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This year I really had the urge to pack lunches themed for Groundhog Day. I hadn’t ever packed a lunch designed for this day and it seemed like a fun idea. I had been tossing around a few ideas in my head, but tonight my daughter asked me if I knew why groundhogs really came out of their burrows. I said I didn’t know the real explanation and she went on to explain that males come out to look for mates. She mentioned that people say they are coming out to check if winter will be longer, but really they emerge to search for mates. She then added that they lose a lot of fat during their hibernation and are much thinner in the spring. I asked her how she knew about this thinking that it might have been discussed at school today. She told me she learned it watching Wild Kratts, which makes perfect sense because she really likes that show and seems to retain everything she learns from it.
So, after our conversation, I developed the idea for her lunch. I decided to make my own picks out of Shrinky Dinks (like I did before) and to feature her explanation in Tuesday’s lunch.
I drew a few images and word bubbles on plain Shrinky Dink sheets, cut them out with rounded edges, baked at 350 degrees F for a few minutes, and taped my newly made pieces to toothpicks.
I made one groundhog with two word bubbles. One says, “Six more weeks?”, and is marked out with a red X to show that he is not out of his burrow to check the length of winter. The second word bubble, “Where’s my mate?”, shows the real reason he is out and it is marked in green to indicate it is correct. In the background, I placed the Wild Kratts logo along with a groundhog drawn in a similar style to the one featured on the episode my daughter was telling me about. I hope she opens this lunch on Groundhog Day, sees that I pay attention to the things she shares with me and that I think it is wonderful that she enjoys learning about nature.
My husband’s lunch also features a groundhog. This one is positioned over his barbecue sandwich to look like he is peering up out of his hole wondering whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter. This lunch is packed in an EasyLunchbox. I use these often for adult lunches and find the three sections useful.
Since my son can’t read sentences yet and might not really recognize the idea of a groundhog in his lunch, I decided to skip the theme for him and just pack a brightly colored lunch full of things he loves. His lunch is packed in a Skip Hop Zoo lunch box similar to the one I used for his sister’s lunch above. The blue box features an owl and the red box has a monkey on the lid. Both are very cute, inexpensive boxes and are well-sized for little kid appetites.
