Tomorrow is my youngest's birthday and so that calls for a special lunch. Nothing outrageous, mind you. We let her choose between leftover chicken and a roast beef sandwich (she chose the chicken) and there will be some cut up strawberries, apple and something crunchy to round it out. There will also be a homemade marble cupcake with purple icing. Why purple? I presume it's because when I asked her what kind of icing she wanted she was putting on her purple pyjamas for bed, but who knows, really.
There will also be a note.
I used to write notes from time to time to tuck in my kids' lunches. When my Middle got her hamster it pooped all over the place the day we brought it home. I don't blame the little guy, honestly. If someone yanked me from my fluffy group snuggle and stuck me in a dark box for a ride to who-knows-where, I would likely be a little stressed, too. Still, the arrival of The Hamster prompted a series of drawings slipped into her lunch bag featuring said hamster in various scenarios, always with a tell-tale trail of little black dots behind him. Then we would share a laugh about the note at the end of the day.
My husband also went through a writing-on-bananas phase, where he would scrawl out a quick note on each kid's banana skin using his Sharpie marker. Good times, those.
These days a lunch bag note would likely mortify my big kids. Or perhaps earn them an unfortunate nickname for the rest of their school days. Either way: not happening. My little would like notes, I suspect, but I'm too harried most mornings to think about it. But tomorrow, when the day she came into our lives will be fondly on my mind, I will tuck a little note into her lunch bag, beside her custom cupcake with purple icing. A little reminder to her that she's special and we're so glad she arrived safe and sound on a stormy Feburary night 7 years ago.
What about you? Do you have any lunch bag customs that you use to let your kids know you're thinking about them?
I used to send notes in with the older two but now I'm sitting here DYING OF GUILT because I don't think ol' N has ever, ever had one! And this is what it's like to be the baby of the family, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered: I saved the pages from a cartoon a day calendar and tucked those in with M and G's lunch one year every day, along with a little HEY THERE note. M is blase enough that I could probably send her a daily love letter without her blinking but G would pass away from sheer humiliation. Still: making mental note to send note in with N tomorrow, the poor kid.
Roast beef sandwiches: mmm.
She wrote me a note back! It read, "Thank you mom."
DeleteVery cute.
Happy birthday to your little! I don't send notes but - BUT - I do have heart shaped stickers that are on the inside of the tupperware containers that say things like "Have a great day!" and "You're awesome!" I got them free with name stickers I ordered. I did not put some of the cuter ones on "I love you so much!" because I worried that would end up in teasing.
ReplyDeleteThank you! and the stickers are a good idea. I haven't seen those before.
DeleteHappy birthday to your little cupcake!
ReplyDeleteI sent a note in 7yo's lunch exactly once, because he said with a wistful look on his face that his BFF gets a note from HIS mom "every single day!" I signed it "Mama".
When he got home from school that day, I got much eye-rolling and mutinous muttering about the "Mama". I never, ever sent another note.
Maybe on his birthday. I can sign it "Mater" or "Mother" or something.
Thanks! She had a good day, lots of presents and attention. And today she is home sick. Good timing, that.
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