I have a toddler that loves pasta. She could eat the stuff all day everyday and be happy. I’ve played around with different kinds of pasta with great success (homemade spaghetti-ohs, white bean mac-n-cheese) but she was ready for something different. After the fifth round in a row of homemade spaghetti-ohs, she was moping around and even asking for peeup-and-belly-witches.

So the other day, while she was chomping down her sandwich, I experimented with a new pasta dish for dinner. I had fresh carrot juice in the fridge along with a bit of Greek-style yogurt. Yes, they don’t sound like a good pairing, but along with the help of some cheddar cheese, anything is possible.

And, I was right.

This is a really easy recipe, you just need the ingredients. Most markets carry carrot juice, but make sure you don’t pick up a blend with orange or cucumber. If you’ve got your own juicer, you’re totally good to go.

Ingredients

8 ounces dry fusilli pasta cooked (which makes about 4-cups)

1/2 cup carrot juice

1/2 cup Greek-style plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (you know, that Lawry’s stuff)

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Bring a big pot of water to a boil, toss in a bit of salt, and then your pasta. Any shape works, but the fusilli really is perfect. While things are bubbling away, mix together the carrot juice, yogurt, oil, seasoned salt, and salt in a bowl. Give things a whisk to make sure it’s all creamy. Go ahead and shred your cheddar, too.

Once your pasta is cooked and happy, give it a strain. While it’s hanging out, toss the carrot-yogurt mixture into your hot pot and turn the heat down to medium-low. Give things a stir while the sauce starts heating up.

As soon as the sauce starts bubbling, add the pasta back to the pot. Stir to coat the pasta and then add the shredded cheese. Keep stirring and simmering until the cheese is all melty.

Now is the time for taste testing – this is a kid-friendly recipe, so it’s low in salt and also not too strong in flavor. If you know your kid loves garlic, add some in with the mix. Got a child that loves the spice? Kick things up with a few shots of hot sauce. Mine can’t get enough of that tangy yogurt flavor, so I added an extra dollop at the end, along with a dash of pepper (and another sprinkling of salt).

The finished faux mac-n-cheese has an almost neon-orange color and is good hot or cold. My tot scarfed down 2-bowls for dinner, and happily ate a big serving cold the next day at preschool.

*The first time I made this recipe, I included shredded, slow-roasted turkey breast, which was out of this world. For an adult version, finish the pasta with a couple of good handfuls of spinach, top with extra shredded cheddar and pop under the broiler for a fabulous side dish.

Remember last week when I shared that post about right-brained dominant (a.k.a super creative) kids? While writing it, my toddler was enjoying her not-really nap-time. She doesn’t really sleep anymore, she just has quiet time in her room. I’ve got it stocked with her favorite books, stuffed animals, a chalk board with chalk, and most recently, crayons and a few coloring books. She’s really into creating tons and tons of creations to mail to Gamma and Opa, so I figured I could trust her to keep those crayons on the paper.

Because, you remember when she colored on the wall, right?

(which resulted in the homemade chalk board…)

The thing is, your toddler is hard-wired to make marks. Her right-brain is in overload, desperately searching for ways to share thoughts, feelings, and ideas. This stage of creation is referred to as the scribble stage, due to the child’s desire to scribble, scribble, scribble. Nothing looks like much, but your toddler can actively tell you about the animals, monsters, people, and other crazy stuff in artworks. Before you discard those pages and pages of scribbles, understand it is the expression of your child’s brain developing in amazing ways. From starting to understand hand-eye coordination to simple mathematical concepts, your toddler’s scribbles are the stepping stone to speech, reading, and writing development.

Meaning, it’s a good idea to encourage your child’s disorganized scribbling as much as possible.

But what to do when your child colors on everything and anything possible?

Remember the afore-mentioned day – that day I was writing and the tot was “napping?” When I went down to see if she had actually fallen asleep, because things had gotten pretty quiet, I made quite the discovery. She had colored everywhere. From her dresser to her closet doors to her side table to her light switch, just about everything in her room had a colorful mark.

Before I took a moment to think I scolded her. Instantly I realized it was the absolute wrong decision. She had spent just over an hour artfully decorating her room in a way she was excited about and excited to share with me. She had spent time expressing herself though scribbles and colors (really, each area was a different color combination), and she was looking forward to dazzling me with its beauty. And, I had left those crayons in her room. After we both calmed down, the two of us spent some quality time together cleaning up those scribbles and discussing where those crayons belong – on paper!

