Frankenschool - Frankenstein Bento for Preschool!

Monday, 11/5/12 - She qualified for the school district's preschool program due to a developmental delay in social areas, so this was her very first day. And not only was she going to a brand new school after the school year had already begun and the other kids all knew each other, she was going on the bus. Without me.
Since her new preschool is in the mornings, she is still able to go to her other preschool in the afternoons. And before anyone natters on about how it's too long a day for her, going to two schools, it's still less time than Kindergarten, which she'll be starting next year. And many kids are in daycare much longer as well. So I'm not worried. Plus yanking her out of one of the only places she's ever interacted well with her peers socially, seemed like a bad move, considering the circumstances!
The morning class has snack right before ending circle and some songs, and then she comes home for lunch. Since they mostly just have Cheerios and Goldfish (which are safe for her, but snacky,) I didn't want her filling up on snacks right before lunch, especially since we only have an hour to eat before heading off to her other school. Where she also gets a snack. So they said I could send her lunches for snack time. Woop!
This will present more of a challenge for me, since they'll have to hold up to more jostling than they do when I'm in charge of the lunch bag all day. But I'll manage!

For her very first day at her new preschool, she requested a Frankenstein lunch, even though Halloween was over. Anything for my Big Girl! So she took an EasyLunchbox in her purple insulated ELB bag (designed to hold them flat.) These, along with a toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, and detangler spray (to stay at school for when they do those things each day) were all in her way-too-huge backpack. With a Bag Tag from Mabel's Labels that I happened to order when I got a Groupon last year.

I tucked a Lunchbox Love note in, for the teacher to read for her. Which apparently didn't happen. She said she'd wanted to keep my special note all for herself. Awww.

Frankie Goes to School!

PB-honey sandwich w/cheese and nori details, cheese,
strawberries, orange and yellow carrots, Ranch

Could You Give Me A Hand?: I used the rest of the white cheddar from the Frankenstein face and some Colby Jack cheese to make a mishmash of hands and feet, using a mini foot cutter and a mini hand cutter (mine came from a bake shop somewhere.)

Frankenberries: When cutting the tops off the strawberries, I made a V-shape, so they kind of look like hearts. I cut them in half too, which helps them look more heart-like, but also makes them lay flatter so they can be seen! These are because I love her. And also Frankenstein has extra parts laying around...

No Bones About It: I used a very mini dog bone cutter on some orange and yellow carrots to make a mishmash of extra bones. I realize after looking at them in this picture where I pushed them up to show the Ranch container, that it actually looks a bit like the Bride of Frankenstein. If she were a plastic bear.

Frankensammie: For Frankenstein, I flipped a Halloween tombstone cutter upside-down. There were actually several cutters from the Wilton Halloween set  that would have made great heads. I cut out the bread first, then added the fillings, which makes the edges neater. Even though there is a child in her class with a peanut allergy, it isn't a contact allergy, so it's not a nut-free classroom. So I went with peanut butter and "Daddy's Special Honey" (creamed honey. He called it that the first time he offered her some, without thinking about how it undermines "Mommy's Honey" which is local and raw and helps with her allergies. Harumph.) I usually only use it on request, but this was a special day.

I used nori (found at a local Asian market) for the details. I pressed the cutter near an edge to try and cut out a chunk for the hair, but it wouldn't cut through. Made a nice mark though, to cut with my steak knife. I used kitchen shears (not the best tool. Will be getting stainless steel manicure scissors ASAP!) to cut the pupils, the stitches, and the bangs. I used PB to glue everything down.

A chunk of nori ripped off the side of the hair, so I used some PB to glue down triangle scraps from cutting the bangs. And two stitches fell off, so those got glued back into place as well. So far not a fan of the free-form cutting of nori. Shaped punchers I can do, no problem though!

I used a face cutter for the smile, and a mini oval cutter for the eyes. I really globbed on the peanut butter, since I wanted them to stay intact if it got too jostled. I thought about making a nose, but decided not to. His lack of  "angry eyebrows," however, was noted as unacceptable, and shall be remedied next time.

