Lunches and gear

Max had "Space Explorers" camp at school this week - trying out the full day schedule. We were supposed to also try out extended day at school, but there weren't enough sign-ups and it got cancelled. So, I got to pretend I worked part time and picked him up on Mon,Tue,Thur,Fri, and Colin did the same on Weds.

I ordered Max some Clone Wars gear for next year and we tried that out too. Backpack & lunchbox were a hit (crazy glasses optional):

For lunches, I did the bento approach again. I packed a ton of food everyday, since both Max and I were worried that he'd go hungry (he had quite an appetite Mon & Tues, trailing off at the end of the week). I always see these bento lunches for preschoolers that fit into one of the single layer boxes and think "no way, that's not enough!" - perhaps that's why we're so amply proportioned in my house. Or perhaps they're not for 6 year olds - probably both :-).

Monday

• Carrot/zucchini/apple muffin, canned mandarin oranges (single layer blue box)
• Wheat thins, cherries, and cream cheese (thumbs down on that from Max) (top of double layer blue box)
• Turkey octo-dogs, ketchup, carrots and zucchini (thumbs down on the veg) (bottom of double layer blue box)
• Fritos (in the goldfish)
  

Tuesday

• Cherries and Ritz crackers
• Bologna rollups (on toothpicks), mini-Bel cheese, frozen peas, carrots
• More muffin, with peaches
• Apple slices with caramel dip
• more Fritos in the fish (these became his "on the way home" snack all week)
  

Wednesday

• Apples & dip
• Muffin & cantaloupe
• Wheat thins & bologna rollups
• Crackers, baby-Bel, chicken salad, and green beans with edamame (saved this layer for home, then didn't eat - thumbs down, I guess)

Thursday

• Muffin & peaches
• Cantaloupe
• Chicken pot pie insides, biscuits (leftovers from dinner the night before)
  And he got to bring along his space shuttle utensils in a re-usable snack bag I got on Etsy.
  
  

Friday

• Ritz crackers, raspberries (from the Bellevue Farmer's Market trip on Thursday), cantaloupe
• More octodogs & ketchup, carrots & zucchini (snubbed again)
• Mini scones with jam, Wheat Thins, Laughing Cow cheese wedge, blueberries (from the Farmer's Market too).

And after Thursday's trip to the Farmer's Market, we had a few too many plums and I had a hankering to try out a plum cake recipe. Found one on the KCTS9 site that looked yummy, and it certainly was. Piping hot out of the oven:

Sweet, yummy goodness. Max and I enjoyed it. Colin had a bit of the cake part, but was not interested in the cooked fruit (as ever). Day 2, cooled off, Max agreed with Colin that the fruit part was "blechechechyuck". I thought it was fine, but then I like squishy foods.

P.S. I've been obsessively re-reading all of the Harry Potter books, and Colin just started in on them behind me. He amusedly read me a line from "Chamber of Secrets" where Mrs. Weasley sends Harry a Christmas package with a hand-knitted sweater and "plum cakes". So that's where the need for plum cake came from. Hmm.