Tips and Tricks Tuesday: Leak-Proof Ice Pack

I know today’s tip doesn’t sound exciting. Every weekday, however, I pack cold lunches for the girls to take to school. At the beginning of the year, I bought these cute little animal gel packs to keep their lunches cold. Emmy still has hers; but Lily’s gel pack wasn’t sealed properly and the gel started to leak out of it. I had to throw it away.

Ice in a Ziplock bag just melts and leaks all over. As an alternative, I sometimes freeze a yogurt tube. The frozen yogurt acts as an ice pack in my daughters’ lunch boxes, and the yogurt slowly thaws enough  to eat at lunchtime. But I can’t pack yogurt every day. The following tip sounded like the perfect solution to my ice pack problem when I spotted it on Pinterest.

I buy pop-up sponges from Trader Joe’s. They come in a package of 12 and are very thin. Just add water, and the sponges “pop up!” Lily and Emmy love popping up these sponges.

pop up sponge

To make an ice pack, all I did was saturate the sponge with water, slip it into a Ziplock bag and put it in the freezer overnight. In the morning I had the perfect sized ice pack.

ice pack

The idea is that as the ice melts, the sponge will soak up the water. I wasn’t positive it would work, but I was willing to give it a try. I put the frozen sponge in Lily’s lunch box, and asked her for a report when she got home.

Lily told me that the sponge was still cold at lunchtime and it hadn’t leaked at all! I put the sponge right back in the freezer, and I’m going to use it in the future to keep cheese sticks and applesauce cold in Lily and Emmy’s lunches.

Do you have a tip or trick that makes life easier? Link it up below!

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Please link up a tip that you have personally tried.
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Why I Didn’t Watch the Oscars

I am feeling out of it this Monday morning! I think I’m the only one who didn’t watch the Oscars last night. I did see a little of the red carpet before the Oscars, but only because the BBQ place where we had dinner had it on the TV. (No sports to show, I’m guessing?)

So here’s why I missed the Oscars:

  1. We ate at a new BBQ place, and the cafeteria style ordering totally confused us. Plus, we were in the presence of a crabby 5 year old who was not going to be happy no matter what we did, unless we bought her dessert. We did not buy her dessert, so you can imagine how our night went. (The mashed potatoes we ordered for her and the copious amounts of fruit punch she drank did lighten her mood.)
  2. Once we got home, it was time for the girls to play a little, and I worked on my vlog for Wednesday. I learned some new stuff in Windows Live Movie Maker, which was fun!
  3. Then, bedtime. Putting on pajamas, reading bedtime books and snuggling just cannot be hurried.
  4. The only movies we have seen lately are the family movies we borrow from the library. This weekend’s choice was Ella Enchanted. I read the book many years ago, and after the movie, I went downstairs to get my copy of the book out of storage. Once I started reading it, I was hooked. Let me tell you, this is definitely a case of the book being better than the movie! The movie was nothing like the book. It’s as though the screen writer for the movie just stole the characters from the book, and then wrote a completely different story. The book is so good. I stayed up late last night just to finish it.

Ella Enchanted

Anne Hathaway stars in Ella Enchanted, and Ed asked me if she was still around. This shows you how much he pays attention to celebrities. She’s only the lead in Les Mis which was up for an Oscar! Which brings me full circle…I have no idea right now who won any of the Oscars, and I haven’t seen any of the movies which were nominated for an Oscar.

Later this morning, I’ll do what I always do the morning after the Oscars. First, I’ll look at the best and worst dressed on some entertainment website. Then I’ll read all about the Oscars themselves in the paper.

Did you watch the Oscars last night? What did you think?

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(Looking for the linky? Come back tomorrow for Tips and Tricks Tuesday! I have some new ideas on how to use my Linky Tools subscription.)

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