Kawaii Teddy Bear Bento

I love this bento box shaped like a teddy bear head.

I used the cutest little sandwich cutters that also have a piece you can press into the bread to make an animal face. Adorable! :)

More Kiddie Bento Goodness

Washing the grapes.

Hello Kitty sandwich cutters.

Bento box all ready to be packed up.

Back to School Bento

Strawberries, carrots and Japanese jello. Yummy!

Star shaped egg and Hello Kitty sandwiches. :)

She loved it and ate every bite!!!

Valentine's Day Surprise for My Kids

I knew the kids were gonna come home from school all sugared up with more candy & treats in tow so I decided not to get them a box of candy or Valentine treat. I decided to make a fun heart shaped dinner for them to celebrate Valentine's Day and to show how much I love them.  My homemade heart shaped pizzas were a huge hit! They loved the pizzas and the thought that went into preparing them. 

Here's how to make some special super easy heart shaped pizzas for your kiddos!

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees.

Take flour tortillas and cut them into heart shapes.

Lay tortillas on a baking sheet and spread them with pizzas sauce.

Sprinkle pizza cheese over top of the sauce.

If you wanna get fancy, like I did, cut the pepperoni in to heart shapes.  I used a tiny "cookie" cutter that I usually use to make bento box lunches. I then took the scraps of pepperoni and hid them under the cheese and placed the cute pepperoni hearts on top of the cheese.

Add any other toppings your kids like to the pizzas.

Bake in oven for 5-8 mins. Keep a close watch, the tortillas brown up quickly.

And ta-da! Heart shaped pizzas!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Amazed by a Four Year Old

Last night Bella just sat down and went to work with her scissors and crayons.  She made this on her own NO help from anyone! Yet again, I have been amazed by my four year old! 

Ramune aka Japanese Soda Drink with Marble in the Bottle

A description of the origin of ramune is here. But basically the one I got tastes like Sprite. It comes with a plastic plug looking piece that you press into the top of the bottle. This releases a hidden marble into the bottle. It also caused mine to fizz like a volcano all over my counter top. :)  It is difficult to drink at times because the marble blocks the flow of liquid.  But the kids loved playing with it.  It is a pretty cool novelty drink although it was way too sweet for my liking.  The marble, apparently, is extremely difficult to remove without breaking the bottle. I used pliers and couldn't budge the plastic top. But I'm pretty sure the movers packed my bottle for me! :) So atleast I got a cool souvenir!! :)

Bottle after removing the plastic wrap that covered the cap.

Bottle with plug sitting on top just after I popped it. If you look closely you can see the clear liquid puddled around the bottle.

See the marble covered in bubbles?

Tilted so you can see the marble.

Chug it Bella!!

Chug Chug Chug!

I love the tongue sticking out while looking at the marble!

Looking for the marble. :)

Happy Veterans Day!

A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a

blank check

payable to the United States of America for an amount up to,

and

including, their life. That is beyond honor. Today is the day

we salute you! 

 Support the Troops.

 

 

*(photo of my husband's return from one of his many deployments with all 3 of the kids)

Visiting a Japanese Elementary School

I got a chance to chaperone my son's field trip to Jogaku Elementary in Naha, Okinawa.  It was such a neat experience.  We started off walking in circles and when the music stopped we would introduce ourselves to the person in front of us.  We all tried to do it in Japanese, while they tried in English.

Then they taught us some Eisa dancing. I was NOT coordinated enough to do it correctly, but I tried! :)

Then we all had a lunch of curry, corn dogs and salad.  Once lunch was over we got a quick tour of the school before we had to hop back on the bus.  I had chance to chat with one of the Japanese moms and she told me that the kids all clean the school. They put them in groups and each group cleans a certain part or does a certain "duty" as she called it.  They even clean the bathrooms!  Out of respect I'm not posting any photos with the kids' faces in them. So there are only a few photos and I also only had my son's point & shoot, so the photo quality is pretty sub par, but atleast the compositions look good! ;)

Super Sexy Green Slippers

Cubbies full of slippers.

Drums they used to teach us Eisa dancing.

My partner's legs & drum.

Super tiny bathroom slippers. Look out! It's BIG FOOT!!!

A classroom.

My son thought it was really cool that at his school they have a Japanese classroom and at this school they have an English classroom! :)

And last but not least my son getting ready to Eisa dance! :)

Headphones Fixer-Upper

When we got my daughter a leapster it was obvious that we needed to get her a pair of headphones. And by obvious I mean she would turn the volume all the way UP and even after repeated requests to turn it down, the volume always seemed to creep back up.  I told my husband we should get her these nifty kid safe headphones.  The volume can't go past a reasonable level making them safe for kids' ears. Perfect, or so I thought! They work great, but had this flimsy foam around the ear parts.  Notice i said had. Needless to say, within 2 days the foam was ripped off and she had deemed the headphones "broken".   The husband was NOT happy with my purchase and I was not happy because she was now refusing to use them.  Well, I decided to try crocheting her some covers for them. The crocheting part was easy, the fitting the covers to the earphones was the hard part. I had to unscrew 4 screws on each side and then tie the cover underneath and screw it back together. I am hoping it holds together because she is gonna need these things for the move. So here is my handy work. I used DMC thread in 2 colors and a tiny hook. 

Just Doing a Little Destashing....

I was just doing a little destashing when the cheesiest kid I know got in the picture!

For My Little Packrat

My daughter is obsessed with finding bags, purses, backpacks, SOCKS, anything to put her tiny animals (mostly little pet shops) in and carry around with her. I had started making this little bag as new cup bag for her for school. But I soon realized the handbook said it had to be sewn and a certain size, well I had already started this one. So it became her new animal/rock carrying bag. I am in love with the pom poms. I have only made a few recently, but I think I need to add them to everything now! ;)

I didn't use a pattern, I just kind of made it up as I went along. :)

Not AGAIN!!!!

Yep she did it again.

The boys never brought me bugs, in fact they don't even want to touch these.
But my sweet little girl just grabs them up like nobody's business!

Unsure if the bug is a beetle.
But she did tell me that she "Squished it REAL GOOD!".

And this time I got a dead bug AND a snail shell!

Score!

More Goodies from a Preschooler's Pocket

Some of you may remember a while back when I blogged about my daughter bringing me home "gifts" from the playground at school.

Today I received another present from my daughter's pocket. 

Once again, as soon as she got in the car after school she dug around in her pocket for my gift.

Last time, if you recall, I was presented with a beetle in approximately 4 pieces, because he fell apart in her pocket. 

Today the gift stayed in one piece, much to her delight.

Here is today's present.

Thanks B! I love it!

Monster Cupcakes

We just used what we had on hand to make these little guys!

I cut strawberry shaped gummy snacks in half for the horns! :)

Handmade Iron Maiden Lunch Bag

One of my son's Iron Maiden shirts ripped, so I told him to keep it and I would make something out of it.

It has been sitting in my craft closet for months.

 School is about to start and he wants me to pack him a bento for lunch.

He has a double bento and a tupperware for a salad, so it is too much to fit in the bags that are supposed to hold bento boxes.

Plus he didn't really like any of the bags he saw.

Mom to the rescue!!

He now has a new lunch bag made from the old Iron Maiden shirt!

 Sweeeeeeet!!!