Preschool Snack Mom, MTM-Style!

I had entertained lofty designs for Little Z's preschool snack. I wanted to introduce new ways to serve food. Since I didn't think that skewers or food picks were the best idea for up-to-fourteen 2-to-3-year-olds, I thought it would be fun to use pretzel sticks to make kebabs. Bananas are soft enough, and I could probably use grape halves, maybe use a straw to punch through for the pretzel... Yeah... And fun muffin liners to separate the foods! So when I went to Daiso to pick out extra stuff to bulk up my giveaways, I got extra packs of the animals liners. I like them especially, since they have a plasticy coating, so won't get all soggy, but also because the design is on the inside, so it's easier for the kids to see. So kebabs for the fruit... Hmm... string cheese nibblets for the dairy, since, let's face it. After making a bajillion banana-grape pretzel kebabs, I won't care what shapes the cheese is in! Aaaaannnnd... Hmmm.. What for the chippy portion? Goldfish crackers? Naw. Veggie chips again? Hmmm... or maybe sweet potato chips... I decided to get inspired at the grocery store.
That is, until Sunday night. At bedtime. When I remembered that I had to get snack ready for the following day, like, RIGHT NOW! Naturally we had very little Colby Jack cheese, not enough string cheese, no grapes or bananas, only 1 apple and very little in the way of chips. Loads of breakfast cereal though! My husband didn't want to make a late-night run to the store made a great suggestion. We had a tub of organic whole grain jumbo pretzel sticks, and 3 pints of blueberries. Plus I could probably cobble together enough cheese if I cubed the Colby Jack and made the string cheese into nibblets... okay. Doable. So I packed the pretzels and muffin liners in a bag and put the cheese and blueberries together. And a BIG note reminding me to take them too.
I had the foresight to photograph the package of liners, to show you what they look like... but cleverly forgot to take pictures of the finished product. So you'll have to imagine.

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A paper boat like this

3 of these large pretzel sticks on the left

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A small handfull of blueberries...

...in a muffin liner in the center of the tray

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With 5 or 6 cubes of Colby Jack (I had enough!) on the right.
(Imagine that this is Colby Jack. I couldn't find a pic quickly)

Most of the snack was eaten by most of the kids, which is always a good sign. One boy asked for more cheese and pretzels, so the teacher gave him hers, since someone had eaten her blueberries. He was insistent that the new muffin cup ALSO needed blueberries, so when he turned around to ask, I split up his existing blueberries into his 2 cups while he wasn't looking. He turned back and was thrilled and amazed at the prompt service! Haha! His arm was jealously curved around both his trays the whole time! But he ate it all!

I sat at a different table from Z, to get her used to separation, and to not show favorites. But she hollered for me to come sit in the empty seat next to her. So I muttered something about how she just wanted to cadge my food, and she said "Mommy! I'm not gonna catch your food!" She stole my cheese cubes.