Toddler Craft Time!

Well, I love summer break. I love spending my whole day and week with my precious daughter. These weeks make the tough nine months of the school year so completely worth it. I've had some things I want to do with Mali this summer including swim class, biking, messy play times, playground visits, etc.

With temps over 100 degrees already, our time is largely restricted to indoor activities, so I've been pinterest searching toddler crafts. Yesterday, we did a simple maraca craft. We used two of our left over Easter eggs, some dry beans, popsicle craft sticks and colorful duct tape. Mali helped put the beans in the eggs and watched as mommy and daddy taped the eggs closed and tape the popsicle sticks to the eggs.

And done! No mess, no money spent, and a fascinated and engaged toddler. :) She's been carrying and shaking her "music" around since and loves them! :)

Working That Hammer

Casey finally had a whole weekend off with Mali and I and where did we go? Yep, to the Home Depot! Man, Casey just can't escape that place, can he? The Home Depot does these great FREE kids workshops periodically and Casey has been so excited to do one with Mali. She's still a little young, but it was still a ton of fun! (we just opted to skip the painting part) Yesterday's project was building an organizer. Daddy did most of the work, but Mali definitely loved helping with the hammering. She caught on pretty quick what those hammers were for- banging things and making noise, of course! Casey jokes that her new little box has all the evidence of her help in its dents. :)  We had a lot of fun and Mali even got a pin for her apron showing she completed the project! There is another kids workshop the Saturday before Father's Day and I can tell Casey is already itching to take her to it, too! Building memories! (pun absolutely intended)