bento friday.

Today's bento lunch for the triplets was a flower-shaped grape jelly sandwich (cut with this great Daisy Sandwich Cutter from Williams-Sonoma) topped with a heart-shaped fruit leather cutout, sliced fresh strawberries and square mini-pretzels. Good thing the little ones have such small appetites right now, they're only six years old and in kindergarten. If their tummies require bigger lunches anytime soon, I'm thinking the bentos might not work anymore... they're just so compact! Or I suppose we could always upgrade to something bigger, a double-decker like this one.

After a month of doing this, I worry that my creativity with this "Friday Bento Project" is losing some of its steam. So I'm going to start doing some online research for inspiration and ideas... I want to see what other people are doing, how they are doing, etc. What I am always aiming for is a happy surprise when my girls open their cute tidy lunches at school... a smile that lasts throughout their lunchtime. So anything new and fun I can learn to do will be so helpful! If you have any suggestions, leave a comment, please. (note to Pat, if you're reading this: thanks for emailing those 30+ bento pics you found, I'm overwhelmed by the bento skills!)

One unexpected effect of all this Friday cuteness is that the girls have become the object of bento-envy at school. Other kids want to touch their lunch, ask for tastes, one has even borrowed (without asking) a silicone muffin cup when one of the girls wasn't looking... (thank goodness her mother brought her to our house to return it when she found it!) Doesn't mean I'll stop doing this... I just thought I'd share. Guess I need to work on teaching the girls how to keep their lunches from others!

If you are a mother, I wish you a very happy Mother's Day! I may or may not be spending my weekend in Las Vegas... we'll see!