Easy Non Candy Preschool DIY Valentines

Bugga is having her preschool Valentine's Day Party later this week. Part of me was all,"This is the ULTIMATE PINTEREST OPPORTUNITY" and the rest of me was all, "I'm tired - here, these valentines in the checkout line at Target are adorable."

So I compromised. I used some of my mess-around-on-my-phone time that is part of my nightly detox with my husband as we go through the DVR after the kids are in bed to peruse Pinterest boards. I stored some ideas away in my head, then escaped off to the craft store during weekend nap time to gather the couple of supplies I needed, dedicated a little more than an hour to the design and assembly, and VOILA! Adorable valentines, sans sugary madness. (I'm sure the kids will already get plenty of sugar for their little systems during this party.)

I thought about having Bugga sign her name to the card so it wasn't Obviously Done By Mom but she is still only able to write about 65% of the letters in her name, and certainly not small enough to fit on this card. So ODBM it is.

My supplies:

• Small bear animals
• colorful twine
• hot glue & gun
• glitter valentine hearts
• cardstock
• inkjet printer

My result:

Happy New Year 2015!

Ahhhh January 1st! A fresh new year! This day feels like the first day of school for me - so much potential for so much NEW.

And yes, I am making resolutions. I know, how lame, but again, I love the POTENTIAL of what I can do in the new year. I do try to be realistic though.

So here are mine:

1.) Have better posture. My back will thank me. This Mom Slouch thing is ridiculous.
2.) Make it a priority for our family to eat dinner together. Dinner will now be at 6:30 every night. If my husband can't make it home in time, he can eat when he does, but I am done cooking and eating after the kids go to bed.
3.) Make it a priority for the entire family to eat the SAME FOOD for dinner. Now that the baby is all about solids, now is the time to feed her everything so she doesn't end up in a pasta rut like her older sister. And I am done being a short order cook. Done.
4.) Limit myself to one soda a week.
5.) Limit myself to one fast food trip a month. This excludes Starbucks and my health-i-fied favorite sandwich at Jimmy John's. I'm trying to be realistic. And fair to myself.

I have some goals for what I want to happen with my diet, my workouts, etc. but those are tired goals so I won't bother sharing those here.

I also wanted to put some cleaning- and organization-related goals on the 'ol resolution list too, but I think those need to be more on the To Do list so they get DONE and then I'll see where I'm at with that plan. A lot to conquer there so I'm worried a resolution of this type might set me up for failure!! 

Anything unique on your list? Did you even make a list? Any New Year rituals you do instead?

Easter Egg-tivities

I had great plans for Easter this year as far as toddler activities go. Then my newborn started sleeping (or rather NOT sleeping) even more horribly, and my husband needed to go out of town for work for the third time in four weeks. So basically most of this past week leading up to the Easter Bunny's visit is now a bit of a blur.

Somewhere in there I managed to put together two brain cells on occasion to find some activities for Bugga to do that were Easter-related. I found some great printable activities online that were both Easter-relevant as well as educational, but not too old for her as a lot of Preschool printables tend to be.

Here's Bugga working on the Egg Matching Activity, which she shocked me by immediately being a whiz at. This explains why her strongest skill with folding laundry is matching her socks!

Here's the Carrot Activity that involves Bugga trying to figure out which big letter matches which little letter. This was a new way of thinking about the letters, as we have not really introduced "little" letters yet. This was our introduction.

These printable activities can be found here.

And of course, I planned to get in some egg decorating. We had a great time last year when Bugga was 15 months old so of course I was optimistic. I saw an adorable idea online that involved rolling the eggs in polenta - I had planned on using colored coconut - but that was a massive fail. The "egg wash glue" was not at all a glue so it was just a big mess. Apparently I forgot the sugar, which, logically is the sticky part. Oops.

While we were waiting for the eggs to dry to see if the coconut would stick, my toddler got impatient with the waiting, so I improvised with some plastic eggs and a glue gun.

Once I knew that the textured eggs weren't happening this year, I washed off the remaining coconut, and just went with the infamous drop-in-the-colored-water coloring. Then I just used my glue gun to attach the googly eyes and bunny/chick appendages. What I learned: If you use a glue gun on an egg that just came out of the refrigerator, the glue will be chilled and dry before you attach whatever it is you're trying to glue to the egg. Another oops. So here is the motley crew of eggs that we ended up with.

