Toddler Snack Idea: Fruit Trains

The afternoons can be very long. We try to get out of the house for some fun or errands in the morning, but there is a large chunk of time for us to fill between nap and dinner time. So, in an effort to mix things up a bit I have been trying to find fun activities, crafts and snacks for O to enjoy at home to help us pass the time and make it a FUN time!

I don't think I know a single child that isn't a huge fan of trains! They're hard not to love, with their classic appeal, loud noises and fast movement. O is a big fan of anything that moves, and trains are high up on his list, so I knew this snack would be the perfect way to get him interested in some fruit for his afternoon snack!

You can obviously see the kinds of fruits I used to construct the train, so I won't bore you with all of ingredients. I will tell you though that I had to get creative with the what I had on hand, that melon makes the best non-slippery base for your train and that the cylindrical shape of the banana is hard to substitute for that front part (hashtag "boy mom fail" -- have no clue what that part of the train is called). I secured all of the parts together with toothpicks and watched O closely as he played with and snacked on the train.

Obviously he was pretty amazed when he saw what I'd put together for him! 

Upon first seeing the creation he exclaimed "WOW, mommy! Look at dat train! I wanna play with it?". I sat him on the counter and he spent a few minutes pushing it back and forth (with a huge smile on his face) before deciding to eat it!

What kind of afternoon snacks do your children enjoy? Share them with us in the comments below!