Day 10: Shop for Gifts for Friends (plus)

Today's plan was to take TheBoy shopping at the dollar store to help pick out gifts for friends. I got this idea from a friend who did it with one of her sons a couple years ago. But then I got sidetracked on Instagram and added in another idea from another IGer.

First up:

We picked up a couple things for the kiddos in TheBoy's gym class and a couple other friends. I kept reminding him that he was picking out presents for each of his friends. He did great at the store, and he got to pick one thing to keep for himself (who doesn't treat themselves to something little when they're out shopping? I mean, really?); and then, definitely wanted to use everything once we got home. They're out of reach now.

I distracted him with our other activity. We made fun, multicolored crayons for little hands (to give and keep). I'd seen them on Pinterest and then again this morning on Instagram. As with most projects, it was more labor intensive than I anticipated. Peeling crayons was a big pain. But TheBoy helped out and really enjoyed breaking them into "little teeny pieces."

I'd only seen them done in silicon baking molds, but couldn't find any at Target today (right next to the dollar store), and I was NOT going traipsing around all over for them. We used foil muffin tin liners and they worked just as well (and didn't ruin any pans). After the peeling, and breaking, and filling of the muffin liners, we popped them into the oven at 200 and kept an eye on them.

They were different sizes, so it was nice to have them in the liners so I could remove them one at a time when they had juuuuuuuust melted (I didn't want them to cook) to let them cool. It was one of the most successful crafts yet.