Let's just say I am looking forward to making egg salad tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter!

Toddler Project: Spring Tissue Paper Duck

I've been scrounging Pinterest for toddler-appropriate Easter and Spring crafts. Have I mentioned my apprehension with glue and my 2-year-old? I think she's not quite ready for that responsibility yet. But I still want her to get in on the crafting fun as much as she can. She has already had enough experience that she is quick to eagerly ask me, "Are you making me a project?" every time I go near my craft shelves. Yep, no question she is my kid.

Incidentally, here was some dialog during our project:
Me: "What does a duck say?"
Bugga: "Quack! What does a duckie say?"
Me: "I don't know, what does a duckie say?"
Bugga: "SQUEAK!"
Can't argue with that.

Tissue Paper Duck for Spring

Our first easy project required the following items:

• thick craft paper
• scissors
• yellow, orange and black tissue paper
• contact paper

1. Draw a duck shape on the craft paper. You can find images online, but I just eye-balled it. Cut out the duck. 
   
2. Cut your tissue paper into small pieces. Ask your toddler to help crumple each piece into a teeny, tiny ball.
   
3. Add contact paper behind your duck cut-out, sticky side up.
4. Start sticking the tissue paper to the contact paper.
   
5. Show off your finished product!
   
   

Toddler Crafts & Fun for St. Patrick's Day

Our family isn't Irish (except maybe a teensy bit on my husband's side) but I love celebrating St. Patrick's Day. In college this meant heading to Savannah for parades and green beer. Nowadays it's more about crafts, cookies and some creative meal planning. 

I actually put more effort into celebrating than I had planned. Aside from the themed mantle, Bugga and I made Shamrock Suncatchers to decorate our windows. She is very proud of the result and was excited to tell her dad repeatedly, "I made that!", pointing at her masterpieces.

We also attempted the Fruit Loop Rainbow craft that you see all over Pinterest. I think she had fun, but the glue concept was new to Bugga, and she preferred to glue the cereal pretty much all over the page. Oh, and by the way, there are no blue Fruit Loops, so I think that just threw us off anyway.

I tried some new recipes for our St. Patrick's Day Dinner (which I actually made last night because all bets are off on Mondays) - corned beef, colcannon and shamrock chips. It was actually all pretty good, and my husband ate every bite (which is saying something).

Bugga helped me make shamrock sugar cookies - everything from helping me bake them (she mixed the ingredients together and helped with the cookie cutter) to decorating, to of course EATING the cookies.

We had a lot of fun - Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Tips For Traveling With a Baby/Toddler

I need a vacation. Like, immediately. However, going on a vacation today means now managing the logistics of traveling with TWO children. As I'm trying to wrap my head around how to possibly climb this mountain, I thought I'd offer my advice on how to travel with one child under the age of two. Bugga traveled almost 25,000 air miles in her first year of life, and many of those miles included family vacations (we also moved to Alaska for a bit so those miles are a chunk of her total). Either way, we got to be seasoned parent travelers and lived to tell the tale.

Here's how we did it:
1.) Always bring a stroller. You will need this at some point. Even if you are totally into the baby-wearing thing (bring your sling too!) - the stroller carries both your child, and all of your child-related STUFF. And your stuff. And lunch to go in the airport. You get my point. When Bugga was still in the baby bucket we used this stroller, which I cannot recommend enough. You can even open and close it with one hand and it has a huge basket. When she was no longer in the bucket we used this stroller, which comes with a travel bag (for checking) and is still in great condition now after 1.5 years of a LOT of airports.

2.) Always bring a car seat. Sure you can get away with not bringing a car seat. But if you are traveling anywhere other than New York City or somewhere similar (and then plan to limit your transportation to subway or foot) your child should be strapped into their car seat. No, you won't get arrested for trying to get into a cab with an infant without a car seat, but if you get in an accident (and you KNOW how the cabbies drive) you will regret it. There are car seats on the market that double as strollers. Or you can get a backpack to carry the car seat in while you go through the airport (if baby isn't in the bucket already). Make sure you have a cover either way so the seat isn't nasty if you end up gate checking it.

