little more valentine love...

Here's what we worked on yesterday to prepare for today...

We made sugar cookies, of course.  They were frosted later, but the kids each frosted and then ate their cookie, too fast for pictures.

During the "snow day" the girls and I made some little felt Valentines for their classes and friends.  Oh, and we did a few for Silas and his preschool friends too.  Good times.

See that little pocket?  Perfect to tuck a few little treats inside.  Here's where the idea came from.

And then lastly, we actually did this one today, and I thought it was a such a great idea from my sister-in-law.  She was super prepared and talked with each of her kids before hand... anyway, here's how it works;  individually, talk with each child and have them write (or help them write), something they love about each person in the family.  Then this morning when the kids got up for school, all of their hearts were tapped on the wall.  During breakfast they each took their hearts down and read them to each other.  My one little nephew kept squealing with excitement every time his name was read.  So cute.  So, even though I was late doing this, here's our wall.  I'm thinking we can pull them down during dinner and read them to each other.  Next year I hope to be more prepared.  Genius.

typical

It's becoming the norm... I post through about fall time, and then fall out of blogland until January rolls around. Then, I make something for Abby's birthday, and suddenly decide to post pictures. Therefore, so-as not to disappoint, here was this year's birthday gift:



A felt house. Just the right size for Polly Pocket, or Strawberry Shortcake dolls (I LOVE that they brought these back. What clever marketing!)

This is the inside of the house. That's a swimming pool, with a nice walking path, flowers, you know, Arkansas in the summer. (Shawn wondered why there would be a swimming pool on the wall of a house. I had no response to this.)

I originally got the idea here. But as I looked at the size, I wondered if it would end up being too small for a soon to be 7-year old. So, I used the basic idea of using felt, oh, this was the cute small house from felt - anyway, I decided to use an old pattern that my mom used years ago. I've used the pattern before, probably about 6ish years ago, and made some fabric houses for my girls. They still play with them, so they were totally worth the time, which is nice, cause they require a good amount.

The back of the house:



The side:



And the front:



The house was given with a small Strawberry Shortcake doll wrapped inside. When I asked P how she liked the gift, P gushed, "Oh, she really LOVED it mom! She LOVED Strawberry's long hair!" Like I said... typical.

felt pirate maps

Last Monday night I was in charge of the activity for FHE. Lots of times we skip that whole part in the FHE process, or we do something fun on a Saturday or Friday night when we'll have more time (and patience). But luckily we had something left at our house that belongs to a very talented and creative friend of mine. I'm actually not sure how it ended up at our house, but I'm sure glad it did. Years ago she had made a pirate map for her kids, from felt. I had noticed it a couple of times when at her house, and had thought that sometime that would be really fun to do with my kids, but had forgotten about it, until now. So we each got a piece of light blue felt for the water, and then proceeded to create our maps. The kids really had fun, and they did most of the cutting of felt, which isn't that easy. Shawn actually ran interference with Silas, while I worked on my own map, and did the gluing of the kids' maps. Here are the results.

Here's Isaac's map. I don't know if you can tell, but his pirate ship in the top left corner has some skeletons on it, and then he has another ship, (that one may have been a ghost ship?), and of course a Kraken to guard the gold that is sitting on the island.

Sadie's... her Kraken looks kind of like a red Octopus, but who says Kraken's don't look different to every sailor? She also added a cave with sparkling jewels, and of course a pom-pom tree on her island, next to her treasure chest. (We still need to get some glitter glue to really spruce up those treasures.

Phebe's is also sporting a Kracken. Isaac was trying to tell her that it looked kind of like a Lobster, her also wondered why it's in the middle of the ocean... but that's the beauty of being able to create your own. She also put a rock with glittering pink stones, or maybe they're diamonds?

And here's mine. While you're admiring this, remember to imagine some sparkling gold glitter coming out of the treasure chest, that's why it's open and unhinged... the gold will fill it in. It looks a lot like my friend's original map... although I would have to say that her items are better spaced.

So, if you're looking for a great FHE activity, pull out your felt and go to it.