Tag: Toddler Activity

Potato Stamp Painting

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Potato stamps are something that you can use for so many different activities throughout the year, and they are so easy to make. They are also perfect for little hands! So grab a sack of potatoes and some paint; today, I am sharing a fun craft that kids of any age (including toddlers) will enjoy.

What You’ll Need:

Russet Potatoes

Small Cookie Cutters

Sharp Knife

Paint (I like the Crayola Washable Paint the best)

Small Paintbrush

Canvas

To make your potato stamps, wash your potatoes off and then cut them in half (either long ways or short ways, depends on how big your cookie cutters are). Then pat them dry on the inside.

To make Easter Egg potato stamps, carefully make slices, zig-zags, or poke holes into the potato’s flat side. The potato can be slippery, so be careful.

To make different shaped stamps take a cookie cutter and push it into the flat side of the potato. Once the cookie cutter is wedged inside, take a sharp knife and slice it into the potato until it touches the cookie cutter. Slowly take your knife and cut all the way around the cookie-cutter shape, and remove the excess potato. This should leave you with a little stump that looks like your cookie cutter shape.

Now it’s time to paint! Using a paintbrush, paint colors onto your potato stamps. Carefully stamp the potatoes onto your canvas and press down. Slowly pull your potato stamps off the canvas and check out your design.

To change up the colors of your stamps, just wipe the potato off or rinse it off in between stamping.

Give these potato stamps and try and let me know what you think. We painted outside on our backporch and got a little messy, but we had so much fun!

Sending love and magic.

Life Lately

Published on by LeslieLeave a comment

I decided that I want to start sharing a weekly update telling you what is going on in my life and what my family has been up to all week. After all, motherhood is more than just cute recipes and movie nights, it’s often monotonous and tiring, and I want to share it all with you! So, I hope you don’t mind these posts that will give you a little look into my life.

Recently, I signed my daughter up for dance class at a local dance studio. Before Covid, I tried to do many activities (music class, playgrounds, etc.) outside of my home to help socialize her. She has always stayed home with me and is very unsure around other people, so I’ve tried really hard to expose her to new people and new situations. Now that we are home all the time, I’ve been struggling to find things for her to do. Luckily, a dance studio that is close to my house, has social distancing measures in place, so I decided to sign her up. She is starting to enjoy going to dance class every Monday, and she is finally warming up to the idea of being around other children (thank goodness).

Besides dance class this week, we also did a really easy craft that I shared on my Instagram, but I figured I would share it on my blog. I am always looking for easy toddler crafts, and the one that I came up with this past week was perfect for Halloween. Essentially, I took a white foam board and cut into the shape of a Mickey Mouse ghost with my Exacto knife. I then covered the foam board with glue and allowed my daughter to stick cotton balls all over it. Finally, I added black construction paper Mickey Ears and a face. It was the cutest craft, and I loved how it looked on our mantle for Halloween.

We finished out all of our Halloween activities this week including our It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Movie Night that I wrote about here.

On Saturday night, my family came over, and we put together a small “Halloween Carnival” in my backyard for my daughter, niece, and nephew. They played games and won prizes. I made a delicious Halloween-inspired charcuterie board for everyone to snack on, and my friend Suzanne made us the perfect Mickey Halloween cookies. If you are in the San Antonio, Texas area, make sure you check out Suzy Homebaker.

We finished Halloween by doing some socially distanced trick-or-treating around our neighborhood on our golf cart. This year, my daughter was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and of course, my husband, puppy, and I had do dress up as the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man. It was such a fun Halloween full of so many wonderful memories.

Today is November 1, which means I have the ultimate internal debate: when do I decorate for Christmas? We usually jump right into it, but this year I am thinking about waiting a couple of weeks and enjoying fall for awhile. Although, I’ve already started listening to Christmas music. I can’t wait to see what this week brings, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Sending love and magic.

Cinderella Glass Slipper Craft

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Today I want to share a fun Cinderella activity that I created for my daughter. I thought that she would enjoy making a sparkly craft, so I decided on a glass slipper! Keep in mind that my daughter is not quite two yet, so this activity is for her skill level. But, you could tweak this to for older (or younger) kids!

I am going to link the supplies that you will need through my Amazon store. Please note that I do get a small commission if you purchase through these links, but you can also find these supplies at any craft store.

Supplies:

Self Adhesive Jewels

Glue

Glitter (full disclosure: I do have glitter all over my house)

Wooden Slipper (I found these on Etsy, and the seller shipped fast!)

