News Taffy

Tis the season for graduation ceremonies. For you, too? This past weekend, my younger cousin graduated at Fayetteville. I was excited to see my family and watch her graduate with such high honors, but the several hour drive and a ceremony for 439 graduating high schoolers with a 4 and 2 year old? Not so much. I hoped that a couple movies, naps, and snacks would cover the drive, but I remained skeptical of the ceremony. I was more skeptical when I realized it started at 8 p.m. and my girls go to bed at 7 p.m.!

I decided to pack the girls' little backpacks with quiet activities and snacks, none of which they'd ever seen or tried before. I bought new colored pencils (crayons melt, you know) and sketch books. To take it a step further, I used some photo editing software to take pictures of them and our family members and make them into coloring pages. I also added in ziplock bags in each bag with a plastic crocheting needle, sparkly pink yarn, and plastic mesh shapes for them to "sew." I included painted large popsicle sticks and put velcro on the ends to make shapes and build with them. The last activity was a small wooden box in each bag with a piece of fleece as a blanket, tiny felt stuffed pillow, and a tiny stuffed animal. Little girls really enjoy putting babies to bed.

For the snacks, I found as many new and yummy treats as I could that were as healthy as possible. Kashi makes some really awesome snacks.

I was really surprised by what they liked most. I expected the 4-year-old to love the sewing and the 2-year-Keep old to love the coloring, but it was opposite. It makes sense now that I think on it. My 2-year-old has always been drawn to toys that use small motor skills and my 4-year-old loves people and socializing.

What about you? Any big events coming up you need to take your children along? Could you throw together a quiet bag? What kinds of things would your child enjoy in it?

My girls made it through happy and entertained and even lasted until after 10 p.m. when we got out! We won't talk about the next day and their grumpy exhaustion, haha, as long as the bag did its job that night!

Until next time, Heather