We had so much rain this weekend! It was pretty gloomy out, so we decided to come up with a little paper craft to match.
Materials Needed
Black, Blue, and White Construction Paper
Glue
Scissors
We started by cutting out a cloud like shape from the white paper and rain drops from the blue paper. If your little one is preschool or early elementary school age, you can draw the shapes and let them do the cutting!
Next, we helped our toddler use the glue stick and then let her glue on the cloud and the rain drops. We offered her total freedom to decide where she would place what. We always try to let her creativity shine when we are doing crafts. You could use a glue bottle for this craft as well if you do not want to use a glue stick.
This project took about 15 minutes and is great fine motor skill practice!
We love everything about Walt Disney World. We love the rides, we love the shows, and we really love the food! This evening, we want to share with you everywhere we ate on our March trip to Disney. We unfortunately were so busy enjoying ourselves, that we did not get pictures of our meals. We do however have great memories and some opinions about each restaurant to share!
Magic Kingdom
Crystal Palace- We had breakfast at The Crystal Palace. It was wonderful. We previously wrote a detailed review that you can check out to learn more about our experience.
Pinocchio Village Haus- Pinoccio Village Haus is one of our go to’s for lunch in the Magic Kingdom. It is located next to it’s a small world. They have wonderful gluten free options. It does get very busy and noisy, so if you are traveling with someone who has sensory sensitivities, you may want to sit outside.
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe- We had never tried Pecos
Bill’s before, but we ended up eating there twice on our most recent trip. The
portions are giant. Our favorite part was the topping bar that allowed us to
add different toppings ourselves to our meal. Our toddler loves sour cream, so
being able to have as much as we wanted of it was a wonderful perk.
The Plaza Restaurant- We wanted to try some new things this
past trip, so we made a reservation at the Plaza Restaurant for dinner.
Reservations did not appear to be required, but the walk up wait was about a
half hour when we were there. The service was good and the chef who we spoke to
was very accommodating when I realized there wasn’t much on the menu that was
both allergy safe and fit my other dietary needs. Mr. Not So Crafty got a
burger and it looked amazing as well.
Electric Umbrella- We have loved eating at the Electric Umbrella on past trips, but it was a disappointment this time. We had done mobile ordering to make the process quicker because our toddler was hungry and in the middle of a meltdown caused by sensory overload. When we got there, it was fairly empty and quiet, which did help our little one calm down. After about 20 minutes, Mr. Not So Crafty went to check on our mobile order. They simply had not made it. We would have been more understanding if they were busy or at least a tiny bit apologetic, but neither one of those things applied. The food was average, but not worth what ended up being about a 30 minute wait for quick service food.
Sunshine Seasons- We visited Sunshine Seasons for lunch on a day that a family member was joining us in Epcot. It’s huge variety of healthy options was perfect for each of our unique dietary needs. It was super easy to find a cast member to take my allergy friendly order. The food was very good and it was a nice place for a quick lunch.
Rose and Crown Dining Room- We had an early dinner at the Rose and Crown Dining room. We did not have a reservation, but they are available to make. We only waited about five minutes for an inside seat on a Saturday. They have a dedicated fryer that offers french fries that are safe from allergens. The food did take an above average amount of time to get to our table, but it was really good once we got it! The bar area was very busy. I had to take my toddler to the bathroom for a diaper change while we waited for our food and after struggling to try to get through the bar and to the bathroom inside the restaurant, I gave up and went across the street to a restroom there. I would highly recommend doing this instead of trying to fight your way through the bar crowd with your small children!
Animal Kingdom
Restaurantosaurus- Restaurantosaurus holds the title of our toddler’s favorite Disney restaurant. The atmosphere is very child friendly and the kid’s meals come with a little bucket and shovel. The food and service was good. This will be a new go to quick service for our family.
Hollywood Studios
Backlot Express- We usually only do a sit down meal in Hollywood Studios, but this trip, we decided to try a quick service meal instead. We really enjoyed the food from Backlot Express. They had an amazing selection of sauces that were not available at every quick service restaurant. Our only complaint was about the layout of the restaurant. It was very cramped and not very handicap friendly. We would still eat there again, even if it was hard to navigate.
Disney Springs
Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’- Homecomin’ is a restaurant that was new to us. My dad had wonderful things to say about it, so we made a reservation and decided to give it a try. The restaurant offers southern comfort food. This is Mr. Not So Crafty’s pick for best meal of the trip. He got a giant burger and thought it was delicious. My choices were limited because they were not as good about accommodating allergies as Disney owned restaurants, but I ended up getting the Kitchen plate (a collection of side dishes). I left full and it was very good. You do not absolutely have to have a reservation to eat at Homecomin’ but it does get really busy.
