Busy Bag Exchange

 Last Spring, a friend emailed a bunch of mothers with toddlers asking if they wanted to be a part of a Busy Bag exchange over the summer.  She assigned us all different reusable craft projects to put together that would occupy and teach our toddlers. A lot of the busy bag ideas came from here.  I enthusiastically signed up to be a part of the exchange - and, of course, I waited until the last minute to complete the project. (I don't recommend this - it takes longer than you think it will!)
 I was assigned a cupcake busy bag and instructed to make enough for the 20 moms that signed up (myself included).

We used the guidelines from Money Saving Mom and got to work tracing and cutting out felt.  

It was a lot of cutting! I definitely enlisted help for this part!

We finally got all the bags put together and ready for the exchange.

Wouldn't YOU want to make one of these cupcakes?!

We got together this past weekend to swap busy bags - what fun!  Everyone gave plenty of "ooohhs and awwws" for each of the crafts, excited about the fun projects to do with their kids!  It turned into a great social event for me, and I came home bearing a huge bag full of "presents" for Marc.  We are definitely looking forward to getting to all of them. Below are a couple of the other projects we got from other Moms (matching color pom-pom balls with color dots on the left and making a shape - or whatever we want - on sandpaper with yarn on the right).  I have pictures of my son playing with them, but they would be inappropriate to post since we are potty training this week. :) It has actually been perfect timing for this busy bag exchange - giving me lots to do with Marc while keeping a close eye on him and the potty.  Fighting!