Kindergarten

So Princess is now officially a Kindergartner!  I am officially a wreck... my head is spinning with all the changes and additional events happening in our lives.  All of these changes are good, and I know things will calm down in a couple of weeks/months (at least I hope they will).  I am struggling with the idea of the kids being in 2 different schools (Butterball at daycare and Princess at the elementary school at the end of my street) - this translates to 2 drop offs and 2 pickups... that's a lot of in and out of the car, buckling and unbuckling of seatbelts, parking, wandering around trying to figure out where to go, etc.  I know I will get the hang of things, but no one likes being the "new girl" in an otherwise known process. 

Now that Princess is in public school we are responsible for providing her lunch... don't misunderstand me we have always been responsible for providing her lunch - I paid the daycare to feed her!  And that process worked out beautifully!  The public school offers lunch and I could buy that too... but Princess is so excited to bring her lunch to school (transaltion - I make the lunch) she can't barely contain herself!  So in true fashion of being me I have become obsessed with her lunch (and snacks).  I wanted the lunches to be balanced, nutritional meals that were also eco-friendly... I like to make things difficult for myself (you might have noticed that about me).

I ordered a bento box set from Laptop Lunches, then spent an entire weekend trying to find a lunch bag that it would fit in (and yes you are correct I should have just purchased the lunch bag from the site as well... but I didn't so just keep your eye rolling to yourself).  I also purchased a thermos (Princess refers to this as a "Heater") so we could send pasta and/or soup for lunch, a water bottle, and yesterday I picked up a separate small insulated bag for her snacks. 

I spent hours searching for lunch menu ideas that would work with the bento box situation, and there are a surprising number sites with photos and ideas for inspiration.  I was starting to feel more confident I could make this work.  To really give myself another level of comfort I created a full listing of Princess's lunches and snacks, as well as our dinners for the week in a lovely comforting spreadsheet... aaahhh who doesn't love a nice neat spreasheet!  I get a warm feeling just thinking about it!

I will share my spreadsheet with you tomorrow, along with what I did to get a head start for the week!  For now I will leave you with a photo of her 1st day of school lunch:

Ham Sandwhich, hard boiled egg, strawberries & bananas, and oreos