Torani Syrups!

Last year I wrote about these syrups and I got to try them out again this year!  I have found a new love for the sugar free versions.  They just do something special to my coffee, I feel like I am giving myself a big treat without the calories of a coffee house.  With having my little guy at home and him being in "real" school this year... my mornings are pretty hectic...but if I can find 5 min to have my coffee with a dash of "special" syrup it makes my day so much better.

This year I have decided to make gifts using them to.. for some teacher friends of mine.  Cool travel mug with a bottle of one of the many flavors of syrups. I am sure my friends will love it.

So if you are looking for a way to jazz up your coffee this holiday, try them out. They come in a ton of great flavors, and you don't even have to go to a coffee house to get them.

Thanks to Shespeaks for giving me the opportunity to tell you about them.

Down to 12

we are more than halfway through this countdown...

once again G requested the foods today, so I had to do my best...

Rice in the bowl, cheese stick tucked in with it... cucumber 12 and angel cut out... cutie, with more cucumber angels, turkey and angel marshmallows...
yogurt and juice as usual.

13 day... getting close

13 days till Christmas.. will they go fast or slow?

This isn't my favorite lunch, but foods were requested to I did my best..

butter noodles, with cheese ornament and 13.  pepperoni, carrot and strawberries... yogurt and juice too.

opps I goofed

I think we are really at 15 days today, but my tired mind gave him 14... guess he will get a 14 again tomorrow.

cheese and bread reindeer (upside down gingerbread men) apples, turkey, cookie and carrot.

18 days

G wanted breakfast for lunch today.. but I couldn't just give him pancakes and bacon now could I

pancake trees (and 18) cookie, bacon, strawberries and carrots.. yogurt juice and cheese in the back

19 Days

How can we have so little time left....  this countdown might be starting to stress me out...

Cheese snowman (string cheese cut into circles) open faced sandwich.   Cookie, carrots, turkey and apples.

20 days

Twenty Days to go... This year G is getting so excited.. wonder if it has anything to do with his lunches

snowflake cheese sandwich, with turkey on side, cookie, carrots, red and green apples.

21 Days

21 Days...

The Stocking was hung with care... ha...
Cheese sandwich stocking (his name is on it too), with a 21 made from cheese also...
The turkey today is cut into christmas trees, its hard to see so just believe me :)
the usual strawberries, carrots, and a cookie.. yogurt and juice not pictured.

The Countdown Begins

G is really into counting the days till Christmas.  I think this year so far will be the most exciting one with him :)  We have an advent calendar that counts up the days and he loves to do that, but I thought lets count down the days with his lunch.

22 days left

Cheese 22, sandwich is a candy cane (the turkey is on the side)  another cheese candy cane (these were picked out by G, he is getting too big). Then the ususal... cookie, carrots, strawberries, yogurt and juice (not pictured)

Snack for School

It is time again for G to bring in snack for school (we have a day next week also)... and in the light of me making cute things for his lunch I just have to share that with his class..

So...

I made snowman on a stick... bananas (with lemon to help with browning) apple and grape hats.  mini chocolate chip eyes and buttons, and a carrot nose.  I also sent in pretzel sticks for the kids to make into arms. (I was worried they would get soggy and gross)
What to do next week... any ideas?

National Geographic Super Readers.

We had the chance to review some fabulous books from National Geographic Super Readers thanks to Mom Meets..  I am totally impressed with this program.  With having a boy he loves to read (have me read) things that are nonfiction and this program has a wide variety of topics.  Easy to distinquish levels is something I love and can see G growing with this program.

You've got to check them out...
    On their Website
    On Facebook


Check out the great kid you get.

It is certainly something you and your kids will enjoy for a long time.



Disclaimer: I received this product free from the sponsors of the Moms Meet program.  May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer.  As a Moms Meet blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog.  My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.

R is for Robot

Had to work around the requested pizza again.. so this time I just went a tad bit simple

I drew a Robot (remember I am not an artist) on a piece of cheese to sit on top of the pizza.. Robot has an R on his chest :).  he has apples, carrots, and gummies in the cups. Yogurt and juice along side

R is for Rocket

Today G has a piece of leftover pizza (requested) so I worked around that to go with the R theme of the week.

