Patriotic 4th of July Lunch

We're at it again!  The Bento Bloggers and Friends are doing a patriotic blog hop.  We all were talking and noticed that we are so proud of our countries and wanted to celebrate them with awesome lunches.  Canada celebrates their Independence Day on July 1st and the United States of America celebrates their Independence Day on July 4th.  We have friends in both countries that will hop with us and it made sense to hop a few days prior so that we could take the holiday off to celebrate.

Our main entree is an American flag open faced sandwich.  We cut the crusts off of our bread and created a rectangle for our flag.  Then, we spread some whipped cream cheese on the bread.  Finally, we added sliced strawberries and a few blueberries to create Old Glory.

Our vegetable side is zucchini and red peppers.  We used a small star cookie cutter to cut out the center of the zucchini to create white stars.  Then, we used our micro star cookie cutter to cut the red pepper into red stars.  We added an American Flag pick and a Captain America Shield ring to this section too.

Our dairy side is vanilla yogurt.  We added a few star sprinkles to the top to match our theme.  We also added a Statue of Liberty (one of our favorite symbols of freedom) to the bowl.

Finally, our fruit/dessert is a patriotic strawberry.  We dipped fresh strawberries in white chocolate and then just the tip in some blue sprinkles.  These were a HUGE hit with the kids.  Plus, they are much more healthy than most other holiday themed desserts.  There are two sparkly star picks below the strawberries.

Now it's time to HOP on over to see what incredible fun thing Bobbi has created for her kids at Bobbi's Bentos, then keep hopping to see what everyone else has imagined up to represent their patriotic side.

Final Lunch of the Year - The Un-Birthday Lunch

WE DID IT!!!!!!!  2nd grade will be a thing of the past at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.  This year was filled with lots of ups and downs but all in all it was a fantastic year.  Molly made huge strides in her reading and math, plus she formed a lot of great friendships.

Tomorrow, she will be celebrating her un-birthday since her real birthday is at the very end of this month.  We put together her goody bags to give to her classmates and included little squirt toys, bubbles, glow sticks and yo-yo's.  A GREAT way to start the summer off.

Tonight is the last time that we will be making just one lunch during the school year.  Next year, Molly's little sister will be joining the ranks at the elementary school.  We are SO excited for both of them.

Our main entree is a Molly sandwich.  This is Molly's favorite, a salami and colby jack cheese sandwich that we added some embellishments to. We used eyes that we picked up at the bake shop, our food safe markers for her face, and since Molly is known for her curly hair, we added some ramen noodles that are sprinkled with a tiny bit of the flavor packet to make her beautiful brown hair.  Finally, there is a little cheese bow in her "hair" just for fun.

Our vegetable side is a red pepper.  This is Molly's favorite vegetable.  We added a Happy Birthday pick and a few little candle picks to go along with the un-Birthday theme.

Our fruit side is Molly's favorite; strawberries and blueberries.  We had lots of fun with birthday picks in this container.  We have a "happy birthday" pick, a balloon and several of the little candles.  So much fun!

Finally, our Final Fun Friday treat is cake balls.  These are like cake pops without the stick.  They are chocolate cake mixed with cream cheese frosting then dipped in white chocolate with a few sprinkles added.  We put them in little cupcake wrappers and added another balloon pick and a candle pick.

Happy Un-Birthday, Molly!!! ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Have a FANTASTIC summer everyone.  We'll be posting a few random things here and there but otherwise, see you in August!!