Maraca

With Cinco de Mayo quickly approaching this weekend, it's time to get our game on with festivity planning. You may be thinking that you don't have anyone of Mexican descent in your family to warrant celebrating this holiday, but margaritas, tacos, pinatas, maracas, salsa, guacamole - these are all customs I want to embrace as my own. If your still not sold to jump on board with this holiday use one (or all) of my favorite excuses:

Your children really like to watch Dora and Diego (I know Aubrey couldn't live without either)
You are searching for a reason to throw a party
You have a lot of pent up anger and want to hit something (i.e. a pinata)
Avocados are on sale at your local grocery store
It falls on a Sunday this year and you feel you must celebrate its weekend status.

Any of the above reasons will work. If none of these apply to you - then you can find solice in the fact that Cinco de Mayo is a holiday mostly celebrated by Americans - undoubtedly people like myself looking for a reason to throw a party.

Moving forward....

If your children are anything like mine, they are going to love maracas. Aubrey calls spice jars maracas and runs around the kitchen shaking them. This is something I wouldn't recommend letting your child do while you're cooking (we've swept up a lot of spices as a result of this practice). So, what better time to give her an actual maraca than on Cinco de Mayo.

Supplies:
Toilet Paper Rolls
Dry Beans or small stones
Stapler and Staples
Children's Paint (or any art supplies you prefer)

To make the children's paint:
Mix together equal parts flour, salt and water. I used 1/3 cup of each and split between two bowls and it was plenty.
Incorporate food coloring to desired colored into the mix.

A note about this paint. It works pretty well, but is definitely more pastey than paint-like. It has the added bonus that you don't have to worry about your two year old getting it all over her legs or the table.....(not that that would happen around here!) but it definitely isn't as high quality of a mix as actual paint.

To make maracas:
Paint your toilet paper roll and let dry (this paint take a while to dry. We let ours dry for a few hours.)
Staple one end of the toilet paper roll together
Drop a handful of dry beans or small stones into the tube (we used some dry pinto beans on hand)
Staple the other end together.
Shake yourself crazy! Aubrey toggles between calling these maracas and my favorite, rock and roll machine. (As in, I need to play my rock and roll machine)