Back To School Printables

This is a very big year for us! Elijah is starting preschool this year. I can't believe he's already old enough to start going to school. His class doesn't start until next month so I have some time to emotionally prepare for it still, but since most kids start school this month, I thought I would post this now. I've been finding things online for back to school (can you tell that I'm excited for him? lol) and I thought these were cute ideas.

I know that I'll be taking lots of pictures of Elijah on his first day of school and I thought this was a cute idea from How Does She. Here are some printables to categorize each year's first day of school.

If you really want to go all out you can make this adorable chalk board cut out.

I also love the idea of sending notes with the kids to school and here are some cute cards and jokes you can use too.

And I'm sure every kid wants to bring his/her teacher a little gift at some point, so here's a card and printable you can use.

Along with a few sites for more teacher love:
http://thirtyhandmadedays.com/category/back-to-school/page/2/
http://www.lilluna.com/2011/08/holiday-101-thursday-back-to-school.html
http://anythingbutperfect.com/freebies/TeacherAppFlagsABP.pdf

Bento Box Lunches

So this isn't something I'm actually doing right now, but I started getting into this and wanted to share. I went to the Japanese food store the other day and I bought a cute bento box for Elijah so that I could start packing him lunches. I remember when I was five and went to school in Japan and my grandparent's housekeeper would pack me and my younger brother bento box lunches for us everyday. I loved them when I was young. Nowadays, you can turn them into a piece of art (which I love). I already cut his sandwiches into fun shapes using cookie cutters that I have lying around the house, but I thought that this would be something fun for him and when he does start school, something nice that would add to his day and let him know I love him and was thinking about him. Plus, I think this would help me actually want to pack lunches for him everyday (something I need to be better at).

So here are a few of the supplies I bought at the Japanese food store.

Here's some pictures to give a visual of the ridiculously cuteness and creativity of some bento boxes. (I didn't do these but hopefully I'll give an update of my own if I can learn how to do things like this)

I also went online and purchased a few books that give recipes and tutorials of how to make the character bento boxes (kyaraben). And you don't have to do just Japanese food you can do all sorts of different types of food.

"Cute Yummy Time: 70 Recipes for the Cutest Food You'll Ever Eat"

"Yum-Yum Bento Box"

"Funky Lunch: Happy Food for Happy Children"

I also found these blogs that are solely for bento boxes.
yum yum bento
 cloud 9 food
 just bento
 lunch in a box
 my bentolicious
 bento for beginners
 adventures in bentomaking

Anyways, I thought I would share in case anyone else wanted to have fun with lunches :)