shirt, and mesh shorts with blue trim. Lunch was home made vegan runzas (I am very much looking forward to my lunch as well) from the recipe featured on The Post Punk Kitchen's blog. They look and taste (well I can vouch for the filling anyway, I think I ate half of it while I was making them) amazing! Hoping lil man likes them. He swears he has eatten Runzas before, but I know I've never fed them to him, and I'm not altogether certain anyone else has either. He also had some more Earth's Best Organic Vanilla Smiley Snacks, another organic pomegranate fruit strip from Archer Farms, and Late July classic rich round crackers, organic manzanilla olives and organic baby carrots. I filled his little dip cup up OrganicVilleFarms ketchup. We really enjoy their ketchup which is not only certified vegan, but agave sweetened. It has a subtly sweet taste and a nice thick texture that lends itself well to being converted into Vegenaise based mayo-ketchup, and the sweetness should mix well with the runzas. I only had sweet bavarian style kraut (honestly not sure if there are other styles of kraut, as I had never eatten it before last night), so it'll be a tangy sweet and sour type mix. More to come about his day later :)

ETA...He loved art, apparently, they all got to pic something to draw, and he opted for polka dots, and then everyone saw his polka dots and drew them too, except for one boy, who didn't because he wasn't listening (he says as he points to his ears and says TING). Recess was fun, and he is getting less scared to go on the equipment. The word for the day (which they do on index cards and then write it in a rainbow, I guess for kids it takes 6 times of repeating to form a habit?) was can. And the story was about about a boy who wanted a pet stegosaurus, but the mom told him he couldn't have one because they're extinct. And then he asked me if I know what extinct means :) He didn't eat the runza (didn't think he would) but he claims it's because he couldn't get it out of the bento :/ so I showed him that he can take that little compartment out, and he pretended to be amazed and promises to eat one tomorrow. Hmmm.

Home made pizza

Per little man's request, we made up a ton of home made pizza dough, and froze some. Mine (pictured above) had Field Roast italian sausage, spinach and tomato sauce, and artichokes and sun dried tomatoes that were marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and italian herbs, and lots of garlic. Topped with Daiya mozarella style. The boy had olive and sausage pizza. I didn't tell him it was spinach that made the sauce green, but he likes the green sauce best :)