Valentine's Day Stuff

We've been busy doing Valentine's stuff from around blogland. Here are some links of what we've been up too.

• Making heart shaped lollipops from leftover candy canes at Skip to My Lou
• Making Flower Valentines at Skip to My Lou
• Making Butterfly Valentines also at Skip to My Lou (Eli has two parties!)
• Making Snail Valentines at Zakka Life
• Growing heart shaped crystals from Mom In Madison
• Valentine color container painting at Scrumdilly-Do
• Making purple kool-aid playdough with red glitter (This is the playdough recipe I have used since I started teaching, minus the kool-aid with food coloring added to the water. I cook it in the microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so until it is no longer wet and forms a ball. Add the glitter when it has finished cooking.)

Our Christmas Greetings 2008

edited to add: I forgot to mention that we send e-cards for Christmas as our way of trying to be a bit greener and a bit more generous over the holiday season. We usually send over 120 Christmas cards, that's a lot of paper considering we always sent a picture and a letter. We save about $150 doing it the e-card way. Then, we take that money that we saved and donate it to Heifer International in honor of our friends and family. This year, the kids picked out a goat, a flock of chicks, and a bunny.

Presents for Teachers

Eli markered up these two wooden ornaments to give his pre-school teachers for Christmas. He is very proud of them and I hope Miss Molly and Miss Lucy love them as much as I do.

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

I just finished decorating our windows with these easy coffee filter snowflakes. Yes, you could use regular paper, but coffee filters are already a perfect circle so it makes the job a little easier. Just fold your coffee filter into eighths by folding the circle in half (making sure the rounded edge is lined up with each fold) four times. Then trim away, unfold, and ooh and ahh over your pretty snowflake.

Toddler Christmas Tree

We are in full Holiday mode at our house. The kids are working hard at getting the house decorated and are starting to get into the holiday spirit. Sadie decorated this simple little tree with stickers all by herself. You gotta love projects like that!

The Ornament Christmas Tradition

One of my traditions with the kids is to buy them each a new ornament every year and give it to them the day that we trim the tree. I try to choose an ornament that represents who they are or what they liked that particular year. I write their name and the year on the bottom of the ornament. So, when they grow up and leave home they can have a few ornaments to take with them to put on their tree. I'm hoping that eventually they start looking forward to receiving their ornament and reminisce about the ornaments as they put them on the tree.
This year, I really wanted to get Sadie a moose ornament because whenever she hears one of us coming down the stairs she says, "I hear a moose coming." This is actually the second ornament I got Sadie. The first one was a moose riding a motorcycle. Sadie looked at it, said "That's crazy!" then dropped it on the ground and it shattered into 15 pieces. This one is not as fragile.Eli is into Matchbox Cars. He loves "love bugs" as he calls them and he loves cars with big wheels. This was the perfect ornament for Eli this year!
What are your favorite Holiday traditions?

Our Advent Calendar

Tomorrow is the first day of December and the kids will get to put their first ornament on the advent Christmas Tree and one new ornament each day thereafter until Christmas. I know it doesn't look like much, but there is history to this Christmas Tree. This was my advent calendar that my mother made (I'm guessing here) around 1980. It's about 18" x 30" made out of felt and shimmery green ric-rac. There are 4 pockets along the bottom, cleverly hidden as snow to house all of the ornaments until they are placed on the tree. She made all of the felt ornaments. There are only 24 ornaments though. I don't know if one is missing or if there were only 24 to begin with. Either way, I think I'm going to make a few new ornaments to replace all of the "Holy Trinity" ornaments.
Tomorrow, the star will go on the top of the tree as that was always the first one to go on and the manger will be the last. Here's hoping that this advent calendar will become one of their favorite Christmas traditions as it once was one of mine.

