Maker Faire 2018

This past weekend we attended Maker Faire, one of my favorite events of the year.

Have you been to a Maker Faire before? It's such a fun event. This was our 6th year in a row attending Maker Faire and it was just as fun as always. There was so much to see, do and experience with amazing displays, hands on creating and fun rides for big and small.

As always, we didn't manage to see all of Maker Faire in just one day, and while I'd love to spend two full days there to try and experience everything it does get a little overwhelming for the kids after a full day. Maybe once Mathilde is older we'll start going for the whole weekend. Side note - Mathilde has been to every Maker Faire since she was born! This was her 5th Maker Faire and she only just turned four. She wasn't even a month old the first time she attended! I wonder if she's the youngest ever attendee.

While we didn't get to see everything at Maker Faire, what we did see (and do) was a lot of fun. Let's take a look...

Last Minute Halloween DIY: Robot Costume

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Every year I like to make my kids' Halloween costumes, but pretty much every year I find myself leaving it to the last minute. I always have good intentions to get the costumes made early - I usually  have all the materials purchased months in advance - but when it comes to the actual making of said costumes, I always leave it to the very last minute. It probably doesn't help that October is always a super busy month in our home with Lola's birthday right in the middle of the month and many of our favorite festivals in the lead up to Halloween.

One thing I always try to do when making the kids' Halloween costumes, is work with clothes that they already have in their closet. Rather than full costumes, I like to make accessories that work with regular clothes. That way the accessories can be worn for much longer for dress up play

I'm sure that there are plenty of other parents out there like me who leaves costumes to the very last minute, so all this week I'm going to be sharing some super simple last minute costume DIYs.

First up we have a simple robot costume!

This costume is really easy to make and mostly consists of items you'll have at home - including recycling! You can make it to pretty much any size (just use a bigger or smaller box) and can decorate it anyway you like. You could paint the box or use silver contact paper to cover it, but I like to use duct tape to cover it as it strengthens the costume as well. We all know that Halloween costumes take a bit of a beating by the time trick or treating is over, so anything that makes the costume stronger is good in my books!

Maker Faire 2015

Last weekend was a super busy one for us. On Saturday Ava competed in the Berkeley Kids' Marathon (and won!) and on Sunday we headed down to San Mateo for the 10th Annual Bay Area Maker Faire.

This was out third year visiting Maker Faire and just like our previous visits we had a blast - not literally of course, although there were plenty of things there that go kaboom!

There's always so much to see and do at Maker Faire. Admittedly, we only ever see about half of the displays. It's such a huge event that you'd really need two full days to experience it all. While I'd love to see all of it, the kids are always exhausted by the end of the day. All that fun is tiring!