Pom Pom Caterpillar

I asked a few friends one morning what the kids and I should do for a craft one day, and the first response was to glue some pom poms onto Popsicle sticks. Yes, we could do that I thought. Then, I started looking at our craft supplies and it appeared we were out of pom poms, Big N has a good habit of leaving them on the floor, where I promptly pick them up and throw them out before Little N has a chance to eat them.

But, I'm on mat leave, and we have nothing but time on our hands most days, so why not make our own pom poms, which I vaguely remember my sister doing when we were 12. I don't think I ever got into pom pom making. So, after a quick google search did not yield the results I was looking for, I made it up.

We cut a circle out of a piece of cardboard, then cut a line half way through the circle which started a smaller circle on the inside. We then went around, and around, and around with some yarn until we got what I assumed to be enough yarn to be a ball. We then carefully cut the yarn all along the cardboard being careful not to drop it. We took two pieces of yarn and tied it around the middle of each side of the cardboard and pulled out the cardboard form.
We quickly learned that what appeared to be enough yarn is actually no where near enough to make a nice ball shape, but it wasn't horrible.

Now because we had it in our heads that we were making a caterpillar we needed some more yarn pom poms. This is where things get tricky. Two year olds have enough attention span to make one ball, three balls is asking a lot. So, I showed the kids how to throw the ball to each other and quickly completed one more ball. Then I showed them how to try and juggle and sped through a third ball.

We attached all our balls onto half of a paper towel roll, added some eyes and antennae and had one super cute caterpillar. The kids thought he was nice, but had definitely lost interest by the end. Oh well, I still think he's cute.