3.) If traveling by plane, check your baby gear at the gate, NOT at check-in. Yep, you can check your baby items for free in both areas. Maybe you think it's a pain to drag all these things through the airport, especially if you don't have a ticketed seat for your baby and won't be using the car seat until you arrive at your destination. Doesn't matter. When you gate check these items, they are out of your sight and have a chance to be damaged by someone else for a mere MINUTES before they are put underneath the plane. Hand them over at check-in and they are out of your sight for potential HOURS that someone might drop or damage your goods in any number of ways that are undetectable to you when you pick them up at Baggage Claim. You will regret this too.

4.) Pick your flight carefully. If you are booking early enough, pick a time that coincides with the time your child sleeps. I now prefer red-eye flights with my child because I KNOW she will sleep then. We ran out of luck after awhile booking during nap time because it was just too exciting for her to sleep, and then we had NO nap. Not my preferred way to vacation. And avoid layovers whenever you can. Just GET THERE.

5.) Pick your seats on the airplane even more carefully. If your flight isn't overbooked, you might be able to avoid paying for a ticket for your baby, then find a row with an empty seat. Gate agents will even move you to a row with an empty seat if you ask nicely because they know as well as anyone that no one wants to sit next to a baby on a plane. Don't be offended - use this to your advantage. And try to get these seats next to a bathroom so you aren't waiting behind 5 other people who got there first when your kid has a loaded diaper. If your child is moving around on his own and can maybe even stand and walk, get bulkhead seats, so you have the extra space in front of you. My daughter loved to sit in her own "space" once we reached cruising altitude and didn't have to be constrained.

6.) If budget allows, book a suite at a hotel. A lot of inexpensive hotel chains nowadays have suites for great rates. It pays (in dollars and sanity) to do your research. A suite gives you the freedom to not be sitting with your spouse in the dark when your child is sleeping. And remember how much they sleep, day and night. With a suite you can essentially set your separate room up as a nursery and keep it dark, use white noise, etc.

7.) What if you can't book a suite? It happens for any number of reasons, but you can still survive. (First world problems, I know.) First, try to get a balcony. We didn't feel like forking over the hundreds of extra dollars on our Hawaii vacation with Bugga so the next best thing was a balcony where my husband and or I could hang out while the baby took naps. I spent plenty of relaxing vacation name with a book, a cocktail, and a view all while Bugga napped safely just mere feet from me in total darkness in our room.

8.) What if you can't book a suite OR a room with a balcony? Here's what you need to add to your luggage: a dark-colored, full-size (or bigger) flat bedsheet, two command hooks that can hold as much weight as possible, and a couple chip-style clips. Use these to drape over the hotel crib you stick in the corner of the room to create a dark area for your child when she sleeps. The command hooks (attach them to the wall) and clips hold up the sheet, and the hooks can be taken down later when you leave. You still need to be quiet in the room, but it's nice not to need to be in darkness. Now you and your spouse can at least watch a movie with headphones on the iPad or something. Wink, wink. Oh, and don't forget crib sheets from home.

9.) Bring a white noise machine. I mentioned it above, but this is an essential piece of kid gear in my book. Even if you don't use one at home, outside noises can be unpredictable when traveling (especially in hotel hallways) so if you can block out anything that might disrupt your child's sleep, your life is better! How many times have you been stuck in a hotel that has construction going on above or below your room?

10.) Baby's gotta eat. If your child is eating solids, don't forget to grab a banana from the breakfast buffet to have in the diaper bag later. Boxes of raisins travel well too. Kids under 3 usually eat at buffets for free, so take advantage of that. And don't forget to ask your server what the chef is able to do. We ordered plain pasta with olive oil off the menu from a higher-end Italian restaurant when we were there for their breakfast so we could have lunch ready to go later for our daughter. Oh, and bring bowls with lids to refrigerate any leftovers so you always have something. (Most hotel rooms have a refrigerator lately, I have noticed.)

I have tons of other suggestions for all parts of travel if anyone has any additional questions. Also, if anyone wants to offer up any tips for traveling with more than one kid I am ALL EARS!

Project: Homemade Valentine Picture Frame

I've been chomping at the bit waiting for Bugga to be old enough to do arts and crafts. Yes, I know, even babies can start pretty much from the womb with the art projects. We even tackled finger (body!) painting last year when Bugga was 10 months old; I'm sure many moms jump on it far earlier than that.

Another point to note: I am not a huge fan of messiness on purpose. Let's be honest, kids are a lot of work and mess without TRYING to make a mess. So painting with a toddler kind of scared me.

