Written from the Blue Ridge Mountains, somewhere on the way home:
We are reunited with Brett, spending time with family in Big Canoe, Georgia, ready to finish the last leg back home, and school starts next week. That means Nella starts kindergarten next week. That means, SWEET JESUS, ALL THE FEELS. I’ll make time for the feels this weekend. Right now, I’ll do what I do: find a temporary emotional spill over place for these feelings in very important areas like WHAT LUNCH BOXES THESE KIDS ARE GOING TO CARRY and FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL OUTFITS and CUTE GYM SHOES. I think Brene Brown calls this numbing, but whatever. I will numb the dickens out of these feelings if it involves shoe shopping. For Lainey’s first day of kindergarten, it was the perfect shoe for P.E. It was a distraction, an obsession, a decision I could control when there was so much else I couldn’t.
Also I just really like the back to school excitement, and even though it’s really about knowledge and continued journey toward enlightenment and path to the future, I like to take in the billboards along the route that trick you into thinking back to school is about backpacks and glitter pencil cases and Peter Pan collars on first day of kindergarten outfits because I love backpacks and glitter pencil cases and Peter Pan collars. Also, one of my favorite childhood memories ever with my dad was when he took me back to school shopping for second grade and let me pick out the coolest, most Madonna-esque outfit I could find at Oakland Mall and said yes to yellow slouchy sweater and probably-too-short black skirt and big hoop earrings.
Back to school shopping is my jam. I love browsing the lunch box aisle, observing Lainey’s graduated tastes in clothes, finding seamless socks that Nella will love, making her entrance into the big school world that much better and somehow, strangely, taking the edge off my letting go. Speaking of letting go, I did say goodbye to one form of school shopping, and I’ve never turned back. The PTO gives us the option at the end of every school year of buying a pre-paid school supply pack of everything on your kid’s list for the coming year. I thought I’d miss the ritual of strolling notebook paper aisles and stocking up on crayons and glue sticks, and the thrill of the hunt for blunt-end scissors, but NO. Take it from someone who loves school supplies so much she follows a company purely dedicated to pencils on IG: hand your money to the PTO and let them go shopping for you. Paying someone to do your Christmas shopping might be blasphemy, but school supplies? In the eloquent words of Elsa of Arendelle, “Let it go.” Besides, the jig is up: you’re never going to find that green 2-flap folder with the three prongs. Never.
Today, I bring you distraction from the real meaning of back to school #1: The Perfect Lunch Essentials. And before I commence, a light history in school lunchish things:
Fun Fact #1: In 1935, Mickey Mouse was the first popular character to appear on the front of a lunch box.
Fun Fact #2: For $41, you can still get a vintage Knight Rider lunch box set featuring David Hasselhoff’s chiseled face. If it’s not insulated enough to carry your lunch, you could always use his picture as a brow guide. You’re welcome.
Fun Fact #3: I have zero cool lunch box memories because Phase 1 of school (public) consisted of paper bag lunches, and Phase 2 of school (homeschooling) consisted of a desk in our basement classroom (sounds creepy, it wasn’t) and Tuesday afternoon “engrafting” classes at our church (sounds creepy, it was). What’s an engrafting class, you ask? Hang on, it gets weird: It’s where you don’t just memorize Bible verses. You memorize them with your heart. Needless to say, there’s no standardized test for that. Also, I got a C.
Want me stretch out this unimportant topic even more? Very well then. Here: 20 writers share tales about their lunch toting memories. Seriously, I could do this all day.
With no further ado, I bring you the cutest, coolest stuff for a lameass job you’ll be complaining about in 3 weeks time: Packing School Lunches.
1. Herschel Supply Co. insulated lunch box. We are huge Herschel fans in our home, and we love anything they make–they’re classic, sturdy and last through several kids. Their lunch boxes are generously sized with room for lots of snacks and containers and yet still slide into a backpack. Bonus: they come in so many adorable prints from quirky and fun to classic and timeless. All the heart eyes over this denim and school-plaid one.
2. VW Camper Van insulated lunch bag. Could there be a cuter lunch box? We found this one at a little shop in Petoskey, Dash fell in love, and the rest was history. It’s roomy, opens from the top so you can see all your snacks inside, and you don’t need a license to drive it.
3. Dwell Studio for Thermos dinosaur bag. No lunch stealing with this ferocious bag. For the dinosaur loving kids and quality loving moms. Thick, insulated, well made.
4. Sugarbooger Good Lunch snack bag set. Environmentally conscious reusable snack and sandwich bags–saves the earth AND they’re cute.
