teenaged girls

I have one daughter. I have one teenager. They are the same people. As I was making lunches the other day, I was looking in her lunch bag, and it just kind of hit me. I love my girl. I love having a girl.

While I get the typical things you would expect from a teenaged girl...

---> drama
---> pms (yep, for real)
---> fights with her brothers
---> the " I am too old for________" attitude

I also have one person that understands
--->how it feels when I have pms
---> the fun of walking around Michaels
---> of getting into a really good book
---> how awesome things like Pinterest, Bento, Harry Potter, Bath and Body Works...

I love my boys. But boys are just...different. I seriously wouldn't know what to do without my one girl.

Here is a little peek into her lunch bag. Yep her lunch bag. The fun things about having a girl (that of course the boys couldn't care less about!)

1st off, is the actual lunch bag. How cute is her lunch bag? The boys? Plain colors, black, blue and grey.

For the boys, I put individual wet wipes in their bags. Harmony has this fun little magnetic owl sanitizer holder. Isn't it cute? When not in her lunch bag, it is up on her locker.

 

 

Harmony has loved everything about England for a long time. Before the Olympics came to London. She loves Union Jacks, Dr. Who, the history, the accents (of course!) the music (no One Direction though!) the literature and of course...Harry. We were at World Market, and found this rubber ducky with the Union Jack. But guess what? It is lip balm. All girls need lip balm.

 

 

I love my girl. Drama and all...

 

 

traditions

Why yes, yes it has been a long time. But we will just skip over all that and go straight to... our family trip to the pumpkin patch!

My sweet kids at the top of the hill!

Every year, we head to a local pumpkin patch called Petes.

It has a huge hill that is insanely steep. The first time I went all the way up I thought I was going to die. Literally. I was so out of breath, shakey...the whole works. It was awful.



Yeah seriously! Totally not easy!

However, every year, my husband and kids have been to the very top. Our first year, Mason was too little and there was no way I was hauling him in a wagon. Everyone who went to the top was treated to an ice cream cone. It was hot, and the hill was steep.

hanging out at Applebees

This year we took everyone out to Applebees. Not our most frugal decision but...it is what it is, right?

My love bugs

We had a great time and I love spending time with my family. I know it sounds corny, but I do.

This Saturday we will be attending a trunk or treat through our church, another family tradition.

What are your favorite traditions? Any fun Halloween traditions? I would love to hear about it!

Halloween lunch

At the start of the school year, I am sorely lacking in creativity when it comes to do something fun in my kiddos lunches.

The only "theme" I can really think of is back to school, abc's & 123's, apples...I know kind of lame right. But holidays give me so much more to work with.

Although, there are a lot of ready made Halloween treats,such as fruit snacks or pretzels but  there are also some easy and inexpenisve alternatives.

For me, one of the easiest things to do, to make lunches a little more fun, are to use foods that are that holidays' colors. Halloween screams orange and black right? But I can also see a bit of dark purples and lime green. So here are a few things you can add to any lunch that will help make them a little more themed.

You can add these items..

Black: olives, oreos, chocolate teddy grahams (or similar), chocolate pudding

Orange: cheese cubes/slices, carrots, peaches, oranges, mandarin oranges, cantaloupe, mango, cheese crackers, orange juice, jello

Purple: grapes, egg plant, grape juice, cabbage ( I would be hard pressed to get my kids to eat egg plant or cabbage but you get the idea!)jello

Green: grapes, apples, pistachios, pistachio pudding, jello

Don't forget to add a fun napkin (either a plain color or a themed one), fun picks or other "scary" elements. You can also add orange/black plastic utensils!

At the end of the season, I go through all the holiday clearance and look for anything that I can use for the next year. Like cupcake picks, cocktail straws, napkins, plates, cups, cookie cutters...Then I store them away with my Halloween stuff and I have them for the next year!

Do you do anything fun for lunch?