Preschool Valentines

Tomorrow Allison has a valentines party at preschool.  There are so many cute ideas on Pinterest but really I'm a little short on time right now so I used the same idea as last year.  I did the packaging a little different and they turned out very cute.  Not bad for a 30 min project.

Stockings

It's Christmas Eve and I finished Taylor's stocking this morning.  Now it's hanging with all the others.  I'm officially ready for Christmas.  

Superhero Allison

This was a fantastic easy project.  I made two superhero capes in about 30 minutes.  One for Allison and one for my friends son who just visited.  Both were made from some old t-shirts I had sitting around.  Andy's cape was cut from the front of one of my Rice t-shirts so he is a Rice superhero - his parents are both alums.  Allison's came from a fun run, so I used the plain back of the shirt and added iron on star designs.  So far she hasn't asked what kind of superhero she is, she just likes being a superhero.

I based my project on this tutorial I found on Pinterest:
http://thesoutherninstitute.com/2011/03/diy-superhero-cape-tutorial.html/

I simplified by using one shirt that already had the logo I wanted.  

Stress Relief Jars

completed jar

Tonight we have "Meet the Teacher" at Allison's preschool.  I know several of the girls from her class last year will be returning and should be in the same class together.

before assembling

 

Last year I made pampering jars for a start of the year teacher gift.  To change it up this year I've made "Stress Relieft Jars".  I know this age can be stressful as kids are working on their independence and potty training seems to bring out the worst in all of us.

love allison on the top

I used quart size jars, filled them with some stress relief bath salts, some relaxing lotion, bubble wrap tied up in a bow and a handful of chocolates. I got my inspiration on pinterest, the original link is: http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2013/02/craft-it-forward-stress-relief-gifts.html 

Burp clothes - style 2

I made a second batch of burp cloths for my college roommate who had a little girl last week.  I made two different styles, some of the vertical one like before and these with just the decorative fabric at the bottom.  The next batch (for Allison's pediatrician who is due next month) will hopefully have more details and some trim work.  I am very slowly getting better.  Almost ready to tackle the birthday dresses I bought fabric to make for Brooklyn and Allison.

First sewing project

I completed my first ever sewing project this weekend.  Inspired by a couple Pinterest  photos I made some decorated burp clothes for my friend Lori's baby shower.  Each one took about an hour and came out pretty cute. 

Chef Allison

Finished snack mix

Last night Allison asked to cook. It took me a minute to come up with an appropriate dish and decided to make trail mix. Allison had so much fun, she wanted to make another batch right away.

I pulled out a big mixing bowl, wooden spoon and lots of treats. To avoid potential messes I poured each ingredient into a small plastic bowl for Allison to dump into the mixing bowl. We used roughly 1 cup each of: marshmallows, M&Ms, mini pretzels, goldfish, Cheerios, and Chex.

Ingredients

So excited to cook

Dream Castle

Monday we bought a new set of pots and pans on a rare Costco trip. Big thanks to my dad for letting us benefit from his membership. After unpacking and washing all the new dishes we had a lot of cardboard and a big box to deal with. I told Kevin to leave it and we would have some craft time fun.

Yesterday Allison watched the Sophia episode about making a dream castle so that turned into the perfect craft. We piled up the random pieces into a tower and then decorated it with stickers. We've been adding to the decorations today and will continue to do so until she gets bored or runs out of stickers - whichever comes first.

Posing with her dream castle "just like Rapunzel's tower"

Stars on top

Carefully decorating

        

This afternoon adding glitter glue

Next up - what to make out of the giant box. . .

Easter Wreath

My friend Jamie and I made Easter wreaths based on some Pinterest inspiration.

We looked at the instructions and supplies from two blog posts (see below) and then just made it up as we went along.

Total cost: $12 and 2 hours to make two really pretty wreaths. Instead of using all the pastels we each picked a specific color palette. Jamie did blue and purple and I used pink and green with a couple yellow accents.

