cool school lunches

Our 6-year-old started first grade yesterday. Nothing makes me feel more like a mom than packing school lunches. Not taking him to the doctor, not shopping for back to school shoes, not reading bedtime stories or running a bath. It's writing a note on a napkin (complete with hearts and drawings of kitties), slicing apples and spreading peanut butter. Sometimes I use cookie cutters to cut out cute shaped sandwiches, but the ideas in Yum Yum Bento Box bring it to a whole new level. I think it's a brilliant idea to get kids to eat their lunches. Today my little guy's lunch box came back with an intact sandwich (cookie and fruit rollup devoured). Maybe if I had decorated it to look like a cute little animal he would have eaten it!

THE SCOOP: Yum Yum Bento Box, from Amazon; Customizable flames lunch box (we have this one-- love that the inside of the lid is a chalkboard, so I can write notes!) from Frecklebox; dinosaur cookie cutter from Williams Sonoma.