Magnolia Mamas : Kids

Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Lunch Box Ideas

A few weeks ago I posted something on our Instagram stories about my kids' lunches and had SO many questions about the small Palmetto cheese packets that I had packed for them. People wanted to know where they could find them! The other big question I got was where I got the containers for their lunches. SO that got me thinking about a lunch box post to share some ideas of things I pack in their lunches.

I am not claiming these lunches to be perfectly balanced or even the most healthy options. Do I give them chips sometimes? Yes. Do I usually include a dessert or treat? Yes. BUT, I try to keep it fairly healthy and all of these are things my kids will eat. Some of them like certain things that others don't and sometimes I get them mixed up and give someone the wrong thing, but these are most of my tried and true, easy and quick to pack lunches.

What containers do I use?
Like I mentioned above, one of the questions I got the most of was what containers I used to pack the kids' lunches. I bought THESE Tupperware brand containers a few years ago from a Tupperware party and have used them almost every single day! It just makes packing multiple things so much easier and I cuts down on the waste of ziplock bags.

I also have a collection of THESE and use them frequently, too!

What goes in the lunches?
I always try to give them a "main dish", a fruit or vegetable, a cheese or yogurt, some kind of crackers/chips/pretzels, and then some sort of sweet treat. I used to always pack a juice box just because that is what I always had as a kid. However, my neighbor told me she packed the mini water bottles in her kids' lunches and I have been doing that ever since for the past 2 years. They take a large reusable water bottle to school each day to drink throughout the day and after PE, Recess, etc. They usually forgot to bring it to lunch though so I like to send a little water bottle in their lunch boxes.

Main dish ideas:
Turkey roll-ups
Chicken salad with crackers
Bagel with cream cheese
Guacamole packet with tortilla chips for dipping
Turkey, cheese, tortilla shell rollups cut into bite-sized pieces
Peanut butter packs with pretzels for dipping
Pepperoni, cheese and crackers
Hummus packets with Wheat Thins or pretzels for dipping
Laughing Cow cheese spread with crackers
Sandwich on Hawaiian Roll, mini-bagel or croissant
Palmetto Cheese packet with crackers for dipping

Fruit/Veggie ideas:
Apple slices (with no skin for my picky one)
Strawberries
Grapes
Blueberries
Cuties
Raspberries
Carrots with ranch in a little cup to dip

Dairy ideas:
Cheese sticks
Cheese slices with crackers
Danimal yogurt drinks
M&M or Oreo yogurt
Flavored greek yogurt
Pimento cheese
Laughing Cow cheese spread

Hot Lunches
One of my three loves to have a hot lunch, but doesn't love the idea of buying school lunch. For her, occasionally I will send something hot to eat in a Thermos container like THIS. I will heat it up in the morning using the microwave (usually double the amount of time I would normally so it is very hot) and put it in the Thermos container. She says it stays pretty hot by lunchtime so I guess it works pretty well!

Hot lunch ideas:
Ravioli with pesto sauce
Spaghetti with marinara sauce
Macaroni and Cheese
She has even taken left over chicken pot pie before. (For the record, this makes me want to gag, but she was happy about it!)

Lunch box short cuts
If it comes in an individual packet (hummus, guacamole, pimento cheese, peanut butter, etc.) then I buy it that way. Sure, I could get a large container and put it smaller ones to save a buck, but I HATE packing lunches so this makes it easier and a little less painful to me so it is worth it in my opinion!

I like to have my kids help with packing their lunches and if we have a rare night at home, then I do have them help. However, most days as soon as they get home from school we are off to practices or games and by the time we get home they are eating, doing homework and going to bed so I generally end up doing it just to save time.

I always prep the lunches the night before and stick them in the fridge. In the mornings all I have to do is stick everything in their lunch boxes with an ice pack to keep it cold.

Some school's have plastic forks/spoons available to kids, but some do not or only have those for kids buying their lunches. I always make sure to stick in a napkin (not that it ever gets used) and a plastic spoon if they are having yogurt that day.

What are your kids' favorite things for their lunch boxes? I'm always looking for more ideas!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Random Acts of Kindness {Ideas for Kids}

Random Acts of Kindness Day is this Saturday, but we're celebrating all week! Last week I shared these Kindness Treat Bags and Blondie asked me if we had any extras. She wanted to take one to the lunchroom monitor at school.

She said this woman was the nicest lady and she had told her teacher she thought this woman deserved to be paid more! Not only does she have to put up with the loud cafeteria at school and kids that are being wild, but she does it with a smile on her face and is so sweet and kind to the kids. I loved that she came up with this idea on her own and wanted to do something special for this woman. I sent her off to school with the Kindness Treat Bag and she came home saying it made the woman feel so appreciated!

