Fun Foodie Stuff for Back-to-School

By Esther Sung,Epicurious.com

If the kids haven't already headed back to school, they will be shortly. And we've got some fun lunch bags to recommend, perfect for carrying healthy homemade lunches. But let's be honest: sometimes it's not the edible stuff that makes lunch so much fun. With that in mind, here are a few items perfect for the cafeteria--and classroom--to help make going back to school a little more fun.

Related: Our Complete Back-to-School Guide

1. Lunch Box Notes (Etsy.com, $12.50/pack of 10) My mother used to write me a lunch note either on a napkin or a brown paper bag with every lunch she made in elementary school. Alas, none of them exist today. These letterpress note cards make those notes worth saving and savoring.

2. Lunch Lines: Silly Riddles for Lunchtime Giggles by Dan Signer (Amazon.com, $9.99) You have an apple a day, so why not (at least) a laugh a day? Make lunch that much more enjoyable for your child with Signer's 188 riddles. Q: What dessert slithers down your throat? Read the answer after the jump.

3. Naturally Sweet Printable Stickers (Etsy.com, $6/pdf) These stickers are an easy way to dress up some fruit and give you a discreet way of showing your kids that you love them. Other quips include I'm going bananas over you! and I love you berry, berry much! You pay for the pdf but then can print out as many stickers as you'd like at your convenience.

4. Lime-scented Pencils (Everythingsmells.com, $2.99/pack of 10) Test-taking and doing homework become less tedious with these scented No. 2 pencils. Other scents include bubble gum and grape.

5. Letterpress Notebooks (Etsy.com, $18/set of 3) Cheery food prints--fruits, veggies, and sweets--cover these small notebooks. They're small and won't fit a whole lot but they're perfect for jotting down ideas and other random thoughts that school-age kids often have.

Related: 5 Mistakes Parents Make When Feeding their Kids

6. Smens Gourmet Scented Pens (Smens.com, $12/pack of 5) Buying a 5-pack is a little like living on the edge: Out of the 10 available scents, the company randomly chooses five for you. But with aromas like Pink Lemonade, Aloha, Black Licorice, and Mocha, you'd be hard-pressed not to like any of the ones you do receive. Or you can always upgrade to a 10-pack for $25.

7. Yummy Pocket Taco (Neatoshop.com, $4.95) It's easy to lose stuff in the depths of backpack pockets. Make it easier to find stuff with this humorous taco pocket, great for containing pens, pencils, money, and other small items.

8. Kikkerland Scented Erasers (Catchingfireflies.com, $3.95/pack of 5) They're almost too cute to use, but these lightly scented erasers--mixed fruit juice, strawberry, milk, chocolate, and grape--are up to the task of erasing pencil marks.

And the answer to the riddle? A pie-thon.


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