In my search for inspiration for a few awesome Easter Crafts and Activities, I can across these little chickies and decided to give it a try.  I couldn’t get the actual shaping of one pom pom quite right so I adopted my own method.

We ended up with 5 little chicks (so far) that my 3 year has fallen in love with and carries around the house in a recycled egg carton.

This fun little craft is more for mom than tot, but would make a great basket stuffer from the Easter bunny himself!

What you need:

• Yarn (yellow, white, pink or blue works fine)
• Scissors
• Felt or other material for eyes and beak
• Ribbon for bow or bow tie

What you do:

I followed the method for making the pom poms of More Style than Cash, the only differences being that I made two pom poms instead of one and probably wrapped the yarn around my fingers over 150 times.  I tied the two together pom poms together using the initial center string (one smaller than the other for the head).

I then super glued round eyes and a triangle beak to each Chickie plus one bow (hair bow for the girls and bow ties for the boys).

Place your little chickies in an egg carton for a little added authenticity!

No time for homemade basket stuffers this Easter?  Checkout The Baby Marketplace’s great selection!

Enjoy!

The Mommy in Charge

If you are anything like me, you are sick to death of the answer from your toddler to the age old question “what do you want for lunch”. Macaroni, macaroni, macaroni.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it every now and again, but I do think that I can provide something a little more, how should we say, nutritional, the rest of the time.

In addition to the macaroni and grilled cheese sammy repertoire, my toddler will also tolerate soup, for the most part, as long as it doesn’t have anything yucky in it. So with that I took to making some toddler friendly soup that I could freeze and re-serve in toddler size portions.

Toddler Friendly Easy Chicken Soup

What you need:

Chicken breasts or pieces (raw or cooked)
1/2 cup chopped onion (optional)
1 clove of garlic mined (optional)
1 litre chicken broth
1 cup of diced carrots (or whatever veggie your little one eats)
1/2 cup of diced celery
1 cup of egg noodles

What to do:

If using raw chicken, place diced chicken in your saucepan with onion, garlic and a couple tablespoons of water. Cover and cook.

Once the chicken is cooked, I removed the chicken, rinsed and put back in the pan minus the onion. You know, doing everything one can to keep the toddler happy.

Add broth, carrots and celery and bring to boil. Simmer until vegetables and cooked, but still crunchy. Add noodles, cook for 5 minutes and serve.





At this point, because I have an entire pot of soup minus everything I like, like spices and seasonings, I poured the soup into muffin tins to freeze into toddler size servings.

Enjoy with your picky toddler!

The Mommy in Charge

The tulips are blooming. Blooming inside our house this morning. Of course they aren’t blooming outside, remember the current state of my garden?

So with this current state of my garden, combined with the distant memories of last year’s visit to the Tulip Festival, we decided a Spring Craft was in order for today.

Using what had on hand we decided on Egg Carton Tulips.

What you need:

- cardboard egg carton
- paint
- bamboo skewer
- green pipe cleaner

What you do:

Cut the egg carton sections apart and trim to the shape of a tulip.





Paint each tulip inside and out. Allow to dry.





Cover each bamboo skewer with green pipe cleaner, winding it around. Poke the pointed edge of the skewer through the bottom of the flower and arrange in your vase.





Voila, the tulips are blooming while we try to patiently wait for spring.

Enjoy,
The Mommy in Charge