The bus stop is only three houses down, on the corner, so we managed to make it on time three days out of four that week. Yay us! (Well, technically only two days, but the first day the driver came back around for one last swoop to see if we were just running late. Which we were. I had her pick-up time mixed up with her drop-off time.)

Shadow Friends!

She did great. She was excited to wear her new backpack (her other school issues bags with their names written on that the kids keep re-using each year,) and wasn't too scared to get on the "Big Girl Bus" without me. Luckily her school is only a 5-minute drive away, so she doesn't have to sit on there very long.

Mountain Climbing

I will admit I cried like a baby on the walk home from the bus stop. One of those big ugly-faced crying jags, with drool and snot and blotchy faces. She's so little. Getting on a big scary (to me) bus all by herself, with strangers. But I did my job and talked it up, so she was more excited than scared. She claims she likes the school, but doesn't want to go. And gets on the bus without a fuss.

         

All-Natural Preschool Snacks, September 2012 Week 2

Monday

Snappea Crisps, TJs Cheese Puffs, TJs Seaweed Snack, Strawberries

Before you get all Judgy McJudgerson about her junky snack, please understand that I negotiate these things with her. She chooses a juice or sweetened milk at school, that's her one sweet drink for the day. Higher salt items mean I crack down on it more later. She gets a treat in her snack, she's on fresh fruits, veggies, and cheese for any other munchies she might be craving later on. Etc. This is not indicative of her entire day's worth of meals!
Plus these are reduced fat Trader Joe's ones. I was surprised at the nutrition stats, and was not at all concerned about putting them in her snack. I'd even let her have more later, to equal a full serving-size, if it meant she'd let me take an afternoon nap push came to shove.

Tuesday

Grapes, blackberries, edamame, Brown Sugar-Cinnamon (Purple) Kale Chips

I decided to try out the new Tupperware toddler dish I found at a vendor booth at a fair (mine didn't come with that clip-on handle thing though. Hmph!) I got it with Baby E in mind, since soon I'll get to pack little Baby bentos!
Organic grapes skewered on long heart picks with a few blackberries from our backyard, some edamame, and some Brown Sugar-Cinnamon (Purple) Kale Chips (recipe coming eventually.)

The container was a bust. A TOTAL BUST! I get her snack all packed as we're heading out, only to discover I CAN'T CLOSE THE D@MN LID! No matter what I try, it's open at one point. I swear, a few times I checked all the way around and it was sealed, then suddenly OPEN AGAIN! I ended up setting it on the floor and kind of sitting on it as I went around the edge. It was RIDICULOUS! I apologized to the teacher at pick-up. She hadn't been able to close it either. I'm glad there was nothing messy in there! Sheesh. To make matters worse, it was heinously expensive, comparatively. For roughly half the price you can get the Dr. Sears Nibble Tray, which is super cute and much more user friendly! Plus kids prefer a wider array of foods on their plate (at least 7 different items,) so more compartments makes it easy to remember and try!

Wednesday

Pretzels, Rosemary crackers, Pink Dip, green beans, mini carrot

I was excited to go back into my bento box stash and resurrect her Sassy On the Go Feeding Set. A few pretzels and crackers to dip, plus some cut green beans. And a mini carrot from our organic CSA farm with a leaf pick stuck in.

Thursday

Double Chocolate mini cupcakes, Horizon Organics Strawberry Milk;
Veggie Straws, TJ's Seaweed Snack, edamame

Her snack is in a discontinued Paperchase snack box that I got used from Jenn at Bento for Kidlet because Kidlet has outgrown it. Awwww, so sad. But yay for me! [♪♫*dance dance*♫♪]
I didn't pack a lot for snack, and made it kind of veggie-heavy to counteract the cupcake for a class birthday (see cupcake debacle below.) Horizon Organic "Pink Milk" to drink, just in case. But the teachers have been checking the frozen concentrate ingredients list, and offer her the same drink as everyone else when it's safe. Then they store her extra drink box in their mini fridge for another time. Hopefully they'll let me know if they're running low, since I don't send one each day. I've kind of been asking Z on the ride home and keeping track that way. Which is a recipe for disaster, since I have a crap memory.

