Valentines Day 2012

We made the traditional Valentines Day Treasure Hunt for the kids to find their V-day loot and it's fun because both the kids get it now. This one is blurry darn it!

Then it was breakfast, candy, and off to school for Lilly.  When she came home we still needed to make something for family and so we made a stamp out of a cardboard toilet paper tube and bent it into a heart shape and then dipped it into paint and then stamped it onto paper.

It was quick and easy and the kids had a good time.

Lilly's Valentines-2nd Grade

I know everybody and their mom has done this and probably is doing this for Valentines Day, but we seriously have shoe boxes of crayon bits that I just can't stand to throw out.  So we melted them in the oven in a heart shaped silicone baking thingy (very scientific I know) and made Valentine crayons for Lilly's class.  

Valentines Day Treasure Hunt

 Lilly and Max woke up at 6:45 this morning and Lilly was wearing these heart glasses when she came into our room.  They wasted no time getting to the Treasure Hunt.

 The Big Surprise  was hidden in the dryer.  For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Max with his pillow.  He was more excited about the chocolates anyways.

Valentines Dinner

I had my Valentines Dinner with my Grandparents tonight and it turned out great..except for when I whipped the cream for our Molten Lava cakes and forgot to put the powdered sugar in it.  I of course was the last to get mine (good hostess I know ) and I took a bite and about threw up.   Have you ever tasted whipped cream?  Not sweetened....at all?  It's pretty disgusting.  Especially when you are expecting something sweet.  My Grandma said " I thought it tasted a little funny and thought about saying something but didn't, because I thought it might be rude."  My grandpa said "tastes like chocolate to me"  Jarrett claims he hadn't tasted his yet and kids weren't complaining either.   I thought it tasted awful but maybe its because I was more critical because I made it.  I do that. So we sprinkled lots of powdered sugar on the top and was great.

Here is the Christmas light chandelier made with chicken wire.  It looks a little pathetic with the lights not on and the drapes open....but black out the curtains and turn on those lights and...........................

ITS A LITTLE LESS PATHETIC! 

It actually did turn out pretty cool.  This picture doesn't do it any justice.  My kids love their Great- Grandparents and I'm glad they have the chance to get to know them.  They are so sweet.

It actually was darker in here, but the person who took the pictures listened to my idiocracy and put the camera on "indoor" so it made the flash come on and look like this.

 Here is a really bad picture of the drinks I made.  I mixed White Grape Juice with 7-up and put grapes in it so they collected the bubbles and floated..... at least all the ones who didn't have their picture taken floated.   Max's sank because he didn't drink his and it sat for an hour.  He doesn't like Carbonation.

And the Molten lava cakes (recipe from Our Best Bites.  Sorry I'm too lazy to put a link.  Just google it if you want to see the blog.)

We all had a great time and the Grandparents even brought Valentines for the kids.  I love my family and I love getting together with them.

Lilly's Valentines

Lilly really wanted make her Valentines this year, so we picked up some stickers and ribbon at Target and Lilly did the rest.  She wanted to write poems for all of her cards so she thought up and wrote out all 21 of them.

Shhh! It's a secret!

So every year I've kind of made it a tradition to get the kids little gifts for Valentines Day.   The way they get these gifts is a treasure hunt.  Maybe 5 clues to find the prize.  Things like "this is where we put our dishes to get them clean" or "this is where we keep our coats."  The kids always look forward to it and so do I!  I love to surprise them.  (But really who doesn't love to surprise their kids?)  This year they are getting some handmade gifts and the usual,small $1 box of chocolates.  I think I spent $4 total for both gifts, including the chocolates.

The kids won't get them until Valentines so SHhhh! It's a secret!

Valentine Collage

So, guess what?  Yesterday after trashing my Project: Hideous; I found the chicken wire ( it was hanging right in front of my eyes in our storage room that I had looked in a thousand times) and a much shorter strand of white Christmas lights and redid the project in 1/4 of the time it took to do the first one and it looks awesome!  I can't wait to share it when we have our Valentines Dinner with my Grandparents.  This little excerpt does have a purpose.  When I went out to our garage to get  the Christmas lights, I saw a brown bag full of newspaper from our Paper Mache Pumpkins and I thought if wrapping the  chicken wire with the lights didn't work, I could stuff the lights inside the chicken wire tube and cover the outside with newspaper to make a Japanese rice paper lantern of sorts.   Well the original project worked so I was left with a huge bag of newspaper staring at me.  It was calling out to me.  To make something.  So the kids and I made some Valentine collages, sort of like the Christmas Posters we made at Christmas time.

Max's got a little wild, but I love it!  I also love that I did not try and correct it ( like my controlling side likes to do)  In fact it inspired me to make mine the way I did.

The kids love to see their art work hanging; and really, who doesn't?

Valentine Flag Bunting

 I know, I know, Valentine decoration overload!  This is the last one I promise.

Valentine Door Decoration and indoor wreath

I've been seeing a lot of cute ideas for Valentine wreaths and I've wanted to make something, but since I have limited money and resources, I didn't want something that was going to cost a lot of money, or take a lot of time.   I cut the burlap off my old wreath and was going to make a scrap fabric Valentine wreath, but then I wouldn't have a wreath for the rest of the year so I decided to use an old wire hanger that had white coating on it.  Then I shaped it into a heart with pliers, and wrapped yarn around it.  I wished I had some pink, but since I didn't I used red and purple.

Then Lilly and I made this indoor wreath out of construction paper.

Heart-Shaped Napkins

I am planning a Valentines dinner for my Grandparents on the Sunday before Valentines Day and I've been busy making cloth napkins for the dinner.  I took a red table cloth and cut it up into 17inch square sections and then mitered the corners.   I also picked up some candles and goblets from D.I. and the flowers and vase from Dollar Tree.  The flowers don't look the best, but with low lighting I'm hoping they'll be sufficient.

I LOVE to plan dinners!  Back to the whole, loving to make lists thing I guess.  It think it's really fun.  I also picked up some red themed plates from Target.  I wanted something I could use on a regular basis, as well as something that would look Valentiney.  The best part...they are pastic!!!!  What do you think?  They match our chairs and table well!

Okay, on to the napkin.  You take a square napkin:

 Fold two opposite side edges in so that they meet in the center making a rectangle.  Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise.  Rotate the napkin so the fold is on the bottom.

 Bring up both ends of the napkin so two ends touch and a point is formed on the bottom.

 Tuck under the two upper corners to create a heart shape:

There you go; a heart!  I've got a lot of cool things planned for the dinner, decoration wise so I'll be sure to share them.  I'm super excited!