With Bella still so small at 7 weeks, she still hasn't had her vaccinations yet so we aren't leaving the house for much more than Bugga's once-a-week gymnastics class. And a bored kid is hard on everyone (all you parents on the East Coast know exactly what I'm talking about right now since you've all been stuck inside for days due to the snow with school cancelled). So I bit the bullet and pulled out the paint.

Grandma had gifted Bugga some fingerpaints and a smock for Christmas, so this was as good a time as any to try them out. Plus with Valentine's Day fast approaching Bugga could make a homemade gift for Daddy on behalf of her and her sister. I even managed to stretch this into a TWO DAY PROJECT which is always good.

So I dressed Bugga in clothes I don't like (we all get those gifts) and her new smock, and taped down some newspaper to our kitchen counter. She climbed up into her learning tower (best invention ever) and we proceeded to go to work. 

I squirted some of the paint into paper cups left over from her 1st birthday (we are slowly and finally getting through those) in Valentine colors. Since the Crayola Fingerpaints only come in red, blue, yellow, and green I had to incorporate some white from my collection to make pink. Oh, and trying to make purple with the red and the blue was a bust so nevermind that. 

I used several sponge brushes (yep, still not in the mood to handle more painting with our hands) I had left over from another project of mine, and we went to work.

I purchased a simple wood heart frame from Michael's for barely $1.00 and Bugga had a blast painting it with the various colors. 

She also seemed to love the different effects she could make with the brushes, taking advantage of the sponginess (huh, that's actually a word). 

Once she was done we let it dry overnight. in the meantime, the other colors had grabbed her attention so I found some paper and let her create another masterpiece. 

She had a blast and it wasn't too difficult to clean up. 

Oh, and meanwhile, the baby hung out in the bouncer next to us and watched.

The next day I pulled out a bag of foam heart stickers and the frame so we could decorate. Bugga quickly figured out how to use her fingernails to peel of the backings, and we were in business. I had a giant flat foam heart she could also decorate as well.

Seriously, she decorated this all by herself with no guidance from me whatsoever. Such style.

And here is the final result, all ready for Daddy!

Listmania: 12 Days of Christmas Books

As our oldest child has reached her second birthday, she is very into her books. Since Christmas 2013 rolled around right after her birthday, I thought it would be a perfect time to start a 12 Days of Christmas Book tradition.

Each year, wrap up 12 holiday-themed books and have your children open one each night leading up to Christmas. This is a fun bedtime activity that incorporates the excitement of unwrapping, with the routine of bedtime. For our first year, I didn't have 12 Christmas books for our collection yet, but since I planned on gifting Bugga some other books for Christmas, I just used those for some of the nights. Each year I plan to add in and rotate more books out, keeping the stories age-appropriate for both kids. Also, 12 books can be an investment (especially in Canada! Whoa!) so don't be afraid to wrap up some library books too!

How did I pick the books below? I thought of some classics that I remember enjoying as a kid. I also looked into Bugga's favorite characters (Duck & Goose, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Llama Llama) to see if the authors wrote a Christmas story, and I was surprised to find that MOST do! Reading about the same characters really helps with holding a toddler's attention.

Some ideas for Christmas Books:

1. Fa La La by Leslie Patricelli 
2. Nativity Touchy-Feely Board Book by Fiona Watt
3. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
4. Frosty the Snowman by Diane Muldrow
5. Duck & Goose, It's Time for Christmas by Tad Hills
6. Merry Christmas, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff
7. The Hat by Jan Brett
8. Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
10. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
11. Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
12. Clubhouse Christmas by Susan Amerikaner

Family Christmas Traditions

My husband and I have been thinking a lot about what sort of family traditions and lessons we want to pass down to our daughters. We also want to teach our children about religion, but leave room for them to discover it themselves and follow it where they allow it to lead them. Since Bugga is just freshly 2 years old, it's hard to really give her too much information that she can truly comprehend, but she is definitely at the age of understanding some things.

What we want for sure is that our daughters recognize the lessons and morals that can be learned as we expose them to more and more information.

