Cinco de Mayo crafts {Homemade Maracas and Eye of God Craft}

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I know its last minute, but thats how we roll around here ;)  Today we are sharing two really fun and simple crafts your kids will love...young and old!

First up are these adorable Pinterest-inspired Homemade Maracas!  I saw a pin HERE and knew these needed to be a part of our celebration.

These maracas are easy, the kids can do them mostly by themselves, and they will love playing with them all day long. To get started you need some plastic spoons, plastic eggs, rice, and washi tape.

All you do is fill up your eggs with rice, and then place two spoons around your egg.

Then use your washi tape to secure your egg and you are ready for the best part...

To SHAKE IT!!

 

(And yes, this is how we roll.  Dirty shirt, no pants and a crumb-covered floor ;) 

The next craft we did was creating Eye of God's.  My older girls really loved these, in fact they spent an hour making them with their friends last night...after they had worked on them for an hour after school :)

All you need for this craft is popsicle sticks, tape or glue and yarn...easy-peasy!  To make them as colorful as possible I used multi-colored yarn and colored popsicle sticks. 

To show my kids how to wrap the yarn around your sticks to make this cool design we watched THIS tutorial, they explained it all beautifully.

I hope these gave you some fun, last-minute ideas and ways to enjoy your little ones today!  Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead!

Salty AND Sweet Cinco de Mayo Snacks!

Happy Monday everyone!  We had quite the eventful weekend.  Let me just say it involved a two-year old plugging the tub and leaving it running for HOURS, and a disaster clean up crew ;)  Even though there is lots of damage, I am so incredibly grateful no one was hurt...and that we have homeowners insurance ;)

On a happier note, today we are sharing some tasty Cinco de Mayo snacks you can easily whip up to satisfy your sweet tooth OR you craving for something salty!

First up we have our Salty Cinco de Mayo snack.  All we did for this bad boy was layer salsa, sour cream, and avocado in a clear cup with some tortilla chips on the side.  Its a fun chance to teach your kids about the Mexican flag, and the perfect after school snack.

I would choose a salty snack EVERY single time over sweet...but I can't say the same for my kids ;)  The sweet version of our snack is just sliced strawberries, then a layer of whipped cream, topped off with a layer of halved green grapes.

The kids gobbled this right up along with their breakfast this morning, it would make a great side dish or dessert for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations tomorrow too :)

Does your family celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  If so, I would LOVE to hear your favorite traditions!  Have a great day!

Cinco de Mayo Tissue Paper Craft

So here we are again!  After a 4 month blogging hiatus I really thought we had put this whole blogging thing on the shelf, but then my kiddos changed my mind.  The other night we were looking for a recipe on the blog and we ended up spending over an hour pouring over past posts and remembering SO many fun things we have done together.  I realized what a blessing this blog has been, even if for NO other reason than I have preserved some wonderful memories I have had the chance to share with my kids.  

So there you have it!  I hope to be able to share with you just a tidbit of our lives, things we do that add a little bit of joy or laughter into the sometimes mundane world of a stay-at-home-mom.  There are good days, and there are bad days...but this blog is dedicated to focusing on the good, even with its imperfections and challenges!

Next week we are going to be doing a few simple things to celebrate and learn about Cinco de Mayo, so I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to make a craft we could display while we do all our activities, a Cinco de Mayo Tissue Paper Craft!

This craft was great fun for the kids, and took about 5 minutes of prep from me :)  All you need to make your own are a bunch of different colored tissue paper, some glue, and a 5 template cut out.

I just googled printable 5 template and then printed and cut them out for my kids.   

Once you have your supplies ready to go, let your kids go CRAZY ripping their tissue paper into pieces...my kids enjoyed this part.  Especially my kindergartner...what is it about ripping up papers and 6 year old boys?!  At least this time it wasn't one of my 9 year olds song lyrics or 7 year olds drawings.  Yeah, it happens a lot at this house ;) 

Once you have a good pile of tissue paper, you just spread glue around your 5 and squash those tissue paper slips down until your 5 is FULL of tissue paper. 

Did I mention this was a messy craft?  Well...it is :)  Luckily my kids still think sweeping is a novelty and something quite fun to do.

The kids loved the finished product and said they looked like number pinatas.  I thought after how cute it would be do some in the colors of the Mexican flag, we may have to make a few more later ;)  We hung them up in our family study and can't wait to enjoy them as we continue with Cinco de Mayo fun into next week!

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I have had so many wonderful comments, followers and friends over the years of blogging, it has truly been a wonderful experience for me.  I love sharing and learning from others as we navigate this crazy and wonderful stage of life...have a wonderful weekend friends!