Thriving Parents

shifting Parenthood from barely surviving to thriving

Canceled plans and a Half Time lunch kit giveaway

I have a really strict rule about not telling the kids where we are going until we are actually pulling into our location.  The amount of things that can go wrong (traffic, weather, illness, changing our minds, etc) are magnified when it’s times 3 children.
This rule was broken last week when all the kids at school were talking about the big school picnic scheduled for Saturday.  Our school has never had a fall picnic before so they knew it was a special event.  We had already discussed what we would pack for lunch, how we’d take our favorite blanket, and what piece of playground equipment they wanted to play on first.  
And then Caroline got a fever.  The girls don’t get sick often so I gave her some ibuprofen, she stayed home one day from school, and the next morning in the car she mentioned that her hands kind of hurt.  We were running late so I did that, “Okay, honey.  I’ll take a look right before you walk into school” thing that moms who are busy and running late do.  
I parked the car and she came up to me and her hands were covered in polka dots.  I knew she had Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and she would be missing school that day.  I also knew we’d be missing the big school picnic because one of the other girls would be contagious.  This did not go over well.  There was disappointment and there definitely was crying.  
Matt and I came up with a back up plan.  We took the girls to a corn maze and pumpkin patch in the morning.  We figured we weren’t really spreading too many germs in the great outdoors.  On our way home to eat lunch, there was a lot of talk about how we were missing the picnic.  On a whim we decided we would picnic in our own back yard.  
One of the girls grabbed our favorite blanket and I went to the refrigerator to grab lunch.  I just received 3 Halftime kits from Stonyfield.  They are every parent’s answer to a quick lunch (or meal) on the go for your kids.  They partnered with Applegate (we LOVE their sausages!) and Annie’s to create a pre-packaged lunch kit that is organic and non-gmo.
Each Half Time kit comes with Applegate crackers and cheese, either turkey, ham, or bologna, a Stonyfield Squeezer yogurt, and either Annie’s fruit snacks or cookies.  Kate has Celiac so I especially loved that the crackers were packed separately from the cheese.  She was able to eat her entire Half Time kit but I substituted our regular crackers for the Applegate ones, which Rebecca was more than happy to eat for her. 
While I loved the lunch, they were in love with the box.  Inside was various games like word searches or mazes.  What a clever idea!  

Even though we had to miss the big school picnic, we still were able to have our own picnic which was made so easy for me because of these Half Time lunch kits.  I loved not having to prepare anything myself!  Caroline still has a rash on her hands and now this week Rebecca was home from school with Hand, Foot, and Mouth.  So far it looks like Kate’s escaping it, which I am really thankful for.

Applegate, Stonyfield, and Annie’s are giving a kit away to one of my readers.  It’ll contain:

* All three varieties of HALF TIME: Turkey & Cheese, Ham & Cheese, and Bologna & Cheese
* A draw-your-own lunch bag
* A set of permanent markers
* Coupons
* Activity book 
Enter to win now:
a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Good luck!

xoxo
–k

*This link is an affiliate link.  What does that mean?  It means if you click on the link to purchase this product I get a few pennies for every dollar.  Basically, in a year I’ll be able to take the girls out to ice cream.  Maybe.  😉

Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.





This post was created in partnership with Stonyfield. All opinions are my own.

Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.

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