Do you have a super scribbler? Here are a few simple ways to encourage those marks to stay where you want them:

- Don’t leave any mark making implements within reach of your child (unless you are right there!): Yes, this is a bit of a no-brainer, but, as your toddler ages, you begin to feel they have an understanding of keeping crayons on the paper. Remember your toddler is still a toddler (until the age of four) and still has those inner-toddler instincts to see what might happen. Leaving crayons out for your child is an open invitation to color away on whatever is available. Make time to color alongside your toddler showing your amazing skills to keep those crayon scribbles on your own paper. Toddlers love copying behavior.

- Designate a coloring area: Make a spot in your home just for your toddler to create. Whether it’s the kitchen table, a small end table no one uses or an easel in the corner, make sure your toddler knows this is “the spot” to go for making marks. Keep the area stocked with paper, stickers, and chalk (which washes off everything) but keep the markers and crayons out of reach. When your child finds herself over at her creative spot, offer crayons, markers, or paints – but keep an eye on things. As your child matures, she’ll understand the area is for being creative, and markers shouldn’t travel around the house.

- Don’t be afraid: Sure, you might not be into fingerprinting, but your child is. Art is one of the main ways a child defines who they are. Getting creative with your child shows that you find her scribbles important, encouraging her self-esteem. You’re going to get messy. Your child is going to get messy. Stuff in your house might get messy. But, if you have a plan of attack, and stay calm, things will turn out wonderfully. Use plastic placements under paper to cut back on mess. Or, place a sheet pan under artwork while painting. Keep a wet washcloth (or a container of baby wipes) next to your creative area to tackle messes the minute they happen.

- Don’t yell (but don’t praise either): At some point your child is probably going to color on something. Hopefully, it will be with a mark-making implement that is washable. Before reacting, take a deep breath. If you are expecting it to happen during the toddler years it won’t be such a big surprise when you come across a colored white wall, right? Start by acknowledging what you see and then calmly explaining that crayons only belong on paper. Walk your child over to your creative area and get out a paper for your child to scribble on. Once she’s had a moment to make a few marks, remove the crayons. Walk back to your newly colored wall and discuss how the walls aren’t for coloring, but for hanging pictures and that you can frame one of her artworks to look at….

- Frame your child’s scribbles and hang them on the wall: Even though you might not think her scribbles are anything exciting, she sure does. If your child spends a good amount of time on a creation, pick up a simple frame (less than $10 at the craft store!), pop in her artwork, and display in your home. Make sure to point it out to your toddler or hang it at just above arms reach so she can stand in front of her framed artwork and appreciate it. Not only are you showing you are proud of her and her abilities, you are encouraging her to continue exploring her creativity.

So get out the crayons and start scribbling – on paper!

The last couple of days the sun has been a wonderfully vibrant thing up high in the sky. The tot, the husband, and I totally enjoyed ourselves gardening, playing in the wee kiddie pool, and soaking up the sun. I grew up in the baby-oil-for-sun block generation and am starting to see the wear and tear it’s left on my skin, so am making sure to do a bit extra to keep things as good as they can be by wearing sunscreen. But I do think it’s okay to let the skin soak-up about 15-minutes of that healthy vitamin D before slathering up.  After having a bit of fun in the sun, we get out the lotion and coat our bodies.

Sunscreen is an amazing thing – especially when you’ve got kiddies that love being outside. My talented friend agrees, so he wrote a book about it with the intention of educating kids (and adults) on the importance of sunscreen. It’s a sweet little book full of cute and adorable – and helpful tips on sunscreen use.

Suntan Stan enjoys tons of fun outdoors while remembering the importance of keeping on the sunscreen. This book is a great way to introduce the concept of wearing sunscreen to kids – and how they can be part of staying safe while outdoors and in the sun. My friend Larry Cheifetz is seriously hilarious (and the parent of three lovely girls himself) and this book shares his personality and passion for keeping kids safe – and healthy.

And, along with writing the book (with his co-writer Jennifer Horn and illustrator Mike Ferrin), Larry self-published it. Check out Suntan Stan’s Facebook page for more information about the book and how to pick up your own copy!

