Valentine's Day Countdown: 7

Only a week left until Valentine's day!

Yesterday my kids were in the making mood, so I decided we would try our hand at candy.

Thanks to Make Monthly for the recipe for our own Conversation Hearts.

The kids didn't know it at the time, but the hearts would also serve as their surprise treat.

I just love that making their own surprise is just fine with Ian and Brynn.

Candy hearts call for only a few ingredients: Powdered sugar, water, light corn syrup and unflavored gelatin, but require quite a bit of muscle. We added vanilla for flavor and food coloring too.

Then you roll out the dough and use cookie-cutters to make the hearts.

After that they only need to dry overnight.
I forgot to buy a food-safe marker, so we didn't get to write on ours.
This morning, I packaged a few up in these little take-out boxes (another search through my wrapping paper box turned up these forgotten items) and popped them in the mailboxes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Countdown: 9 & 8

Well, I missed another day.

In my defense, that was because the Green Bay Packers were in the Superbowl yesterday, and in Wisconsin that event trumps all other holidays. I might have still slipped something into their mailboxes, but we were gone the whole day and there just wasn't an opportunity.

Today, though, I did have opportunity (the kids were outside shoveling the snow that had drifted into our driveway in the past few days) so I got to work.

This may be my favorite valentine yet, because I got to taste test the M & Ms while I sewed.

Yummy!

Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day Countdown: 11 & 10

Due to technical difficulties yesterday I couldn't post, so today you get two valentines for the price of one. I don't feel very badly about it though, since yesterday's surprise was a little lame (we have also had sickness in the house, so my time to sit and figure out something good was limited.)

I found these little fold-up boxes in my stash of wrapping paper, and inserted the Pez Dispensers that Grandpa Kevin keeps stocked.

Ian announced that his box looked like a box for french fries.

For today's surprise, I had a little more time (and had made a trip to Walmart for supplies) to do something really fun. Thank you FamilyFun Magazine for this idea.

My kids like dragons - I don't know why - but they frequently have conversations with the large ones that are banned to the outside so that little imaginations don't keep themselves up all night.

I thought these seemed safe enough.

These dragons only took me about 20 minutes each to make.

(The cup was so I didn't have to jab my hand in order to keep the layers apart.

My "final product" picture was pretty terrible (try taking a picture of your left hand while holding your camera in your right hand!), so here's the one from FamilyFun.

We have been experiencing random dragon flights all morning, so I guess they were a hit.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day Countdown:12

For the past few days, Brynn has been carrying around a stack of really small board books,

which she calls "My bookies."

(Here she is reading a bookie to Blair.)

I thought for day 3 of the Valentine's countdown, I would make her and Ian their own

little "notebookies" that they could write in.
For Ian I added a little number dot-to-dot puzzle (his current favorite thing).

Since it is a little hard to see, I'll give away the shape: a heart.

They haven't checked their mailboxes yet, but I think these "bookies" will be a hit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Countdown: 13

For day 2 of the countdown to Valentine's Day I decided to go candy free. I was browsing through blogland and found a fun idea here: felt "watches."

I'd post her pretty picture here, but my internet is being wonky today and won't open her site so you'll have to be satisfied with my slightly blurry photos.
All you need is a few scraps of felt, tacky glue, and velcro.

(The white strips in the picture are the velcro)

Cut out the pieces and then glue them together.

Make sure you put one half of the velcro on the top side and one on the bottom, so that when you wrap the strap around your wrist the pieces meet up.

The finished product (too small for my wrist).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Countdown to Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is two weeks away, so we decided it was time to get out the Valentine's Day decorations. I like to do different decorations each month during the winter, because winter around here is so grey and we need something cheery in the house.

The heart garland is a new addition this year.

(I wish I could remember which blog I got the idea from, but I can't)

The little mailboxes gave me an idea:

A countdown to Valentine's Day.

Each day until February 14 I am going to put a little something in each of the kid's mailboxes.

They will know the surprise has arrived when the little flag on the side of the box is up.

First I had to personalize Blair's box.

I really should stop free-handing these things, since I seem to be terrible at centering.

Today the surprise was a little lame, since I spent most of my time setting up the decorations and making the heart banner, in addition to putting on and taking off snowsuits.

Even so, candy is always a hit with my kids.

She's Getting So Big, Part 2

This project started a few weeks ago when I started giving Brynn her naps in the toddler bed in Ian's room. I wasn't sure when we were going to go the rest of the way and have her start sleeping in there too, but yesterday turned out to be the day.

One of the things that had been holding me back was that I didn't have a little girl blanket to put on the bed. Of course I could have left Ian's fire truck and police car blanket on the bed but I really wanted it to be special for Brynn. Then, on Sunday, my Mom told me that JoAnn Fabrics was having a HUGE (70% off) sale on fleece. I just happened to have enough cash to buy 4 yards of fabric!

BINGO!

So, on Monday we ventured out and bought the fabric.

Then, I actually had enough time to sew it together.

It seemed like the time had come.

For the rest of the day, I really focused on Brynnie being a "Big Girl" and needing to sleep in a "Big Girl Bed."

She was eating it all up.

We did "Big Girl" things together like

mashing bananas for banana bread.

We even decorated fancy posters to put up around "The Big Girl Bed."

Seven o'clock arrived and we went through the bedtime routine, with only one change:

She laid down to sleep in the "Big Girl Bed" instead of the "Baby Crib."

To say that she was excited would be the mildest of understatements.

Maybe I had hyped this just a little too much.....uh oh.

I decided to not intervene with what happened in the newly shared bedroom for one hour, unless the activity extended outside the bedroom. There was lots of yelling and dancing around, and certainly no sleeping.
At 8:45, Ian started getting frustrated: "Mommy, Brynnie keeps waking me up."
Then the escapes started occurring. "Mommy, Brynnie won't stay in bed."
At 9:00 I decided the time had come to take SERIOUS action: I turned out the nightlight.
There was crying and pleading, which I ignored.
Then, suddenly, it was 9:45 and I realized there was quiet. I waited another fifteen minutes and then went in to see if Brynnie was sleeping, and if so, which spot she had chosen. I sort of expected to find both of the kids on the floor together. To my surprise, they were each sound asleep in their own beds.
Success!
But we'll see how tonight goes.