Tips for Packing School Lunches

There’s no ifs, ands, or buts, about it: kids’ eating habits are notoriously fickle. With how busy parents can get, it can be easier to stick leftovers in a paper bag than it is to craft a meal of perfectly balanced portions. Luckily, we have many ideas for packing a healthy school lunch for kids.

Find Balance

Aim for a balance between vegetables, fruit, starches, and dairy. Protein is also an essential component for anyone’s diet. Besides the traditional lunch meats and nuts, experiment with fish, beans, and hard boiled eggs to add variety.

Make these lunchbox classics:

Ham and Cheese Roll Ups

Bite-sized Taco Salads

Cheesy Baked Chicken Fingers

Avocado, Tomato, and Chicken Wraps

Pizza Crescent Roll-Ups

Try Something New

Add a new ingredient to an old favorite. Try different kinds of bread or switch out sandwich bread for a tortilla or pita pocket. Try avocado, hummus, honey mustard, or cream cheese instead of mayo. Incorporate leftovers into a dish for a new meal experience.

Try these new recipes:

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Pâté

Zesty Turkey Pita Pocket

Zucchini Corn Fritters

Meatball Mini Sandies

Mini Frittata

Switch up the Presentation

Use different ideas to present food to your kids. These don’t have to be elaborate ideas. Try dicing veggies or making fruit kabobs instead of serving them whole. Use cookie cutters to make fun-shaped sandwich bites. Experiment with different lunch bags or bento boxes to create a homemade and healthy ‘lunchable.’

Try out these recipes:

Frozen Fruit Sticks with Passionfruit and Lime Drizzle

Club Sandwich

Applewiches

Peanut Butter and Jelly ‘Sushi’

Butterfly Snack Break

Get the Kids Involved

Encouraging your kids to get involved will give them a more active role in their diets. Plan some time once a week to involve them in meal planning. Have them choose an item and a piece of fruit and help them assemble their lunch. Make this as regular a routine as you can—it’s a great way to spend some time together as a family.

More Lunch Hacks

• Freeze PB & Js overnight, put it in a lunchbox in the morning, and it will be thawed and ready to go by lunchtime
• Use drinks as ice packs. Freeze water bottles, Capri Suns, or juice boxes. This way they will be refreshing for a lunchtime sip, and it will free up room in their lunch boxes for more goodies
• Use empty Mio bottles (or similar small bottles) as condiment dispensers for less mess. This will also ensure that salads won’t be soggy by lunchtime
• If you use sliced apples, prevent them from browning by wrapping it with saran wrap or a rubber band
• Make a snack station in your pantry and fridge. Assemble healthy, kid-portioned snacks and kids will have an easier time finding afterschool snacks and assembling their own lunches

Lunch doesn’t need to be boring for your kids or stressful on you. Find a happy balance that works for the both of you. For even MORE school lunch ideas, check out this printable list for School Lunch Box Ideas.

Snow Day Activities For You and Your Kids

Kids wait year round for buckets of snowfall to determine their fate and become their most anticipated day of the winter season - the Snow Day! A day off of school is a child’s greatest dream, but for parents, it’s a day to break out fun snow day activities.

Make use of the snow.

Put the little ones to work with a shovel and have them clear off your sidewalks and driveways. Spread your holiday spirit by helping shovel off your neighbors driveways as well. They’ll be especially grateful and you’ll teach your children about the season of giving.

Make a snowman.

It isn’t a snow day without a snowman. Grab your favorite hat, mittens, scarf, and don’t forget the carrot to create a snowman with your kiddos!

Spread your wings and fly.

Have some fun in the snow by making snow angels and snow forts. They are a great way to spend some family time in the snow.

Make your favorite holiday cookies.  

Once your toes are too chilly for the great outdoors, cozy up inside by making some of your favorite cookies.

Make your own snowflakes.

Cozy up by the fire with some hot cocoa and marshmallows while making paper snowflakes. Click here for some fun, unique snowflake templates to give your children a challenge!

Have an indoor picnic.

Throw together an indoor picnic with your kids. Spend lunch with good food and good company snuggled up together. Make finger foods and have your children help with the preparation.

Play your favorite board games.

Break out Life, Monopoly, and other fan favorites! With homework out of the question, spend some time playing your favorite board games.

Paint the snow.

Now that you and your children are all nice and toasty, send them back outside with a squirt bottle full of water and food coloring to paint a masterpiece in the snow. You can make this fun by creating a big canvas for each kid to design. This is a fun way to put their creativity to the test.

Snow days don’t have to be spent cooped up inside watching a movie. Spend the day inside and out with these crazy fun snow day activities.

Back-to-School Morning Routine Tips

*Beep beep beep* goes your alarm, and the chaos begins. Walk the dog, get ready for work, wake the kids up, get them dressed for school, fold the laundry, organize the backpacks, make the kids breakfast, (make yourself breakfast) out the door, off to school. Whew, a parent’s morning is stressful. Wouldn’t it be nice if the mornings were less chaotic? Here are some tips on how to make your morning routine a lot easier.

Organize Backpacks the Night Before

To save time, gather school supplies the night before and organize them in your child’s backpack. This will ensure that there will be no missing items and you will not have to spend your morning searching for lost supplies.

Turn On the Tunes

Listening to upbeat high-energy music in the morning will get you motivated and will get your children moving as well. Listen to music in the bathroom when getting ready and even dance around. This will add excitement and fun to your morning routine.

