Kids' Valentine Swap

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So I have been seeing such cute Valentine ideas all over the place. We don't really do much for Valentine's Day since Steve's birthday is the day before. We exchange cards and that is about it. And since we have school on Thursday I doubt there will be much done there.

I got to thinking, wouldn't it be fun for our kids to do a homemade Valentine exchange with maybe a postcard of some place around where you live. It can be a learning experience for the kids to see where they all come from and go and also it is always fun for them to receive mail.

If you are interested please send me an email: craftymomsshare@gmail.com. Let me know your child(ren)'s names and ages and address. I'll put together a list and make it a reasonable number and try to match ages, etc. Please feel free to grab a button and spread the word.

Also, if you need ideas you can check out my Valentine's Day Pinterest Board.

We are off to school today, I hope you are having a great day!
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Valentine Day Painting

Today we did a lot of painting. Last week we bought some t-shirts to do an idea I saw in Family Fun Magazine (a great magazine for craft ideas). Yesterday we picked up the fabric paint and sponge brushes and I pulled out the doilies that I bought at the Dollar Tree. We had fun doing this.

Today was...

Hazel's craft today

Today we had a rather busy day. Our morning was full of play and crafts. Oh, and we put together a slow cooker dinner for tonight. We made the heart crafts I featured yesterday. Then we went out to run errands. One stop was Target. We bought a lot of new clothes for Hazel from the clearance items including four pairs of shoes in her next size! Another stop was Joann Fabrics for a few supplies for a craft for tomorrow. Then we went to the library to return books and we picked out several new ones.

My Heart Craft

While running errands we realized it was a gorgeous day and we wanted to get outside to play. It was in the 50's today here and sunny. So we hurried our errands and then came home for a late lunch and  got outside. Then it was off to the hairdressers for hair cuts. We met Daddy there and he took Hazel home while Mommy got her hair cut. I always take Hazel in with me to get her bangs cut. She loves it!! She also likes to play hairdresser to Ducky when we get home. Then after a quick dinner I had to run a stewardship meeting at church. Now I'm tired, but wanted to share these crafts with you and some pictures of our outside play.

With the rain last night and the warmer temperatures, most of the snow melted. One of our first activities was moving the snow from the few snow piles left from the plow and our snowmen to the yard. Hazel did this with her shovel and then she wanted to use her hands. She touched it and said, "Cold!" So after a few tries she decided she needed some mittens.

Her Shovel

Her First Snowball

I suggested using the toy truck she brought out. She tried that for a bit, but it was small.

She ran into the garage and came out with her bigger truck to use.

She is always thinking!

Then she wanted to play basketball, catch, tag/gingerbread man and finally blow bubbles. She had a great time blowing bubbles.

She is finally getting how to blow things--bubbles, horns, etc.

Oh, she also had to bring out her chair to sit on for two seconds. Then it was time to bring out the sidewalk chalk. She tried to draw squares but they came out more like circles. We worked on straight lines a bit and then she wanted me to make her a hopscotch game.

Unfortunately, the time we had flew by and it was time to get to our appointment. Hopefully we will get another nice day outside again soon. Though I did have to promise her it would snow again. (I just added that it might not be this year.)

That was our day. How was yours?

Oh, and one more thing to share--check out this article on children and playing from  The Christian Science Monitor. It makes me so happy we are not pushing Hazel to learn to read, etc. and have made the choice to send her to a Waldorf school where they are not taught to read until they are 7.

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Baking with Hazel again

So on Saturday morning Hazel had it in her mind that we were going to bake muffins. She came up with this idea Friday night. I slept in (Thank You Steve!!), which was wonderful and Steve had already fed her some breakfast. But she was determined, so I pulled out a cookbook. We did not have overripe bananas this time, so we decided on pumpkin blueberry muffins.

I adapted the recipe from C is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street by Susan McQuillan, RD. It is a cookbook I bought awhile ago for Hazel when we were letting her watch a bit more television and she was so into Elmo. She still loves all the characters and loves the cookbook. The recipes are relatively healthy and very easy. They also mark the parts they consider kid friendly to do.

My Little Baker with Ducky Watching

Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 egg
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup blueberries (or you could use 1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease 18 muffin cups
2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.
3. In a different small bowl, have child crack egg and take out any shells (if there are any). Then beat egg with a fork.
4. In a large bowl stir together sugar and oil. Then add egg, pumpkin, and yogurt and mix until blended.
5. Stir in the flour mixture and oatmeal.
6. Gently stir in blueberries (or raisins or dried cranberries).
7. Distribute batter into the muffin pans filling each to about 2/3.
8. Bake for about 25 minutes. Cool on rack slightly and serve warm. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.

