Happy Valentine's Day

Today as the focus is on love, chocolate, and flowers, I challenge you to take a look at 1 Corinthians 13.  Let's examine our hearts and see if our love can begin to match what is described here!

1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Valentine's Day Ideas

This year we are having a simpler Valentine's Day around our house.  Baby 3 will be arriving two days later and I don't have as much energy to do a lot of crafts right now.  I still want to celebrate with Buddy and Sweetpea so here are a few cute ideas that I combined to do with them today.
Heart Stamps:


Hand Print Hearts:


Buddy and Sweetpea loved painting today and the end results were super cute.  Sorry for no pictures but I was trying hard to keep the paint as contained as possible.

If you are looking for more ideas, here are the links to what we did last year.
Happy Crafting!

Valentine's Day Wrap-Up

This Valentine's weekend was a dud at our house as I have had the flu and Sweetpea has had pink eye.  We are both on the mend but needed activities to keep Buddy entertained that could also be completed while I sat on the couch.  Instead of making cookies or treats like I had wanted, we made crafts and watched a lot of movies.  Jon did make yesterday special with beautiful flowers, special treats, and a nice dinner.

Buddy had a lot of fun making the Spiral Mobile from DLTK's Growing Together.  He chose the colors and wanted to make blue hearts.  I printed one page of hearts in the color design and one page on blue construction paper.  Buddy's favorite parts of this craft were using the hole punch and tying the strings on to the hearts.  Making the hearts 3D was a little over his head but all in all it was a great craft. 

We also made the Stained Glass Heart from DLTK's site as well.  This took more time since Buddy tore all the pieces of tissue paper.  While the pieces were not perfect squares, he was able to do this step by himself.  I think, too, that allowing him to tear and rip the tissue paper released some of the natural destructive nature of little boys in a productive manner.  Buddy tore a lot more tissue paper than we needed but I didn't want to stop him since he was having fun.  We did use contact paper since it was less messy than glue and he helped me cut out the heart shape in our construction paper. 

I know it is hard to tell with the sun shining through the window, but the construction paper is yellow.  I plan on leaving it up for a while since it makes our windows prettier in my opinion.  I also plan to adapt this craft for other holidays using various shapes. 

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Valentine S'More Bites

I saw this recipe online tonight and could not resist passing it along.  I'd love to make these with Buddy but we'll see how the next few days around our house go.  But in case you have a little more time and are looking for a Valentine dessert, check out Crazy Domestic's Valentine S'More Bites.  Don't they look delicious! 

Our family loves s'mores and I think this is a pretty awesome Valentine's twist...plus who can resist pink marshmallows?

Valentines Day Ideas

With Valentine's Day less than a week away, I wanted to share a few Valentine craft and treat ideas.  Some of these crafts I will be making with Buddy in the next few days.  Hope you enjoy!

Valentine Confetti

A Sweet treat!  This would be a perfect gift to give away or just something fun to make with your child. 

Valentine Spiral Craft

 This is a fun hanging reminder of Valentine's Day and the hearts are even 3D.  Buddy and I will be making this soon. 

Heart Lacing

This is a simple activity to practice fine motor skills as children weave the ribbon or yarn through the pattern.  Buddy has never tried a lacing pattern before but I think he is ready to try it out.  If it frustrates him then we'll try again another day.

Stained Glass

A cute heart project to make with tissue paper and contact paper.  This can be practice in scissor skills or fine motor skills by tearing the paper.

Angel

There are several choices of templates to make these angels.  I like the saying on them but you can also make them without it. 

Valentines Wreath

This is more for adults or older children but it is such a cute and simple idea!  I bought fabric the other day and can't wait to make mine soon. 

Heart Garland

Again, this craft is more for adults or older children but such a simple yet sweet decoration. 

If you have ideas of things to make or do for Valentine's Day, I'd love to hear about them!

Valentine's Books

Buddy and I have been reading several books for Valentine's Day and one of his favorites is Cranberry Valentine by Wende and Harry Devlin.  This is a cute story of Mr. Whiskers' first valentine and the lady in the green coat.  Mr. Whiskers has to solve the mystery of the valentines and decide what to do about them.  Will he hide or leave town?  And is the lady in the green coat the one sending the valentines?  This book is a fun read and Buddy laughs everytime at Mr. Whiskers.

Another book that we have been reading is Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone by Frieda Wishinsky and Neal Layton.  This book doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Valentine's Day but it is a cute book where, as the title states, Jennifer won't leave the little boy alone.  The rhymes make the book flow and you hear how the main character, an unnamed boy, dreams of Jennifer moving away to the jungle, the moon, and other places.  When Jennifer really does move away, he is left feeling lonely and a little bereft.  How does he react when he finds that Jennifer is coming back?  Buddy really enjoyed picture reading this one after we had read it several times and it was funny to hear his interpretations. 

Buddy has not been too interested in other Valentine's books from the library but these two kept his attention.  He has asked to read them daily and can almost quote parts of  Cranberry Valentine.  I wish you happy reading!

Valentine's Wreath

I have been wanting some Valentine's decorations and with the snow, we needed some things to keep Buddy occupied.  I found the idea to make a Valentine's Wreath on DLTK's Growing Together.  It was perfect and I cut out the hearts during nap time.  If your child is older, he or she can cut the hearts out by themselves but Buddy is still working on scissor skills.  We also did not have a paper plate so I cut out a circle from construction paper. 

Buddy glued the hearts down to the wreath and we discussed the different sizes and colors.

His finished wreath!  We'll hang it up after the glue dries using yarn.

We also finished his Valentine's Scissor Skills heart and it is ready to hang from our fireplace.

Both of these crafts are easy to do and have a minimal list of supplies, perfect for a rainy or snowy day!

Snow Day

Today was a surprise snow day and so Buddy came home from school early.  Buddy took one look outside on our way to the car and yelled, "It's snowing!"  We decided to play outside after nap time and enjoyed the snow very much!  After playing, we came inside to let Buddy do the Valentine's Day Scissor Skill Project from DLTK's Growing Together.  I pre-cut the strips of red paper and the heart template and gathered the rest of the materials. 

Buddy went to town cutting the strips into smaller pieces.  We love our safety scissors!

He glued the small pieces onto the heart shape very carefully.

This is his somewhat finished heart.  He asked if he could cut and glue more tomorrow.

After Buddy is done gluing the pieces onto the heart, I am going to write our week's Bible verse, John 13:34, across the heart.  Finally, I'll cover it in contact paper and hang it up with ribbon.  Having a visual reminder helps Buddy to practice his memory verses.  Overall, today was a great snow day.