School Lunch Kit

School is almost upon us which means that it's almost time to resume the daily ritual of packing school lunches. Lunch can be just a box full of food, or it can be something special that is looked forward to every day. A lunch packed by mom is full of potential to brighten a kids' day and leave them feeling loved.
Occasionally I have some really creative lunch idea that I can spend a little extra time on and it will really WOW the kids.  ( I will share some of these ideas with you later this week) But, as reality would have it , life is busy  and school mornings are often rushed.  But, I still want my kids to open their lunch boxes and know that their mom cares everyday.

So, this year I'm prepared.  I have a little secret stashed away to help me produce smile inducing lunches even on the busiest of mornings.  Ready for it?  Creating one of these kits will instantly make you feel like a better mom and will create months and months of happy (at least at lunch time) children.

Here it is : The busy mom's SCHOOL LUNCH KIT
I would make those words sparkly and gleam if I had the technical know how to do that :)

For mornings when your creative juices, time, energy or resources are running low this little kit will provide the tools to make ANYTHING that you pack into that lunch box seem special.  It's all about presentation.  Gather the following items, place them in a little container in your pantry (I used a plastic file box) and you'll be ready.  Here's what's in my kit:

PARTY NAPKINS
(an assortment of napkins with fun designs or your child's favorite characters on them)

SANDWICH CUTTERS
(I found some awesome sanwich cutters in the dollar bins at Target and at Wal-Mart.  Of course, you can always just use regular cookie cutters too.  Any sandwich looks more fun and appealing if its cut into shapes.  Keeping all the sandwich cutters in your lunch kit makes this a no-brainer hit in the mornings)

STICKERS
(Add these to a little note you write or to your ziploc baggies, etc. for extra fun)

FUN PACKAGING
(I found plastic baggies with hearts, camo, Tinkerbell, Toy Story, etc. at my local Target.  No work required.  Instantly happier than a plain bag.  Also looked for colored containers or any other fun and festive way to package food and keep it on hand)

PRIZES
Your kids will love you for this.  It's like a Happy Meal with a prize.  Go to the party section of the store where you can buy cheap favors for kids (please don't buy things that make noise or that your child will want to throw or bounce :) But there are some cool little trinkets that are very inexpensive (like 4 for a dollar or less).  Every once in a while throw in a prize with their lunch.  Add some for their friends if your feeling generous and the whole class will love you too.

PRE PRINTED NOTES AND JOKES
I found some cute printable lunch notes on a site called Alphamom, and I printed out some
Ready to Print Custom Lunch Box Notes from Skip to my Lou

There are some truly goofy kids jokes online.  Have some on hand already cut and ready to go into the lunch box for busy days.  Here's a little sampling:

What goes HA HA HA PLOP?
Someone laughing their head off!

Oh, you know you loved it.  Click here for a page of printable jokes

PAPER, MARKERS, and FOOD MARKERS
Writing a little note in thier lunch can make their day.  If you want to do something different, fun, and easy, try using food writer markers (buy them at Michael's or anywhere that carries Wilton products) and write a note on their banana, apple, orange, or any other food that you can find.

And there you have it, the tools to make any lunch a great lunch.  But whatever you do DON'T FORGET THE LOVE NOTE!  It's the most important part of any lunchbox meal. Happy school year mom !:)

More fun lunch ideas to come this week.