My middle son turns 5 today. FIVE.
Because of my dayhome, he's had packed lunches for most of his life. It's just part of how things go. He's used to it. On weekends, when I could make him a cooked lunch, he will often default to asking for a sandwich and a banana because a hot lunch is just a weird concept for him.
Last night though was the special Packing of the Birthday Lunch.
He wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, blueberry yoghurt, watermelon, and grapes.
DONE.
For his cake he wanted a blue, heart-shaped cake, with white frosting. And Smarties in the frosting. And a "number 5" candle. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy, as he likes to say. My mom taught me the simple trick to making heart-shaped cakes when I was just a kid and helping my dad to celebrate his Valentine's Day birthday. Lest any of you have as imperfect a grasp of spatial relationships as I do, I hereby share the secret:
Bake a basic layer cake in one 8" square pan and one 8" round pan. Once the cake has cooled, cut the round one in half. Place the two halves alongside the square cake like mouse ears and hey presto! heart-shaped cake.
It's small enough to fit on a 12" pizza pan covered in pretty foil, which is how I assembled mine. Smooth over any gaps with frosting (if you're me) or slice the tops down neatly to make a completely flat cake (if you're someone who likes to decorate cakes).
For the rest of the week - blue cake in the lunchboxes! And watermelon, because huge ones were on sale this week at our grocery store and ended up being sweet, juicy, and perfectly ripe. This means winter is over somewhere! And that's almost good enough for me.
That sounds like a very excellent birthday lunch! And cake!
ReplyDeleteI believe that frosting was meant to fill in the gaps, personally.
ReplyDeletei'm also surprised that your school lets you send peanut butter sandwiches! No nuts at our school (because of kids like mine with the allergy, I suppose).
No, my school doesn't allow peanut butter or nuts of any kind - middle kid doesn't start school until September. In order to make lunchtimes here in the dayhome easier, I pack lunches for both of my kids the night before. The extra kids I look after bring packed lunches too - it's just much simpler to do it this way. Trying to prepare lunches with all those kids underfoot would be tricky. ;)
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