Lion Lunches

A few weeks ago George was really into a TV show called 'The Lion Man.' It's filmed over in New Zealand and is about a man who keeps, breeds and trains lions. He breeds endangered species and rears the lion cubs so that they are tame around him and other humans. Members of the public can visit the park and the Lions are used in movies (such as Narnia). Any way, inspired for his love of this show, I made him a lion lunch....

I made two cream cheese wraps and held them in place with Lion food picks. I cut some 'grass' out of cucumber and place the picks low so it looked like they were hiding in the grass, ready to pounce I their pray (George liked that bit)! I carefully cut out the word 'Roar' in a babybel and placed alphabet food picks into grapes to spell 'Lion'. I finished it off with a few sultanas and stuck in a food pick fork with a lion on for him to eat them with. This lunch was simple to make (although the babybel carving was a bit fiddly). It was also great for hand eye coordination and physical development, through manipulating the fork and picking up the sultanas to eat! 

George has gone off on his first class trip today to Africa Alive Zoo! In the build up to the excitement of this, he's had a few African inspired lunches (mostly Lion based)! I had fun creating these, especially the one just below

This is an English muffin with ham and salad cream in (his favourite). The face is a made up of red grapes (for the eyes) and cucumber chopped into the shapes need for the eyes, nose and mouth. The lions mane is made up of cheese and carrot cut into triangles. 

The next Lion lunch consisted of two lions, lion poo and lion teeth! The two lions laid ontop of some dried mango. To make the lions I cut out some cheese for the manes using a flower and a star shaped cutter. The lion head was a piece of carrot with a face draw on with edible markers. I put a lion food pick in some yoghurt covered cranberries for the lion teeth and the lion poo was chocolate covered raisens with the word 'Lion' in spelt from the alphabet food picks. 

The day of the trip arrived and to mark it I made George a fingerprint picture in our shared scrap book. He loved waking up to this, it built on the excitement! 

Breakfast was a Lion (of course)! I made it using a pancake for the face, a bananna sliced up and dotted around the pancake for the mane. The mouth was made from dried mango and the teeth were yogurt coverd raspberries. The eyes were chocolate covered raisens and the nose was a dried prune! 

George ate all but two pieces of the bananna and then said "look Mummy, I've made a tiger" 

His lunch for the trip is pictured above. He had a ham roll and another cheese and carrot lion. Some grapes with the word 'Africa' spelt out of alphabet food picks. On the other side is some cold sausage with a little dipping pot of ketchup. Four pieces of ham rolled up and some cheese cut into small pieces. 

He had a great time at the Zoo and is still saying he wants to be a vet and then a safari vet! I love that he loves all creatures great and small- It brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart. After bedtime stories we got out our picture diary. He told me some of the animals he saw and I drew them, then we coloured them in together. I hope he remembers this day for the rest of his life, it was a day full of fun and excitement and memories to treasure.