The Rainforest Cafe- On the second to last day of our trip, Mr. Not So Crafty had decided we needed one more sit down dinner. He looked on the Disney App and found a dinner reservation open for Rainforest Cafe on our last night. We found the check in process a little hectic. Once we got sat down, our server was nice and they had tons of allergy friendly options. The food did take a long time to get to us, but it was very good. The portions were very filling. We were worried that the regularly timed “rainstorms” would bother our toddler, but she enjoyed everyone one of them.
Pop Century
Everything Pop Food Court- The Everything Pop food court was the first and last place we ate while on our Disney trip. Like most resort dining, it is right off of the lobby, so it was super convenient. They have a huge selection of different foods. They work really well with allergies, but the allergy safe food does take a long time to get. It is worth the wait to stay safe though! They do put onions in some things that one might not expect onions in, so if you have an onion sensitivity like Mr. Not So Crafty, you may want to ask in advance if your food choice will contain them.
We were overall very happy with our food and dining experience during our stay! Disney offers a level of customer service that you can not find many other places. If you have been to Disney, what is your favorite place to eat? If you have not, are there any on our list that sound good to you?
We are currently loving the spring weather! Today, we used a plastic fork and a cotton swab to paint beautiful dandelions.
Materials Needed
Yellow Paint
Green Paint
White Paper
Plastic Fork
Cotton Swab
Start by helping your little one put yellow paint on the fork and press it on the paper so that they can form several circles. Our little one made three circles with the paint.
After the circles are made, put green paint on the cotton swab and help your little one draw the stems of the dandelions. The older your child is, the less guidance they will need. The end result is super cute and your little one will love using these two out of the box painting methods!
Spring is here and we are having some lovely weather today! Our flowers have started to bloom outside and this year, our toddler is really into smelling them. We decided to bring that interest inside with this tissue paper flower craft.
Materials Needed
White Paper
Glue
Tissue Paper (We used green and pink cut into little pieces)
A Pen
If your tissue paper is already cut, start by drawing a large flower on a piece of white paper. We keep bags of pre-cut tissue paper in our craft bin to keep prep time simple. If it is not already cut, then you’ll also need to cut out small squares of tissue paper before your little one can get started.
Once your flower is drawn, cover it with liquid glue. This is an activity that a glue stick really would not work as well for. We create most of our crafts and learning activities with our two year old in mind, but if you have a child that is in elementary school and you’d like to make this an interesting craft for them, they could draw the flower and run the glue bottle all on their own. Once the glue is on, let your little one put the tissue paper onto the flower shape on color at a time.
This craft is a bit more guided than most we post on our blog, but the end result is so cute!
We recently flew from Ohio to Florida (and back) with our two year old. She had flown once before, but she was only a month old at the time, so it was a totally different experience. Today we want to talk about a few things that you will need to bring with you when you fly with a toddler.
**This post contains affiliate links. We may get a small commission for purchases made through these links, at no additional charge to you. All of the options expressed are our own**
One of the most important tips we can give is to bring plenty of entertainment for a toddler. Most toddlers are fairly active and it is unrealistic to expect them to sit quietly without multiple things to do. The longer your flight is, the more types of entertainment you will need. We took our daughter’s iPad and several children’s books.
We had planned to give our toddler pure juice (something that we never do) during take off, but when we went to buy the juice, we came up with an additional idea. We also picked up a Lunchable. She had never had one before and the curiosity kept her quiet as boarding finished and the plane got ready to take off. A special treat can help distract your toddler during parts of the flight that might be scary.
Children over two are required to have their own seat with most airlines, but getting them to sit in it can be a challenge. Our toddler has a lot of energy. She rarely stops moving. We did not need a car seat where we were going, so we decided to purchase an airplane travel harness. It was a little on the expensive side, but worth every penny. It made the airplane seat feel like a car seat for our toddler.
Our flights both went wonderfully. We hope that this short guide can help other families as well. We would love to hear from you! What has your experience flying with young children been like? What is something that you can not fly without?
We have started to get warm weather in our area, but we have also been getting a lot of rain. This art project is a simple way to entertain a little one on a rainy day.