So taking off from the Pizza is  a cheese Rocket.. with a cheese R.  he has the normal stuff with it..
carrots, cookie, more cheese, and strawberries.. yogurt and juice too.

R is for Rabbit

G informed me last night that they are working on the letter R this week.  So first up is a Rabbit...

The rabbit is pressed into a piece of bread (it's a bread and butter sandwich) that I colored in with my edible makers and wrote the R for rabbit. He also has a cheese stick, some steak, carrots, strawberries, and his cookie (as usual yogurt and juice included)

Curious George and the Puppies

G picked out the book Curious George and the Puppies to have for a lunch today.  I was kind of in a rush as it was the first day back after break so.. he got a quick version of it..

a bread monkey, with a cheese puppy.  Cheese stick, steak, strawberries, carrots, and a cookie (yogurt and juice also included.)

Thanksgiving Turkey

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful meal, with some great friends.  My hubby can't eat any poultry so we got to have steak and all the normal fixings.  G who kind of "gets" Thanksgiving this year told me we had to have a Turkey.. so that and a challenge given to me by my mom.. Let me present my Turkey..

My Turkey is a salad.. ha....
lettuce, green peppers, carrots, cucumbers, strawberries and a cheese turkey head with olive eyes.
Everyone got a kick out of it :)

Easy Lunch :)

Nothing fancy at all today. G was having a Thanksgiving Feast at school today so, didn't want to do something too fancy.

Just pizza, goldfish, carrots a cookie and some apple sauce... 

TREAT!

I know I just told you about Tiny Prints for you holiday cards, but I wanted to also tell you about one of the sister sites.. TREAT :)

Treat is Shutterfly’s exciting new greeting card brand that makes it easy for people to create and send one-of-a-kind greeting cards. Treat cards are perfect for holidays, birthdays, congrats, thank yous and every occasion in between. It’s crazy fun. It’s super easy. And it’s totally personal.

  I use Treat for all of my greeting cards.  I love how you can personalize them with photos :). 

Guess what...
Thanks to Treat Your holiday checklist just got shorter. Create and send a totally personalized greeting card from Treat for FREE. Whether saying thanks for Thanksgiving, wishing a best friend a holiday birthday, or simply sharing the holiday cheer with a just because card, Treat lets you create a one-of-a-kind card that is sure to impress.
Use the Code TREATBLOGR to get one FREE card good today and tomorrow only! (11/19 & 11/20)
It is easy to make and the quality is GREAT

Enjoy!

Tiny Print Winner

Congrats to Carmon M... she is the winner of the Tiny print Gift Card.  Enjoy!

ooppps..

Well I have been really busy at work the past week (and some) but I have been making G lunches.. (except today, it was pizza day)

so here is the lunches in no real order..

                                                                             Lizard

                                                                           Tiger

                                                                        Ladybugs

                                                                  Ladder

                                                                        Truck

                                                                      Ten

I will do better next week I promise :)
I will announce the winner of the tiny print giveaway tomorrow :)

Tiny Prints... my favorite and a Giveway for you!

I know I have told you about Tiny Prints before... but I just can't stop.... I love all the cards, invitations and more you can create and personalize.  So when I am starting to think about my Holiday cards, it is the first place I go for inspiration. I am so excited that there 2012 Holiday Collection has new features, like the new Premium Double thick paper... the video tells it all....


Can't wait to see what my friends say...

Once again we will be getting our annual family photos done again by my fabulous friend Dawn of Creative Concepts  next week.. so I thought I better look at the cards at Tiny Prints to see what styles would work with my vision... (in case I needed to change it... )

so I went to the website to search for Holiday Photo Cards....

Here are some of my favorites... what do you think...

                                                            Merriest Stripes

                                                           Wise Inspiration

                                                         Photo Garland

 

There are so many more than this... it is always so hard to decide...   I always try to do something different than the year before and with so many choices Tiny Prints makes it easier.

Tiny Prints always have great special too... check out the ones that they have right now....
http://www.tinyprints.com/promo/tiny-prints-coupon-codes-promotions.htm

Guess what.... the cool people at Tiny Print really want you to try them out.  They are letting me giveaway $50.00 off your total order. (code will be emailed to you and expires on 12/14/12, does not included shipping and can't be combined with other promos)

Sound good to me... does it to you?  If so fill out the form below and I will randomly draw a winner on November 16th Good luck. 


