DIY Felt Toddler Busy Bag Crafts

"Busy Bags" are so hot right now! There are endless Pins on Pinterest and numerous videos on YouTube detailing how easy and cheap it is to make yourself some "Busy Bags". Every mom should have "Busy Bags" in her arsenal of mommy hacks. They're meant to keep your kids busy and most of the time, quiet. You use them anywhere: grocery store, doctor's office, Pharmacy, DMV, airplane, road trip, anywhere that you need your little one to be occupied these are supposed to work like a charm. When my mom visited after our youngest was born she brought an entire small suitcase filled with items to make about 15 different "Busy Bags" for my oldest. There are some he liked and some he didn't but we still use them to this day on and off. He can entertain himself with a car and a coloring book with color crayons now. He's pretty easy, it's our youngest that goes through everything super fast, nothing really holds his attention longer than 5 minutes. Our youngest will be 2 in about a week and a half and we are embarking on a 6 plus hour flight to California from Tennessee at the end of November of this year to go see family and go to Disneyland. I am flying with a 5 year old and a 2 year old all by myself... I think I have gone crazy! So I have been looking at videos and pins to find different ideas for what to take with us and decided to post a few blogs about the different "Busy Bags" I will be taking with me on the plane and use while we are there visiting family. 

Project #1: This felt project you take those weird crazy straws we all loved in the 90s, take some felt & cut up some squares or rectangles..whatever shape, fold over and make a little slit in the middle. That's it! They're supposed to thread the felt on the straws, that helps with dexterity and motor skills and it's supposed to keep them entertained for hours. My five-year-old wanted to do it; he wanted to match the colors with the colored straws.

Project #2: I took an ordinary $0.98 pill box, the felt I had already purchased and a dollar bag of colored pom poms. I cut some felt out per color of pom-pom, glued it on top of the pill box lid to cover up the days of the week and separated out the colored pom poms into their designated box. Simple for him to learn how to match colors and he loves running around with it. Of course he tried to eat the pom-poms at first! I had to tell him that they weren't food and after he figured that out he has so much fun! I dumped it out and he puts the colors in the boxes, I have to help him by putting one pom pom per color and then he follows.

Two great and inexpensive "Busy Bag" ideas! The straws were a dollar, the pencil pouches were a dollar each, the felt was $0.23 per sheet (I got 7 of them) and the pom-poms were $0.98... so for $6, because you have to factor in taxes, I have two "Busy Bags" complete! It took maybe 30 minutes to cut all the felt, glue and separate. There's also another one where you cut bigger pieces of felt and sew a button on some ribbon - it's called feed the snake that you just put the felt on the ribbon. I haven't found the right ribbon yet and don't know if I'll do that but it's a good idea. I think the straws might just be enough, for right now.

Taking 2 Under 5 to the Movies

So it's summer, my kids are stuck in the house because of the summer heat. My hubby is home for the weekend which sometimes is good, and sometimes we are at each other's throats. There's the way of marriage sometimes. So we had a movie gift card and decided to use it to take them to see Cars 3.

My youngest is only 18 months; we waited til our oldest was 3 before attempting to take him to the movies. We were worried about the youngest screaming, running around, getting scared from the loud movie or crying the whole time.

So we decided to go regardless of our worries because as parents you got it keep on going. In preparation for the movies I went shopping for snacks (I mean, who doesn't save money by buying their snacks at the store versus actually at the Movies!). 

I had already purchased these Nuby brand Snack N Sip cups  (2 pack from Wal-Mart) for my boys when we go to the zoo and walking with the youngest because it's a cup & snack bowl in one! 9 ounces of drink go in the bottom, and it's leak proof! And then 4 ounces of snack goes in the top & it clicks close. These cups are amazing for my two boys! 

Next I took a Pinterest hack with buying a caddy for the kids in the car so they can eat Drive Thru Kids Meals in the caddy versus putting all the food on their laps. So I went to the Dollar store to find some, they had these tiny ones which was perfect for my boys! I brought snacks too. 

 So when the big day came we got the diaper bag all packed with the snacks  (shh!) Put the youngest in his stroller & found the perfect spot to sit. We decided to sit the the front section, next to the wheelchair seats; at our Movies there was a tiny row next to the wheelchair seats that was a step down but only had 6 seats in the row. We put the stroller with the youngest in the step down part next to me, left a seat open for the youngest just in case he wanted out of the stroller, then our oldest, and then my hubby. We left enough room in case the youngest wanted to walk or one of us needed to take a kid out for potty breaks or crying fits. 

The youngest did awesome! He stayed in his stroller the majority of the time. As soon as we sat down, my hubby & oldest went to get popcorn (I mean you have to have popcorn at the movies!) And I got to work dividing the snacks into my kids food caddies. Then the next step was pouring the juice into their cups. I brought my youngest Wuby with a pacifier attached (he loves a little dinosaur; although we don't take a pacifier out with us anymore. Breaking him of it except for naps) his blanket (because movie theaters get cold) and his favorite toy stuffed animal a tiny, TY baby fox.

So with both kids having their snacks ready, we were good to go! 

About 90 minutes in the youngest tried pulling his cup up out of the stroller cup holder & hit himself in the nose (poor baby!) So I got him out of the stroller, put my purse in the stroller (so it didn't tip backward for the diaper bag) and put my youngest in his seat. He loved moving the seat up and down (although I was worried he'd fall through the opening!) And then when he wanted daddy, he walked over to daddy. He did get a little loud but it was nothing some candy & mommy couldn't cure 😊

The oldest was glued to the movie til his snacks & daddy's popcorn ran out but thank goodness the movie was 10 minutes from being over & once again candy came to the rescue so the oldest didn't start crying! 

All in all, it was a great family outing!