Provide Incentives

Motivate your children to wake up and get moving by offering small incentives that will be given throughout the morning- maybe a special cereal or breakfast food. You can even offer them a surprise treat in their lunch box.

Hair and Outfits

Picking out outfits the night before will save you lots of time. There will be no digging through closets or hurrying to find matching socks. Your child’s outfits will be prepared and ready to put on right as they wake up. If you have a little girl, consider doing her hair the night before as well. (There are a ton of quick hairstyle ideas on Pinterest.)

Create a Checklist

Create a morning to-do checklist for your children. Delegate different jobs to each and award them if they complete their checklist. This will keep them on track and will save you some time and energy as well.

Make Breakfast Easy

Make quick and easy breakfast meals that can be eaten on the run. If you plan ahead, you can prepare some of these the night before, too. Discover some healthy and quick breakfast meals here.

So make your mornings less stressful by following the tips above. Also, make sure to follow Paragon Promotions on Twitter and Facebook. Stay updated on our 2015 Fall Prize Program: Here Come the Minions! Have a wonderful and organized school year!

Cake Boss Knows Best

Buddy AKA "The Cake Boss" is one of the most famous cake decorators in the country and now his products are featured with Paragon Promotions Fundraising. Famously known from TLC’s The Cake Boss, Buddy and his crew make cakes for literally every occasion. Many of his cakes are insanely beautiful while the others are beautifully insane.

Here eight amazing out-of-this-world Cake Boss cakes: 

The “Bumblebee” Transformers Cake
Is this really a cake or did they steal it straight from the movie? Buddy and his crew created this ginormous masterpiece to help promote the third Transformers movie.

Dylan’s Candy Bar Cake

How sweet is this cake? It's like being a kid in the candy store! This cake was made for an actual New York candy store, Dylan’s Candy Bar. The featured treats on this cake are Dylan's Candy Bar products. 

The Black and White Wedding Cake
This wedding cake has so many intricate designs that took an extremely steady hand to make. Although the flowers look real, they are all made out of fondant. This cake was made for Brides Magazine.

Two-Tiered Sea Shell Cake
Who needs the vacation when you can get one on a cake? This cake practically brings the ocean to you (minus the water). The sea shells look so realistic; we'd like to take one home as a souvenir!

Marco’s First Birthday Cake

This not your average birthday cake, especially for a first birthday! This cake is bouncing with bright colors and designs. Buddy made this for his son, Marco. Of course he had to spoil him a little, or depending how you look at it, a lot.

Haagan-Dazs 50th Birthday Cake
This cake looks like heaven in your mouth. At their 50th birthday celebration, this cake was served with Haagan-Dazs ice cream. Sounds like our kind of party! 

The Giant Flip Flop
Myrtle Beach was celebrating its new oceanfront boardwalk and wanted a big cake. Two-hundred sheets of spongecake were used to make this creation and its total weigh reached nearly 2,000 pounds.

Sweet 16 Cake
A cake with flowers and pink is every 16 year old girl’s dream cake. This cake is sophisticated yet fun at the same time. The birthday girl, Ali, was one lucky girl.

The Cake Boss and his crew will literally make any kind of cake you want. They put a lot of effort into pleasing every single one of their customers. Have a photo of your own unique cake? Post it (or a link to it) in the comments below. Show off your artistic side and see what masterpiece you can create. Maybe you will be the next "Cake Boss"!

3 Ways to get Your Child Excited for School

School Should be Fun, Right?

Welcome to 2014! How excited was your child to go back to school after a carefree, fun, and relaxing break? Chances are he or she was not too thrilled. They just had a couple weeks of late night slumber parties, movie nights, sleeping in every day, and most importantly, no homework. Getting your child back into the routine of waking up early and doing homework can be quite a struggle, that’s why it is important to get them excited about learning. Here are some tips that will help your child get excited about going back to school.

1) Start Fresh

Maybe your child didn’t have such a great first half of the year. If they have negative thoughts towards how they are going to do this half, help them shake that feeling off. Let them know it’s a new year and they will have plenty of opportunities to succeed and do rock star work. If able to, get them a new writing utensils and notebooks, a back pack and lunch box; maybe even personalize them. They will for sure be starting out completely fresh now. Just staying positive with them is key. Let them know you will be there 100% when they really need your help.

After school, ask them how their day went; that’s when they know you really care about them. If it wasn’t such a good day, listen and give them you’re advice. If they had a great day, praise them and let them know how proud you are of them; this will make them want to succeed all the time.

2) Get Back into a Routine

Waking up early is so rough when you’re a kid, especially after you were up all night gossiping and watching movies with your best friends. A few days before break is over, start back up with their school bed time; that way it will be easier for them to get up in the mornings. Once break is over, you won’t have to drag them out of bed. Start their mornings out with a fun and well-balanced breakfast. Remember it’s the most important meal of the day!

3) Get them Involved in Extracurricular Activities

Sign your child up for an activity or two. Playing a sport or having a piano lesson gives them something to look forward too instead of having to go straight home and do more school work. It will also help them blow off some steam if they had a bad day. Maybe they will make a new friendship! Make time to watch their practices and games, and attend lessons; you know they want to show off their mad skills to you.

Now that you know a few tips that will help your child get back into the groove of things at school, try them out! You will have a much happier child and they will want to go to school every day.