Days 11-14

Valentine Countdown was not as successful  as I had hoped... Jackson is just not into doing much crafty stuff right now... but we will try again next year.  Here's what happened the days leading up to Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day

Freezer Paper Stencils

My boys all got a hand-made shirt for Valentine's Day.  They are my special Valentine's!  I made the boys' t-shirts by cutting out stencils using Freezer paper.  I found the patterns here.  Then for Andy, his favorite saying and the name of his coporation is Go Big or Go Home.  So when I found this on the Silhouette website, I couldn't resist!  I printed it out on a piece of vinyl using my Silhouette die cutting machine and then use acrylic paint to paint in the stencil.  The acrylic paint is permanent, but it looks faded.  I love all my creations... of course the house didn't get cleaned and Jman watched a little too much TV, but it's good for my sanity!!

They are so stinking cute!!

As part of our Valentine's Night out... Andy and I went to Prairie du Chein for dinner.  We didn't have reservations at the Hibachi Grill (no kidding, in PDC there is a Japanese restaurant!) until 7:30, so we stopped by Walmart... oh what a fun life we lead!  I got the  boys a bunch of long-sleeved shirts that I can embellish for next year and Andy got some microfiber towels that I am going to embellish with AJ's Pro-shop so he could give them away when he sells bowling balls.  After dinner we also hit up Culvers... yum!!

Day 5 - 10 Valentine's Day Countdown

Days 5 & 6:  Ran out of time, because we were in La Crosse shopping and out to  church and lunch and then a Super Bowl party on Sunday.  Ooops.

Day 7:  Valentine's Day Sensory Tub

For this activity in our countdown, I put a bunch of cotton balls, pink/purple/red/white pom-poms, heart beads on string, foam hearts, heart bracletts, and fake rose petals.  I gave Jman a pair of tongs and a cupcake pan.  I tried to steer him into sorting, but he wasn't that interested.  Sorry about the cruddy pictures... my cameras are both on the fritz.

Day 8:  Fun Family Photo- this is to come.  We had our family photo taken for Maxwell's 3 month picture.  Every family picture with a 2 year old is a fun family photo...not. ;)

Day 9: Make a snack with Valentine's Day- we made cookie-- Jackson is just like his mother, eating the batter. We made heart shaped chocolate chip cookies and regular cookies for our playdate the next day.


Day 10:  Valentine's Day Party with friends (no pictures of this)

We played hop on the hearts - where the kiddos hopped on hearts we laid down.  Made them into patterns and ate our heart shaped cookies.  The Mommies made cute little plaques.

Only a few more days until Februay 14th!

Valentine Countdown Day3

Valentine Countdown Day 3: Tissue paper hearts
from: My Delicious Ambiguity
Jackson was not too interested in this activity.  I'm not entirely sure why (prob because there was no candy involved).  The idea is to get tissue paper to make hearts on a piece of paper.  I save a lot of my tissue paper from holidays and birthdays, so this was a free activity to do.  You put a piece of white paper on the table (I tape it down), the child paints using vinegar (this could be why he wasn't interested, no colors), and then lie different sized tissue hearts on the paper.   I might have to wait until next year for this one!

The problem  with this activity... it didn't work.  There was a very light pink color on the paper, but it wasn't that great.  I think I will have the Jman glue down the leftover hearts after naptime and call it good enough!

BTW: I used Picnic to make my picture a little more snazzy...

Valentine's Countdown

I am attempting to do SOMETHING educational with Jackson each day. For me, I need a plan (could this be because of my teacher-ness? Probably. I mean I even bought a lesson plan book so I could plan this kind of stuff out... old habits die hard). So I have been looking online and finally decided to just go for it and purchase a Valentine's Day Countdown from My Delicious Ambiguity. So stinkin' cute and I don't have to come up with the ideas! It took me forever to finally put it together but here is what I came up with for our Valentine Countdown.


Valentine's Countdown Days 1 & Day 2

This is the countdown.  I only used 14 days, although the kit came with 31 numbers and 70 activities!  I picked 17 I thinkto do, I put a couple activities in a few of the pockets to make the activity have a little more "meat" for the day.  I loved the variety though, because I picked activities Jackson can do this year and there are plenty to do next year with him and Maxwell!

 The Banner "Valentine Countdown" is the FIRST project I completed using my Silhouette SD.  Love it, although it took me 3 tries to figure out how to get it all to print, but now I have tried it and I will get moving on some other projects I have in mind.