We know that it is very easy for kids to think of Christmas as a "gimme gimme!" sort of holiday, and that makes me cringe. So I proposed that we find away to put the fun into giving (since my 2-year-old can't quite shop on her own yet, let alone create too many homemade gifts that allow her to grasp the concept of giving). I thought she'd enjoy handing out the presents under the tree on Christmas morning, but since she can't read yet, I created these visual labels as a toddler-friendly gift tag. She loved "playing elf" and finding gifts for everyone and passing them out all by herself.

I also found a toddler-friendly board book about the Christmas Nativity story, which she really enjoyed. I plan to add this to our 12 Days of Christmas Books tradition that we also started this year.

What tools are you using to teach your toddler about holidays, religions, or traditions?

Toddler-Friendly Gift Tags

Now that Bugga just turned 2, it was perfect timing to teach her that Christmas is even more about the giving than the receiving. She definitely sees the fun in unwrapping a present and finding a fun surprise inside, but this year we wanted to focus on the GIVING.

I thought it would be great, and very easy, to have Bugga play our Christmas Morning Elf and hand out everyone's presents. However, she obviously can't read yet, so we needed a way to help her identify the presents. 

I created these Toddler-Friendly Gift Tags that are more visual, so that it is easy for a 2-year-old to identify who to deliver the gift too. It worked really well and she clearly enjoyed being a part of the giving.

I wasn't very timely with this post (birthing a Christmas baby and all) so I know this isn't something you are probably thinking about in January. However, if you like this idea, bookmark it for next year!

Here are the examples:

Oh Canada...Baby!

Well, she's here! On December 21st we welcomed our little dual citizen to the family! "Bella" joined us at 2:24 PM after we patiently waited for her arrival...and she was only 6 days late! As I am sure I will be posting about her as much as her older sister, "Bugga", I'm going to continue with my little blog nicknames to have a little fun with my kiddos' names without putting them out there before they have an opinion on the topic.

Things are going great with us, and I have to say, as much as I didn't want my poor kids to have holiday birthdays, it is definitely nice to have my husband home for some extended time from work so we can navigate these crazy baby and toddler waters together until I can get my Mom act together to get back to doing this on my own during the week.

If Bella had taken much longer I was scheduled to be induced on Christmas Day, which I was NOT excited about! Fortunately she found her way out a few days prior and we were all able to spend our first Christmas in Calgary home in our cozy living room, fireplace going, snow coming down outside, and one exSTATIC 2 year old...it has definitely been a Christmas to remember!

Happy holidays to all, and I wish everyone an exciting and prosperous 2014!

We Made it to One Year!

Patiently waiting for her party to begin. And yes,
of course I made her a tutu.  You can't resist
these things when you have a little girl,
no matter how much you think you will.

...well, I guess it's not like I thought we wouldn't make it to one year, but OH the year we had!!

And I hope you will forgive how long it has taken me to get to this post, but I wanted to make sure all the details were included (read: I had time to get the pictures off my slr).

Like all parents, I am confident that my kiddo is an overachiever so of course we had way more firsts during Year One than I ever expected, and what better way to commemorate all our learnings than with a fun birthday party.

Bugga's first initial decorated with a year's
worth of faces was hung over the main
food table.

Bugga was born in that wonky time period between holidays (well right behind Thanksgiving) so this adds a little wild card to who might be expected to attend birthday events between holiday travel, flu-season, and end-of-year budgeting.

The theme for this momentous event, was....wait for it..."Sydney is ONE!". I know, so far off topic. I saw a few fun ideas on Pinterest (of course) that got my brain churning, and it turned out to be a great way to incorporate all the fun pictures we had taken throughout her first year.

The food spread!

Cupcake "cake" decorated
with M&Ms in the shape
of a 1 (in case it isn't obvious).

We had the party at home, and I just made a handful of finger foods (including many that were toddler-friendly), barbecue sliders in the slow cooker, and a cupcake cake for the masses (seriously, we had a ton left over).

The biggest challenge was the "entertainment" for the party. It is not lost on me that a 1 year old could not care less what happens at her party as long as her basic needs are met (food and getting attention, of course). So I was torn as to what to have planned for the kids to "do" while the parents mingled and talked everything kiddo. Add to that the range of children's ages - we had 3-month-olds all the way up to 7 years. How the heck do you entertain this crowd? Off to Pinterest I went to find ideas.

I decorated with Bugga faces wearing party
hats all over the party space.

Bugga faces everywhere!