The Cupcake Saga: So I found this organic/all-natural cupcakery. I call and ask about artificial ingredients, and she says the only thing with fake colors is the Red Velvet cupcakes, so I know to avoid those. Excellent.We go in and Little Z taste-tests all the flavors (except Red Velvet, obviously,) to determine which one(s) she'd like to have in the freezer for preschool birthday treats. She likes Carrot Cake the best, but also wants some Double Chocolate. Excellent. So I call to order them for pick-up this week, since I know there's a class birthday coming up.

So on Wednesday I drive 20+ minutes to get there, and go in to get my order, only to discover that instead of 12 Double Chocolate ones with the 12 Carrot Cake cupcakes, there are 12 RED VELVET ones. Yikes! Luckily, there are enough in the case ready-made to swap out. Except then I notice the colored sugar sprinkles. And ask if those have fake colors. The guy doesn't know, but just then the owner walks in. SHE doesn't know! (!!!)

She calls her supplier, and finds out that the sprinkles do, in fact, have fake colors. It had apparently never occurred to her to check the ingredients on her ingredients! So we can't take the Carrot Cake ones either, as they have sprinkles on them. Ugh. So I agree to come back next week to pick up my two dozen cupcakes (I got a Groupon for two dozen for the price of one!)  But I have verified with the teacher that cupcakes will be brought the next day, so I have to get something. I know the chocolate ones are safe, so I buy two of those to tide us over. I know there's another birthday next week, or else I can give the extra to her as a treat since she's having a hard time adjusting to her new classroom. The bakery owner gives them to me on the house, which is not only great customer service, as she'd messed up my order and been mistaken about the safety of her ingredients, but also she's won me for life. Because the way to my heart is with free crap.

        

School Snack Birthday Cupcake Fun!

How does an incompetent baker make dye-free birthday cupcakes for school? The hard way, apparently!

Since she was still in school around her birthday for the first time ever (the co-op preschool we've gone to the last 3 years ends mid-May, so was done by the time her birthday rolled around. The drop-off preschool we started this year ends mid-June,) I signed up to bring snack that week. And since her actual birthday was on a school day, I decided we'd bring mini cupcakes as part of our snack. And because none of the kids in her class  (other than her, now) have any dietary restrictions due to allergies, lifestyle choices, or diabetes. Plus with only 16 kids in the class, it's not like they've been having a birthday every week, like in a 30-kid classroom. And I just made mini ones, since they don't really need to fill up on an adult-sized cupcake!
I got dye-free cake mix and frosting mix from Trader Joe's, and natural food-based food colors. But I wanted something on top. I did get some natural-colored sprinkles, but at $5 a jar, I'm pretty stingy with them. I rooted around in my new dye-free treats cupboard, and came up with dye-free gummy bears, dye-free Annie's gummy bunnies, and Trader Joe's Fruit Jellies squares. Hmm... In hindsight, I should have slapped a gummy bunny on them and called it good!

I started off by pouring some granulated sugar out onto a plate. Then I cut some Fruit Jellies in half, lengthwise, to make them thinner. After pressing the freshly-cut, now-sticky-sides into the sugar, I got out a tiny flower fondant cutter and cut out about 4 flowers per fruit jel half. Since the fruit jels only came in red, orange, yellow and orangy-pink, I chose red for the flowers and orange for the "leaves." Since there are 16 kids in the class plus 2 teachers, I'd need enough for 18 cupcakes. So knowing how incompetent I am, I made enough for 24. Because if I hadn't, you just know that a few of them would have hit the floor later when I was trying to put them on the cupcakes! Or I'd somehow manage to roll them in icing and ruin them. Whatever. I would have had to get everything back out and make more.