Good luck to you all!
and Thanks to Tiny Prints for sponsoring this post .

You can check out Tiny Prints on all of the Social Channels too.

•             Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tinyprints

•             Twitter: http://twitter.com/tinyprints

•             Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tiny_prints/

•             Instagram: Tiny Prints

•             Google +: https://plus.google.com/+tinyprints/

•             Blog: http://blog.tinyprints.com/

L is for Lion

Continuing with L week.. Lion Lunch...

Lion is spelled out with cheddar cheese (the L is many many l's)  the lion is drawn on bread with my edible markers.. (I don't claim to be a wonderful artist)

he has the usual on the side, roast beef, cookie, carrots and strawberries... a go gurt and juice go with. 

L week

So after the Helicopter on Monday G informs me that they are no longer on H and I must make him an L lunch. 

So the first thing he thought of was leaves... please don't laugh at my tree..I had off of school, so I should of had more time, but... I didn't for some reason..... but I tried...

Yes my tree was a catcus that I tried to turn into a tree... didn't fool G... the leaves are cut out of cheese with cookie cutters that are way to big for my tree... but hey, you get the drift... He has the ususal.. cookie, carrots, strawberries and roast beef.. also a yogurt and juice box... not shown.

H is for Helicopter

On Friday G came home telling me about all the words that start with H... so I had to make a lunch with one of them... This goes along with his love of Jets... a Helicopter..

He has a bed of rice, with a bread round (with cheese) with the Helicopter drawn on it. He has his cheddar H's and then strawberries and carrots (the usual) a cookie, chips (which he brought to me and told me had to be in his lunch) and some turkey.

He has a yogurt and juice box also....

Halloween Continues.. more

Quick lunch for the last day of my Halloween theme....  I feel like because of Sandy Halloween wasn't really there this year.  At least G and I have one more party on Monday :)

He has a Cheese sandwich with a bat, cat and moon cut out.  Carrots, a cookie (the bread cut outs) some roast beef with an eye pick and some strawberries.

Halloween continues...

Since we didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday and I was going to do Halloween lunches leading up to Halloween.  I decided that  I would continue them today and tomorrow... besides G woke up sad that Halloween was over :)

He has a skeleton cheese sandwich, yogurt, a cookie, roast beef (in the box) strawberries and carrots.

and here he is as his jet...

Snack for the class

Its G's turn to take snack to school today.... you know I couldn't just send in a bag of pretzels... so...

I made the homemade chedar crackers that I posted about the other day and.. then it went from there...

I sure hope I sent enough for a snack...

They have

 Cheddar crackers in the shapes of bats, ghosts, and pumpkins, sitting in a paper halloween cupcake liner.  Then we have celery and carrots on a pumpkin stick.  Natural no sugar added apple sauce, that I drew a jack o lantern face on and last but not least a Mummy juice box.


I packaged them all up in spider boxes, with the napkin and spoon wrapped with a spider ring.

fun fun...

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We are back in school today :)  I am sure the kids will be jumping... after being cooped up at home for 4 days with the storm and then with it being halloween.  I am glad I am not a classroom teacher anymore.....

For lunch today G has...

a pumpkin cheese sandwich, a yogurt with a ghost drawn on it... some roast beef in the orange suitcase.. some candy corn... a rice crispie ghost with m and ms.. bat apples on a spider stick and some pumpkin seeds.

Here is my cutie going to school.. He is a monster by day.... and tongith the big costume is a JET...

Here is is trying it on (he will have something else on besides bear jammies tonight)

SANDY

Well we have had an exciting past couple of days....  We live on the eastern shore of MD, right in the way of that nice storm called Sandy.  We have been lucky in my neighborhood, my house never really lost power for more than 10 mins.. no tree hit my house, no flooding... but as for Ocean City and Salisbury, I can't say the same... I have only seen pictures, but they look kind of bad.  We haven't had school, so no lunches to send....

I did make some homemade cheddar crackers for G's special snack day tomorrow (hopefully he will go)

They turned out really cute....

In case you want the recipe.. it was super simple...