5. Skip Hop Zoo Lunchie insulated raccoon bag. I want every animal Skip Hop makes. Great for smaller kids, perfectly sized for preschool and kindergarten.
6. Mini Boden owl lunch bag. There’s absolutely nothing Mini Boden makes that I don’t love. They most certainly employ the world’s greatest Users of Color. I want to carry this owl lunch bag as a purse–it’s shoulder strap is on point. Don’t even worrying about putting it away when your kid returns from school. Leave it on the counter to make you happy.
7. Minted washable name labels. I discovered these adorable labels last year and bought them for all three kids (still have some leftover, that’s how long they last!), and we LOVE them. An adorable way to identify your kid’s Barbie Thermos from Emily, Ella and Sarah Jane’s who also have Barbie Thermoses, these personalized labels stick right on lunch boxes and drink cups and pencil boxes and–wait for it…can go through the dishwasher! And they’re super easy and fun to design.
8. Sugarbooger silverware lunch set. Forget plastic silverware. Your kid will love this adorable silverware case that pops open to reveal the cutest spoon and fork for yogurt, soup or the weird leftovers you packed because you didn’t have time to stock up on groceries. The silverware makes up for it.
9. Bruntmor stainess steel lunch containers. All that BPA free good stuff. We love our stainless steel containers for lunchboxes–perfectly sized for little snacks, cut-up fruit, or kindergarten portions of favorite things like mac ‘n cheese.
10. Skip Hop stainless steel straw bottle, bee. Stainless steel straw bottles are our favorite way to go for lunch drinks and water supplies. No parts to lose, easy flip top and, in this case, so cute!
11. ChezMax penguin stainless steel drink bottle. Conversation piece indeed–this stainless steel drink bottle is concealed in the shape of a penguin. You’d never know it was a cup!
12. BentGo kids leakproof lunch box. Heidi got me on to this lunch box. It’s compartmentalized and works great with dipping snacks like celery and ranch, carrots and hummus or, in Nella’s case, pretzels and Nutella. Clicks shut, never leaks and conveniently slips right into the dish washer for easy clean-up.
13. J World English Rose insulated lunch box. As functional as it is pretty. I love the drink holder built into the top, the extra pocket on the side and the fact that it’s roomy enough to pack a good-sized lunch.
Have a memory of a favorite lunch box memory? (Fess up–who had that Night Rider Thermos?!) Finding the lunch box is the easy part of this battle though. Now, what to pack? I make a list of every creative lunch idea I can think of at the beginning of the year, type it up and tape the list to the refrigerator for mornings when I’m blanking out. And yet I still end up ripping up a hot dog, throwing in a bruised apple and calling it “Friday Special” at some point in the year. Favorite, easy kid lunch ideas? Mom saving tips? DO SHARE.
Haaaaa! Love this post! We are already dreading the making-lunch component of back-to-school. So much so, that I’ve threatened Miss A with making her own lunches; I’m pretty sure they would consist of Sriracha chips and a chocolate milk. Thanks for the info on the VW lunch bag. I sent that off to a friend this morning. You had me laughing so hard the oatmeal went flying.
Cheers,
Caryl
Three weeks?! I wish I lasted that long-more like 3 days! We love our yumboxes!
I have twins going to Kindergarten next week, and I opted to purchase the PTO school supplies also, and I felt really guilty about it for awhile. Thanks for endorsing! You have no idea how relieved I am that there are other moms who have a hard time knowing how to find the exact things on those school supply lists!!
Hi!
I just bought the VW lunch boxes for my boys a few weeks ago and have been slightly concerned about what type of containers to use. Up until now, I just used those bento box things, but they don’t fit in the VW. Is the only option to make more work for myself and buy a bunch of different sized, individual containers?
Thanks!
Selly
Pink, “My Little Pony” PERFECTION. That was my first grade lunch box. I have a physical reaction to the joy that lunchbox brought me. We had NO MONEY growing up. ,and I didn’t actually own any My Little Pony dolls, but I tell you truly – THEY WERE MY HEARTS DESIRE. I still remember the smell of my the soap my first grade teacher kept in the classroom, and opening that lunch box with hands that smelled perfectly like grade school soap to find my quarter for my milk, and sitting quietly and using that quarter to trace the edges of each horse on that lunchbox. It was important. It was special. And it made my little heart so happy it could burst every day ❤️
This made me smile. 🙂
I had a metal Flintstone’s lunch box for years. You can’t kill one of those old metal ones. On the inside of the lid there was a paragraph about Safety First. I bet I read that paragraph 500 times through the years of elementary school. Somewhere in my synapses I’m sure it’s still embedded…
My Dad ended up using my lunchbox for many more years to store hardware. The latches on those, amazing pieces of engineering. I’m sure it sits to this day in a landfill somewhere, with sea gulls reading the Safety First lesson to their babies.