After cutting out each shape, I'd roll the sticky edges in more sugar. Although after a while I'd punch and pop out all four shapes from a fruit jel, dropping them onto different piles of sugar so they wouldn't stick together, then roll them one at a time at the end before moving onto the next jel. Saved a little time at the risk of one bouncing over and sticking to a friend.

For the leaves, I used a smaller heart-shaped fondant cutter.

I had to take one for the team and eat all the scraps. Omnomnom. Actually, I was not a fan of the orange-y flavored ones. Ah well.

Since I was making these a few days in advance, I scooped them all into a resealable container and put them in the dye-free treats cupboard (dark and cool area. Perfect!)

The cupcakes were baked two nights before her birthday, since I knew they'd keep for a day in an airtight container, no problem. Instead of the 1/2 cup oil or butter called for in the recipe, however, I added a pouch of Plum Organics Spinach, Peas and Pear baby food puree. It wasn't quiiiiite half a cup, so I topped it off with less than a tablespoon of oil. I knew from past experience that with the chocolate cake, at least, you don't taste the veggies, and I was pleasantly surprised to note that the cupcake wrappers weren't all oily and see-through after baking, like they always are with oil.

I know you can freeze baked cupcakes for a while, which is my plan to have on-hand to substitute for cake at birthday parties (and her preschool agreed to store some in their freezer for her next school year, in case school chums bring some for snack!) But I used maybe 1/3rd of the batter to make 24 mini cupcakes. I do SO not need 48 extra mini cupcakes in my freezer! Or even 24 regular ones! So I divided the remaining batter in half and froze it in freezer baggies! Much less room, and I can just bake smaller batches once the extra mini cupcakes from this batch are used up.

So the night before school, we got the container of cupcakes out and began frosting. My husband had agreed to help me do the frosting in lieu of paying Whole Foods $2/cupcake (for the regular-sized ones.) Hubby got the frosting mix ready while I was putting Baby to bed (although *I* had done the dishes earlier so that the KitchenAid bowl and mixer-jobber were clean after mixing the batter the night before!) I found a color mixing guide for the India Tree food colors on Pinterest (original link no longer available!) and Z had chosen the dark purple (violet.) Yikes! 12 drops of red and 32 drops of blue per 1/4 cup of frosting! He gave up after 12 drops of each, which I was fine with. And he was not stingy with the frosting! He just glopped and slopped it all over them. So we had to do another 1/4 cup. I kept the leftover frosting white and froze it too.

Using a special set of long-handled bento tweezers I got at Daiso, I carefully placed one flower and two "leaves" on each cupcake. They looked a little funny, since there was no green. But the birthday girl wanted purple, and purple she shall have! My husband thought that my candy flowers and leaves looked weird. Like Aplets and Cotlets. Hmph. Although the way I placed the "leaves" on most of them, they looked more like weird little animal heads. Oh well.

We managed to frost 19 mini cupcakes with the 1/2 cup of frosting.  I put the 18 I needed in my cupcake carrier. I felt safer with the extra ones in the spaces between the circles, rather than in another tray. Less room to bounce if they got jostled around. Hmmm. 1 left. Should I send it in case of a parent-volunteer, or for the administrative teacher upstairs in the office? Naw. So Mama got to taste-teste. *buuuurp*

As it turns out, there was a parent-volunteer that day. Or at least I caught a quick glimpse of another adult in the room as I dropped off snack. Tough nuts for her! And the head teacher didn't think my cupcakes looked funny. She said they looked great! So THERE!
At pick-up, the teacher who brought Z out said that they had been really tasty, and a little fruity. I'm betting it was the fruit jellies, since I couldn't taste the spinach-peas-pear when licking batter off my fingers. And they had a fairly strong flavor. Although that vibrant fruity-looking purple could be having a psychological effect as well. We'll never know...
    

