astronauts need lunchboxes too!

There I was thinking that astronauts existed only on freeze-dried powders and tubes of food paste, but apparently not.  Watching a documentary about the space shuttle I was interested to find out that the astronauts all got to choose their favourite sandwich to go into space with them.  The "house mother"  who looks after the crew in the days preceding the launch then ensures that each astronaut has a packed lunch under their seat at lift off which they can then tuck into when they reach orbit! 

What a pity I hadn't known sooner I could have sent NASA a full set of our space lunchboxes perhaps even lunchboxes personalised with each crew members' names and photo.

I guess its too late now the shuttle programme has stopped.  Maybe Mr Putin would like some for the Russian rockets?

Planning a trip to deep space (well Leicester)

I'm very excited by the prospect of a trip to the National Space Centre a venue which should appeal enormously to our two older boys (and if I'm honest is right up my street as well). 

Of course as part of the trip I'm carefully planning which lunchboxes to take with us for the long journey:  Fortunately Lunchboxesetc.co.uk produce a fine range of Space Lunchboxes which will be perfect (note to the buyer at the NSC - if you want to stock the lunchboxes in your gift shop just give us a call!).  At the moment I can't decide between the Space shuttle on the launch pad lunchbox:

or the amazing solar system view lunchbox:

I'm not sure about filling them with space food though!

A perfect day for watching the cricket...

So yes, the first ashes test match was exciting and yes, it was a close finish but that's not the cricket I was talking about!  Yesterday was the culmination of this year's Dartmoor U9's cricket festival with the final round taking place at the wonderful Yelverton Bohemians Cricket Club just on the edge of Dartmoor.  With the temperature at 10am hovering around 30C most parents retreated into the shade of the trees around the boundary edges to watch 5 teams slug it out for the honour of being 2013 Dartmoor U9's cricket champions.  And boy, were the games hard fought, close run, edge of the seat things or what!  I watch 6 games (two sons in two different teams) and I don't think the winning margin in any of them was more than 6 runs making the finish of the Ashes test look like a thrashing for Australia!

With no BBQ facilities on offer the boys were glad of their packed lunches  - In tribute to the former RAF base just across the road from the club both boys were toting Spitfire lunchboxes and kept their lunches cool with a couple of mini icepacks that are the perfect size to slip into one of our plastic lunchboxes.

And the good news is that the Yelverton A's U9 team (including boy1) were unbeaten on the day and picked up the cup as winners of this round.  Congrats to the Buckland boys who ran out overall winners this year....

Back to school 2013

It only seems like a few days ago I was posting about the 2012 back to school season and now, before you know it, we are all a year older and its time for us to gear up for back to school 2013 and what is one of our busiest times of the year on lunchboxesetc.co.uk.

We've introduced lots of new designs in our range of personalised lunchboxes  and also begun producing personalised PE kit bags. 

Squiddles lunch top

We've had a bit if a mystery to solve here at lunchboxesetc.co.uk HQ: We keep getting orders from the US for photo lunchboxes bearing the same photo image. After a few minutes research we found out all about squiddles (completely unknown over this side of the pond), and I have to say I think our take on the squiddles lunch top is pretty accurate!

Seeing (pasta) stars

Tiny pasta shapes are, apparently, a staple baby food in Italy.  And we have in the past stocked a whole selection of different shapes and sizes in the shop from a company called Plasmon. 

 

However, since we squeezed the baby food out of the current shop some time ago we have had to buy our baby pasta from other sources. 

 

Yesterday boy3 had a bowl of baby bolognese with pasta stars and I realised I'd forgotten how sticky and difficult to remove from anything the little pasta stars are!  By the time I'd finished the kitchen (not to mention the batch of lunchboxes I was also preparing) were covered in the little blighters!

 

 

A nervous month ahead...

Those who know me often say that I'm laid back and nothing fazes me. Little do they know that under the relaxed facade is often a nervous wreck. I remember the job interview for my last employed job and the hr manager said something like oh, and it all comes pretty easily to you doesn't it? To which my response was well, i'm like a swan - all serene progress on the outside whilst underneath I'm paddling furiously.

Anyway, my point for this post is that I'm having a squeaky bum moment as we've just agreed terms on new business premises which will pretty much treble our floor space in one go. Of course it also trebles our rent and increases the business rates bill massively, and leaves us with a shop unit to let out in Tavistock but I'm sure that will all turn out fine.

On the plus side it means that I'll have a lot more room to assemble our lunchboxes (check out http://www.Lunchboxesetc.co.uk) and a whole lot more room to display our ever increasing stock of quality second hand children's clothes.

