Annie spent the day at home yesterday with a little bit of a yucky tummy. She wasn't all that sick but enough that she might have had some embarassing situations in the bathroom at school. So we goofed around and had some fun. Annie drew a picture for the fairies who live in our fairy tree and brought it out to them. She was sooo cute! She put her drawing in a ziplock bag, added some candies, walked out to the tree, set the bag down, patted the tree while talking to the fairies and came back in. Throughout the day she kept checking to see if they had taken her bag. Much to both our surprises, there came a time when she looked out and the bag was indeed gone! Huh? I looked out and sure enough, it wasn't there. At first, I was a little taken aback but then realized that the dog must have smelled the candies and moved it. Later in the day, when Norby came home, he found it in the yard but Annie doesn't know that. She is now waiting to see if they will give her anything back... hmmm.... what will they give??

Also, Norby helped to create a Bento. He added something she absolutely loved! A mini-cheeseburger. What 7 year old wouldn't love that? She also had some low sodium almonds, raisins, carrots, pickles and... I forget but the picture will show. She ate most of it but the carrots. At least she eats some of those when they are cut into fun shapes. Still loving the bentoing. Oh yeah, in the picture you can see the new bag we got for Annie to carry her bento... gotta love Target!

Last night Annie was ruminating about hearts and their makeup and finally stated the following:

"I think my heart must be made of wood since its biggest desire is to be at the cabin"

I can relate! For the record, my heart, she decided, was made of "house" since I spend most of my time looking for our house to buy and Norby's was made of "chocolate"... for obvious reasons.

So, today was Bento day since Annie had cold lunch. Norby lucks out because if I'm going to do one, I might as well do both! Easter is almost here so the bunnies abound in these Bentos, as well as some chicks and, as always, some hearts for the papa.

Might need to try a new place for picture taking, or maybe some new skills!

Doh! After getting Annie a new bag to carry her bento, after spending the time to get it all put together, after explaining exactly what she was eating and the extras to go with it... after all that, we left it at home!!

Oh well, Annie ate it later for a snack and ended up liking the school's hot lunch that day.

Bento's from Last Week! Here are the first Bento's I made for Norby and me... well, mine was just more of a snack since I was trying out some things, but Norby's was a complete lunch. And Annie's second Bento! It is soooo much fun and I must say, kind of um... uplifiting? exciting? challenging? to create. I'm loving it!

Bento... Obento... Whatever you call it, we have jumped on the bandwagon.

Norby recently discovered Bentos. Not the kind you order in a Japanese restaurant but the kind that people in Japan use to carry their lunch to work or school on a daily basis. It is somewhat of an artform there, especially among moms creating their children's lunches. There is one mom's flickr site who has set the bar so now I must attempt to reach it too.

So here is a picture of my first attempt with Annie's bento. Norby took the picture with his phone so it's not the best but it should give the gist. The hearts and birds are separated eggs steamed. The orange part is yolk with ketchup mixed in... yum! The flowers in the corners are cut cherry tomatoes and they are all on a bed of lettuce. The other side has applesauce, bunny's cut from fish cakes on a bed of carrot grass and a hello kitty container of dressing.

Annie was so excited that she dropped the bento once this morning in the house but we were able to quickly reassemble it since it was the apple sauce side. In the car, she was so excited that she accidentally took off the strap and dropped her fork on the ground. Very cute. I think a bento bag is in order! Anyways, it was very fun.