Hard Days' Lunch(es)

Wednesday, 3/21/12 - While we weren't needing a packed lunch for before school, we had swim class and then an art playdate after, so I wanted to have a snack packed anyway. And since I was already making hers, I made one for myself as well. I ate mine on the way to school, since it was my turn as a "working parent" at the co-op preschool, so I wasn't able to eat during class like I usually do.

Her lunch: Sweet potato chips, PB-Nutella mini pita pocket (from Trader Joe's,) string cheese nibblets, Ranch in the heart container (from Dollar Tree,) sugar snap peas and organic green beans, strawberries

My lunch: Nutella croissant - OMG! SO GOOD! Organic kiwi, organic green beans w/Russian dressing in the Smidget.

Snack Day!

It happened to be my turn for snack at preschool. We brought shredded cheddar and mozzarella mix (my Hubby grated it all for me the night before - thanks, Honey!) and CARS Cinnamon Graham cookies, and strawberries. I sprung for the CARS cookies because they didn't have the Veggie Straws chips, and it's transportation-theme month at school.
The kids ended up eating almost 2 pounds of berries and almost all the cheese shreds I put out (3 little paper boatfuls.) I had some cookies left, but one of the boys didn't want to go out for Large Muscle Group play. "Just one more. Just one more," as he shovelled them into his gob. And then he didn't want to go into the room for good-bye songs. "Just one more." So I told him he could have the rest of the box if he went in for songs. He was ecstatic.

All in all she ate the strawberries and most of the chips and sandwich. Some of the cheese too, I think. And maybe the green beans. I found one under her car seat the next day, so who knows. Plus a bunch of cheese shreds and berries at school. And a few cookies.

Thursday 3/22/12 - Since we needed a packed lunch for between Little Gym and preschool, my husband re-used the box with leftovers from the day before, and added a few items.

Peanut-butter-honey sandwich half, leftover nibblets plus cheese shreds, Cheetos, leftover Ranch, olives (in plastic wrap) and leftover snap peas, strawberries and Circus Animal cookies.
His lunch was much more popular. She ate the sandwich, Cheetos, cookies, and olives. And some of the berries and cheese.

Preschool Snack Attack

My turn for snack at preschool again! Naturally I totally forgot until midnight the night before. At least I saw my reminder note before going to bed! Usually I'm making a panicked trip to the store on the way to school!

While at the grocery a few days before, I had remembered too, so we bought carrots and string cheese. Forgot Pirate Booty or Goldfish though. I made carrot flowers and string cheese nibblets, and brought pretzel knots which I had happened to buy recently on Buy 1 Get 1 Free while picking out pretzel sticks for bento-ing (for sandwich "hair" and sticks for sandwich pops.)  

Times three . One for each table

Since the kids share snack from communal 'boats' in this class, I wanted to put the cheese nibblets into individual paper cups, so they didn't get all grubby from all the little hands. This month's theme at the co-op preschool is vehicles, so it was super lucky that these vehicle cups were at the top of my stash when I did a quick look for something to use.

I like incorporating bento-style things with the school snacks, to encourage the kids to try something new, eat more, and to make it more fun. When I remember in time to do it, anyway! So I've done cheese shapes, carrot flowers, and paper muffin/bento cups so far. Hope to brave picks soon!

I made 24 cuppies of cheese nibblets for 16 kids and 5 adults (4 parents and the teacher,) and only had 4 left uneaten. I cut 6 carrots, and had maybe 1/3rd of them left. Not bad. Especially considering one child doesn't eat snack. Ever.

Preschool Snack Mama

I signed up for preschool snack at her drop-off school for the week of her birthday in June. And for the other week I'm responsible for, I chose one in December, so they aren't too close together. The child whose parent brings snack gets to be "snack helper" those days at school (you bring it both class days the week you are responsible for snack.) I also didn't want to make her snack week too close to the start of school, since I didn't want her to feel too 'on-the-spot' before getting more comfortable with the classroom, teachers, and other kids. And January would be no good, since I'd probably forget due to having all my IQs sucked out via my nips a newborn keeping me up all night.

