Fish & Friends Lunch : Little Ways to Say I Love You

In elementary school, I would often discover bananas bearing love notes, inked on peel before I had even crawled out of bed. There were rare nights in sweltering summer, after all the work of putting four girls to bed, that my parents would come in, and tell us to pile in the van: we were going on a pajama run to the ice-cream stand.

As a parent of young children, our days, by necessity, are chock full of routine. Nap-times and diaper changes are eventually traded for ballet lessons and homework time, and dinners need to be made, and does anyone ever conquer the laundry mountains? Tell me there’s hope for the laundry mountains, somebody. Anybody?

Let me let you in on a little secret my parents knew: sometimes, in the midst of all the doing, the simplest act of intentionality can go a long way in reminding  your child that you love them, and you’re all on the same team. And sometimes a banana peel is the perfect place to communicate the mother love that’s too big to fill any canvas.

Last week, we were learning about the letter f in our house, and there was much talk of fish and frogs, which led to pond habitats and my old friends Frog and Toad, and on Friday, we had an out of the ordinary lunch. And let me tell you, talking about it all week, and working on it together filled these little hearts up with wonder. We called it…
I collected only the simplest ideas on Pinterest (see my Fish Fun idea board here) and came up with this simple menu:

• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
• Tuna Sandwiches
• Fresh Fruit {blueberries, strawberries, apples}
• Fresh Veggies {carrots, celery}
• Ants on Log {the celery, peanut butter & dried cranberry variety}
• Circle Crackers with Peanut Butter
• Blue Jello & Mini Marshmallows
• Fishy Crackers

Pretty sophisticated, huh? Well, they thought so, anyway! The kids had a blast creating these delicacies – and everything but the veggie slicing & dicing was completely doable by a two and five year old. We invited a very special guest and had a blast chowing down and reading stories from some of our favorite pond dwelling characters. I had planned to incorporate crafts and all kinds of other activities, but no one seemed to notice anything lacking, in fact it all went just swimmingly! Here’s a few more shots of our creations:
{inspired by Jill, who makes the most inspiring food art for her kids, and fabulous crafts, too at Meet the Dubiens.  This is a mash up of her fish in water and swimming fishies  }
{a little pond scene replete with snails and logs, again inspired by Jill’s lovely caterpillars}
{inspired by another Jill, who also makes food art that my kids would surely swoon over at Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons, and her awesome shark}

So tell me, do you have any special, unexpected ways you show or tell your kids you love them? Or maybe a special memory of something simple that stands out in your mind from your own childhood? I’d love to hear!