Heart Crayons!

Today's craft served 3 purposes:

1. To organize our coloring utensil drawer
2. To recycle
   
3. To make fun heart crayons for Valentine's Day

(I didn't realize the "recycle" part until Allison mentioned, "This is like recycling!")

First, we gathered all the Valentine color crayons and peeled the paper off. I was surprised how much fun the girls had with it... (Especially considering, it was a bit difficult!)

Next, Allison smashed the crayons with a hammer.

We put the crayon bits in a heart mold, and baked at 250 for about 10 minutes... we just watched them until they were fully melted.


Didn't they turn out CUTE?

It's hard to tell from the picture, but we divided the drawer into crayons/pens/pencils. We then printed Valentine's pictures from Family Fun again to test our crayons out. We also spent the afternoon testing all the old markers and throwing the duds out. Aaaahhh... I LOVE organization! (And, cute crafts!)

Decorating for Valentine's Day

I was thinking about it today... In a span of 107 days, from Oct. 31 - Feb. 14, our family celebrates 4 holidays, (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day), 4 birthdays, (Sierra, Malachi, Natalie, me), 2 New Years' (Gregorian and Lunar), and 1 anniversary, (Daniel and mine). And, that's just our immediate family! No wonder I've been feeling so busy!

But, I love each new celebration as it comes! And, I especially love all the red and white of Valentine's Day. The girls and I had fun pulling down the bins of Valentine decor and getting started on the decorating. I am so happy I made an extra mailbag for the back of Malachi's chair last year... I just need to add the "M."

The girls found exactly 3 leftover heart lollipops. How could I say no to those faces? They got right to work coloring with our heart crayons and stamping with our heart stamps, which left me to decorate the house. We now have 3 weeks to write fun notes to each other and stick them in our mailbags!

Total Randomness

Warning: This post has no theme whatsoever... just some random, disconnected thoughts!

See the picture above? If you lived here, you would see it a lot, lately. I don't know how or when it happened, but Allison is suddenly a reader. And, I do mean suddenly! It was like something clicked, and suddenly she was reading away. It is amazing to see, (and hear!) I snuck up on her, (or so I thought), to take the first picture. As I walked out, I heard her say, "I heard you," so I came back and took a picture with her smiling. So, if you can't find Allison, just listen for a little storyteller, and chances are you'll find her curled up somewhere reading a book aloud!

It may be winter here, but spring cleaning is well underway. Daniel and I spent the last 3 days organizing our master closet... anything from sorting and folding tissue paper to organizing the used ribbon drawer and sorting gift bags. Daniel even built an entire new shelf, which helped a lot with space! We have a ton of extra room, now. We'll see how long that will last!

Since the house is getting cleaned and organized, it was time to pull out Valentine decor. The girls gravitated to last year's heart crayons and stamps right away. I even bought a ton of candy for our upcoming MOPS leader fondue party, but have to admit I have had way too many a few pieces of Dove dark chocolate.

Besides the closet, Daniel also was able to finally re-stain the deck. It only took him a month once he cleared off the deck, due to our non-stop rainy season, which seems to have been replaced with summer! The girls and I are outside most the day enjoying it.

Today we needed veggies for dinner. So, I decided to go to the Asian Market, just so I could splurge on boba and California rolls for lunch. It was worth it! I love that I can enjoy such a lunch with Allison. I foresee future dates with her going to try fun new foods. Hopefully she'll like coffee some day, (far, far away), and we can have coffee dates, too!

I got this adorable bunting banner printable free from Catch My Party. Another step closer to being ready for my party!

Last, but not least, I also ended up picking out these steaks for dinner tonight from the Asian market. I felt a little guilty not waiting for Daniel, but I got tired of processed frozen food I've been having too much of lately when he's at work. Yes, I can even enjoy a grilled steak dinner with my girls!

Play Dough Valentines

This year for Valentines we are doing something a little different. Each year, I pull out the heart foamies, doilies, stickers, crayons, pink and red paper, and let the girls go crazy. They make several adorable Valentines, and I have every intention of sending them... really, I do. Somehow, (please don't read on if you are a Yeh girl), they get thrown out long after V-day is over. I know, I know... it's sad, but true!


This year we decided to do play dough to give out. That way I can not only clean out my old baby jars, (sorry Grandma, I stashed some away where you couldn't find them), but I also will be sure to give these out because they're too big to sit on my desk and not annoy me.

You can find recipes all over the internet for play dough. We did the "kool aid and glitter" version, so they smell yummy, have the pretty color, and sparkle!

Once again, I pulled out my baker's twine. I will probably never use it all, but what a gift to pass on to my kids! (At the rate I'm going, it will certainly be missing a big chunk!) I bought 6-packs of plastic Valentine cookie cutters from the 99 Cent store, printed and cut some free tags from Eightcrazy, used a little fun tape, and voila! Here are 2 of the finished projects:



Happy Valentine Weekend!