Monday, January 28, 2013

Treasure the Moments

A friend posted this on Pinterest tonight from http://www.bellebebes.co.uk/2013/01/this-small/. I felt compelled to share it. This explains why I do what I do every day. Our kids grow up so quickly. Even though I feel stressed out almost every day, I wouldn't trade these moments for anything. Treasure these moments while you can.
 
 
 

Snow Day Fun

Every once in a while, we are blessed with a snow day. Today happened to be one of those days.

We got out our crafting supplies and went to work, creating a marshmallow snowman. The boys drew circle bodies and pasted marshmallows around the circles. We then glued puffy balls on for buttons, mini chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth, and half of a piece of candy corn for the nose. The boys then painted snowflakes around the snowman with their fingers and painted on a hat.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

Today the kids and I decided to have a photo shoot in our living room. We turned the couch around, covered it with a blanket, made some heart glasses out of pipe cleaners, and the boys posed with their best funny faces. We also found some mustache and lip sucker stick covers to add to the fun. (I found these at Hobby Lobby) You could make your own out of construction paper too.





Saturday, January 26, 2013

Valentine's Day Snowman Fridge

After finding the Christmas snowman fridge on Pinterest, we decided to keep our snowman up for a few more seasons. We changed his scarf color, added some heart stickers, made heart buttons, and decorated his hat. (Helps to keep unnecessary clutter off of the refrigerator!)

This was made from construction paper, minus the stickers.

Valentine's Day "Chocolate" Activity Box

My kids love doing crafts and special activities at night after school and daycare. We have just started doing activity countdowns to different holidays, thanks to my love for Pinterest!! For our Valentine's Day countdown, we created a special "chocolate box".

Step 1: Get an empty candy box. Cover the box with scrapbook paper. I found "Love" paper at Hobby Lobby. I put it on the candy box with Modge Podge.

Step 2: I found clear mosaic circles to be used for the "chocolates" at Hobby Lobby. I placed a Valentine sticker on each of the "chocolates".



Step 3: Find Valentine activities you would like to do with your kids. Print off the activites and tape them to the bottom of the "chocolates".

Step 4: Give your box a title. We are calling ours Happy ValenTIMES Day! I created nutritional facts to be placed on the back.

Watch a Valentine Movie and drink Cupid Floats
 Make Heart-Shape Pizza for Dinner
 Do a Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot-Use Mustache pops and Pipe Cleaner Glasses
 Make heart monsters
 Make Valentine flowerpots for Grandmas
 Make I love you to pieces frames
 Make tissue paper hearts
 Make monster valentine boxes
 Make secret message Valentine Hearts
 David-Do Valentine Activity Sheets, Matt write a Valentine Poem
 Color Valentine Pictures
 Make Valentine treats for your neighbors
 Write Bible Verses on hearts and mail them
 Make yarn heart cards
 Make heart sun catchers
 Go to the library and get a Valentine Book-Take the librarian a special treat.

Nutritional Facts
Serving Size                               1 Chocolate
Serving Per Container        16
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amount Per Serving: One “chocolate” per day
 
Calories: 1 ---Hour of Endless Fun
Total Fat:—10 – Guaranteed Belly Laughs
Sodium: 1 –Day of build-up until the activity
Total Carbohydrate: 500mg of Energy for an Activity of Love
     Dietary Fiber: 5—guaranteed hugs per day to keep you full of love
     Sugars: As many as you can grab without mom knowing J
Protein: Countless memories to fill you up

Valentine's Day Heart Tree

One of the best ways I have found to teach my kids to appreciate the things and people they have is to tie it into a holiday countdown. Our latest creation is a "Love Tree". I simply took a piece of Valentine scrapbook paper and cut it into strips. From the strips, I created a tree trunk and branches. (I used masking tape to place it on the wall.)

Together, the kids and I cut out little hearts from construction paper. We each picked a color. We cut out 14 hearts in each color. (One color for every family member--including the parents!)

The kids taped the hearts to the wall around the branches.

Everyday, from February 1st until the 14th, we will write the name of someone we love on one of our colored hearts.