Yesterday I had a busy day. Do you ever notice how your child seems to grow out of her clothes all of a sudden. Well that happened to us. So I went out yesterday after church to buy Hazel the next size of clothes (which all seem big now). Then I went to tutor, but before I left I got another call about tutoring and planned that one for a few hours afterwards due to the student's work schedule. I tutor about 45 minutes away from home so I try to get them all done at once. Well with two hours to kill, I decided to go shopping. On my way to Target to see about more clothes for Hazel, I saw a fabric store I had been meaning to check out for my mom. Needless to say I spent an hour wandering around and came home with three fabrics. I did show some control since I only bought three. After that I decided I would go to Starbucks and read my book.

Magnolia Flowers from kit from the Paper Source (my first ever purchase there)

Well then I remembered the Paper Source and they were still open. Do you know the Paper Source? It is a great store. They have an on-line store as well at http://www.paper-source.com/. I never order on-line but I love wandering around and looking at all the great craft things. They are basically a great store for any paper craft and stationary. They have beautiful kits for paper flowers (see above) and wreaths as well as ones for kids. It is really a fun store. Well, I found some great scrapbook paper to make some of the wonderful crafts I have seen on this week's Sharing Saturday (there are already over 145 entries and they keep coming).

The crafts are from the crafting fiend: Toddler Valentine Craft

and It's Overflowing: Simple Valentine's Day Craft

They are pretty similar. I think I will cut double the hearts and have Hazel do one while I do one.

My Purchase at the Paper Source last night

Isn't that heart paper perfect? All I have to do is cut them out. Plus I have the stencil to make other sizes. Then the needle felting flower kit was on sale--half price and the clothespins were so cute. I thought I might use them with something from a couple weeks ago Sharing Saturday.

From Desire Empire: Pretty Artwork for a Little Girl's Room. Won't they be perfect?

Well I'm so excited to be able to share my purchases with you. I was so excited to buy them and wanted to share them with someone who would appreciate them. Somehow I didn't think Steve or Hazel really would.

Hope you have a great day!! Happy Monday!

Snow Day!

Yesterday it snowed. Hazel was so excited. She has been asking since October to build a snowman. Of course, just our luck we are healthy enough to go out and play and get enough snow and of course it is a dry snow, but we made due. Above is a picture of part of our back yard. You can see the tracks where I pulled her on her sled.

The night before I made the squirt bottles of colored water for her to paint in the snow. They only worked a bit. Guess I should have invested in better bottles. But she did have fun. She even tried mixing colors because she wanted orange.

Hazel also made her first snow angel. We have been reading lots of books about snow, so wanted to do everything she saw in the books--make tracks in the snow, snowball fight, make a fort, make a snowman, catch snowflakes and make snow angels.

Then she pulled out her shovel (her garden shovel) so she could help Daddy shovel. She was shoveling the grass, but we didn't stop her. She also tried some more painting and color mixing. And made her second snow angel in the front yard--good thing since Daddy shoveled away her first one.

Next Hazel pulled Mommy in the sled. I helped with my hands. We didn't get a picture since Daddy was off shoveling and clearing all the exits to our house to keep us safe. Then I pulled her around the back yard.

I love our back yard. You can see the creek in this picture that goes around the back and side of our back yard. I took the back yard shots this morning, but the snow is still covering everything.

Then Hazel wanted to walk and make tracks. This is another part of our back yard. Then we pulled out some black felt and a magnifying glass to catch snowflakes and check them out. This didn't last too long since our magnifier wasn't strong enough and we were catching too many with how fast it was falling. Sorry I didn't get a good picture of it. Then Hazel wanted to build a snowman. So Daddy shoveled away her snow angel and that part of the driveway and made a big pile for her. Then we pulled out the snowman decorating kit someone gave us for her second birthday and tah dah! We have a snowman--sort of.

Then of course she wanted to build another one. I went inside to look for more decorating supplies and when I came back they had moved everything over to the second one.

I added the gloves and then took a picture. Then we re-dressed the first one.

I asked Hazel to sit with her snowmen, but somehow she ended up laying down. Not sure what happened there. She also has been very concerned that her monkey hat (otherwise known as her George hat since she loves Curious George) is outside. She wanted to be sure it wouldn't blow away. The hat no longer fits her, but she loves it. Guess I better not pack it up for the charity drop off I need to do.

By this time, Steve and I were getting cold so we made Hazel come in for some hot chocolate and lunch. We had grilled cheese sandwiches and soup with our hot chocolate. The perfect lunch for after playing in the snow. Then amazingly she took a nap for us.

Oh, and I have to share these cute mugs I bought ages ago and always kept for a day like this. This is what we had our hot chocolate in. Aren't they adorable? I bought them when I was single (and I have a matching plate) and always thought they would be perfect for hot chocolate after playing in the snow.

On another note, please go check out our Sharing Saturday. I am having trouble keeping up with all the wonderful posts. There are over 130 last time I checked, and it is still open. So go over and get inspired and feel free to share your amazing ideas.