I started by peeling the backs off of the adhesive jewels and laid them out for my daughter. I let her place these wherever she wanted all over the shoe.

Once she was done with the jewels, I spread an even layer of glue on the wood. I then gave her the glitter shaker and let her go to town (this was her favorite part). When she felt like she had enough glitter, I shook off the excess glitter and let the shoe dry for a couple hours.

This was such a cute project! You could do this without the wooden slipper, with paper or foam board, for instance. I just liked that the wooden shoe would last a long time. Let me know what you think of this project.

Sending love and magic.

101 Dalmatian Puppy Puppets

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Coming as no surprise to anyone, my daughter loved the movie 101 Dalmatians. I decided to continue the puppy fun this week with a fun (and easy) project.

As the mom of an almost-two-year-old, I sometimes find it hard to find projects and activities that she can do. Honestly, I spend a lot of time scouring Pinterest and blogs, trying to spark ideas. Most of the time, I find super cute activities that I love, but a little over her head. I am so excited that she loved making these puppets as much as I did.

I am going to link the supplies that you will need through my Amazon store. Please note that I do get a small commission if you purchase through my links, but you can also find these supplies at any craft store.

You will need:

White Paper Plate

White Paper Bag

Black Dot Stickers

Black Marker

Googly Eyes

Tape

Pink Felt or Construction Paper

Ribbon (optional)

To start, I went ahead and cut two puppy ears from my paper plate, and a pink tongue from the felt and set it aside. Then I started peeling stickers off and handed them to my daughter, one by one, to place on the white paper bag and ears.

Once she had the bag completely decorated with black dots, she added black dots to each of the ears. When we finished with the dots, I taped the ears on the back of the bag and added the googly eyes.

Our final step was to tape the tongue on and add a black nose. On one of our dogs, we also added a red ribbon as a collar.

Making these puppy puppets was such an easy and enjoyable project for me and my daughter. Most of all, I think she enjoyed the independence of putting the stickers wherever she wanted to on her puppy. I have a feeling that we will try this project again in the future and make different animals.

I hope you loved this precious puppy puppet as much as we did! If you do, please leave a comment and let me know.

Sending love and magic.

Cars Car Wash Activity

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It has been so hot outside, and I am always looking for fun water activities to keep us cool. Today I threw together a fun “car wash” for my daughter, and it was a hit! She loved it so much that she cried when we had to put it away.

To start, I grabbed two plastic bins. I filled one of the containers with some soil that I had on hand and then added some water. I filled the second bin with water and added some dish soap.

After getting the bins ready, I grabbed some of our friends from the movie Cars to bury in the mud. I also found a little brush for my daughter to clean with, and then I let her have at it.

At first, she was a little skeptical about digging in the mud to get the cars out. But eventually, she realized how fun it was to dig around and then wash the cars off.

If you need an activity that will keep your toddler occupied for awhile, give this easy car wash a try!

Sending love and magic.

Tangled Up Sensory Box

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I try to make a new sensory box for my daughter at least once a week. She loves sitting, exploring and playing quietly (which gives this mama a nice little break). Today I am sharing one of our favorite boxes that is inspired by the Disney movie Tangled.

I will start by saying that originally I planned on using cooked spaghetti for this box. But because we like to keep our boxes for a week, I thought that spaghetti might not be a great idea. I ended up using yellow yarn instead of spaghetti, but I still think cooked spaghetti would be a really fun option too!

I make a small commission if you purchase through my Amazon affiliate links, or you can find these products on your own.

To make this box you will need:

Plastic Tub

Yellow Yarn

Plastic Flowers

Fake Flowers

Small Crown

Rapunzel Doll (I used this, but you could use any Rapunzel doll)

The first thing I did was cut my yarn into smaller pieces. I sat some of the yard aside and put the rest in the bottom of my tub. Once I finished that, I decided to braid some of the yarn that I sat aside. I made two big braids, but you could make smaller braids if you wanted to.

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Now that I had the yarn ready, it was time to assemble the box. I started by putting the braids in the box, it’s fun to wrap them through the other yarn. Next, I added my plastic flowers and fake flowers (be sure to bury some).

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Finally, I added the crown and the Rapunzel doll and the box was complete!

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I love that this box isn’t messy and is so easy to store for future playing. My daughter loves running her hands through the yarn and digging for all of the flowers. We aren’t planning on “leaving out tower” any time soon, so I feel like we will get a lot of play out of this box.

My favorite thing about making sensory boxes is that there is no “right way” or “wrong way” to do it. Let me know if you recreate this box and what your kids think of it.