*Just so you know, I was not paid for this post or compensated in any way. I wrote this review strictly because Suntan Stan is darn cool – and so is my friend Larry.

My tot is only three and she’s in love with coloring, coloring, painting, coloring, cooking, imaginary play, and more painting. I often hear the, “Oh my gosh, she’s just like you” comment, along with the, “You’re so lucky she is so creative!” Well, am I? The thing is, I’m hyper-creative. While writing this I’m also thinking about what I’m going to cook for dinner, that the downstairs hallway needs painting, how I’d like to do a finger paint canvas project with the tot, and how cool it would be to make a soap dish from a cabbage leaf pressed in clay.

I’m a bit ADHD right-brain creative.

Along with having all these awesome ideas running through my head, I’ve got life to contend with. Often my ideas are a flash and then gone.

I also can’t add without using my fingers.

(really)

Creative kids often struggle with logical real world stuff. The right-brain is hardwired to indulge creative thought, pushing that mathematical, sensible, and reasonable left-brain to the background. Encouraging creativity is important for all – but sometimes it is important to make sure those that are creative are getting a bit of that logical left to balance things out.

The Right-Brain Dominant Child

A child’s brain is an amazing thing with areas in charge of logical thought, which may not be used as often as parents (and teachers) would like, and also creativity. The brain is divided into two hemispheres – the right and the left. The left side of the brain is dominant over the right side of the body and the right over the left. This means left-handed individuals are thought to be right-brain dominant, but it is not always the case. Before labeling a child as a right-brain learner, remember that the entire brain works together to create a complete human being, but many do have tendencies toward a specific half.

Right-Brain Characteristics

When a child seems to excel in the creative arts, is excited about doing hands-on activities, and exploring and experimenting, the right side of the brain is probably dominant over the left. Several developmental characteristics are often associated with right-brain learners such as higher levels of creativity and language skills. Along with these positive attributes, right-brain dominant kids are often thought unorganized and easily distracted.

A right-brain dominant child may also be classified as a visual- spatial learner, which means the brain taps into learning through visual clues, the child prefers information given all at once, and learns through doing not observing. Those long mathematical problems or activities that follow multi-step directions may cause a right-brained child to tune out. In a perfect world, children would be taught in ways most appropriate for their learning style, but with a majority of the population leaning toward being left-brain dominant, a more structured, linear, and goal-oriented way of education prevails. This causes many a teacher to feel a child isn’t able to perform as well as other children without realizing that it may have more to do with how the information is presented.

Learning with a Right-Brained Child

Now that you have determined you have a right-brained child, what is the next step? There are simple ways to encourage your child to tap into both sides of the brain, which not only allows the dominant side to shine, but balances the whole being.

-       Use your child’s creativity to help utilize left-brain strengths.  Most right-brain dominant children enjoy learning through doing. Turn the next challenging math assignment into a creative experience by encouraging brain to think in different ways. Spend time talking through the assignment with your child, or even act out ideas, and encourage taking notes to help remember details later. Not only does this help keep things on track, but encourages the linear left-brain to work alongside the creative right.

-       When your child is ready to get working, encourage solo work time. Often right-brained children enjoy working with others, which may lead to wonderful and exciting learning opportunities within the classroom, but can take a child off-task when completing homework. Tap into the left-brain by giving your child quiet space to focus on the task at hand. When a task is completed, celebrate with an engrossing and engaging game or activity that rewards all that hard work.

-       Use your child’s visual brain to its best by encouraging learning through using color. When studying for an upcoming spelling test offer your child a pre-test and then focus on the words that were challenging. The HSLDA (Home Schooling Legal Defense Association) suggest writing out the misspelled words on cards with the letters that are incorrect in a different color. For instance, if your child writes Saturday as “Saterday” write the correct letters in black and the incorrect “e” as a “u” but in red. Help your child make the flash cards together to encourage the left and right brain to work together.

-       Take your time – and encourage your child to do the same. Visual-spatial learners do not work well under pressure. Although, in most cases, school tests are timed, while at home, offer your child as much time as needed to get work done. If your child is challenged with an activity, encourage drawing a picture or creating charts to show visualization the activity. Offer assistance and encouragement without judgment or getting frustrated if things are taking a bit longer than desired.

