Throw an Art Gallery Party

My daughter's 4th birthday party also doubled as her first art gallery. The party had a Shopkins theme though, not an art party theme, so this will just be a little post on how I displayed her art, which you could use to display your child's art at their art gallery party as well. If you would like to see the Shopkins party info, you can find it here. If you're in need of more art party ideas, I'm sure Pinterest is overflowing with them!

So as you can see from this photo, I was able to use several of these big easels to display my daughters art work on. These were available to me from the location I rented for her birthday party.

Pretty amazing that all these works of art were made by my daughter who was just turning 4 at the time of this party! She was very proud to show off her works of art to her friends and family in this way.

So, now to share with you how I made the boards. What I did was I went to Dollar Tree and I picked up some of these cardboard poster boards in black. After selecting the pieces of art that we wanted to use, I taped them onto the boards. Then I had my daughter name her pieces of art, just like artists do when their work is in museums. I wrote the name of the piece, and how old she was when she made it right on the boards, with a silver Sharpie. It worked perfectly and showed up very well.

Once the boards were finished, I taped them together in groups of twos, so I could make good use out of the easels that were available to me.

School Lunch #8

This is just a cute and simple lunch to prepare for your kiddos to take to school. All things I've packed before in my previous school lunches, which you can view here. 

In this lunch I packed:

- mandarin oranges, with a cute zebra food pick stuck in the middle. Food picks are a really simple way to add some fun to a lunch box

- two penguin sandwiches, which you can make using this sandwich cutter. These are super simple to make, my recipe for them can be found below

- some RW Garcia 3 Seed Sweet Potato Crackers in a reusable baking cup (putting part of the lunch in one of these adds some organization, and a cute pop of color!) and some pumpkin goat cheese in a little dip container. I also packed a safe and cute little knife for my daughter to spread the goat cheese on her crackers with

- for a treat I packed some Glutino yogurt covered pretzels  

Penguin Sandwiches:
Ingredients:
- bread, I like to use Sara Lee Honey Wheat
- SunButter, or peanut butter, whatever kind of butter your child prefers
- Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (I use Fresh Thyme's), or Nutella, or even a jelly or jam would work. You can alter lots of these ideas to better fit your families needs.

Step 1:
The first thing that I do when I am about to make a sandwich for my daughter that has any type of butter/spread on it, or that I'm going to cut into a shape is lightly toast it. So I would suggest step 1 being lightly toasting the bread to get it more ready to work with.

Step 2:
Put on your spreads, jams, and whatever, then close up the sandwich by putting the pieces of bread together. Then you can use a cutter if you would like to make a shape. I used the penguin sandwich cutter from Munchkin that I mentioned earlier. I love cutters that are specific for sandwiches, because they are just the right size not to really waste much of the sandwich, aside from the crust. You could use a cookie cutter however, or even try to make your own shape with a knife.

Easy & Cute School Lunch

School lunch #7! You can view all previous ones here. 

I decided I wanted to pack a hot lunch today, so I started by getting out my little girls thermos. I made some Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese and put it in the thermos. Then I added in some other goodies!

Other than the mac and cheese I put:

- halved green grapes, to add something to these and make them look cute I put them on heart foodpicks. 

- a BuddyFruits Organic banana applesauce pouch

- some Ritz crackers

- a couple Little Dutch Maid chocolate chip mini cookies for a treat

(here it was all packed up!) 

Sunbutter Roll Ups Lunch Idea

School lunch #6 here to give you some inspiration! This one was super simple, fun, and nutritious! Exactly what all us parents, and our kiddos are looking for. Much like the other lunches I have packed, which you can view here. 

 Inside this lunch you can see there is:
- Sunbutter Rolls Up, which I will share my recipe for below
- A pear, sliced up with some fun pear shapes on top. I just used some little cutters I have in the shape of a boat and a whale to make the little shapes. You can do this with a pear if you cut off a big enough area first.
- an Annie's Organic strawberry yogurt, these are really cute because there's a spot you could write your child's name or a message on the top. I wrote mommy loves Charlie on my daughters
- a pack of Earthbound Farm Organic raisins

(here is is all packed up and ready to go, links for the reusable napkins, and lunch kit can be found in the previous lunch posts)

(Here's what I used to make the lunch, minus the pear!)

SunButter Roll Ups:

Ingredients:

- SunButter

- Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, I use the Fresh Thyme brand one, you could use Nutella or anything else you prefer!

- soft shell tortillas, I used the smaller size 

Step 1:

Lay out your tortilla and spread the SunButter all over it with a butter knife. 

Step 2: Now add on some of your chocolaty spread to the middle and smear it around into the SunButter with another butter knife.

Step 3: Roll up the tortilla as tightly as you can. I plan to roll mine a little tighter the next time I make them, to keep it together better when cutting it apart.

Step 4: Use a knife to slice the big roll up into little roll ups! 

Easy School Lunch Idea

School lunch #5! You can view all previous school lunches here. 

There it is all packed up! As always, had some cute funkins in there. Also used this giraffe lunch kit, and one of these Slim Snacks. 

Here's a look inside the giraffe lunch kit

Sandwich Squares:

Ingredients:

- two slices of bread, I like to use Sara Lee honey wheat

- SunButter

- and a chocolate hazelnut spread from Fresh Thyme 

- some food picks, I used princess ones that came in a cupcake baking kit

- a Fun Bites square cutter

To make the sandwich I lightly toasted the bread to get it ready the spreads, and to cut it more easily. Then I put on the SunButter on both sides, then added some of the chocolate hazelnut spread to one side and spread it around. Next I put the sandwich together and used the Fun Bites cutter to get the little squares. To finish it up I put 3 squares on each food pick. Simple and adorable. 

I also put some apple slices with the skin peeled off. The Slim Snack was filled with Annie's Organic Bernie's Farm Cheddar Crackers, and I added an Annie's Organic Swirly Strawberry Really Peely Fruit Tape for a treat that is only made with goodness! 

Elephant Lunch

Here's my 4th school lunch post! You can view the previous ones here. 

My daughter absolutely loved the adorable elephant sandwiches in this lunch! You can make them using the elephant sandwich cutter from this set. For her sandwich I used some deli chicken and mustard, you can use whatever your kiddo would enjoy! The bento box I used for this lunch you can find here.

Other than the adorable sandwiches I put:
- mandarin oranges, with a heart food pick stuck in the middle
- some sliced banana, with a heart food pick stuck in the middle
- some RW Garcia 3 Seed Sweet Potato Crackers (pictured below), I put them in a little reusable baking cup
- some pumpkin goat cheese (pictured below), put into a little dip container with a lid. I also packed a child-safe knife for her to use to spread the pumpkin goat cheese on her crackers
- a few Little Dutch Maid chocolate chip cookies for a treat, I put them in near the elephants trunks.

Puzzle Sandwich Lunch

Here is my third school lunch post! You can see all of my previous school lunch posts here.

For this school lunch I used one of my favorite bento boxes that you can purchase here. Inside I put:

• a puzzle sandwich. I made this using this sandwich cutter. You can put whatever you would like on the sandwich, we did some deli chicken and mustard. I just stacked the pieces up on top of each other, my daughter could put the puzzle together before she ate it on the lid of the bento box though.
• mandarin oranges, with a zebra food pick stuck in them for a cute surprise
• a string cheese stick, broken up into a few pieces w/ some Annie's Bernie's Farm Cheddar Crackers
• a few Little Dutch Maid chocoalte chip cookies lil' bites as a treat

Here's the food products that I used