Adventures in Babysitting

Since I have been doing so much babysitting, I have to come up with different ways to keep the kiddos, monkeys, and munchkins occupied. That is one of the many reasons I love Pinterest. I have a whole board dedicated to babysitting ideas, so whether I need a craft for all the different holidays, a fun treat to make with the kids or a learning activity that's disguised as play time, I have it all in one place. I have decided to share with you all of my many adventures in babysitting, also all in one place.
The first group of kiddos belong to a lady in my ward who is a trained cosmetologist. We've had this deal for a few years now where she'll do my hair in exchange for babysitting. This particular day, I got a new hairstyle that I love. It's just bangs, but it's a nice fresh look without being too drastic. With these kiddos, we just hung out playing with some toys, then decided to break out the dress-up box. Little B had fun changing outfits and it kept her busy for a good 20 minutes, which I liked.

 This made me laugh, so I thought I would share it with you in hopes you get a little chuckle out of it. Little H is definitely growing up with three sisters. I guess he couldn't decide if the event was formal or casual.

I babysit the Munchkins every Wednesday and Friday, so I try to give them things to do when I'm with them instead of just watching movies {like I sometimes do when I babysit occasionally for other families since it's a limited time}. Over the past few weeks, we have played carpet games, built a fort and watched a movie, played water games, turned a cardboard box into a rocket ship, made bracelets, played with sidewalk chalk, ridden our bikes to the park, jumped on the trampoline, done a craft for Mother's Day, colored pictures, played with the dog, read books, 

These bracelets were easy for the Munchkins to do, and good for little hands to work with as they tried to put beads on the pipe cleaner. It's just what I had in with my babysitting stuff, but I really liked that the pipe cleaner was stiff enough for little hands to handle as they worked on their craft. 

One day the Munchkins came to my house to play, so I had to come up with a bit more to keep them out of trouble in a new environment. I had a box that I had actually completely unpacked from college that I decided they could play with. We grabbed some markers and off the top of my head told them we were going to make a rocket ship. Of course, since my little Honeypie is only three, he said he didn't know how to make a rocket ship, so this project didn't last long. I'm sure some of the other kids I watch would have had tons of fun with this, but these two Munchkins were a bit too young for it. Honeypie's sister had fun just scribbling all over the box, though.

I drew windows with the Munchkins waving out of them, and attempted to include space helmets.