I've been wanting to make this lunch for awhile. Ever since the first Ant-Man came out, he has been one of my son's favorite superheroes. That movie was pretty hilarious and I can't wait to see the Ant-Man and The Wasp, it looks just as good. So even though it's summertime I thought it would be fun to make this lunch.

This Ant-Man lunch includes some fruit, a treat (his mask), a sandwich with a Wasp on top, and a big ant. Read below for how I made it, but one other thing that I'm excited about is that Loot Crate is featuring Ant-Man and The Wasp in their subscription box this month. Not only that but the superheroes are teaming up with The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill and Ted. I have been a fan of Loot Crate for awhile and can't wait to see this box especially because it includes two collectible t-shirts. If you know me, you know I love my graphic tees. So you can head to their website and subscribe by July 19th to get our own box! Click on the link here. You can even get 10% off by using code LUNCHBOXDAD.

Parent Hack: Removing Those Summer Road Trip Shirt Stains

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Carbona. All opinions are my own.

We've all had those crazy thoughts, right? You know the ones. The thoughts where we think, "Let's just pile everyone into the car and drive!" It happens to the best of us. We load the entire family up and take off for the day. This usually happens in the summertime and we go to the amusement park, the fair, or the city two hours away that has the best aquarium in the state. It's a great way to bond, find out how much patience we have, listen to that annoying kids' music soundtrack 5,000 more times, and taste some fun roadside food.

If we're honest these road trips probably sound a lot better when we're planning them than when we grasp the reality of the cleanup situation when we arrive home. The car pretty much needs to be hosed out on the inside, there's a mystery substance stuck in your hair, and you're almost positive that your kids have more food on their clothes than in their stomachs. The truth of the matter is that these occasional day trips are part of parenting and they create memories that your kids will talk about forever.

Since the memories are worth the work, I want to give you one parent hack that we recently discovered to help with the road trip stain apocalypse. One of the hardest things to clean is the mashed in food on your kids' clothes. I know, I know, sometimes you wonder if you should just throw out the clothes instead of scrubbing them. Don't do it. You can rescue them! What has helped us is a product called Carbona Stain Devils. The crazy thing is that Carbona makes Stain Devils specially formulated for each stain. I learned that the cleaner that can get out ice cream is not the same as the one that can remove grease. This is why multipurpose stain removers aren't that effective. Let me show you how we used them to clean up our kids recently.

4th of July Fruit Kabobs and Yogurt Dip

I have loved the 4th of July ever since I was a kid. It was great having a day of celebration but my favorite part of Independence Day was always the food...well and the fireworks. I'll be honest, now that I'm older, and we live in an area where awesome fireworks are legal, they are what I look forward to the most. However a close second is still the food! I thought I would make a recipe that is not only festive, but is great for parties. Check out my recipe video below for 4th of July Fruit Kabobs and Yogurt Dip to find out how to make this edible American flag for your next neighborhood get together!

Monster's Inc. Sully and Mike Smoothie Bowls!

Since it's summertime, and school's out, I thought it would be the perfect season to try to make some fun smoothie bowls. I've seen smoothie bowls all over Instagram but I have never made one. Of course we've made healthy smoothies before but they are pretty standard. I figured it was about time to up my game. Mike Wazowski and Sully from Monster's Inc. have been on my mind lately so I decided to make them my test subjects.

These definitely weren't as easy as I thought they would be but they also weren't super difficult either. The hard part is making the faces quickly before the smoothie melts. So I recommend making the two smoothies first and then putting them in the freezer to stay thick and icy. Still interested? Here is how you make them.

Ingredients: Yogurt, banana, ice, green matcha, blue matcha (thanks to match.blue for sending me some to try out), apples, chia seeds, dried cherries, cream cheese.

Directions:
1. Blend ice, yogurt, peeled apple (or any other white fruit), and banana. The amount you put in really depends on how thick you want your smoothie so I would start out with a conservative amount and go from there. After it's blended, drop in some matcha. You will want to start with a little and then add more to get the desired color.

2. For Sully's eyebrows and nose, and Mike's eye, you will want to separate a small amount of smoothie and add more blue matcha to create a deeper color blue. Then, put some small globs on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and stick in the freezer. This will help you create the facial features. Once the globs are frozen, proceed to the next step.

3. Pour smoothies into each bowl. Cut out Sully's frozen features and place them on his face. Sprinkle chia seeds on top for his mouth and horns. His teeth and white's of his eyes are apple. Finish Sully by placing a dried cherry on for each eye. Cut a few tiny cherry pieces out for his nostrils and put them in place.

4. To finish Mike, sprinkle chia seeds on top for his mouth and chin. The white of his eye and horns are made from apple. Place the frozen blue smoothie circle that you made earlier on top of the apple and then top with a dried cherry after that. Finish with a little drop of cream cheese on top of the cherry.

Pin this Smoothie!

#lbdbento

5 Quick Tips to Clean Your Car for the Next Family Road Trip

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Swiffer. All opinions are my own.

As parents, we know that our car can quickly become a science experiment. Whether it's carpooling to and from school, the fun drive on a holiday weekend, or the week long summer road trip, our family cars can get disgusting. If you are like me, I don't even want to look at what the backseat looks like, much less clean it up.

This is where these cleaning tips come in. They don't take long to do and and your kids can even help out. As you can see from the video below, even my four-year-old loves using the Swiffer Duster! Speaking of which, you won't need many supplies or complicated steps to accomplish these. Just a few minutes and probably tools that you have laying around the house anyway. So watch our short video below and let me know what your favorite tips are!

How to Make a Snow White Lunch

It's the last week of school so I had to do something really special for my daughter's lunch. She has loved Snow White ever since she was a few years old but I have never done a Snow White lunch for her. I've made Rapunzel, Elsa, and Belle, but not this original Disney Princess. I still remember when, during our first trip to Disneyland, my daughter dressed up like Snow White and then met her. My daughter was stunned and couldn't take her eyes off of her. It was the kind of moment that as a parent you remember forever!

I based the sandwich and poison apple on Disney's Snow White. However, the gemstones were inspired by riding the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train at The Magic Kingdom in Disney World. I made her hair out of black olives because my daughter loves black olives. Like she could eat a can at every meal type love. I made the whole lunch in an Easy Lunch Boxes container.

3 Ways That Your Kids Can Easily Clean Up Dog Hair Around the House

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Swiffer. All opinions are my own.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see the photo above? I can tell you for me it's the loving way that my son looks at our dog. After all, we've had Shasta longer than my son has been alive. In fact, we adopted our dog so long ago that even my oldest child wasn't around yet. We figured our new puppy would be fun, loving, and good with kids. What we never thought about was how much he would shed. Call us naive, but it never really crossed our minds. Looking back, when you have a dog that has pretty much half his body weight in fur, then you should probably know that some of that will end up on the floor...and the carpet...and the furniture...and your clothes.

The thing about that is having everything covered in fur doesn't have to become the way that you live. We have tried many things over the years, but these are our best tips for picking up that dog fur. Because this is a blog based around parenting, and #ShedHappens on a daily basis, we also wanted to make sure to give you tips that your kids can also do to help around the house.

Not only that, but I want to save you money as well by giving you a coupon code from Target for Swiffer to help you pick up that dog hair while staying within your budget. You can also use it within the cartwheel app. Just CLICK HERE to save $2 on a Swiffer starter kit and keep reading for the tips!