Supplies Needed
Construction Paper
Glue
Scissors
This is a very open ended art activity. You can very easily make it your own. We decided to make ours very simple because our child is two, but you can add much more to yours. We cut out raindrops and parts of an umbrella. You could also add clouds, lightening, or really anything you wanted.
After we got everything ready, we let our toddler glue things down the way she wanted them. We used liquid glue, but a glue stick would work great as well.
Easter is just over two weeks away! We have not decorated real eggs yet in our house, but today, we painted a paper egg.
Materials Needed
White Paper
Scissors
Paint (We used three colors)
Cotton Swabs
A Rubber Band
We started by cutting out an egg shape. If your little one is able to use scissors, you can draw the shape and let them do the cutting. We also wrapped the rubber band around the cotton swabs.
We helped our toddler dip the cotton swaps in the paint and let her paint on the egg.
The cotton swaps are a super fun way for toddlers to paint. We just let our daughter paint until she was done. The end result looks a bit more like a dinosaur egg than it does an Easter egg, but we love unique toddler art!
We recently made our first trip to Walt Disney World as a family of three. We got married at Disney just over ten years ago, so we were very excited to introduce our toddler to our Disney obsession. We did several things differently this trip because we had a tiny human with us. In the past, we did mostly quick service meals and we had never done a character meal! This trip, we decided to try one out!
We highly enjoyed our trip the The Crystal Palace. Winnie the Pooh is Mr. Not So Crafty’s favorite fictional character. We had a hard time deciding what meal to do, but we went with breakfast. We arrived about 15 minutes early for our reservation and were quickly seated. Like most character dinning experiences at Disney World, advanced reservations are highly recommended. There may or may not be day of reservations available, but we do not recommend risking it if the restaurant is on your must do list! While we were waiting, the hostess gave us a little paper that not only had allergy information on it, but it also had a list of foods that we could order from the kitchen custom made to be safe for specific allergies.
The food was delicious and the selection was amazing! Mr. Not So Crafty and our little one really enjoyed the sausage and bacon. There was a really amazing made to order omelette station with tons of choices for fillings. They had more food than we can remember to list! For the allergy safe offerings, I ordered a muffin and mickey waffles. Both these things were delicious. The muffin was Udi brand. This was not listed on the allergy menu, I am just a big fan of their muffins.
While the food was a pleasant perk, the reason we booked this meal was to meet the Winnie the Pooh characters. The characters available were Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet. Each character came by individually to each table. They did not rush and spent plenty of time with each family. Out of all the characters, Piglet spent the most time at our table. We didn’t think our daughter was ever going to let him go and he didn’t appear to mind!
We did not dislike a single thing about this dining experience! Everything from the food to the service was amazing. We can not wait to make reservations for our next trip!
Spring is here, but in Ohio, we have not had tons of warm days yet. We decided to bring spring inside with this butterfly art.
Materials Needed
Construction Paper (One piece for the butterfly and one for the “body” and “antennas”. You can pick any colors you’d like.)
Glue
Scissors
Paint
Paint Brush (Optional)
The prep work on this little project will only take a few minutes. Cut out a butterfly like shape (ours missed the mark a bit, but it was the best freehand we could manage) out of one piece of construction paper. Next, cut a long shape for the body and two little antennas from the other. If you have a preschool or elementary school aged child, they can do the cutting to work on fine motor skills!
Next, put some paint on the butterfly shape and let your little one move it around with either their hands or a paint brush. We used a paint brush.
Encourage your little one to paint as much as the butterfly as they can. After it dries, help them glue on the remaining parts.
The end result will be a unique little butterfly that is sure to make it feel like spring inside, even if it is still cold where you are. We joke that our little one’s finished product looks a bit like a moth than a butterfly, but we treasure anything that our little one puts her heart into making!
Yesterday was a busy day. Our toddler had an appointment and then we headed to a local play place so she could run off some energy. In the afternoon, we wanted to come up with a quick craft that she could have fun with.
Materials Needed
White Paper (Two Pieces)
Construction Paper (Can be any color)
Scissors
Glue
We started by cutting out the parts needed to make the bunny. We cut out a big circle, a smaller circle, and two ears from the construction paper our little one picked. Next, we cut a fluffy bunny tail from one of the sheets of white paper. You can use scrap white paper for the tail if you have any. We always keep paper scraps around to cut down on waste.
Next, we let our little one put together the bunny. We put glue from a bottle on the paper, but a preschool aged child could use a glue stick instead. We have not introduced the glue stick concept to our two year old yet, so we do not have any around the house.
The end result is a very simple, but super cute, bunny!
