Friday Flair - Week 1

This year I have decided to forgo my lunchbox roundup posts for something that fits a little better into this new chaotic season of my life. Since having the twins and now having two kiddos in school, I find it pretty impossible to try to put together thoughtful, creative lunches everyday. Heck, it's hard to get past the basic survival stuff most days. But there is still somewhere in me a drive to make school lunch a special thing for my boys as a reminder that I am thinking of them, so I have come up with something that reconciles my desire with my reality. I am going to start something called Friday Flair which will basically be a commitment to let my self off the hook the rest of the week and let Friday be a day for special lunches. I am not talking anything over the top, just lunch box notes and/or special treats and/or theme lunches to give Nathan and Jordan something to look forward to each week. I think of flair as something that dresses up something plain and just gives it that little something to make you take notice. That's what I am going for here!

Since I am not alone in this busy mommy gig, I want to try to share some of my ideas each week to make it that much easier for you. So I will link to any free lunch box notes I am printing and I will share recipes and lunch themes as I use them. Sound good? Hoping you all will share some of your creative ideas with me as well. Nothing beats a give and take relationship!

I have been pinning free printable lunchbox notes all summer so it was hard to chose which ones to use first. I settled on these fun, bright sayings from Skip to My Lou. The best part about these are that one page has multiple notes on it so once I print them, I have extras on hand that I can use for future Fridays or to throw in during the week with no extra hassle. Score! Here are the two I chose this week for my dinosaur loving 7 year old and my banana crazy 5 year old. I simply taped a toothpick to the back so that I could stick it into their food and wrote their names to make them personalized:

Let's take a look at these lunches, shall we? They are only slightly different from each other to adjust for personal taste (if only all of my kids liked and disliked the same things!):

Jordan - Apple slice sandwiches with peanut butter and syrup (I was out of honey), zucchini bread, olive and cheese skewers, carrots, celery and cucumber

Nathan - Apple slice sandwiches with peanut butter and syrup, zucchini bread, cheese skewers, carrots, starfish crackers

Nothing too fancy, right? Just a tad more effort than spreading some peanut butter and jelly between two pieces of bread. But maybe you are in an even more chaotic season than me and all you have time for is that pb&j everyday....that's okay too. It's just lunch. You decide where you want to add your flair to the ordinary in your life! I would love to hear how you are taking something simple and making it just a little special for your loved ones so feel free to share those non-lunch related ideas as well.

See you next week!