Kindergarten, Here We Come! – Bentgo

Alice Tu is a photographer, creative fiend, and – most importantly – a mama to two young children. And while she spends her work time finding ways to be creative, when she’s able to blend motherhood with her creative thirst, like through this post with Bentgo, it is just the cherry on top of an already great life. Check out her work on Instagram and Facebook @alicetuphotography

My daughter, Melody turned 5 not too long ago and I can’t believe she will be starting kindergarten in the fall. I’m a nervous nilly while, of course, she is taking it all in stride. In preparation, we made some practice lunch boxes for her and her little brother. Melody loved the purple lunchbox and couldn’t wait to use it.

First, we washed all of the fruits together (my daughter’s personal favorite combination is raspberries, cherries, blackberries, tomatoes, tangerines) and vegetables (carrots, cucumbers) and picked which snacks we wanted to add. It was perfect to have all of the different compartments to place all of these foods! I can’t wait to put dips and hummus in the compartments too since it’s leakproof. If I’m ever trying to ‘convince’ my kids to eat a particular food such as veggies, I just give them an option to dip it and they’re all about it.

As a special treat for our first lunchbox, we added Oreos, popcorn, and a gummy bear.

For the main course, we made a Hawaiian bread, prosciutto, and cheese sandwich for one, and chicken dinosaurs, pasta, and cheese for the other. And while these lunches are well-balanced, they are also very visually appealing to my kids so I know they are excited to eat their food at school, even without me there to watch them.

It was so fun to make these lunch boxes together. The more colorful the food, the more appealing and fun it will be for them to eat. My daughter snacked as we happily packed the lunches. I love getting her involved since it makes her more interested in eating the foods. Perhaps she’ll be packing her own lunches one day soon.

The best part was, she loved eating all of these yummy foods and we had a picnic on a blanket on our floor. I can’t wait to create and prepare healthy options for her lunches, come fall!