Dinner prep: entertaining your toddler when preparing meals

Margaux  is at the age she wants to imitate everything I do. Very cute, but sometimes I need her to be entertained while I prepare her meal. In this case, she becomes a mini cook!

Tools:

• Egg container
• Toddler cooking utensils
• Coffee straws
• Silicone muffin pans

How To:

• Let your mini chef play with silicone muffin pans which are soft enough to use
• Give him/her coffee straws to put in a colander
• Using an egg container, break the egg shapes to make cardboard eggs
• If your toddler is used to seeing you cook, he/she will imitate you with toddler utensils: store them at your child's level for easy access. Quickly he/she will gather them instinctively while you cook

Ice cube painting

What to do when you have a toddler who is obsessed with going outside and it is currently raining? Let her/his inner artist shine!

Tools:

• Ice cube tray
• Food coloring
• Craft sticks
• Craft paper

How To:

• Pour one drop of food coloring in the cubes of an ice cube tray. I used only 4 squares of the tray, one for each color I used. Add water and place in your freezer for about 45 mins
• Cut craft sticks in half
• Check your ice cube tray. It should be half frozen. Insert the craft sticks in the center
• Put it back in the freezer until solid frozen
• Loosen the ice cubes and show your toddler how to paint

Butterflies collage

Inspiration:
For this craft, I was inspired by two of Margaux's favorites: Eric Carle's book "The very hungry caterpillar" and her love of magazines and catalogs.
Tools: 
Craft paper, cutouts from a catalog, Elmer's© purple glitter glue (washable, non toxic, this was a great find)
How To: 
- Simply cutout shapes in the pages of a catalog while your toddler naps
- Stick the page to a desk preferably
- Let your toddler put glitter glue on all the cutouts (Margaux got excited with this and overloaded on it!)
- Help him/her place them on the paper if needed but random placement from your toddler is best even if they overlap :)

Margaux makes a bird feeder

The weather was beautiful out and we could hear birds sing...perfect day to make Margaux's first bird feeder!

This is very simple to make and your toddler will most certainly enjoy tasting the cheerios in the process. There is some fun in there throughout the whole process. We don't eat Cheerios© so actually just walking to the store to get some is an activity in itself when you have a toddler!

Tools:
Floral wire
Cheerios©
A ribbon

How To:
- Cut a string of floral wire and shape it in a heart. Repeat as many times as you want hearts
- Let your toddler thread some cheerios© all around the wire
- Loop the hearts together and twist the wire to tie
- Tie a ribbon through the bird feeder to hang on a branch

Birthday sparkles

Margaux is 16 months old now and has reached the age of the busy toddler who is very curious and loves to try new things. We've had an incredibly white Winter to say the least, with snow days multiple times a week. How do you occupy a toddler in that case? Lots of CRAFTS.
It was my husband's birthday in January and a great occasion to try our first craft project. I got the idea from a friend of mine who has two children and is a lot more experienced than me on this. The concept is simple, gives pretty results and is definitely "toddler-approved".

Inspiration:
The view of the Eiffel Tower from our home when we lived in Paris
Tools: 
Heavy cardboard paper, sequins or glitters, Playskool© glue, pencil, cookie cutter
How To: 
- Draw your desired shape using a cookie cutter on the cardboard (a simple shape is best)
- Help your toddler squeeze some glue onto the drawing
- Let your toddler place sequins/glitters all over
- Let the artwork dry for about 30 mns
- Gently shake to remove the excess sequins

Happy Halloween from a peacock!

One really "Happy Meal"

I hate junk food with a passion and hope Margaux will grow up with the same dislike. I have to be realistic though: one day, she will learn about the evil McDonald's. What's a mum to do? Counteract! Rebel! Fight! Or simply outsmart the devil with a cuter - and healthy- version. This is where a friend of mine comes in. She regularly posts the loveliest photos and notes on her adventures with her niece. You can easily see she is an amazing Aunt and loves her to pieces - but what I love most is that her quality time with her niece is truly "quality". It is pure happy, healthy fun. One day they are doing yoga together, the little one mimicking her aunt, the next day my friends makes her the best Happy Meal possible. She shared with me the best Happy Meal invented.

Introducing: The FRUIT Happy Meal

Fries, cheeseburger and 4 piece nuggets. The whole works!

For the cheeseburger she used mango for the cheese, strawberries for the ketchup, kiwi for lettuce.
Nuggets out of mango. Apple fries.