Best comment ever!!
Totally agree. :o) My favorite part: “with sea gulls reading the Safety First lesson to their babies.” I always wondered how these sea gulls got so cautious! Landfill education!!!
Both my kids go to a self contained school for kids with multiple disabilities. We don’t buy school supplies and school goes year round so I feel like lunch boxes and backpacks are the only fun things I get to stock up on.
We also love the pottery barn bento sets!
My first lunchbox was the metal Scooby Doo with a matching green thermos…I still remember crying on a ride home on the school bus in 1st grade when the yellow plastic handle broke. My dad fixed it with duck tape.
We love Planetbox lunch boxes. With a son with food allergies, lunch boxes aren’t just fun: they’re a necessity. Planetbox is so easy to clean, they’re durable (going into our 5th year with the same container!), and the ease of using magnets and a carry bag to identify whose is whose means I don’t have to worry about keeping hers separate from his. We pack lunches, slap on magnets, slip into bags, and off they go. My kids love the different sizes (confession: we own all 3 sizes, and I usually take the largest for my lunch), because they can mix it up based on what they’re packing and what mood they’re in that day. And, no, I don’t work for the company: I’m sincere in my praise! I’m just a mom who has found a lunch system that has made our lives so much simpler, in addition to being environmentally friendly. If you have to pack lunch–and if you regularly pack a meal to go to a friend’s house or social event, like we do–then lunchboxes take on a whole new level of meaning. And if you have a food allergy and already can receive attention for being different, at least you have a cool lunchbox to make some of that attention positive!
I had a perfect tin lunch box that was small and red/yellow plaid. I really liked the two handles that could cross over the top of the lid.
What wonderful lunches my mum would put in that little box.
Thanks for bringing back such great memories.
We also use Planetbox here and love it! My daughter is in the 3rd year of the same one and it’s still like new! Easy to wash, dries quickly (because we all forget to unpack those backpacks some days) and easy to fill. Highly recommended!
My favourite lunchbox memory was Holly Hobby with the matching thermos. 🙂
I was actually a hot lunch girl, but my husband, he was a cold lunch boy. And we still have his metal Incredible Hulk lunch box on the workbench in the basement. It just sits there collecting basement cobwebs, but for some reason he can’t part with it.
I’m starting to get it now, after reading all these lunch box memories.
As for my kids, we homeschool. Their only lunch memory will be me saying, “I hate feeding you kids lunch; you always get so loud after eating. Tomorrow this lunch lady goes on strike.” Of course, I never do.
Love all of these options! We are (slowly) switching from plastics to stainless steel so #9 is a great option for us! I remember the having tomato soup out of a thermos- with the flip spigot and you drank the soup out of the lid! 😀
I had a yellow, plastic cabbage patch lunch box which I LOVED! So fun going down lunch box memory lane 🙂
Planet box is the WAY TO GO! My son has low tone and finds it hard to open packages. This box is easy to open and close and ALL THE FOOD is right there in front of him! No wrappers! I find he eats more when it is all in front of him, and my goodness is it ever cute. You can also get personalized magnets with your own photos now to decorate the stainless steel case that goes right in the dishwasher. This is not an ad….lol. If it was….I would own more than one of them as they are a little bit pricey- but oh so worth it!
Thanks for the links to Herschel and Minted. I bought my girls L. L. BEAN backpacks when they started school. They’re now in 7th and 9th grades and while there is NOTHING WRONG with the backpacks, they are begging for new backpacks.
(My dream was they’d carry these backpacks to kindergarten, all through school and then would tote them around Europe and back/forth to college weekends and have great memories, be sentimental, and write a story to L. L. BEAN about their amazing backpacks). But no. They want to ruin all of that for dumb character backpacks that still cost $40 but the handle breaks off in January from them yanking it in/out of lockers, then you have to duct tape it back on because that’s exactly why you bought the BEAN backpack anyway and they can either drag the crappy duct taped bag around or go back to the BEAN bag and not complain.)