I loved that it was her idea and she got to see how wonderful it feels to do something nice for another person. On that note, I thought I'd share some other Random Acts of Kindness ideas for kids. Easy ideas that can help get kids involved and start sharing the love!

Some ideas are totally free, some take a little prep, but all are sure to put a smile on someone's face.

Simple things like taping quarters to a vending machine or candy bar at the store...

Leaving lucky pennies on a sidewalk for someone to find...

And painting/hiding rocks for others to find...

Head on over to Savvy Sassy Moms to see all 10 of our ideas! There are so many ideas all over the internet. It's fun to come up with a list with your kids and get to work. Anything that can lift someone up, make them smile, spread the love and share the kindness.

Thank you Oriental Trading for providing some of the products for this post. All ideas and opinions are my own.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Baseball Room {Update}

Last spring I shared my ideas for transforming Boo-Boo's room from a nautical theme to the baseball room he was requesting. My little guy is baseball obsessed (well, really he is obsessed with any sport, but baseball seems to be the top of the list).

Because baseball tryouts are next week I figured it was finally time to share the progress of the room.

It still isn't done and that is why I haven't shared it up to this point. If I'm being honest, I'm dragging my feet on getting the last finishing touches completed. However, I felt like an update was due. Also, I'm hoping this might be the just the thing to make me finally finish those last few things.

What I Did

I wanted it to be a pretty easy and inexpensive transition I kept all of his bedding and furniture the same and just switched out the accessories/decor items.

All of the bedding for his room was navy with some sailboat shams and I had nautical flags hanging above his bed.

I just switches those out for solid navy shams and we changed the nautical flags to a sign with his name.

Those wooden letters were actually some I made before he was even born!

They use to be green on navy boards in his nursery and since we moved to our new house they had just been sitting in the top of his closet. I took the letters off and painted them red and glued them back to the navy boards. Then the Mr. helped me attach them to a larger wooden board and hang it above his bed.

Using some of those same wooden boards the Mr. made shelves using brackets so I could put a bunch of fun baseball related stuff on them.

These wooden boards were actually part of some built-in shelving that was in the original home we bought before the rebuild, so I love that we saved them and ended up using them for shelves all over our house.

I found some fun baseball stuff for the shelves at all sorts of places like Hobby Lobby and Goodwill.

I also used a lot of things we already had like a picture from when he got his first ever game ball and his first baseball trophy!

One of my favorite things in the room is his red wire basket of special baseballs. Some are autographed by the Braves and others are games balls he has received. I always write on each of the game balls and include the date, his team name, uniform number that season and maybe something special that he did to get the ball. I will say those special ones he got for something like catching his fist pop fly during a game or hitting his first home run are proudly displayed!

A funny little note about his dresser. It was actually was used as a changing table for my brothers and I when we were little and then I painted it and used it as changing table for both Blondie and Boo-Boo. I switched the knobs out for these baseball knobs and love the little detail it adds.

On his dresser sits a baseball lamp I found at Hobby Lobby (similar here).

Also, I repurposed a tray left over from the nautical room and it now holds all sorts of goodies and treasures he may toss in there. That Braves mug is one my dad sent him along with a baseball from the 1995 season when the Braves won the World Series!!! My dad and brother have always been big Braves fans so it was such a special addition for his room.

What's Left To Do

There are really only two things left I want to do for his room. I'd love to add a whole gallery wall with some action shots similar to this.

source

I'm hoping to use some photos I already have and get a photographer friend come help with some more photos this season.

The other thing I really want to add in his room is a desk. He has a small lego table that he rarely plays with anymore. Instead I'd love to replace it with a desk, or better yet, something built in similar to this find on Pinterest.

source

So there you have it...the update of the baseball room! Maybe by the end of this baseball season I'll have it finished and will be able to share those last little bits. Or maybe not considering baseball season is usually pretty busy for us, but one can hope, right!?

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Good Luck Goodies

Just as our fall sports are dying down, winter sports are gearing up. Yesterday, Jen mentioned about some of the Mini-Magnolias playing basketball and that also means that competition cheer season is starting! Little Mama's team had their very first competition of the season this past weekend and it was SO much fun.

They have worked so hard since the summer conditioning, training and learning their routine, but no matter how much preparation you put into it ahead of time, there is always last minute stuff that arises and there was a lot of last minute stuff this year.

