A few more crafts for Valentine's Day

Here are a few more. This first one is just one I came up with off the top of my head, but I'm sure has been done in a million different ways.  First, I had my kids make a list of ten people that they love. Next, they wrote the names of each person on a heart. Then, they glued the hearts to a paper plate.  Once dry, they added some glitter (VERY MESSY!).  These are so beautiful and sparkly, and the photos do not do them justice, but here is how they turned out:

The next craft is a variation on this: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/mlacing.htm Shhhhhh!  It's for daddy on Valentine's Day - they each had to write why they love their daddy in the center of the heart, punch holes all the way around and then lace the string through.

You can't read the yellow in this photo, but the end of that reads "playing video games."

 And of course, my rainbow girl with her rainbow markers - this took her forever to finish - but it's pretty and colorful!

We are such a mushy, gushy, lovey, huggy family.  Valentine's Day is one of our favorites. The kids get candy, a new book (an accidental tradition that started when Bridgette was three, and kinda stuck), and a card on Valentine's Day.  What does your family do?

Hug your babies today!

Stacy

Christmas 'Do #1

We are in a Christmas production this weekend, so we're trying out a few new styles before then.  Here is one that has been done on a ton of blogs in different ways - but here is our "spin" on it for Christmas!

All I did was make six twist braids on the top of her head.

Then I took every other one, and pulled it to one side, and did the same on the other side, securing with a clear elastic. The flowers are clips I put in through the top of each elastic.  Simple, pretty, easy!  If I were to do this for the show, I'd curl the ends of her hair as well.

It's fun to have a princess!

Have a great day!

Stacy

Three Day project!

This one is great to start right now - it took us three days to complete.  First, have you child make a boy or girl native american.  http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/mgirlnative.htm  This process takes a long time, especially the cutting out - so give it to them at the beginning of the school day, and let them work on it whenever they have a free moment.

The next day, have them make a boy or girl pilgrim: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/mpaperpilgrim.html

On the third day, have them write something about Thanksgiving. This can be copy work for the younger set, or an orignial paragraph for the bigger kids. At our house, I simply put words on our dry erase board that had to do with Thanksgiving and asked them to write a paragraph. Jake had to write two sentences.

Finally, have them glue it all together on a big piece of construction paper and add their names! 

My kids had a good time with this, and it was a good way to review the meaning of thanksgiving at a time when we aren't studying American history.

Have fun with this one!

Stacy

My week...or, the best laid plans...

So much for a craft a day!!  This week has been full of busyness and sickness at our house. The kids have been busy, and I've been sick.  We've done only two more craft projects for Halloween.  I might get to a few more this week, and if I do, I'll post them. 

Here's what we've done so far:
First, I found this gem here: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/msodajack.htm   We read this book first:

With our newfound dieting selves, we didn't have soda bottles, so we used water bottles.  It fit better with the book anyhow - which was about a little bumpy pumpkin.  This bottle was little and bumpy!  We also used tissue paper for the face, as it seemed to conform better to the bottle.  I think they came out adorable!

 The next book we read was this one:
It's about ghosts who come to dinner, and whenever they eat something, their body turns the color of the food they ate.  My kids have loved this book for years!

When they were done reading, I had them color in a ghost who had eaten their favorite food for dinner.  They also had to give their ghost a name.  Here is Jake's:

and Miss Bee's:

And Lex's:

Pretty simple crafts for a sick mama.  I hope to rally a bit in the next few days and do a few more crafts for Halloween, but we're two crafts behind in our Mexico study for Social Studies - so we'll see what we actually get done.  I'm hoping to be well again soon - being sick really slows me down!

Stacy

p.s. Oh, yeah - I did weigh in last week, and lost another two pounds.  I'll be heading to tops again tonight and will hopefully report tomorrow with another loss!!

A craft (almost) a day untill Halloween!

I know for a lot of christian parents, Halloween is a taboo subject - and while we don't participate in the gory aspects, we do enjoy crafting and reading some of the children's Halloween stories.  With all we have going on this year, I can't promise a craft each day until Halloween, but I'll get as many in as I can.  I'd love to see photos of the ones you've copied!

Today, we read a favorite book:

Then I drew a simple outline of the old lady on a large piece of construction paper.  The characters in this book are very cartoonish, and simple to draw.  First, I had them copy the colors of the old lady as closely as possible, to match the illustration in the book.

Last night, I had drawn with marker (then photocopied on my printer) one of each of the characters from the book that she eats.  Now, if you don't feel comfortable free-handing them, just use copy paper, and trace them!  I had the kids color them in (again as close to the illustrations as they could), cut them out and glue them on the tummy of the old lady!

Here is Jake's:

And Lizzie's:

And Lex's:

They were so proud of these, and had a blast making them.  It was nice to just let them color and listen to music for a little while this afternoon.  It was a much needed break after several weeks of hard school work.

I'd love links to great Halloween crafts that you've tried and loved!

Stacy

Zig Zag French Braids

We needed a "tight" 'do for Oliver practice tonight...there is a lot of dancing involved!   I was just going to do regular french braids, but why not add a twist?
All I did was section her hair in three sections on each side of her head and braid and up and down.  She had to sit for me to do this style, and tilt her head in a bit of a funky way, but I think it came out cute!

That's all folks!  :)

Hope your day is sunnier than it is around here.  We have lots to do today, so I'm glad we are stuck inside.

Have a great one!

Stacy