Playdate Bento (and New Stuff!!!)

Four very nice things happened to me in the last 24 hours...

Thing One
Today, my little girl had her first playdate at our house with a friend from kindy. It happened over lunch time, so I decided to make them a bento lunch each.

Each of them had a sandwich cut with the new Lunch Punch cutters I got for my birthday (fairy princess for The Muffin, frog prince for her friend, who is a boy). I love these cutters, because they use up virtually the whole sandwich - there is very little waste (especially if your child, like mine, leaves her crusts even if they are served to her - so this way is no different really). They also had carrot hearts (and one carrot offcut each), sultanas, and yoghurt with a few mini M&Ms on top. Also a juice box each (which I didn't take a picture of. But I'm sure you've all seen a juice box before).

It was a nice day, so they had a lovely picnic on the grass, and they loved their cute sandwiches! More importantly, they got along really well and played really nicely together.

Thing Two
Last night, I got a comment on one of my blog posts... Now, I love all your comments. I really do. They are all special, and I always appreciate the time and interest you spend looking at my blog. But here's the thing: This comment was extra-super-duper-special. Some of you might remember that I made a Muffin Tin Meal a while back based on The Muffin's favourite books - "Chicken Pig Cow Horse Around". And last night, a comment was left on that blog post by Ruth Ohi - the author of the book - saying how cool it was!!! How Awesome Is That?? I was kind of brought up to worship books, so getting a comment from the actual author of an actual book I like is kind of a bit like getting a comment from Robbie Williams. Really. And here sister, talented writer-illustrator Debbie Ridpath-Ohi, has featured my tin on her blog, too! Now I feel all famous...

Thing Three
This afternoon I received an Extremely Exciting Package all the way from an Extremely Lovely fellow blogger & MTM mum (who I'm not going to name unless she tells me I can. I'd really love to tell everyone how wonderful she was organising this for me, but I don't want to name names just in case she doesn't fancy doing the same for everyone in Australia). It contained this:

Squeeeeeee!! Seriously, How Cute Is This Stuff?? We do not get much in the way of bento equipment in the shops here, and what we do get tends to be hell expensive. This lovely lady happens to live near a store where it is Much Cheaper, so she very sweetly sent me a whole lot of gear I asked for, and did not even make a profit out of it. Needless to say, she has just a) made The Muffin very very happy (for which I am going to get all the mummy-brownie-points, mwah-hah-hah!), and b) saved me a lot of money.

I think she might be my new best friend. :o)

Thing Four
My mummy is home! My mother and her husband have been off on holidays for a couple of months, and as The Muffin and I generally see my mum quite frequently, we have both missed her. They weren't due back for a couple of weeks, but decided to surprise us and come home early.

So today, thanks largely to other people, I had a very good day. Hope you're all having one too!