All aboard for the BBF Holiday Ho-Ho-Hop!

Have you all wondered if I’ve still been making lunches this week? Don’t worry I have, but I decided not to post yet, as I used the last 3 lunches as an experiment to decide what to use for my very first BBF blog hop!! That’s right,  I am so, so, so excited to be participating in my very first Bento Bloggers And Friends Blog Hop! I mean who wouldn’t be excited to be a part of such a fabulous, talented, group, of fellow fun lunch makers?!

Out of my last 3 lunches, I decided that my 3rd lunch took the cake…… er, cupcake rather! :)
Are you ready for it? I have to admit I’m a little bit a lotta bit in love with this lunch! Our very favorite movie to watch and book to read at Christmastime is “The Polar Express”! I love the excitement it brings to my tiny princesses and the “belief” in their eyes!

So, here it is…. All aboard for our Polar Express Lunches! Complete with hot chocolate cupcakes and shiny silver bells….. can you still hear the magic? ♥

Packed in our Yubo Lunchboxes, these lunches contain…

• PB&J Sandwich for K. Turkey for A.
• A few veggie straws
• String Cheese cut
• Snowflake Ritz Crackers
• Hot Chocolate Cupcake
• Applesauce for K. Yogurt for A.

Here are some ways I made this lunch special…

• Train shaped sandwiches were made using one of our Lunchpunch sandwich cutter from the VRRRM set
• Small cutters to create the words “Polar Express” in A’s lunch and fun letter food picks in K’s lunch purchased from All Things For Sale.
• Various silicone cups to keep food tidy and separated.
• Cupckae/food picks to keep cheese from rolling around
• Sprinkles add a great festive touch to yogurt or applesauce
• Also included in this lunch is a silver ♪♫ jingle bell ♪♫ freshly fallen from Santa’s sleigh ♥

When I decided that I MUST make a Polar Express lunch for my tiny princesses, I knew that it HAD to have 2 things. A silver bell and some hot chocolate. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t put hot chocolate in their lunches. I though of maybe making some and putting it in their thermoses to take to school, but what fun is hot chocolate in a thermos and how could I make it look pretty to photograph with my lunch? Instead I decided to do some searching. Immediately cupcakes came to mind. Surely there was a recipe for hot chocolate cupcakes somewhere in the world wide web! I was right! Want to make your own hot chocolate cupcakes? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t? You can find the recipe here. I followed the recipe exactly. Except for the frosting. I cheated there and purchased pre made butter cream and then added the marshmallow fluff. ;) Before you run off to bake your own, check out our photos for some mouth watering inspiration!

While we are already on the subject of The Polar Express and since this post is already bearing book length and photo album qualities, I though I would share the awesome experience my tiny princesses got to have 3 years ago.

Did you know that the real live train that the Polar Express was based on is called the Pere Marquette 1225? Did you also know that it resides very close to my hometown in Owosso MI? In Dec. 2010 my sweet princesses got up close and personal with said train! It was supposed to be our engine that took us to the North Pole, but a week before our trip in went in for maintenance. We were a tad bit disappointed, but still had a fantastic ride and were very grateful to have been so close to an awesome piece of history. ♥

Here is a photo of my tiny princesses in front of the Pere Marquette 1225. They look so tiny! 

Okay, that’s it for me, but don’t be disappointed. Click the button below to be taken to the next lunch in the hop, made by Jackie of Loving Lunches!

somethings I used to make these lunches...

Too cute to spook in Easy LunchBoxes

Just as I thought using Easy Lunch Boxes for a second (and third and fourth) time did not disappoint! These lunch containers truly are easy! They are the absolutly perfect size. Roomy enough to add a great variety of foods, yet small enough that I don’t feel pressured to add un-needed items just to fill space, as I do with many of our other lunch containers.

After checking out some of the most amazing Halloween Bentos from The BentoBlogger&Friends blog hop I really felt inspired to add some Halloween spirit to my sweet girls lunches for today. I still don’t have a ton of supplies to make a really great spooky lunch, but I did pick up a few items at the store since my last attempt at a Halloween theme. I don’t think they cam out too bad. :o)
Same lunches again today. I’m on a roll!

Tiny princess A & K’s lunch 10/19/12 inner container lids off

And with inner container lid on

Here is what they had…

• Granola bar halved and few Mott’s Medley fruit snacks in silicone pumpkin cup
• S’mores trail mix complete with marshmallow monster on a pumpkin food pick. Face drawn with food safe markers
• Carrots with candy eyes stuck on with a dab of cream cheese. Ranch for dipping in white contaier
• Taco sandwich Jack-O-Lantern. Two oven baked tortilla pumpkin cutouts (Jack-O-Lantern features cut freehand) for the “bread”. Inside sandwich contents are just taco meat and cheese. I spread a very thin layer of refried beans on the insides of the tortilla chips to act as a glue to hold the “sandwich” together. Now, only my youngest tiny princess enjoys the beans. I’m hoping this detail will go un-noticed by my oldest tiny princess. ;)
• Apple Cinnamon Gerber Graduate fruit puffs with a special candy ghost on top. I thought these really lacked the color they needed to make them pop so I added mock sprinkles using food safe markers.
• Chobani Champions chocolate chunk yogurt with sprinkles

I also made my husbands lunch in Easy LunchBoxes, but it wasn’t very cute and didn’t really warrant a photo.;)

Some things I used to make this lunch