Ingredients

• 8 ounces, weight Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded ( I used white vermont sharp)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine, Cut Into Cubes (I stuck it in the freezer for a bit after cutting)
• 1 cup Flour
• ¾ teaspoons Salt (Just eyeballed this)
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder (also eyeballed)
• 2 - 4 teaspoons Cold Water (I ended up using 4.. I think I might of added a bit more cheese) 

• Instructions

  mix  cheese, flour, salt, onion powder  and butter together with a mixer (or  food processor)until the mixed.. will be clumpy
  Mix in water, 1 teaspoon at a time.
  Use hands to mix the dough if needed
  
  
  
  Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. 
  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until crispy. 
  

P is for Pizza

P is for Pizza... G is talking about pizza at school today.. so I had to send him with a pizza. (sorry for the BAD photo)

Small homemade pizza (just cheese), apples on a pumpkin pick, Cheddar cheese P's with crackers, celery and a cookie.

Pancakes

G complained that I didn't let him buy lunch yesterday because it was Pancakes... so I thought hey that goes with my theme, so why not send him with some pancakes... they will be not so warm when he eats them but he seems to not care... so I'm not worried...

I had to make the pancakes cute so I cut out some P's from 3 of them.. added some bacon (his favorite) a cookie and some oranges and lunch was done.

P is for Pig

G came home with a great big huge pink pig (should of taken a picture of it.. i'll have to remember to go back and do that), that art worked sparked today's lunch

P is for P

The pig is a cheese sandwich with the pig cut out of the bread round.... have to try to mix it up...  details drawn with my food makers.  In the orange container he has some roast beef...(ham might of bee funnier for me ;)  he has carrott sticks, oranges and a cookie stuck in on that side too...
Then his yogurt and juice.

The Start of the letter P

Yesterday G begged me to buy lunch, school was having chicken nuggets so I let him... easy for me...

so today I asked him to give me a word that started with P and he said the Pumpkin patch.  We just went this weekend and had a blast so I said of course...

here is my cutie at the pumpkin patch (yes it's October and warm enough to still have shorts on.. crazy)

Here is today's lunch

Veggie Rice with cheese pumpkins, a pumpkin pick with carrots.  Mandarin oranges, turkey and cheese letter Ps (I think he has a cookie hiding under the pumpkin cup)  He also has a yogurt and juice box.

End of F week(s)

No school for G tomorrow so today was the last day for working on the letter F....
I asked him what he wanted and he said... a fighter jet..... so....

I still had some fighter jets left over in the freezer from his birthday party (I normally would not give him that much sweet for school, but .... )

F and 4 are "grilled" cheese sandwiches , he has apple 4 and the apple slices with the 4's cut out.
4 chicken nuggets and strawberry yogurt with sprinkles.

Flowers and Fruit (sort of)

Continuing on with F week....

G requested rice again, hey if he is going to eat I'm happy to give him what he wants.  So he has a ground of rice with Chicken nugget flowers growing.  Apples cut into flowers.   Celery sticks, on a spider stick (requested) and in an orange cup, gummies in a cherry cup.  And hidden cheese flowers in his orange "suitcase"  He has a yogurt and fruit juice box too.

F is for Feelings

Today we are back to F lunches.  G is contunining the letter F this week as he only had 4 days last week and only 4 days this week.

They talk about feelings every morning so I thought we would make a feeling lunch.  I asked G to come and help me and show me feeling faces and what feeling they went with.
He showed me (man I should of taken photos of them, shoot) happy, sad, mad and scared.

The faces are cheddar cheese on crackers.  He has grapes on a spider stick (to help him be scared) Turkey with a happy bear pick, a cookie to make him smile and cream cheese with celery.  I also added a Go Gurt and fruit juice.

The Brave Cowboy

G wanted to take a break from the F lunches today, so he brought me one of his favorite books
The Brave Cowboy .  The special thing about this book is that it was also G's daddy's favorite book when he was a boy.  They love to share it together and it just warms my heart.

If I had not left making lunches to last min on a Monday morning I would of tried to recreate that cute little cowboy on the cover, but since I did leave it till last min... this is what he got.

He requested blue sky and green grass rice.... a Swiss cowboy hat, a cheddar cowboy boot.  Broccoli, more cheddar and roast beef, orange segments and a cookie..  I added a go gurt and juice to his lunch box too.