Back to school in the shop

For the first time this year we've put a few of our off the peg lunchboxes on sale in our shop in Tavistock (just for the back to school period). Here's a little piccy to show you the first few on display.

Don't panic if you don't live near to Tavistock you can still buy these items on amazon, or on our very own website, http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk and there is still plenty of time to order one and get delivery before term starts again in September.

Back to school with lunchboxesetc

Our kids have just realised that there is less than a month left until they return to school after the summer holidays. I think the Olympics must have distracted them! Now however they are fully focused on the buying opportunies afforded by the start of the new school year.

Obviously new school shoes are must. However boy1 also "needs" new rugby boots and p.e. trainers, not to mention wellies for forest schools. Boy2 has a similarly lengthy list. All this is fine but I know that within a month most of the stuff we buy will be scattered to the four corners of the cloakroom like those ashes in the big lebowski.  WHy can't they take care of this stuff?

To be fair I remember solemnly, and without fail, buying a brand new geometry set in August each year and vowing that this year I would not set about punching holes in the tin with the compass until at least after half term. Yeah, that resolution really lasted.  Not good to start the school year already having a sense of self-loathing at a gross failure of will power!

I suppose at least my boys don't have to worry too much about lunchboxes. This year we are challenging them to take a photo during the holidays that they would like to have on their lunchbox. Boy1 is still using his rugby squad team photo lunchbox from last year:

and boy2 has a cheetah:

It will certainly be interesting to see what they come up with. If you want to do something similar you can order a custom made photo lunchbox from http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk. There is plenty of time to get an order in before term starts, as the personalisation process takes about a week.

Back to school 2012

One of my businesses is a website called http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk which as you might have guessed sells lunchboxes!

Uniquely we specialise in personalised lunchboxes with your name or even your own photo on them. They are a great way to make a lunchbox stand out from the crowd in the cloakroom.

a new lunchbox for boy2..

Boy1 plays tag rugby for the U7's at our local club.  He enjoys it a lot and I have to say, if its not raining, I really enjoy a couple of hours on a Sunday morning in the fresh air with the other parents on the touch lines. 

I thought it would be a nice touch to mark their first full competitive season (one in which they lost only twice!) by presenting the squad with a lunchbox each featuring a great team photo.  These went down really well and boy1 has been taking his packed lunch to school in his since the end of season presentation at Easter.

Of course, "you can't have anything by yourself in this house" is something of a motto in our family and if boy1 has a new lunchbox you can be sure that it won't be long before boy2 starts mithering for his own.  And so it came to pass that boy2's new personalised lunchbox was produced by lunchboxesetc.co.uk and he proudly took it to school this morning:

Of course, putting up a photo of this personalised lunchbox does rather give the game away in terms of my identity!

Today's balancing act is....

So Thursday is a daddy day-care day.  And it starts a little something like this:

Wave the wife off to work at 7.45am, unload then load the dishwasher (putting back in all those dishes from yesterday that are still dirty - why can't they design a dishwasher that actually works?) wipe down the kitchen then the baby, head up stairs to get boy1, boy2 and baby dressed, teeth brushed, rooms tidied, Nintendo DS put away, back downstairs, shoes on, dinner tickets and homework into school bags, washable nappies on for a second short wash in washing machine, out of the door at 8.45am, into car, drive to school drop kids off, drive home keeeping baby awake, baby in cot for nap by 9.05am, cup of tea, blog.

Which brings us up to date.  Now things get a little easier.  This morning we head to Tavistock to 1) pick up this weeks orders of personalised lunchboxes from our friendly printers TavySigns, 2) Pop in to Handmedowns our second hand baby clothes shop to check that the girls are OK for the day before heading back home for baby's lunch. 

Also on the agenda today is a new recipe (which has been in our collection for about 5 years whithout being tried) for twice baked goats cheese souffe and an attempt to make a new sword for boy2 to complete his prince outfit for the school summer fair on Saturday!  To be continued....

Its a balancing act alright....

Life changes.  Ten years ago to the day my wife and I were in Yungaburra, Queensland half way through a brilliant gap year. Things were pretty straighforward then. Fast forward to present day and you find us settled on the edge of Dartmoor with 3 boys (7 years, 5 years and 8 months), two businesses ( lunchboxesetc -  purveyors of the finest personalised lunchboxes, and Handmedowns Devon's best second hand baby clothes shop!) and one proper job (hers!).  Balancing all these can be an interesting challenge and that's what this blog is all about - the successes, failures, procrastinations and everyday incidents of my life as a dad, husband and small business owner.