-       When in the classroom, offer the right-brain dominant child lots of opportunities for visual learning, which means including charts in lectures and visuals when discussing an assignment, such as pictures of birds when learning about migration. All children enjoy looking at visuals when learning, so including additional images as often as possible only aides in everyone’s education.

Having a right-brained dominant child may seem like a roller coaster at times, with moments of total excitement and crashes with great disappointments. Working with your child is key, no matter the learning style, which encourages positive learning for years to come.

Earth Day is right around the corner, and with Easter just behind us, I’ve got a stock-pile of egg cartons just begging for repurposing. I had the opportunity to share my favorite ideas with Parents.com, showcasing eight fun and simple ways to transform those egg cartons into something really special. Earth Day is all about celebrating nature and remembering to appreciate the Earth by reusing, repurposing, and recycling. These egg cup activities do all that – and more!

So head on over to Parents.com to check out 8 Creative Egg Carton Crafts and get busy with your kiddies! Want more egg carton inspiration? Check out my adorable egg cup mask that the tot and I put together along with these other awesome egg carton activities.

Everyone is having fun with egg cartons!

For the last couple of days the tot and I have enjoyed some time off from the preschool. It’s spring break, which means doing lots of messy projects at home, cuddling with an afternoon movie, and making tasty stuff.

Honestly?

I’m kind of in love with spring break right now.

Today I decided we would have a lunch date. Instead of feeding the tot her regular side of apple sauce with a plain cheese sandwich – and making something for myself later while she napped, I mixed it up a bit by making a sandwich both of us would love.

Grilled cheese and apple sandwiches.

Yeah, this is a kid-friendly sandwich, but it’s also a wonderfully tasty and fulfilling adult light-lunch option. Enjoy with a small cup of soup or side salad and you’ve got an awesome lunch. Just go a bit lighter on the mustard for the kiddies.

What you need to make one sandwich…

2 slices of whole-wheat bread

Room temperature butter

Dijon mustard

2 thick slices of Jarlsburg (Swiss) cheese

1/4 a Gala apple thinly sliced (you can leave the skin on)

What you do…

Start by giving one side of a piece of whole-wheat bread a light coating of butter. Place that slice, butter side down, in a pan over medium-to-low heat.

Cover that slice of bread with one of the slices of Jarlsburg. Good Jarlsburg cheese is nutty and ooey-gooey, which blends wonderfully with the sweet Gala apples, and tang of the mustard.

Thinly slice one-forth of the apple, avoiding the core, and layer six to eight slices on top of the cheese.

Top the apples with the second slice of cheese.

Give the second piece of whole-wheat bread a nice coating of good Dijon mustard, place on top of the sandwich, and lightly coat the outside of the slice of bread with butter.

By now the sandwich is probably ready for a flip – do so gently with a spatula to ensure the whole pile of goodness doesn’t fall apart.

Let the grilled cheese and apple sandwich toast until the cheese is gooey – about 3 to 4-minutes on each side.

You know that melty-cheesy-oh-so-good thing?

Yeah.

Enjoy!

Well, Easover has come and gone, and I’ve got a few egg cartons leftover from all those eggs. But, instead of chucking them, I decided we should have some fun. With Earth Day right around the corner, I had lots of ideas for all things reusable. And, my friend over at Tinkerlab was challenging people to get creative with egg cartons, and I had the perfect idea! The tot has been really getting into dressing up and dancing about the house, so making simple masks with those egg cartons sounded pretty good to me – and my daughter, too.

I cut apart two connected egg cups and invited the tot to coat them in paint…

Then we added a sprinkling of glitter, which is also great for honing fine-motor skills!

Once things had dried, I helped by cutting out the center of each cup, making eye holes, and then offered my daughter a selection of colorful pom poms and a bit of glue to dunk and them press on to her creation.

We found a few red feathers and I used the hot glue gun to secure them (and the glued pom poms) to the egg carton mask. To finish the mask, I popped a few holes in the sides and strung with a length of red string. If you have some stretchy elastic, that would work even better!

What’s great about this activity is you can make lots and lots of masks with all the different materials you have hanging around. Older kids can use markers to add details, younger tots can get messy slathering on paint – and more paint – and you can play around with the mask base. Individual cups can be connected together with the help of colorful pipe cleaners, or several strung in a row for something really different.

