Bento Corner

Dolls for Hinamatsuri made by my daughter at kinder. I think there was supposed to be 5 of the blue male dolls but she said she ran out of time so just submitted her work as is.

For the doll observation on Hinamatsuri, the kinder also provided wagashi (Japanese sweets) and a very traditional Japanese tea ceremony was conducted while the kinder children admired their work in creating these dolls.

Urutoraman (Ultraman) bento made of pork bun, cheese, ham, and nori with pesto pasta, and broccoli.

I actually had 2 mini-pork buns which I was going to stick in the bento and make the other pork bun a moon and create an Ultraman in space...or at least his head floating in space. But it was a tight squeeze so I just left that bun out on the counter. After taking the photo, my daughter saw the moon pork bun the following proceeded:

the girl: Wow! It's a moon!

me: Yeah, I was going to put it in the bento, but since space was limited, I just put this in instead!! *shows the Ultraman*

the girl: Eh~, Ultraman! That is a boy bento! I want the moon! It's cute! I'm a girl and girls are...

me: *groan*

I really hate the gender distinguishing phenomenon that's been plaguing our household  lately. A lot of "girls should do things a certain way and boys do it this way". She just mentions them loosely and casually enough that it doesn't seem like much at the moment but I am bracing myself for a very long and uphill battle.

In any case I lost this round since she ended up taking the moon bento instead (which I had no time to take a picture of).

Nevertheless,  I am keeping a stiff upper lip. I may have lost the battle, but I shall win the war...or however you say it.

A request from the girl for more chocolate and banana sandwich. Bento also includes chicken nuggets (frozen item) and carrots.

After the guitar bento all my creative juices have been sucked out of me and I was happy to oblige with this easy, plain, yet very tasty sandwich.

Rabbit rock star with chicken nuggets (frozen food item), snap peas, strawberries and rice with furikake.

I really felt a bit insane making this bento -- in particular the guitar. I was creating it the night before while watching Heroes season 2 (love that show!!) and I found myself questioning my sanity over and over while trying to create the guitar strings. Final product is still all bendy and warped looking. No matter. Guitar is made of cheese and nori while the rabbit and stars are made of hanpen (more fish cake because we just can't get enough).

I created this bento because of the girl's comment about rock stars concerning the last bento.

She said she got a lot of comments from her classmates and even her teacher about how that was a cool rock star. Guess that's OK since once in a while I think my daughter deserves rock star status.

And along the lines of rock star, it is once again my shame to admit that for our wedding anniversary my husband has already sprang his gift onto me. It's a very small trinket and includes a conflict free diamond after my big stink about no more trinkets unless they were "clean".

And in return I've gotten him a smashing gift -- I believe it's called zilch or more commonly known as jack sh!t.

Yes, I totally know what you are wondering. I think my family said it best after our engagement, "Wait, why does a nice guy like him want to marry you?!"

It's a big mystery to me too.