Well, I thought I’d have plenty of time to create non-bento posts while I was traveling last week and I was wrong! I was kept very busy on my CA business trip and did not have time to write posts on the topics I wanted to cover.  One of the things I wanted to write about was our recent trip to the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.   My husband, my mom, and I took the kids there a couple of weeks ago via the Septa Train!  My son, who is about to turn 3, is fascinated by trains and we knew he’d be thrilled to ride a real one again.  As we stepped onto the platform and looked at the tracks and waited for the train to arrive, his excitement was contagious! You can see it in this picture taken just as the train started moving:

Little Dude on a Train!

When we arrived at the market, we took a long walk around to see what vendors were open (it was a Sunday) and what we’d like to have for lunch. Then we treated the kids to some incredible ice cream before making a couple of purchases to take home with us.  After the market, we took a quick stroll through Chinatown, where we found a Sanrio store.  It was not as well-equipped as I had hoped, but they did have one cute set of Hello Kitty containers that we picked up for bento lunch. Once we’d had enough, we hopped back on the train and enjoyed the trip back, too! It was so nice not to have to drive and the kids LOVED having their tickets punched by the conductor.  It was so much fun.

Girlie asked if she could pack her own lunch this morning and selected her new Hello Kitty Containers.  Here they are closed up, so you can see the design, and then opened so you can see the contents:

Hello Kitty & Kotobuki Lunchboxes

Girlie’s Lunch Design!

The kids’ lunches are the same today, but in different container formats.  They have crackers, cheese, ham, sugar snap peas, strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt.  I think the new Hello Kitty containers are going to be too much fuss for frequent use… 8 pieces is a bit much for me!  They are super cute though, and it made Girlie’s day to design and assemble each container.   I love when she packs her own lunch and makes such healthy selections. It really makes me feel good.  Oh, and if you’re reading this Katie, when I asked Girlie if she knew how to get a lot of shapes cut out of one slice of cheese, she looked at me like I was nuts and said “Of course I do! Grandma taught me how to use cookie cutters at Christmas!” She did a great job too!

Ok, so that’s a long post for today! Happy Monday!