You could just use concrete pieces (free if you find them dumped somewhere) but they are generally really heavy OR just the concrete stepping stones you can buy at gardening center (either square or rectangular). Make sure you lay them where you want them. Probably outline them on tha grass with spray paint. Use a shovel and knife to dig out, smooth and level the soil to make the stone level with the grass. You don't want the kids tripping over them and doing in anybody your veggies. 8-) hope this all makes sense. Oh, also you can paint each or just use colored chalk on each one.
Love, Jules

I have made a couple stepping stones with regular concrete mix and I used the large round plastic saucer that you normally put under pots.They are pretty cheap and you can use them more than once. I dont know if you would want the round stones or not, but I assume you could also modify them as they are drying

Thanks for the ideas :)

I actually found some 12" square gray cement pavers at Lowe's (online). It's the largest flat paver I could find, but I think it will be okay for the little girls.

What kind of paint should I use for cement pavers and do I need to finish/urethane them with something after I'm done painting? I'm new to all this, but excited to learn!

I have painted concrete with regular acrylic paint. I don't know about putting urethane on. But people faux paint their walk ways and patios to look like brick or what ever. I think there is special paint for it. I'd like to know because I'd like to paint our concrete front walk and steps. My dh used something on the concrete steps the city put in down near the road and it is SLIPPERY! So becareful what you use!
Kathy

Personally, I'd want to make my own. That way you control the size.
I've seen people use a pizza box lined with plastic as the mold. Then you can push things into the top of the concrete before it dries to make your numbers... marbles, shells, broken pottery, etc.
That way you wouldn't have to paint them or worry about it peeling off-- which I would think would be an issue with concrete.

BUT you could probably try the auto undercoat as a primer if you really wanted to paint them
(I'd love to give credit, but I can't remember who started it)

I have painted TONS of stepping stones & small bricks for craft shows. I use the small bottles of acrylic paint & give them 2 or 3 coats of a clear spray paint, after time, when they began to look dull just give them a couple coats of clear spray paint & the color just pops right back out, Some of mine are several years old & still going strong.
lilly ")

If you buy ready made concrete stepping stones you could paint them with Patio paint. It's for outdoor projects and very durable. I used it on a concrete "green man" and he still looks like new. I didn't seal as didn't feel it needed that but on stepping stones you might use a clear sealer even tho they say it is "scuff-resistant".

Here is a link that might be useful: Patio paint

Thanks for the great ideas! Mom found a book at Lowe's on painting stepping stones and concrete edgers. She's really taken with it, so she's going to paint the hopscotch stones and some other stepping stones for the garden. She wants to use the round stones, which will look great and give some curve to a fairly rectangular garden. She's planning to paint big flowers, ladybugs, butterflies, etc. and the concrete edgers can be a caterpillar, line of elephants, an alligator...great fun! She's much more artistic than I am, so I'm thrilled and she's really looking forward to it warming up enough to paint :)

Great to hear mom wants to help. I think I saw the same book at Lowes. It has some really cool ideas...but many look like they would require more skill than I have so it stayed at Lowes. Hope you post some pictures of your garden this summmer. It sounds like it will be a fun spot that makes people smile.

I like the hopscotch idea. I saw in a garden magazine a couple years ago a tic-tac-toe game done with cement blocks put into the ground level with grass or gravel to keep them separated and using flowers or bugs from iron or something for the playing pieces. I think they had a couple chairs that you could sit at. I wish I would have bought the magazine, but this is something I'd like to do some day.

Tic-tac-toe would be fun! You could use lots of things for the playing pieces, depending on the size of the blocks. Great idea :)