We’re getting ready to head into yet another school year in just a few weeks, and I know a lot of folks are already in school or full-on back-to-school mode. I’m still sorting and organizing to get us ready right now, and I thought this little {School Days} series might help any busy mommas new to the school scene–or frustrated because what they’re doing just isn’t working.

In addition to managing clothes, chores, homework, and school supplies, there’s this whole time slot of our daily life that revolves around lunches. Yep, lunches. We’re not even home for lunch 80% of the week, but several sections of our kitchen are dedicated to lunch foods and lunch packing gear. Three kiddos, two adults, packing lunches every. single. day. Some mornings I just wish I could hand them $2 and say, “Buy today, I don’t feel like packing.” But it turns out lunch doesn’t work that way anymore. No more sending cash to school day-to-day. Turns out it cost more than $2, you have to send cash to put on their account ahead of time, and then they punch in their “id number” at the cafeteria…so much for momma’s morning cop-out. {smile}

Then there’s the whole issue of if they’ll even eat what the school offers. My kiddos will eat what we pack because we make sure to hit their health and their taste-buds. Speedracer is a super-picky eater! He came home and told me the school offers PB&J if I want to let him buy. Um…no. I’m not paying someone else $3 to make you a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I’m drawing the line–slacker-working-momma stops there!

So what’s taking up all our cabinet space for this lunch packing? Since I just had to replace our drink bottles, I thought I would share a little of our trial and error in this area. Here is our lunch gear rundown and some fun lunchbox notes for you, because young or old the kiddos LOVE them.

Lunchboxes

Ugh! This is a constant issue because we have containers we love, but never a box that fits them. Or a box we love, but our containers don’t fit. The Cowboy loves the Igloo Playmate, a soft-sided retro-style one. It holds a lot of food and all of our containers–but it does not fit in his backpack unless there are no other books. We tried a cheaper model of this style from Target as well (called Arctic Zone), and it only lasted about a month. The Igloo is very durable and we’ve washed ours several times now (air dry please!) with no discernible wear. We also have the bigger model (Igloo MaxCold) which I had envisioned for Mr. Fix-It, but it’s honestly too big. The smaller one is perfect for a child with a big appetite or multiple snacks, or an adult-size lunch.

Speedracer and the Ladybug use the MacKenzie upright-style bags from Pottery Barn Kids. The size is an issue with containers, but they fit perfectly in a backpack, are washable (again, air dry!), and durable. Ours have lasted more than 2 years each with multiple washing machine trips a year. The Ladybug’s second box is an upright Embark (from Target) which she also loves and works pretty well with most of our containers.

Water Bottles and Drink Containers

We’ve been through a thousand iterations here and have narrowed it down to two choices. We use the 12 oz Thermos Funtainer for hot/cold drinks like chocolate milk and the 12 oz Nalgene mini grip for everything else. We found that all of the sipper straw-type bottles eventually leak (and by eventually, I mean less than halfway through the school year!) and made a big, miserable mess. We also found the twist top Nalgenes are secure enough that you can close them and shake them to mix up powdered drink mixes without leaks and spills. Mr. Fix-It and I use the Nalgene 32 oz bottles for, well, everything.

Food Containers

Not gonna lie here, we use a lot of sandwich bags and pre-packed servings…applesauce, fruit cups, yogurt, boxes of raisins, trail mix and nuts (we LOVE these), pre-packaged chips…and Amazon Pantry has some great prices (especially if couponing drags you down!). But we’ve cut waaaay back on the plastic bags the last few years as our kiddos have proven responsible enough to bring their containers home. After trying just about everything {smile} we’ve narrowed it down.

We use Easy Lunchboxes for adult lunches (go for the original, brand name, trust me! We’ve been using the same set for years now!), and mostly Rubbermaid LunchBlox for the kiddos. We also have one Thermos hot/cold container for each child for soup and leftovers. These things work so well we have to be careful how much we heat something in the morning–it’s still piping hot at lunchtime!  We also use plastic flatware which is semi-disposable (nobody is going to cry if it gets thrown away by accident one day). And we keep a small variety of little ziplock (semi)-disposables around if we need them.

Those are the everyday basics around here, for 5 lunches a day, times 5 days a week…over lots of weeks! {smile} But we also have some fun extras that you’ll find in our cabinets too, just to keep it interesting.

Fun extras

Cupcake holders–we got these from my sister in law and they are a big favorite–especially after birthday weekends! (We have these, but I also found these cute ones on Amazon!)

Smoothie/Popsicle molds–we use these to freeze homemade smoothies into cold treats. They thaw just enough to be edible by lunchtime. (These are ours, they are bigger than they look. I would consider these smaller ones as well if I was buying new.) They also make great after-school snacks!

Silicone Cupcake Liners–we use these to divide big container spaces into smaller spaces for more bento-box-type options.

Sandwich cutters–ok, I admit, for a long time I just used cookie cutters. Someone got these for us as a gift and the kiddos love them, but I would have just kept using cookie cutters. The only issue with that is the cookie cutters are slim designs so they tend to squish your sandwich. Fine for PB&J, but problematic for anything else.

Condiment containers–the Ladybug and Cowboy are semi-adventurous eaters, so they’ll pack all sorts of left overs, salads, and make-at-school meals like hot dogs, nachos, etc. (Speedracer takes PB&J every. single. day.) So we invested in little condiment containers for their dressings, etc. We were previously using semi-disposable ziploc containers, but these are smaller and the twist on lid is more secure. The only problem was that certain things (like ketchup) don’t “spread” well from a jar within a mess.

So we recently invested in these little squeeze containers. They stay in the fridge with the full-size condiments unless someone needs to grab them and pack them for the day. Then they go back in the fridge at unpacking time. I’ll let you know how it goes, but the crew is very excited to try them!

Oh, and don’t forget the ice packs! We have several sizes and shapes stashed in the freezer for whatever will fit in the containers. {smile}

And while you’re gearing up for all that lunch packing, be sure to stop and print out some lunchbox notes! Maybe some fun farm jokes–like these from Capturing Joy.

Or these cute ones from Fresh-Picked Whimsy.

 

 

 

 

Or even these Star Wars jokes, again from Capturing Joy.

 

 

 

 

And there’s a ton more on my Back-to-School Pinterest Board! My kiddos love notes in their lunch boxes. I usually find that they’ve been saving them all in their backpack pockets.

Hope you’re heading into a great weekend!