Sending love and magic.

Toddler Meals (That Are A Little Magical)

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When my daughter first started eating “real food”, she would devour pretty much anything that I put in front of her. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore, and our meal times have turned into fights. She has become picky about what she wants to eat and it makes meal times hard on all of us.

Over the past couple months I have found myself brainstorming ways to make her meals a little more fun and I thought that I would share some of those ideas with you! If you are dealing with a picky toddler, or just want to make meal time a little more fun, maybe these ideas can help.

I make a small commission if you purchase through my Amazon affiliate links, or you can find these products on your own.

Here are some of my favorite products that help inspire my daughter to eat the food that I put in front of her:

Bumkins Minnie Silicone Grip Dish

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This Minnie Mouse plate from Bumkins is our absolute favorite! My daughter loves is because well, it’s Minnie Mouse, and I love it because it’s easy to clean and stays on her high chair tray. Most toddler plates have three areas for food, but this one has five areas which means I can give her more options.

Vegetable Cutters

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I honestly use at least one of these vegetable cutters on every single meal that I make for my daughter. I love this set because it comes with a Mickey cutter (I’ve learned it’s much easier to get my daughter to eat “Mickey apples” over “apples”) and it also comes with little animal forks that are fun to eat with. These cutters are very easy to clean and you can use them to cut so many different things.

Mickey Sandwich Cutter

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Just like the with the vegetable cutters, I use this sandwich cutter for everything. From PB&J to grilled cheese, we have lots of Mickey sandwiches in our house. I also use this for cookies, Rice Krispies Treats, beignets, and biscuits!

Mickey Mouse Muffin Mold

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There is something special about having a Mickey Mouse blueberry muffin on a Saturday morning, but I love this muffin mold because you can use it for so much more than just muffins! I’ve made really cute brownies and cupcakes with it, but it would also be great for baked eggs and rolls.

Here are a few examples of our fun meals that I hope will inspire you! Feeding a toddler or child can be such a task, but this makes it a little more exciting for all of us.

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Sending love and magic.

Under The Sea Sensory Box

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My daughter is a big fan of sensory boxes (and I’m a big fan because they seem to keep her occupied for a decent amount of time). I love trying to come up with fun sensory boxes with a Disney twist! This morning I put together a (very easy) Under The Sea Sensory Box and I wanted to share it with you. I feel like there are so many ways that you could change up this box, with sand or plastic fish for example, but I put it together with things I had around the house.

I make a small commission if you purchase through my Amazon affiliate links, or you can find these products on your own.

To make this sensory box you will need:

Plastic Tub

Water

Food Coloring (I used a mix of blue and green)

Sea Shells

Plastic Seaweed

Little Mermaid Toy (at one time, we had this whole set, but my daughter has misplaced Sebastian and Flounder)

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The first thing I did was trim down my plastic seaweed. It was much taller than I thought it was going to be so I cut it down to about as tall as the tub. Next, I filled my tub about halfway up with water, added a couple drops of food coloring, and gave it a good stir.

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Once the water was the blue color that I wanted, I spread seashells across the bottom of the tub. Then, I placed the seaweed in the water. Finally, I tossed in our Little Mermaid figurine and the box was complete!

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After putting this box together, I decided my daughter will definitely be playing with it outside. I think that the water could get out of hand in my house, but it’s perfect for a hot summer day. I hope your kids enjoy this sensory box as much as my daughter does. Happy Playing!

Sending love and magic.

The Cleanest Finger Painting Ever

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Before I became a mom I would browse Pinterest and look at all the fun activities that I would one day do with my future child. The one thing that I didn’t realize is that most of these activities also included a big MESS. So, a couple months ago, I set out to find a clean way to finger paint with a toddler. Is that even possible? YES!

To do “plastic bag” finger painting you will need a Ziploc bag, finger paints, and a canvas (I like to use these from Amazon!). You can also add a sticker or vinyl to make a fun design, but this is optional.

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If you are going to use vinyl or stickers, place that on your canvas first. Then squirt small dabs of finger paint all over the canvas. Carefully slide your canvas into a plastic bag and make sure the plastic bag is sealed. Finally, give the painting bag to your toddler and let them go to town! They can squish, swirl, and smash the paint, but they won’t get dirty!

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When your toddler is done painting, carefully remove the canvas from the bag and set out to dry for c couple hours. If you placed stickers or vinyl on your canvas, carefully peel them off once your painting is dry.

TA-DA! A beautiful, mess free finger painting!

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Sending love and magic.