We enjoyed several hours playing with the finished mask (before it basically fell apart) encouraging my tot’s budding imaginary play skills. But, no problem! When it had finally come apart from too many put-on-and-tear-offs, we gathered together more materials and made another one!

Over at our house we are prepping for Easover. That’s right. I just made up a word – and a holiday. I mashed together Easter and Passover into one wonderfully fantastic holiday focused on celebration, food, more food, and gathering friends and family to share in the food and celebration. Easover is all about the fun side of Easter, full of dyed eggs, chocolate bunnies, and maybe an egg hunt or two. It’s also about learning more about Jewish tradition and gathering together for the epic Passover meal.

You see, I was raised Lutheran, (which didn’t really go well), and my husband is part Jewish. He grew up in an East Coast Jewish family but didn’t quite make it to being bar mitzvah-ed. So, together, we are a somewhat non-religeious-but-full-of-traditions family. Basically, we’re making it up.

Hence, Easover.

While living over on the East Coast, we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate Passover with his family and experience a traditional Seder dinner, which was really special. But, with a tot, and no family in the area here in California, we’re winging it. My mom sent a fantastic box full of Easter goodies, and the tot and I will be naturally dying eggs later today, but we wanted to include some our favorite Passover eats with our Sunday celebration.

Kugel.

If you haven’t had it, kugel is a sweet or savory dish made from egg noodles, eggs, creamy stuff, more eggs, and something sweet or savory. I decided to add my own spin on things – because it’s my own made up holiday, right? – and make a sweet, savory kugel with roasted sweet potatoes and apples. And this is so good, and really simple to toss together, perfect for whatever you’re celebrating!

Ingredients

1 lb chopped sweet potato (I used a really big one)

1 onion chopped

1 apple peeled and chopped

1 t vegetable oil

1 12-ounce bag broad egg noodles

4 eggs

1 c sour cream

1 c whole milk

Dash thyme and pepper

1/4 t salt

2 tablespoons butter

Additional sugar and salt for sprinkling the top of the kugel

How to make it

Pre heat your oven to 425 F and start chopping your sweet potato, apple, and onion. You want everything to be about a 1-inch dice, so take your time. Once things are chopped nice, toss on a sheet pan and drizzle with the vegetable oil. Pop things in your hot oven and let roast for about 15-minutes. Give things a toss and let roast for an additional 15 minutes – or until the edges start browning. After taking them out of the oven, reduce the temperature to 350 F.

While things are cranking in the oven, fill a bit stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Simmer the egg noodles for about 8-10 minutes, or until they are just cooked through. Give them a drain and let them hang out while  the sweet potatoes, apples, and onions are roasting.

Now crack those eggs into a medium mixing bowl, add the sour cream and milk, and give a whisk. Sprinkle in the thyme, pepper and salt and set to the side.

Get out a 9×13 inch casserole and lightly grease with vegetable oil. To create the kugel make a layer of egg noodles in the casserole and then top with a sprinkling of the sweet potato mixture, then layer with noodles, a sprinkling of potatoes, noodles, potatoes….

Once you’re out of noodles and sweet potatoes, evenly pour the egg mixture over the whole shebang. Use a big spoon to gently press the noodles into the milk mixture, and then sprinkle with additional salt and sugar. Dot the top with butter.

Yum

Pop your kugel into the hot oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the top starts browning. Let sit for 20-minutes before serving, or let chill in the fridge over night and enjoy at room temperature the next day – kugel is tasty hot or cold.

Happy Easover!

I’m tired of the rain. I really can’t complain – for the majority of our “winter” it was in the mid 60′s and sunny, so this late rainy winter season is lame (but really good for all the plants and stuff). I’ve been busy making soups and stews and casseroles, but not much just for the tot. She’s pretty obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the moment. We’re restricted from taking anything nutty to preschool, making her indulgences strictly limited to around the house.

I’d love to teach her how to open the fridge, get out the bread, peanut butter, jelly, a knife, and slather the stuff all over the bread because I’m tired of making piles and piles of the sticky sandwiches. Her face gets covered, jelly ends up on the furniture, ants start gathering…

Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m being a bit of a peanut-butter-and-jelly-Debbie-downer.

Oh well.

So, while the rain was doing this outside for the third day in a row,

I came up with a fun way of making that laborious task of tossing together those countless sandwiches into a quick and easy concoction.

Peanut butter and jelly quick bread.

