Pendant Necklaces

My mom brought the kids some flat, colored stones from Florida a few weeks ago.  I wasn't sure what we could do with them that would allow the kids to enjoy the stones, without them becoming a tool of mass destruction in our home or another "something" to pick up. (Who am I kidding?  everything becomes "something" to pick up)....

Side note: I LOVE grandparents and the gifts they give to our kiddos.  And the kids LOVE the gifts.  However, said grandparents may need a lesson or two in age-appropriate gifts.  :) Breakables = no nos.  Kids don't understand the difference between "decorative" and "toy".  Sadly, we've lost several sweet and sentimental gifts to because-they-loved-them-so-much-they-broke-them "accidents". 

Anywhoo...truly there's nothing wrong or breakable about these stones, and Ayla especially was very excited about them, so I wanted to come up with a good way for the kids to use them.  Together, we came up with pendant necklaces.

Originally I was going to drill a hole in them, but my drilling skills are limited, the stones are SOLID, and my efforts did NOT produce anything more than a slight scratch.  Plan B.  Washers & E6000 glue.  Yeah, that'll do it.  Then I added some cute rub-ons (hearts for Ayla & a dinosaur for Paxton) and a ribbon, long enough to go over their big ol' heads!

The kiddos were pleased.  I wouldn't call this the most quality jewelry designing, but for a 4- and 1-year-old...it was just right:

Nope, that's not a basketball, that's his belly... :)