I tried to get rid of these cookie sheets, but snagged them out of the Good Will bag to make this project.  I spray painted them pink, Andy drilled holes in them and I attached them together using ribbon. For #7-14 I Modge Podged them onto the cookie sheets.  I HATE the look and will probably re-do it for next year.  I used the glossy Modge Podge and I really don't like it. But otherwise I am happy with the project.

Day 1:  Counting Hearts

  Jman has a short attention span with counting when I want him to (he can count to 16 when you aren't paying attention to  him), but we tried a bit and then he just played.  He also used some plastic tongs to put the hearts in different sections of the numbered egg crate.

 materials for Day 1... #1-12 in the bottomof the egg carton, conversation hearts (but you could use beads or something else if your child is distracted by the candy).  I got some bowls at Walmart for $1.50 for 2.  I went a little crazy getting things for all our activities, but I will be able to use them next year, too!

Day 2:  Sandpaper Heart rubbings...

This did not go over very well.  Jackson was not into the rubbing and was just cranky (probably because I turned off Team Umizumi- his new favorite show).  But we tried!

 To make the little guy happy, I brought out the glitter glue (from Dollar Tree- super good deal). He loves this stuff! He left the activity smiling and happy to go take his bath.

What baby Maxwell was doing while we were trying to do the rubbings.

Some brotherly love. :)

Another wreath...

Since my Christmas fabric wreath broke and I didn't get to show it off to anyone... I decided to make one for Valentine's Day... I love it.  It took 3 days of naptime to accomplish, because Maxell (12 weeks, wow) doesn't sleep too long during the day.  Here it is...

This is what it looks like on our door, but I can' figure out how to make it look correct, please turn your head to the left to envision the beauty. ;)

Picture of my mantle... Lots of blogged ideas

prints:  owl, subway art left, subway art right, wreath, heart bouqet ( can't remember)

I'm officially done making things for Valentine's Day!  I have to work on a couple of gifts now!

Valentine's Day Decorations

I have been having fun searching blogs and looking for fun crafts to keep myself busy- like I have trouble keeping busy, but I love it!!

I have about a million and one things I want to make... I have had to start a pintrest... check it out, it's a fun website.  Gives me a place  to "pin" my ideas and intrests, then I can go  back and see what I like.  It's really neat!

 First off... subway art on a canvas.  It was fun to make!  I found the subway art at Not Just a Housewife, she also made some for other holidays and boys/girls.  So adorable!!  I had mine printed at the local photo lab so it was about $2 for print, $1.50 for the canvas and I had the  paint and  modge podge.  I hung it on the wall  with a little ribbon.  This website, My Delicious Ambiguity also has a HUGE list of free Valentine's Day art.  Jenny and I made one for her, too!  I am going to make one for my MIL for watching the boys on Saturday!

 This is another fun no-sew activity, since my sewing machine is not working-- still need to figure out if the bobbins are moving... anywhoo...I used fabric glue, ribbon, and a white bath hand towel.  I got the  idea from She's Kinda Crafty. It was SUPER easy, but the ribbon kind of buckled up a bit when  washed, but if I wasn't lazy (and we weren't wiping our dirty hands on it) I would iron it and I think it would look okay.

The BIG project

A Cupcake Liner Wreath

My friend Sharon and I constructed these Cupcake liner wreaths from Tatertots and Jello.   It was fun!  We got the wreaths at  Dollar Tree (for  a dollar) and the cupcake liners from  Walmart.  They were a little smaller than I wanted, but way fun!  We both burned our fingers, but the little boys played super awesome in the sensory bin (will post about this later).  Anyway, we finally finished a project and we were both pleased.  Mine is the "redder" one. These cupcake liners were perfect... maybe I should do another one?!?!?!  Actually, I think I am going to make a topiary that I saw on Adventures in Crafting.  Hmmmm... or should I start on all the Christmas crafts/gifts I want to accomplishs for the year?!?!?!

Valentine's Day Projects

I have several Valentine's Day projects in mind...



1. Cupcake liner wreath

2. Banner/Garland saying of some kind

3. 8x10 Subway art on canvas



While I am waiting to get a few of the materials I need for the above items... I made this:



It's a styrofoam ball! I spray painted it with "watermelon" spray paint, put a ribbon on it, and hot glued a little over 1 bag of the candy hearts. It took about 25 minutes to glue it all on... the paint takes about 30-45 minutes to dry, depending on how thick you put it on! Also, make sure you spread out the green and purple hearts, because their are barely any in each bag and you end up with big spots of pink and white. ;)