Everyone was excited, but nervous also and I wanted to give them team some sort of little treat that helped get them excited and prepare for the big weekend!

I was on Oriental Trading looking for ideas for our winter class parties and saw all of the snowflake stuff and that got me thinking. Her team name is ICE and the snowflake stuff went along with the team perfectly! I decided to come up with some sort of little good luck goodies with the snowflake stuff. When I started looking a little more and realized that I could do personalized team support items also. I had NO idea Oriental Trading had those types of products, but was so happy to discover them.

For the lollipops and clappers I designed the stickers with the gym logo and it was shipped on a sticker sheet so all I had to do was put the stickers on the items.

It was so simple and super cute! The items came in every color and I could personalized the sticker color also so it was perfect and matched her team and gym colors exactly.

I found pencils that could also be personalized and was going to do a solid color until I saw the snowflake ones and knew those would be perfect. Their team chant is a throwback to Vanilla Ice days and they end every practice with "Ice, Ice Baby" so I knew that was what I had to get on them!

I used these buckets and also got the snowflake keychains for them to put on their cheer backpacks and these snowflake stress balls. I added Ice Breakers mints to the buckets and they were complete!

I could not contain my excitement about how cute these turned out and I was so excited to give it to them at the pep rally before the competition.

Little Mama had been out of town for a school field trip so when she saw them when she got home she was over the moon with excitement and couldn't wait to help pass them out to her teammates.

All the kids (and coaches) loved the personalized details on the treats and it must have done the trick because her team did amazing!

They had zero deductions and were only .07 away from first place which was great for their first competition! We have another one this weekend so I can't wait to see how they improve each week!

These goodies were such a hit that I know Oriental Trading will be my new go-go for all of our team support treats. Between soccer, basketball, baseball and more, I know we'll be able to come up with all sorts of variations on good luck treats like this!

***Thank you to Oriental Trading for providing the items for these good luck goodies! All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my own.***

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

A "Swell" Science Fair

A few months ago Little Mama came home with information about the Science Fair at their school! I remember having to do Science Fair in middle school and I tested Optical Illusions every single year. The experiment part was ok, but I loved designing and making the display board!

Each 5th grader was required to come up with an idea for their project and they could select to work with partners or alone. Because of our busy schedule I encouraged her to work alone just because I knew trying to coordinate with a friend to get together as much as it would require would be tough. We searched online, brainstormed and tossed around a few different ideas for her project, but she ultimately decided to test several different insulated cups and water bottles to see which kept ice water coldest the longest.

We love cups and water bottles in our house and it is always running joke that the last thing we need is more cups. However, it's something we all use everyday, so sometimes a new one is just fun!

She spent about two months completeing all of the tasks required for this project including research, testing, recording data and writing a report.

She was very specific and exact with her experiment, counting out ice cubes and putting the same amount of water in each cup and using a digital food/drink thermometer to measure the temperature of the water every few hours.

Her hypothesis was correct and the Swell was the clear winner for this experiment! She tested it on three different occasions and Swell was the winner each time. After 24 hours there was still ice left in the cup and the water was only 0.5 degrees warmer over the course of 24 hours. It's probably my favorite insulated water bottle so I was happy to know it was the winner also because I love my water super cold!

When the experiment was over it was time to create her display board and she followed in my footsteps thinking it was the most fun part of the project! She loved browsing the teacher supply store looking for borders, labels, and other fun things to add to her board. Science Fair was taking over my dining room, but she was so into it that I didn't mind.

I helped her use the paper cutter to get everything cut out, but really had to sit on my hands and let her go at it when it came to gluing everything down. She did a fantastic job and her presentation looked fantastic!

They had outside judges come to the school on Monday and judge each project. She came off the bus on Monday afternoon with the biggest smile and told me that SHE WON 1ST PLACE!!!! I couldn't believe it! Apparently the judges narrowed down to the finalist and called those students back down to talk to them again and question them about certain parts of their experiments and she returned to class. Then, at the end of the day she got called down to the office one more time. She said she thought she was in trouble or something, but really they just wanted to take her picture because she was the overall winner!

On Monday evening all of the parents got to visit the school and see all of the Science Fair projects displayed. She was on cloud nine with everyone congratulating her and wanting to check out her project. She was so sweet saying, "I totally didn't think I would win because so many people were doing things like making electricity out of fruit and stuff like that." Her teacher told me she thought it as just a really original idea and that it is something really practical the judges were interested in.

Now she gets to go onto the county Science Fair in a few months to see how her project compares to the other winners from schools all over the county.

Magnolia Mamas

Pages