Bento Corner

The upper kinder class had an open observation day where parents were invited to play New Year's Day games with the kids. New Year's games include spinning a top by wrapping a small rope around the bottom of the top and then throwing the string to get the top to spin (it's pretty tricky this way!), flying a kite, karuta, hanetsuki, sugoroku,and making a taketombo. Since this was an all day event for both kids and their parents, I made a plain bento for the girl since I didn't want to be embarrassed by being "that parent who makes cute lunches for her child".

Plain bento includes one onigiri with seaweed wakame mix and the other is umeboshi. There's also tamagoyaki with imitation crab, broccoli and wakame salad, and mini-katsu on a stick.

My son and I also enjoyed bento too:

Our bento is basically the same contents but we had the wakame onigiri and onigiri mixed with hijiki and added takuan (pickled daikon).

Two mini pork buns made to look like ... crabs -- can you see it? It was pretty tight to squeeze in all the leg parts and I think it would have been easier with one big pork bun set sideways instead of length-wise inside the box. Nonetheless is took a bit of time for the girl to figure it out but she eventually got it after looking at it for awhile.

Eyes are made of cheese and nori. Legs are of apples and mini-sausages. The only thing is that this bento is lacking in vegetables. I did add a side container of fruit -- which I've been doing with all the bentos, but I just don't post pictures.

This bento was actually eaten at home since I didn't realize that kinder let out early and lunch was not needed. The girl ate everything but didn't like the cheese eyes -- she is not a huge fan of cheese unless it's the yellow American processed cheese.

Bento of 3 little pigs.

My daughter has got some aversion to pigs and I have no idea why. The last time I made a pig bento she protested and  this time she caught me while I was packing the bento and said, "I don't like pigs, mama. They are not cute! Put the cats in the bento!" 

What. Did. She. Just. SAY?!?!?!? 

It is at times like this when my patience as a parent is seriously tested.  

I paused for a moment in a bit of shock and fluster. I explained that the pigs are indeed cute and not to worry since she would quickly eat them up anyway and continued to pack the bento despite the protest.

But seriously, can anyone clue me in on this phenomenon about kids and pigs? I must have missed this memo...

Pigs are mixed with sakura denbu to get the pink color. Bento also includes kabocha (pumpkin) mashed with butter and sugar (also got a bit of flack for this from the girl), tamagoyaki with imitation crab, shumai with sliced cheese on top and edamame and corn picks.

When the girl came home she had finished everything and said that even the kabocha mash tasted good.

Triumph.

My daughter made a kite at kinder and was talking about it at length when she got home so I thought it would be fun if I reflected that in her bento. Not sure if you all can tell it's a kite but my daughter got it right away what this bento was about.

At her request from the previous day, I packed this bento full of food and hoped it would satisfy her. Turns out she was the last one to finish her bento. At first I thought it was because I put in too much food and although that was part of the reason, she said she was playing with the girl's arms and placing the arms in all kinds of different poses (note for the girl: kids who play with their food will indeed end up being the last one out on the playground. ). She still completely finished the bento though.

The girl and kite are made with ham, cheese, imitation crab, and nori. Bento also includes fish fillets, broccoli, cauliflower, and napolitan pasta.

This weekend the girl will have mochi tsuki at her kinder -- actually the local elementary is having their mochi tsuki this weekend too. Mochi tsuki is when they make mochi by pounding rice. Her old kinder did this back in the fall but she missed it since she was out sick that day, so it's a treat to be able to have her experience it here at the new kinder. My son will be able to participate too...not sure if that's a good thing or not -- think about it,  unruly boy wielding large wooden hammer.

ETA: The mochi tsuki went well. They didn't allow cameras as there was a professional photographer taking photos. The mochi was so fresh and so soft -- not even comparable to what's bought in stores.