Cupcake Liner Umbrella Craft...and Healthy "Mud Dip" Snack!

Today we did a fun craft and had a yummy snack that were all about our crazy Spring Weather!!  Of course, living in Utah, that could have included SNOW...but I decided to stick with rain in hopes the snow is gone for the year ;)

I was inspired by Rachel over at I Heart Crafty Things to do this craft, she has done a bunch of adorable crafts with cupcake liners lately that made me decide I HAD to figure out something to do with all the ones I had on hand.

What you need for this quick and easy craft are some cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, glue sticks and cotton balls...easy-peasy!!

 

First up I put out all our different cupcake liners out and let the kids pick out their "umbrella tops".  Then they chose what handles they wanted from the pipe cleaners sent to me by my favorite CraftProjectIdeas...LOVE the bright colors!!

Once we picked out all our supplies the kids got to work.  First we cut a pipe cleaner in half and and folded the bottom up to make the umbrella handle.  Then we glued that on to our paper.  Then you simply fold a cupcake liner in half and glue it on top of the handle.

Then you'll want to glue the halves of the liner together to finish off your umbrella top!

After your umbrellas are all done you can add a few cotton ball clouds and then watch it rain!! 

And by rain I mean spraying the picture with blue water ;)

Here are the finished products...I love seeing my kids pride in their creations!

While I was whipping up our yummy treat, my kids made their own "umbrellas" :)

We talked about how one of the things that happens when it rains, especially at our house, is we get LOTS of mud!  Then I told they kids they got to eat some yummy Mud Dip for a snack...they were not super excited :)  Until I told them what was in it ;) 

For our Mud Dip I just stirred together a few spoonfuls of all-natural peanut butter, 1 TBSP of cocoa powder, a few sprinkles of crushed pecans, and some sprinkles of wheat germ for good measure.  Then I sliced up apples and celery and let the kids go to town! 

 The nuts and cocoa powder gave it the awesome color and texture of real mud, but the peanut butter made it a YUMMY mid-morning snack!

And this is what I got to see after leaving the room for 5 minutes to switch over a load of laundry :)

Yep, we had an early bath time today! :)

Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead today!  If you like what you see, follow us on Facebook and don't miss any of the fun crafts, snacks and activities coming up!!