Smart and healthy. Now that's a Happy Meal I could make Margaux with a smile.

Party time! Or 'How to win Mother of the Year Award"

This is the first of a new category called "Kiddie fun" as I am blessed to have incredibly talented friends with older little ones around. Just too tempting not to start a collaborating piece.

Margaux's future husband (hopefully - it's free to dream right?) just turned 2. We attended his first birthday last year (Margaux too, in my belly!) and it was simply the cutest baby birthday party I had ever seen, with darling details throughout the whole event. Needless to say, I was expecting great things for his second one...but his gorgeous mum outdid herself. When seeing the photos of the event (it was in Paris I'm afraid, could not attend this year sadly) I was immediately curious to know who helped her accomplish this. My little one is turning one in three months and I'm already starting to gather some ideas. The answer was simple: she did it all my friends!
I'll let you on a secret though, she's also a stylist and event planner, so those things come naturally to her I guess and she has an amazing eye for details and, well, anything pretty! (Check out her website here for more info).



Party Theme: Her little boy is a big fan of Mickey Mouse© so the theme came easily. I'm sure many children would appreciate this one.

Here is the magical result:

Below are a few photos of it all and my dear friend shares a few of her secrets with you:


" The Mickey Mouse©Wall feature:
Needed:
- x2 packets of crepe paper or  tissue paper (In black or white stripe or polka dot - or plain black)
- needle and thread
- x2 poster wall hanging stickers

• Cut the paper to the length of 40cm long for the large circle and x2 20cm for the two smaller circles
• Create three circles by folding paper back and forth at approx 3cm each way to achieve a fan effect.
• Once paper is folded hold at one end and fan out to create the circle (you may need to cut off excess paper if it is too full) stitch together at the center  Do the same for the two smaller circles then attach the two smaller circles at the top of the large circle, stitch at connecting point to hold in place.
• Place a poster wall sticker on both small circles and attach to wall.

The table was decorated with a red with white spot table cloth as we stuck with a red black and white theme but a stripe would work just as well to set the scene.
Red paper plates and napkins

Mickey Mouse© Wall:

I painted Mickey onto a large board and cut out his face for all of the little ones to have a photo as Mickey..... it worked well to add to the decoration of the room and was great for the children and adults alike to have a go and have a bit of fun!
You need yellow, white, red and black paints as well as a black marker for the finer details

Party favors:

Red paper bags
Mickey Mouse©e ears (available from ETSY or AMAZON)
Smarties packets
balloon
fun pencil
cake
Mickey Mouse© lolly pop

I simply filled the bags and wrote each child's name across the front, folded down the top of the bags and placed the ears on top. There were two girls attending so I found some cute little stick on bows to create Minnie ears for them!

Cake - three tiered Mickey Mouse© cake:

Top tier:
Chocolate cake covered in black marzipan fondant

2nd tier:
x2 Banana cakes with butter cream icing and white fondant with black Mickey cut outs 

Bottom tier:
CHEAT LAYER

a round cake tin covered in red fondant and black stripes to look like a cake! ;)

Cupcakes birthday cake

For the little ones I did little sugar free, butter free healthy cupcakes with an edible Mickey cake topper (available from ETSY or AMAZON)
Recipe:
Children's healthy blueberry and banana cupcakes

1 cup of rolled oats
11/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
21/2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
6 ripe bananas
1/2 cup of blueberries chopped
4 eggs beaten well
3/4 cup of unsweetened apple juice or apple puree
1/2 cup of butter melted (you can leave this out which I do)

Directions:
 Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (175 deg C).
Put the first seven ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir well until thoroughly combined.
Grease a 9 inch cake tin or cupcake molds and pour in the mixture.
Bake for around 50 mins to one hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in the tin or cupcake molds for 20 mins, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing: cream cheese and a splash of icing sugar and vanilla essence
Add a Mickey Mouse© cake topper

Mickey Mouse© fairy bread:
Using a mickey mouse cookie cutter, white bread, soft butter and hundreds and thousands (multicolored sprinkles)

Mickey Mouse© lolly pops
(purchased from Disneyland Paris©)

Mickey Mouse© cookies
Red lollies
Fruit squeezy packets "


Now, do we all agree? She just won Mother of the Year Award. And the happiest little two year old.

Don't steal! If you want to share this, please credit Jasmine Uhrikova for A La Maud.