{Things I Love Thursday} Bento, baby!

At this point, we've clearly established my fondness for all things cute.

It shouldn't be any surprise that I like my food the same way. Okay, maybe not my food, but the kids' food. Healthy, colorful food with a side of cute just seems to speak to me.

When they were really little, I had big dreams of making lunches like these for them:






Yeahhhhh...obviously *that* didn't quite pan out.

What I did (instead) was learn to make cute lunches my way. {My way = quick and easy.} I spent many days looking through all the cute bento websites and decided I could at least do a few of the tricks to spice up our lunches.

So, when Whit started kindergarten, I purchased some small food cutters and began cutting out fun shapes for his lunch. Bless his heart, he barely eats enough to keep a bird alive, so I have to be creative in the lunch department!

I digress.

Anyhoo - I went back to Michael's this week to see if I could find any small cutters and sure enough...they have plenty!

You have to look for them in the clay aisle or the baking aisle.

Here's what I found:






Plus they have even more small cutters at Hobby Lobby!

The key here is SMALL. Anything small! My kids are bigger now, but if you have picky eaters that are tiny, you should definitely give these cutters a try. I have our deli guy slice our lunch meat a little thicker and cut it into shapes. I do the same with our cheese.

Whit is in second grade now and I won't lie. If I still made his lunch this way, he'd throw the whole ensemble (lunch box and all) in the trash to avoid being seen with "baby food." But, Olivia still loves it (she's in Kindergarten). And, apparently her friends and teachers do too, from what I hear!

Here was her Valentine's snack box (just ham and cheese made waaaaaaay cuter with cookie cutters):



Here are some awesome bento sites for you to check out. Beware, though! You just might die from all the cuteness.
Mothering Corner
Another Lunch
Casa Bento
Funky Lunch

Happy bento-ing!