The Chop Does Big School- Part Two.

I’m pleased to report– my little man absolutely rocked his first day at big school.

He looked so cute and handsome and sweet in his new uniform, with his backpack almost as big as he is. And he couldn’t wait to go– the first thing the Chop does after getting out of bed each morning is to put on his school uniform. Which he then refuses to get out of until bath time that night. I think having a massive crush in his new teacher helps immensely. (”She’s much prettier than you, Mum– she’s super pretty!!” and I can’t stop laughing. If nothing else, at least the child has good taste.)

And, as predicted– neither he nor I cried. In fact, all I could do was laugh when my gorgeous little boy turned around and said, as the tiny newbies began to line up two by two “Bye Mum!! You’re going now, right?”

Right, kid. Have fun.

And fun he had. In fact, the Chop truly, undoubtedly loves school. And I am completely loving the fug of absolute exhaustion a day at school brings to his endlessly inquisitive little mind.

***

For the three weeks before Big School begins, the Bump goes off to daycare all by herself of a Wednesday morning, and the Chop and I spend those last few weeks together, soaking up each others company and enjoying what will be much more a rarity from here on in– just the two of us, my son and I, the duo we used to be before his little sister came along, before the world shifted on it’s head.

I’m always so proud of my little boy– he’s a pleasure to take out and about, friendly and sociable, generally well behaved and with manners so lovely I’m not even sure where he learnt them. We get a Wednesday lunchtime invite to a Sandwich Masterclass hosted by GLAD and it seems like a perfect day’s distraction, especially for a child who was already so excited about school starting in a week’s time he could’ve popped.

And he was on his best, most charming behavior. Especially when he discovered we were making sandwiches that looked like Angry Birds (the favorite iGame of the iChild). I’m sad to say that having lunch in the shape of a cranky winged entity did not entice the Chop (who is just as fussy as I am) to eat anything more exotic than he normally would have.

But we certainly had fun making it. And, given the residual interest in the ‘cool sandwiches!’ after I posted our creation on IG, I’d thought I’d share the basic construction method with you all.

The Chop’s Very Angry Sandwiches

Step One: Choose your bread. (Somehow, my son has discovered white bread. I’m not sure how this happened, and am leaning toward blaming his grandparents).

Step Two: Using either large circular cookie cutters or a large, round glass; cut yourself two bread–circles.

Step Three: Take one of these circles and, using the same instrument, cut and arc midway through the bread– this will be the front of your Angry Bird.

Step Four: Choose your filling. Something round–ish (think salami or ham) works well. If your chosen filling is not round (cheese slices, for example), employ your cutting tool again.

Step Five: Using small dabs of butter to make bits stick, apply two circles of cheese for eyes, them two sultanas to make sure those eyes are looking at you.

Step Six: Again securing with butter, make some fierce angry eyebrows out of your bread crust.

Step Seven: Make a beak. We used half a cherry tomato.

Step Eight: A bird needs a nest. We got all creative with alfalfa and grated carrot.

Step Nine: Have your child make an adorable ’angry’ face to go with their angry sandwich.

Step Ten: Watch your child pull the sandwich apart and only eat the ingredients listed in bold anyway. That’d be- bread, cheese, butter and sultanas. Just, yes.

***

A huge thanks to GLAD for having us, and for bringing this post your way. To make Back To School infinitely easier, I’ve got a GLAD Back To School Pack to give away to one of you people. It contains 3 x GLAD Baking Sheets, 3 x GLAD Snap Lock reseal sandwich bags (pack of 50), 3 x GLAD Snap Lock Mini sandwich bags (60 pack), 3 x pack of 12 animal wraps, 3 x sandwich cutters and 6 x edible markers (yes- they are textas that write on food. How damn cool).

To win, fill in the entry form and tell me– what’s for lunch? Yours or your kidlets? Answer that pleases me in whatever way at the time of drawing the competition wins. And you just never know what pleases me, really. Entries close midnight AEST Friday 8th February and the winner will be contacted by email soon after. My decision is The Final Word and no arguing, please.

And that’s that. So far, both the Chop and I are surviving Big School. But of course, that could change at anytime any day this week, from 9am to 3 pm.

I’ll keep you posted.

Tagged as: chop, mothering, WIn Stuff, yup this one’s sponsored