busy bag ideas

I have twin girls that are two years old.
 
Need I say more?

Really........there isn't much else to say!  Ha!

Anyway.  I find that when I'm trying to do school with their older sisters, they want to be involved too.  Which usually means sneaky things like taking pencils or schoolbooks, scribbling on worksheets, etc etc.

SOOO, a solution!  BUSY BAGS!  They are all over the blogosphere right now but for some reason I kinda balked at the idea for a while.  No idea why.  I'm just a little slow I guess!  But now that the new school year has started, I've found the, uh, NEED to keep them busily entertained, preferably NOT getting into their sisters' schoolwork!   So I created some busy bags!  These are my two favs!  And of course I found the first one online, searching through other people's ideas!

Puff Ball Containers

These little containers were way easier than I thought.  I was wondering how in the world people cut those holes in the middle of the lids....did I need my husband to do this for me?!  Am I going to need some sort of power tool-ish device?!  First I tried a hole punch, NOT so power tool-ish!  Which turned out to be a complete fail.  Then I grabbed my handy dandy sewing scissors (because I WISH I sewed, not because I actually do) and just poked into the plastic and cut a little hole.  Who knew it would be so easy?!  

I bought the puff balls at Hobby Lobby for about $1.47.  For 125 sweet little puff balls!  I need to be honest here about something....I think I might like this activity more than the girls....there's just something about popping that little ball through the hole........you'll see!

Pretty Ball Cups

You guys like my creative names?  Five points to whoever can think of something better than Pretty Ball Cups!!

This one is just simply simple!  And pretty!  While walking through Hobby Lobby, I looked down one of the bazillion Christmas aisles and saw these little bags of sparkly, glittery balls!  I walked in a trance down the aisle toward the white, silvery ones....then my eyes saw the beautiful pink, purple, blue and green ones and I just KNEW my girls would love them.  They were $6.99 minus 40%!  I bought a bag and then took them home, threw them in a bag with a couple styrofoam cups and "Voila!" another busy bag!!

So far the girls love the busy bags, even the big girls!  I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with everyone having a different bag though, because of course that doesn't work....everyone wants what the other one has and then they want what the other has, and then they want what the other one has again.  *sigh*  One thing at a time I guess!