Looking for the $100 Fandango gift card giveaway? It would be the perfect thing to take your whole family to see the new Disney Planes movie that’s coming out.Â
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My kids love the zoo. In fact, I do too. Which is funny, because I’ve never been in love with the zoo (translation: it’s hot, huge, smelly, and lots of crowds to muscle through.) But our zoo is on the smaller side, it’s up in the mountains a bit, and there are lots of trees and shade. So, I just bought another year pass to our zoo.Â
While there last week, my kids saw some stuffed snakes for sale in the gift shop………..and you know me, if it looks easy enough to make, there’s no way on this green earth that I’m going to pay money for it. Well, unless it’s super cheap. But you know gift shops…….they’re NEVER cheap. (Like the bottle of sunscreen that I bought because I forgot ours, cost me $15.00!!!!)
Yeah, they’re not exactly the same as the gift-shop snakes, but a 2, 5, and 6 year old can barely tell the difference. Lucky me! And lucky bank account!
And lucky us…….the elephants have finally arrived!! :)
My kids’ favorite part of the zoo, is, of course, the animals. But kettle popcorn may have bumped the animals outta first place this last visit. No joke, they were ravenous little vultures with this stuff. And because we were at the zoo and their stuff-your-face-eating-technique fit right in, I didn’t stop them. :)
But my favorite part of this zoo……..is the view.Â
My least favorite part of the zoo?? That you can only exit the zoo through the gift shop. (Who else hates that about museums, zoos, aquariums, etc??)
As we were leaving last week, we were bombarded by a huge display of stuffed snakes, all dangling by their tails at the kid-eye-level. They begged me to buy 2 of them, so that they could ALL have a snake to use while playing their “snake game” at home. Currently they have one stuffed snake at home and they tried their best to convince me by saying Sammy (the lonely snake at home) needed some friends to play with. And that’s when it kinda stinks to have a mom who likes to sew and make things from scratch (sorry kiddos, you’re stuck with me!)……..because a big smile spread across my face and I said, “Oh, I can fix that!”Â
So, yesterday afternoon, I pulled out some fleece, some batting, and a few buttons. Nothing fancy……and a super quick stuffed toy project. (The baby snake was a request from Connor. He likes to play the baby snake in their “snake game”, I guess.)
It’s a darn good thing the neighbor is behind on mowing their lawn….because snakes like tall grass to slither through. Oh wait, that’s our lawn. “Steeeeeeeeeeeve, it’s time to mow the laaaaaaaaawn!“
Sweet little cuddly snakes…..thanks for saving me a few dollars. And thanks for entertaining my kiddos while they imagine their little hearts out. :)
Would you like to make a snake or two?
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
To begin, cut a long strip of fabric that is rounded on both ends. Also, make the head end wider and then gradually taper in as you cut to the tail end. Use this piece of fabric and lay it on top of your other piece of fabric as a pattern piece, and cut your second piece of fabric.
On the head end of the snake, pin a 3 inch piece of ribbon to the middle of the curved end. Place it on the “right” side of the fabric.
Then, place your two fabric pieces together with right sides together and pin all the way around your edges.
Then sew all the way around the outer edges of the snake……….
…..but leave about a 4 inch opening along one side of the snake.
Turn the snake right side out and stuff with batting.
Tuck the open edges in a 1/2 inch, towards the inside of the snake. Hand stitch closed. (Need help with hand sewing??)
Then, sew some buttons on for the eyes. (Also, I cut the tongue as a V shape and then used a lighter to melt the ends, so they wouldn’t unravel.)
Now, your snake is ready to slither.
Enjoy!
-Ashley
Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!