As for the labels, I label everything, even my pens at work (because even though I work in a church, with priests, my pens end up missing more often than I feel is reasonable,and I’m very particular about my pens-choosing a good pen in the morning will make my DAY because my handwriting looks like a font and I know if I notice that about people’s handwriting, then surely they notice that about mine. Even the priests).
So now that you’re sure to think I’m insane, drunk (or both, though I’m neither) I’ll stop writing and head to Target because our PTO isn’t offering to shop for our school supplies for us.
This totally made me laugh: “So now that you’re sure to think I’m insane, drunk (or both, though I’m neither) I’ll stop writing and head to Target because our PTO isn’t offering to shop for our school supplies for us.”
My first – and only – lunchbox was this boring, ugly rectangular plastic thing that never died. I’m sure it’s still lurking the back of my mum’s kitchen cupboards. Worst part? It was brown. Like, poo brown *shudder*
Also, I wrote a post about the best way I’ve found to pack lunches. I hope it gets you past week 3 : )
http://www.stayathometerritory.com/2014/10/the-winning-formula-for-school.html
My mom bought me the very uncool bento box precursor that Tupperware made. It was red and white and I still have it with my name and kindergarten classroom written on it in sharpie. It holds tiny baking gadgets. I loved it, then quickly ditched it when I got a metal Barbie lunch box (which rusted like crazy!). Now, my third grader switches between hot lunch and packed lunch. Lucky for me, she has only two or three lunches she prefers, so I can get her lunch packed super quick. Oh, and she loves her hard sided lands end cheetah print lunch box. So cute and it holds a ton of food!
I was a rarity – through daycare, kindergarten, 12 years of public school, and all of college – I never had a sack lunch. I so envied those lucky kids that had loving moms that packed such good lunches and bought them such cute lunch boxes while I suffered through mystery meat, and “What the Hell is this?”, and the occasional good fortune of wacky cake. Granted, after a certain age I could’ve done it for myself but by then the pattern was set.
Once I had my own kids, making their school lunches was one of the priorities I’d had on my list of “things I’d do different”. It pains my husband that I still pack that 17-year-old boy’s lunch every evening, but I love it and would have it no other way. He refuses to carry his Wiggles lunch box any more though, so I have to use a plain paper bag these days. The Wiggles is safely saved in the game closet along with our other kids’ tossed aside Barbie, Barney, Super Mario, and Polly Pocket well-worn lunch boxes.
And once they get Jr High age, they don’t appreciate the cute little drawings on the paper lunch sacks either which is really sad, but you can still sneak the love notes inside, and hope they covertly read them. I know they love those still no matter what, even when they are too cool to show it. And probably one of the best treats that I’ve found to throw in a sack lunch – fortune cookies! Just something fun that hopefully gives them a little lift – rarely is a fortune cookie a downer!
Nancy
I had a pink (of course) Barbie lunchbox that lasted for so long that I clearly remember getting teased about it when I was nine years old – too old, my classmates evidently felt, for a Barbie lunchbox.
I was terrible at remembering to wash it out after school and often left it overnight – I can remember so clearly the horrible mingled smell of leaked orange squash and damp sandwich crumbs when I opened up that hot lunchbox the next day. Ugh.
First grade, 1981 Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox with thermos. Sure wish my mom still had that, up for $225 on ebay.
Favorite lunch packing tips (which I do for two Kids…soon to be four in School, who only eat hot lunch 2 times each month…nachos and waffles, go figure): Best lunch Containers ever: Goodyn-compartments that only require on lid and items stay seperated. Great to use at home for leftovers since I can put all the leftovers in one Container and not end up with several mystery ones in the fridge. Snacks: rotten bananas seem to pile up in our house and I just put them in the fridge. Right before School I bake as many mini Muffins as I can, put them in a Container in the freezer and just put a couple in lunches for a sweet treat. I also do the same with pumpkin Muffins. Leftovers: yup, my Kids get leftover soup, spaghetti, etc. I use the Thermos brand small thermos, fill with hot water to warm, microwave the leftovers, dump out water and fill thermos. My Kids say that at lunch things are still hot. Can’t wait to read others tips!
Nutella Sandwiches grilled with butter are a favorite school lunch in this house! If Nella likes Nutella she’d love it!
I maybe 51 years old, and I maybe the teacher, but that VW lunchbox – its killing me…. just might have to go on a search for that to start the new school year of right!
Oh, these lunch bags are too cute. I really like lunch bags that can be cleaned easy; and I like to use well made reusable containers and reusable utensils as well as I don’t like things to go to waste. Thanks for sharing!