Busy Bags

As a going away gift for Amanda's girls, the boys and I made them busy bags for their car trip. I've been seeing these ideas online and really wanted to try them. A busy bag is a ziplock bag with a homemade activity inside to keep a little one, well.... busy. There are tons of ideas online, some educational, some just for fun. There a lists of these ideas, so you don't even have to be creative to make them. I've seen several blogs where they have busy bag swaps. The idea is for 10 or so moms of kids with the same aged kids to each make busy bags. Each mom picks a different busy bag idea and makes 10 of that one. Then the moms swap all their bags so that each mom/child has 10 different busy bags. I love the idea, but didn't want to join one because of the cost of shipping. Each activity is under $1, but shipping is about $30 (to and from). I'm going to try to set a local busy bag swap up with my MOPS group. I think it'll be a lot of fun for the moms and the kids, plus quite a bit cheaper. Here are some of the activities I made for my friend.

My 2 year old tested this one out for me. Matching the colored pipe cleaners to the holes. I was surprised how well he did it.

 This is one that I made for my boys. I laminated the wheel so that I could change the activity however I wanted using dry erase markers. Here, Ca is practicing sums of 5 by matching the number on the clothespin to the number that it goes with to equal 5. I made one for Amanda's girls that have dots to count on each pie (1 - 10) and clothespins with numbers to match. On the back of hers, I did colors.

This was the easiest one to make. I printed this alphebet tracing sheet on cardstock, slipped it in an old page protector I had from when I used to paper scrapbook, added a washable dry erase marker, and a couple of tissues for erasing in the bag, and I was done. The boys were fighting over this one (we tested them all out before giving them to our friends).

 This is a simple match the pictures project for her 2 yr old. Again, I tried it out with mine. I added velcro to the pictures just because it's for a car activity, otherwise it, too, would have been a super simple project. The boys helped me by cutting out the pictures.

• I also made them road trip bingo cards (laminated w/dry erase markers).
• Popsicle color match.
• A bag with noddles and more pipe cleaners (I figured they could make braclets or something).
• I had some bear shaped foam from an old craft. I hole punch holes all around it and added a shoelace to the bag so they could practice lacing. Similar to this.
• This button snake.
• I also printed some pictures of all the kids (hers and mine), cut them out like paper dolls, and put felt on the back of them. Then I took a piece of cardboard and covered it with felt, too. I figured they could tell stories with the pictures like a flannelgraph. I added some animals to the mix, too. We just went to the zoo together, so they could retell a zoo trip story.

Here's all of them. I think I made about 11 bags for her girls

I bought 3 canvas bags and put the girls names on them and separated the activites between them. I was in a hurry to get it done before we went out for Amanda's birthday and was sloppy with it. That hurt my anal heart.

Amanda said the girls are having lots of fun with their busy bags. I sure hope it makes that LONG car trip less painful for everyone.

Good-bye, My Sweet Friend

Once every 10 years or so, you find a friend who really gets you. I mean REALLY gets you. Feels the same about life as you do. Someone who loves you no matter what and really cares about you. Someone you admire. Someone who admires you. A true best friend. If you're really lucky, you'll find a friend that's all that plus has similar struggles in life, has a husband that is his own breed like yours (one that takes 10 yrs in college, but comes away with just a bachelor's), has kids the same ages as yours and play wonderfully together. Someone who parents similarly. Someone who helps you be a better wife, mom, and Christian. I've been lucky enough to find a friend like that. If you read my blog, you've read about her. She's the one that intrusted me with her children for a whole weekend. She let me be there with the birth of her newest edition. She's let me take pictures of her kids and family and paid me to do it b/c she truly believes I'm actually good at it. I've been so blessed to have her in my life. But now. She's moving this weekend. 13 hours away. 13 HOURS!!! Last Saturday night, I had a boo-hoo fest with myself about it. I finally got out of bed and wrote her a list of "31 things I love about you" - (it was her birthday). I actually had to narrow the list down. I think I would have come up with plenty even  if she were turning 75. I really cannot remember a time that she got on my nerves. We went out the next night for our last girls night out. I had a wonderful time - kind of helped me get closure with everything (like we're breaking up or something - haha). I'm sure when we say our good-byes, I'll totally lose it, but for now, I've chosen to be thankful for the time we had together rather than mad or sad that it's going to be so sparse in the future. God has truly blessed me with such a dear friend. Thank you, Amanda. Love you, girl!

Flying birds

Jack really likes the sock owls I made him. When I lay him in his crib, he watches them while he falls asleep (well, if he's not screaming). Honestly, I made them for decorative purposes. I knew that you can never count on a kid to appreciate what you've worked  hard on. But, I have to say, it's really nice when they do appreciate it. Thank you Jack!

And yes, I'm still swaddling him.