I had several grand ideas, but wanted Z's input, so she would feel connected to and proud of her snack. I chose a gingerbread man theme, since they happened to be doing a gingerbread man unit in class. And, after all, 'man cheese' is how all this blogging fun began! Z, of course, insisted on gingerbread GIRLS too. Overall, she wanted apples and grapes ("Purple ones! Purple!") for the fruit options, Colby Jack cheese and maybe string cheese nibblets, Pirate Booty, and carrots. Well, we already had carrots and string cheese at home, and I thought we had Booty, so we got the apples, grapes, and pre-sliced Colby Jack at Costco, along with a bag of TERRA Sweet Potato chips that she chose while we were browsing for a crunchy snack other than Pirate Booty for the other snack day. (Since I could have sworn we had two large bags of Pirate Booty laying around the house somewhere...)

So for the Tuesday snack, she chose apples (I got the pre-sliced organic ones from Costco,) orange-and-white cheese shapes (I had thought she'd want string cheese nibblets. It's been a while since she's been willing to eat her Colby Jack,) and Pirate's Booty. And despite my trying to talk her out of it, carrots.
I didn't want to bother with carrots because, let's face it. Preschoolers faced with a smorgasbord of fluffy Pirate Booty crunchies, super sweet apples, fun shaped cheese, and carrots aren't really going to touch the carrots. When someone brings baby carrots to our co-op preschool, I don't see a high rate of consumption. I did manage to talk her into carrot flowers, versus carrot sticks, in the hopes that the flowers would be novel enough that the kids would try them.
Naturally, the Pirate Booty was nowhere to be found. Just as I was getting ready to tell her we'd have to settle for the sweet potato chips instead, I found them in a box in the living room, under a bunch of stuff. Of course! Why didn't I think to look there first? Sheesh.

Oh yes. And the drinks. I had totally forgotten about drinks, until double checking the note on the snack tote the night before. Maybe I could send juice pouches? I seem to have an excess for some reason... but no. One can frozen juice concentrate... Doh! We don't really use frozen juice. It has been years since I've even looked at them in the grocery store. I checked the freezer anyway and found a lemonade and limeade with no 'use by' date, and an apple-berry one with an expiration still a month away! Scoooore!

So I used my v-blade down the sides of the carrots and cut them into coins, and my mini Christmas cutters to make gingerbread boys and girls.

Tuesday's Snack:

photo credit

photo credit

Four carrots' worth of flower coins

14 slices of cheese, 4 people per slice! Half girls, half boys.

I'm not really sure how they serve snack at this school, on account of not having to sit there and watch the whole time. Which is kind of the point of sending her to drop-off school, ne? So I didn't get any pictures of the kids enjoying their snack. But out of the 4 packets of apples (14 slices per packet, or 4 slices per kid,) 10-ounce bag of Booty, 4 carrots' worth of flowers (roughly 10/child) and 56 cheese people (4/child,) I only got back one packet of apples and maybe a third of the bag of Pirate Booty. Not too shabby!

I emailed the teacher with questions for the Thursday snack, since I didn't want to bust a hump doing a bajillion cheese people again if they all ended up getting tossed, or something. She said that the carrots all actually got eaten, but that she'd eaten some herself, since she loves carrots, and the last few got fed to the classroom pet guinea pig. Well, that's okay then. And while there was one stack of cheese people left, Z ended up eating it all. Works for me!

For Thursday's snack, I had planned on using my new FunBites Cube It! cutter to make cheese squares and string cheese nibblets, and offer the kids gingerbread men cupcake picks to make kebabs (and inside-out liners to hold them!) [I cleared the picks with the teachers first. I'm not a total moron!] The picks would also work well with the grapes. Win!

