Crazy Man on a Stick

Right before we left on our trip, I quick whipped up this little man on a stick. I cannot for the life of me, remember where I got the face (you know, back before Pinterest, I just dragged and dropped things into my iPhoto that I wanted to make for later :) So if anyone can place it, please let me know!)

But the premise is still the same even if you made them yourself.


Draw up a face, and a bunch of different eyes, noses, mouths, hats, ties, etc.


Cut them out, (I highly suggest laminating too. Ours is already water damaged after a couple of uses... laminator is on my list now.) and use velcro in order to make the changing faces stick. Attach a popsicle stick to the back of the head and let your kids loose!


My young kids and the older kid we were with (fourteen) all had a blast playing and dreaming up new faces. Shoot, us adults were even in on the action when they'd let us.

Busy Bag for Flying, Geometric Puzzle

See how small and compact this puzzle is? It's deceiving. This puzzle packs a brainy punch!


I took cue from all the geometric love out there, like this giant geometric puzzle, or these little wooden cubes, and made one out of thin cardboard so it doesn't take up precious cargo space.


I cut these into 2x2 squares then used painters tape corner to corner to get a straight line. Grab some acrylic paints then paint away, leave some blank, add a little silver bling, sky's the limit!


If traveling in the car, you could get a sturdier piece of cardboard and stick a bunch of little velcro strips 2 inches apart, and put the opposing side on each square so they stay in place on a bumpy car ride.


This project is great for color matching, fine motor skills and shape recognition. I'm super thrilled with it and hope it brings many miles of enjoyment.

Busy Bag for Flying, Personal iSpy Book

Tayden is currently obsessed with iSpy books. Morning, noon and night you can find him delving through the pages of a half dozen at a time. He's super cute when playing with you too. He'll say "I 'py with my own eye..." and if you take too long finding it he'll say "do you need a hint?"


So how much more rad would having your own book containing your own toys among the pages be? Now, I'm not original in this thought. There are plenty of other moms who have done the same before me. But what struck me most about this idea for him was that he will be away from these toys for a couple weeks while we're on vacation. What better way to see your special toys while missing them then on the pages of a book?


This is a bit more time consuming, as you'll need to round up items (I did themed pages), set them up on a white piece of paper (I mistakingly used off white butcher paper, that turned out gray in the photos, but he won't care) and take your picture. Then pick out a few items from that grouping and take a separate photo of those for your child to "spy". Make a cover for your book and send off your photos for printing. Grab a cheap-o bragging book (found mine at Target) and insert them with each coordinating page facing one another.


Voilá! Adorable little book and a happy child.

Busy Bag for Flying, Color Matching Sticks

Need to work on colors with your kids? These slim little popsicle sticks will be a fun way to do the trick.


I wrote out the name of the color in its coordinating color (for word recognition), then made a set of painted sticks for them to line up and match.


From there, how about building a little stick house? By matching colors side by side. Or put them in a line, like a simple game of dominos. Popsicle sticks have so much unsung potential!

Busy Bag for Flying, Woodland Creatures Memory Game

This is a super simple idea, using adorable graphics, courtesy of Children Inspire Design, which were initially made for cupcake toppers.

Here, I've printed off a set, used a 2" punch to cut out, and since there's 2 of each creature, made it into a simplified game of Memory.


We have another memory game using baby food jar lids but I didn't want the bulk of the lids for our plane ride. I'm excited to see what other games the kids will come up with for these adorable little animals. What would you do with the download?


For your own copy, click here.

Busy Bag for Flying, Dry Erase Alphabet Matching

This week we are taking the kids on their first plane ride. Our three year old son is over the moon at the thought. The 18 month old baby girl terrifies me. It's a long flight so I'm loading up our arsenal of busy bag goodness.

Since we're also limited on space (overhead compartment anyone?), the criteria for things allowed in the bag had to be flat, bitty, and long lasting. Tall order, huh?

Check back every day this week while I blow your mind with fantastic new ideas for your bag. AND, I'm giving you a two'fer today. Yep. (see here)


I don't know what it is about me and dry erasing everything lately, but I just can't stop! It's a moms dream to let their kids go wild with a marker on a surface they can just wipe clean! There's so much potential here people...

I have this set of vintage alphabet letters that I usually put on wood blocks, but decided to make a game out of it for my three year old too.


I printed off two sheets of the alphabet, put one in a protective sheet cover and cut up the others into individual letters and you're done. How do you play? Grab a dry erase marker and pull a letter out of the stack, match it with the other and cross it off. Great way to practice letter recognition and matching.

I love this one because it takes up such minimal space. You could make a whole slew of different games out of this too, and put them in behind each other, switch it out when ready for a new one. Like maybe this vintage iSpy sheet?

(ps- if your kid likes iSpy, be sure to come back on Wednesday...)

Our Busy Bag

Our bag is done! We even took it on a test drive last night and it was as big of a hit as I had hoped.



I decided to use a tote bag to hold everything, and used freezer paper to stencil on the design.



It was a lot of fun to make, and it looks cute toting around. It also fits a lot.



I found these awesome, and colorful, organizers at the dollar store.



They came with the coordinating bag inside too, which I was able to use to hold smaller parts for each activity, or split them up and use them separately.



I had overflow projects, and stored them in a plastic shoe box to rotate things in and out.



So lets get started on what activities we made. First up is the "build your cupcake" kit.



It's so cute and just screams to be played with. Tayden enjoyed building one before dinner came last night.



I made lacing cards in various objects; things I know my kids enjoy. I used nylon ribbon as the lacing strings.



We dyed pasta (little bit of white vinegar in a bowl, food coloring drops and mix in the pasta, lay on parchment lined pan to dry over night) in a bunch of bright colors.



And used them as lacing necklaces with yarn and a bead tied at the end of the yarn to keep them all on.




Then used the rest as a sorting game to learn colors.




I used up paint chips I had from planning the master bedroom and made another color matching game with clothespins.



The baby food jar lid game was a great way to use up all the random lids I had leftover from using the jars.


These popsicle stick puzzles were ridiculously easy to make. Line up popsicle sticks, print off some 4x6 photos onto sticker sheets, cut them out, press the photo onto your sticks and then slice with an exacto knife in between each stick.



Tayden loved them. Puzzles + characters he loves = win for Tayden!

Do you have plastic eggs stashed away from Easter? Well dig them out and make this:



I made a sheet of egg templates for you to print and cut out into nine squares. Then, cut out felt eggs that match whatever color plastic eggs you have and you have a fantastic game to teach your little colors, sorting, and matching. It all stores quite neatly into a recipe box.

I picked up a metal cake pan at the dollar store, which serves as a perfect tray for all these activities and as a board to practice numbers and addition.



This pom-pom stuffer was a huge hit with both.



Especially with Sedae. She played it about 4 times and got mad when Tayden tried to have a turn :) It was simple enough for her to do on her own, and she loved the feeling of the pom poms.



I printed off all the flash cards that I posted here.



Picked up some dollar store books and notepads.



And a cute little folder, clip board, and coloring pages.



Tayden's already asking when we can break out the bag again. And I have no problem with that. Because it means more eating out for me!

There's a new tab at the top here to have easy access to the whole series we covered, plus those that will come up in the future.

Here's to staying busy!