This is a super easy bread to whip up, and if you aren’t feeling like dealing with cleaning the loaf pan, fill your muffin tin with liners and make mini-breads. I know you have all the ingredients (nothing crazy here) and the kids can even offer a helping hand – or make this easy recipe themselves. Just make sure to wash hands after handling raw eggs, not to lick the spoon (or bowl) clean, and offer assistance around that hot oven!

Ingredients

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 c plain yogurt (vanilla would be yummy, too)

1/2 c water

1/4 c sugar

Dash salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 c peanut butter

1/4 c jelly (any kind is tasty)

Simply whip together the egg, yogurt, water, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Go ahead and crank your oven to 350 F while you’re happily mixing away.

Slowly add the flour along with the baking soda and baking powder. Once the batter comes together, take a moment to prepare your loaf pan by giving it a nice slathering of vegetable oil, or a spray of no-stick whatever, or line your muffin tin.

Now measure and add the peanut butter as well as the jelly. Carefully stir (or fold) the peanut butter and jelly into the batter. You want big swirls of the stuff not for the peanut butter and jelly to become completely incorporated.

Gently pour the peanut butter and jelly quick bread batter into your prepared pan and toss into your hot oven for 50 to 60-minutes. Let your bread rest for at least 20-minutes before slicing (if you can wait that long). If you slice into it too soon, you will tempt the happy Quick Bread Gods of Fate and things may crumble to pieces (which is still tasty, but very messy).

Enjoy!

I love cooking in the kitchen, which means the tot loves to “cook” in the kitchen. I’ve been searching for a really fun interactive kitchen for her to play with that isn’t all plastic-y or super expensive (you know, those all wood ones). I’d seen some really cute ideas for how to make your own using an old side cabinet, but didn’t have one hanging around nor wanted to frequent the stores searching for a used one. So, the other day, the answer came to me when we received something from UPS.

A cardboard box oven.

To make your own box oven, you’ll need one 18x18x16 box along with another to use for adding your embellishments. You can make your oven however you like – and add special items for your budding cook.

This is how ours turned out…

I started by taping one end of the box, which allowed me to still have access to the insides. I traced around a rectangular plate of the tot’s to create the opening for the oven and then carefully cut on the line using a utility knife – but not along the bottom edge. To create the opening, I pressed a ruler along the base of the opening and then folded out the cardboard. Then I used a piece of sand paper to gently smooth the edges. For the handle, I cut one handle-shap from some scrap cardboard and then used that template to cut two more exactly the same. The hot glue gun held them together, and then to the front of the oven door with the help of a few small rectangles to make things more stable.

Next up? Cute knobs – that turn! With the help of a few egg cups and pipe cleaners, these knobs were good-to-go. I separated the egg cups and cut four same-sized circles from the extra cardboard. Then, I used a push pin to make two holes in each of the cardboard circles, just like it was a button. Simply thread the rounds with the pipe cleaners (doesn’t matter what color) and then hot glue the tops of the egg cups over the cardboard button, with the pipe cleaner end coming out the other side. Now measure (or don’t) where you’d like your knobs at the top of the box above the oven door. Use the push pin to make holes, thread with the button knobs, and then twist the pipe cleaners on the inside of the box oven, adding a dab of hot glue to make things really secure. I even used a black marker to add cooking temperatures.

 To create the cook-top, I cut the side off the extra cardboard box and hot-glued it over the top of the cardboard box oven, which made things a bit more stable. Then, I cut four large circles from the extra cardboard, plus an extra four smaller ones to make the burners. Once again, my hot glue gun secured everything in place.

Just because the bottom of the box was just a bit low to use when the front of the oven door opened, I cut a length of extra cardboard to fit right under the door when open and also held happily in place with a bit of hot glue. Making the pice just a bit longer makes it easy to fold the sides and then glue in place. This way the tot’s cakes would bake up just right.

After taping the bottom of the box, it became apparent that the top of the range would be a bit low. So, with the help of a four folded squares of extra cardboard, I created legs for the cardboard box oven and used that trusty hot glue gun to attach.

The tot could barely stay away while the cardboard box oven was in production, and the minute she could have at it, she was in love. And what’s awesome is that it cost me basically nothing to make, took just about an hour, and can be hot glued back together when things fall off – or recreated with a bigger box!