So naturally, it turns out I don't, in fact, have any gingerbread men (tossable) picks. I have regular and mini cupcake liners, but no picks. Bummer! And 10pm the night before isn't exactly the right time to send hubby out to Safeway "but not the Safeway nearby, you have to go to the one further away, since I saw them there for sure... I think." Or at least that was his stance on the request. 

Waaaaah! But I really wanted a gingerbread man theme! I was so not in the mood to carefully make 4 people out of each slice of cheese again, for two reasons. One: I could only fit four per slice if I did it perfectly, and Two: I was getting lightheaded standing there for so long doing it the first time, so I kept having to take sit-breaks. So I found my larger Christmas cutters and just made one cheese person per child. Ahhhh!

No carrots, since I figured the sweet potato chips could count as a veggie AND a crunchy! And as I was plucking the grapes off the stems and washing them... I found a HUGE CHUNK OF MOLD in the middle of the bunches. I really hate buying fresh produce at Costco. It is SO hit and miss! Ages ago we bought a carton of blueberries and some pomegranates, and the blueberries had a knot of mold right in the middle, and two out of 4 pomegranates were filled with mold as well. Nasty! I avoided their produce for a while, but had good luck with the strawberries and raspberries, since I can shake the containers around to see inside better. So I foolishly trusted them for the grapes. Arghhh! I ended up just plucking the good-looking ones from around the sides.

I was too frazzled dealing with the grapes, and completely forgot to take photos. Darnit. 

Got back almost half the bag of sweet potato chips, and some of the grapes, but not too many. Overall I was pleased. Sad that I didn't get to introduce them to fun with food picks, but glad that they at least ate it.

 

Apple Orchard Bento

Our first school field trip was to an apple orchard. Sadly, the orchard they usually go to had no ripe apples, so they found an organic farm/orchard in Tacoma called Terry's Berries. Also without apples for us to pick, apparently. It was still a super-fun farm trip. But I would have gone with more of a farm-theme, had I known!

Top (Z's lunch): apples, Apple Straws, green beans,
apple PBJ and PBH, Baby Bell cheese
Bottom (my lunch): apples w/crunchy PB, carrots w/hummus,
Everything bagel w/cream cheese

For both our lunches, I used leftover organic apple slices we had bought from Costco for our turn at Soccer snack the previous Saturday. I added some hummus to my carrots since I was reaching for the Ranch and remembered an article I had read somewhere about using hummus instead, since it's healthier and has more nutrients. *sigh* Not as yummy though!

For her lunch I broke out the bag of Apple Straws (same makers as Veggie Straws) that I had bought on a whim during my last grocery trip. They are kind of like chips, and super yummy. 

I used an apple cutter from a Wilton set for her sandwich (PB and apple butter! Home-made by a friend of ours who is a master-jammer!) The other half of the bread was used to make a regular PB-honey sandwich. 

I used a mini apple cutter to cut out some of the wax from the Baby Bell cheese. And since it came out clean, I placed the wax apple cut-out on the beans, for visual effect.

At the farm, the kids got to ride in a tractor-pulled hay wagon to the far end of the farm. (The mommies and teachers had to walk. In the mud. SO glad I brought my boots!)

The lady doing the tour (turquoise jacket) did a really great job. She'd take them to an area with stuff planted, then ask them questions to see if they could guess what was growing there. Our first crop was potatoes.

The farmer used a pitchfork to loosen the soil, then each child got to harvest 3 potatoes!

After a walk back along the (muddy) path, the next crop was carrots! Teeeeeeny tiny carrots. Each child was invited to pick 3, although apparently my child stole an extra 2.

In addition to apple and plum trees, potatoes, carrots, raspberries, assorted lettuces and herbs and assorted other foods, this farm also has chickens (and farm-fresh eggs!) The guides carried baskets of bread scraps and lettuce for the kids to feed the various animals.

They also had a pen of turkeys, another with goats, and yet another with ducks!

"Heeere turkey! I have some yummy leafs for you!"

They had big bins of already-picked apples out in front of their store, so each kid got to choose 3 apples to add to their stash too!