And we found the perfect one, and it was perfect for tasking my husband with so he could contribute to the party planning without getting caught up in the details he does NOT find enthralling. What was my solution? A cardboard maze! We still didn't have furniture in our dining room, so it was the perfect place to set up a giant cardboard monstrosity. And Mr. MOMba really got into it, adding skylights, and decorating with polka-dot duct tape and velvet curtains. And the kids loved it. Bugga loved it so much that we kept it in there for the next 6 months until we moved (yep, really slow to go after that dining room furniture, but I swear we will have some soon).

Anyway, enjoy some photos from the big event - maybe someone out there can use this for some planning inspiration! *OK, I really thought we had taken some photos of the cardboard tunnel setup, but I can't find them anywhere...I will update the 'ol blog with some pics should I ever dig them up. ** Update (10/6/2013): Found one!

She was very hesitant in giving her
cake a try. This is the before shot.

This is the after-shot! Not too
 much damage, actually.

Here's our "dining room" - you can see the cardboard tunnel
 around the back, with multiple doors, skylights, etc. - the kids loved it!

Activity: Coloring Eggs

"Hey Mom, I think this might
actually be fun."

My husband is currently out of the country on business, so I've been busy planning activities and trips around town to keep Bugga and I busy while he's gone. He left early Easter weekend, so we were unable to officially celebrate. Sad face. Perhaps she wasn't old enough for that egg hunt anyway...

However, I still thought we should color some eggs, because I was curious to see what my toddler would think about it all. Well, it was pretty hilarious for starters.

She had a lot of fun piling as many eggs as possible into one bowl at a time, and then only using the next bowl when she ran out of space. And then she'd start again, piling the eggs into the next container, including the ones that were already bathing in a different color. Amazingly, the eggs still came out beautiful (and delicious, as I am in the process of consuming them).


She had a lot of fun with the spoons, but used them more as musical instruments against each other, versus to scoop out any of the eggs. Why would you use a spoon for scooping when you can just reach right in there? And hey look! Your hand is purple! And your legs are multicolored! How cool! Ha.

I think she made an attempt at tasting some of the colored water (apparently the yellow looked tasty?) but didn't do that twice. (Thank you, vinegar taste.)

All in all, this was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to do this each year and see how her creativity evolves.

Want to try it with your toddler? Here are my recommendations:

1. Prepare everything ahead of time before your toddler comes on the scene. I set everything up on the back patio and she watched me from just inside the windows.
2. Oh yeah - you're going to need to do this outside. I supposed you could do it inside, but at this age (~16 months) - don't say I didn't warn you!

   

   My original setup.
   Not recommended! (See #3)

3. Set up the activity with the bowls very close together. Nope, that's not what I did to begin with (see photo). I saw very quickly that once we started with one bowl, Bugga wasn't getting up but instead was just going to stretch as far as she could - which ended up with some cracked eggs and spilled colored water.
4. Use old dishes. This is perfect for the takeout containers that I currently have stashed in a bottom cabinet for Bugga to play with in the kitchen.
5. Don't overwhelm with too many colors. I stuck to 4 basics, and honestly she just took the eggs in and out of each dish, so after awhile, all 4 colors were strikingly similar. Go figure.
6. Premix the colors. I used a tablespoon of vinegar in each dish, along with a LOT of coloring to make the colors sharp. I used the old-school drops as well as some gels, and both worked fine.

   

   "AND I get to use a spoon? YES!"

   
7. Dress your child in clothing you aren't worried about. I stuck Bugga in a dark-colored $10 Carter's outfit, and it didn't stain at all! (Those white dots are painted on so the color didn't adhere whatsoever!)
8. Decide how you feel about spoons. I know this sounds funny. But to me, spoons + toddler = catapult. Bugga was very intrigued that I let her use spoons for this activity, and they really stole the show for awhile there until I pointed other things out. I think if we did this again (at least at this age) I would leave the spoons in the drawer. She has plenty of plastic ones to play with during meals and with her tea set.
   
9. Have fun! AKA, don't expect to have any control over how the eggs get colored, as your toddler is not interested in the LEAST about your creative opinion. Point out the colors, what happens when you mix them, etc. - they won't understand a lot of it, but they will see that it is fun.
10. Don't worry, the rainbow child isn't permanent. We went straight into the bathtub when we were finished, and it probably took two baths until the dye under her fingernails disappeared. But it was worth it!

The finished product! AMAZING!