More Turkeys and Time For A New Camera

I'm pretty sure that hand-print turkeys have been around for about 200 years, but it's a fun activity to do every year. We turned ours into Thanksgiving cards for the grandparents. I already have a hundred of these hand-prints all over my windows and walls so someone else should share my wealth!
On a completely different subject, I think my camera is totally crapping out on me. All of the pictures I've taken in the past week have been really really hazy. I would like a really nice SLR camera, but feel I should just get a point and shoot camera for everyday use and keep wishing for a SLR camera say when we finish paying off our student loans in thirty years. Does anyone have a camera that they absolutely LOVE?? I'd love to hear about it.

Eli's Bug Themed Birthday Party

I survived yet another birthday party. You know how these parties make me a nervous wreck, but I can actually say that I remained quite calm, cool and collected at this party. I tried not to over-plan anything. I put "smile" as number one on my to-do list instead of the last thing and I think that made a world of difference. Hubby said he could actually see "Buddha Mom" coming into play as he knows I've been trying to take a whole new approach to my parenting and, well, life in general. But, I digress.

Let's talk about Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs!

The invitation was made using Microsoft word and clip art. We (meaning Dennis and I; I told him what I wanted and he made it happen all while I was breathing down his neck.) put four invitations on one 8 1/2 x 11 card stock. We cut them into postcard size and mailed them.

The cake was a 9x13 cake (from a box) with green tinted frosting (again, bought). The dirt was crushed Oreos without the creme filling. The grass was made by tinting coconut using 2 T. milk tinted with food coloring added to 1 1/3 cups coconut and stirred together until it was the right color. (I thought this looked a little too much like lettuce.) The bugs and other decorations were made using marzipan tinted with food coloring and sculpted like you would with play-doh and then painted with corn syrup to stay glossy. The animals turned out cuter than I expected and were also much easier than I anticipated. The cake inspiration came from here, here, and here.
Party favors were bug keepers and nets purchased at the dollar store.I had several games planned, but it turns out that 3 year olds are not that into games so we only did one. We played "pin the antennae on the butterfly" our buggy version of "pin the tail on the donkey".
The highlight of the party was the caterpillar pinata lovingly made by my very talented neighbor who graciously volunteered to make one for Eli. Isn't it too beautiful to whack with a bat? We destroyed it anyways. It was a great day. The weather cooperated. We ate simple picnic food. The company was good. The kids played hard. And most importantly, Eli had a fabulous birthday.

Mother's Day Cards

I am not a scrapbooker, but I love the idea of scrapbooking. I love paper, ribbon, pens, scissors, buttons, glue, stamps, and stickers and all the other fun stuff that goes along with scrapbooking. In order for me to fill my desire to buy lots of paper, ribbon, pens, scissors, button, glue, stamps and stickers I make cards instead.
The cards pictured above are the Mother's Day cards that I sent out a wee bit late. To my defense, I was waiting for Sadie's 18 month pictures to come in so I could include them in the card. I do love writing letters, but I don't have that much to say where I have to send a letter twice in one week. It's hard to tell, but the little pocket is holding a packet of tea. The same concept could be used for gift cards or to hold a stash of cash for the graduate. These are the first cards that I've ever used my sewing machine on and the stitching turned out kind of cute.

Happy May Day!

Do people even really celebrate May Day anymore? I don't remember ever tying ribbons around a Maypole, but I do remember making May Day baskets. The tradition I had was to take a basket filled with treats to a special person's house, set the basket in front of the door, ring the doorbell and run and hide. Then, the person would answer the door and try to find the person who left the basket. If the person is found, the person receiving the basket is supposed to kiss the person who left the basket. I guess you're supposed to hope for the kiss, but I don't think I ever gave a basket to a boy except for the little neighbor boys who were quite a bit younger than me. Anyways, that just seems way too complicated for my one and two year old and what's the chances that someone in our neighborhood** knows that they're supposed to run and give them a kiss. So, we're just going to leave them on their friends' door, knock and run.

We made these May Day baskets found on Skip To My Lou. These are way too hard for them to make, so they decorated the paper with stamps and I did the rest. But, they had a great time anyways and are anxiously waiting for the kids to get home from school so they can knock and run!

**My husband is a Pharmacy Student at The Ohio State University. We live in family housing on campus which consists mostly of International Students.