Adorable Little Monsters

Getting the boys ready for school has really been a lot of fun.

I finally found lunch bags to replace the backpacks that the school says they can't use.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I'm hungry!!!!

They're not as adorable as the animal backpacks, but somehow the motif -- funny little monsters -- works quite well where Cary and Dean are concerned.

Also, they are easy to open, easy to wipe clean, they fit their thermoses and two snacks, plus an ice pack. AND, they were $8.  To that I say, SCORE!

I also had to decorate the boys' leave-behind bins, which are intended to hold two sets of change of clothes. I don't have an artistic bone in my body, so instead of trying to really decorate them, I decided just to find things that represent who the boys are and what things they like.

So Dean's has a picture of a cookie and popcorn and fruit (he loves snacks!), trucks, blocks, a lawnmower, the beach and Cookie Monster, among other things. And Cary's has a picture of books, trucks, a lawnmower and Elmo, among other things.

I had a lot of fun sitting at my dining room table, clipping things and sticking them on the bins, attempting (as best I could) to make them look halfway decent.

 It's mostly just stickers and clip art and glue, but there's a lot of love stuck on these here bins.
<3

Question for the Mommies: I have purchased reusable snack bags, Tupperware with built-in ice packs (for yogurt and cottage cheese and stuff) and thermoses, so that the boys are creating as little trash as possible at snacktime. But I honestly don't see how I get around buying plastic spoons.
I can totally envision washable spoons getting tossed away or left behind, and I have absolutely no desire to buy a million "real" spoons. I think I'm going to just buy a huge party pack of plain plastic spoons. Does anyone have a better idea?