*Cute lunch check-in*

We were on the go a lot this week, so there are only a few lunches plus a few snacks. Have a great week and PIP your cute lunches here!

DD had a friend over, so they both got cute lunches! I used the top tier as a sandwich cutter so they'd fit in the slightly larger bottom tier. Both lunches contain watermelon, turkey sandwiches, peanut butter pretzels, carrots and little containers with a treat. This was a big hit for the play date!

Hello Kitty - love this box, even though it is a little small, which is why the tomatoes are on the side. Cucumbers, mango (I cut the mango and then put the cubes back in the empty skin, Wheat Thins and Swiss cheese. She gobbled this up and ate the other half of the mango, too.

Koala snack. Snap peas, peanut butter pretzels, "donut" peach (these are divine!), cheddar cornbread (untouched) and tomatoes. I don't think we've used these koala picks before - love them!

On-the-go snack that had to withstand the heat. Cashews, Wheat Thins, chewies, baby carrots, a halved kids Clif bar (untouched) and cucumbers. Not cute, but practical and fairly healthy. I threw this together in about 2 minutes on our way out the door. The little silicone containers keep everything separated so the wet veggies don't touch the dry food, plus it keeps things from shifting around too much when she eats it in the car/shopping cart/wherever.

**HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE YOUR STUFF?**
Last week someone asked how I stored my bento supplies, so here are a few pictures. A note: You don't need ANY of this stuff to make fun, healthy lunches. I decided that I wanted to go this route and buy these Japanese products because I think they're adorable, but you can do a lot using whatever you already have. I buy most of my supplies at allthingsforsale.com and a Daiso store, but you can pick up items at your grocery store, craft store, Target, etc. You can even make your own picks by putting a bit of tape at the end of a toothpick and writing on them with a Sharpie. A single circle biscuit cutter can make so many things. So what I'm saying is that you DON'T NEED TO BUY THIS STUFF if you don't want to, and your lunches will still be cute and healthy. Everybody has a hobby and this happens to be mine.

I have a kitchen drawer with two fishing lure organizers (on the left, there's another one beneath) that I use for picks. On the right are two craft organizing boxes that store little containers and punches. All of these containers have adjustable compartments. Elsewhere in the drawer are egg molds, cupcake candy toppers and other little supplies.

I have two small slide-outs beneath that drawer. This one has a shoebox filled with the silicone cupcake cups, plus itty bitty boxes and dried seaweed.

The other side contains a shoebox with all of the little silicone containers plus sandwich cutters and on the side are "baran" separating pieces.

Under the sink is a large clear container filled with the bento containers. Not shown is a little basket with cookie cutters. And again, YOU DON'T NEED THIS STUFF! I like having it, but it is completely unnecessary, and I didn't have any of it when I started out a few years ago. If you're thinking that you can't make cute lunches because you don't want to spend the money and effort to buy all of these supplies, IT'S NOT TRUE!

Just do one thing! Cut a circle of cheese and layer it on top of a sandwich, using chocolate chips for eyes and mouth, and you've got a happy face sandwich that will make your child's day! Cut out the hull of a strawberry by making a V-shaped cut, and you've got a heart strawberry! Stack your baby carrots in OCD piles, skewer your grapes on a cocktail stirrer, serve lunch on play dishes - these are little things that make lunch fun and tell your child "I love you!" That's the reason I do all of this.