Supplies:
2 twelve inch wreaths ($3/ each at Walmart)
3 bags regular eater eggs (42 eggs in one bag for $2 at Walmart)
3 bags mini eggs ( $2/bag at hobby lobby)
1 bag tiny glitter eggs (hobby lobby)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
ribbon or tulle for hanging

Optional Decorations:
ribbon for bow
Ribbon trim, glitter glue, nail polish, washi tape, buttons, stickers


We raided our ribbon supplies and hot glued ribbon trim on a couple of the eggs, as well as some glitter glue designs. We also tried some nail polish stripes and had the buttons out to hot glue but ended up not using them. Our wreaths have 3 rows of large eggs (one on top, and inner row and outer row) with smaller eggs filling in any gaps to fully cover the wreath frame below.

I'm so happy with how this project turned out.   Allison likes it so much she's asked for one for her bedroom door.


We looked at these two tutorials:
http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2012/03/robins-egg-spring-wreath-by-grits.html

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/03/make-a-washi-tape-spring-egg-wreath.html

Valentine Hugs

Another Pinterest inspiration - valentine hugs.  I measured Allison's arm span and cut that onto ribbon, traced her hand prints onto craft paper, and used some heart shaped cookie cutters to trace hearts onto more craft paper.  Total project cost under: $3 ($1 ribbon on sale at hobby lobby, $.59 each 3 sheets of craft paper with heart themes.  I made one for each set of grandparents, Aunt Stacey and a keepsake for us.  On the center heart I wrote "A Valentine Hug from Allison, 2013".

Here is the original Pin I based mine from: http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/valentines-crafts-for-kids-a-long-distance-hug-a-beautiful-present-for-someone-special-diy/

Oreo valentines

I wanted to make homemade valentines for Allison's preschool party.  Yes, we are missing the party during our trip, but its a chance to be creative and make the kids a treat.  I saw something similar on Pinterest, but with no link.

I used ziploc snack bags which were a little small, but the quart sized ones had big logos on them.  Next time I'll get some from the dollar store.  I had the straws and striped paper (cut to 5 inches tall by 6.5 wide), and picked up a 12 pack of mini oreos for under $5 at Target.  For the label I googled 'free cookie monster clipart' for my cookie monster and found a valentine one.  I printed the label on cardstock, used double stick tape to attach to the striped paper then stapled the label onto the bags.  Total time: less than 1 hour.

Flash cards

Friday we had a playdate at the Warrens and Kathy showed me what she does with the boys flash cards. I had a pack of alphabet cards I'd tucked away for our road trip next week and now I can't wait to use them on the road. Kathy punched all her cards and put them on binder rings.

I found binder rings at hobby lobby ($2.99 for 12), leap frog alphabet cards from the dollar bin at target and I already had a hole punch. This took less than 5 minutes and is exactly what I wanted - now Allison can't scatter them everywhere.

I punched the first card, then used it to line up the hole for the next card do they would match.

Halloween Crafts

She's so focused - love it!

Allison loves craft time at her preschool so I've been inspired to start doing crafts at home with her - trying for a couple times a week. Previously we had just been coloring together but Allison is really enjoying the diversity. I've also noticed it's great for her dexterity and hand-eye coordination as she handles the little pieces. Here are the projects that we've done since mid-October.  If you have ideas for more projects I would love to hear them.



Cotton Ball Ghost:
needed: glue stick, cotton balls, crayons, computer & printer, cardstock
link to my ghost: http://www.coloringbookshop.com/colorpages/halloween/ghost-coloring-page.html
Allison did something similar at preschool which was my inspiration.  I googled "ghost silhouette" images and grabbed a free one (link above).  I copied it into PowerPoint and enlarged the image, then printed it on cardstock.  Allison drew on it a little with an orange crayon, then I rubbed a glue  stick over the ghost and gave her a pile of cotton balls.  It took her a minute to figure out the sticky area, but she had lots of fun.  I wasn't sure if this would last, but the cotton balls are still holding on, and we did this one two weeks ago.


Fall Sticker Art
needed: paper, foam stickers, crayons
This is so versatile and easy.  You could use colored paper or cardstock if you want it to be more durable or go with a theme.  What's shown is just printer paper we had.  I encouraged Allison to color with some 'fall' colored crayons - oranges, browns, yellows, then let her decorate with foam stickers.  I found the fall-themed stickers at Hobby Lobby for $2.99.  It had enough stickers to make 3 of these sheets.  The other two went home with Gigi and Stacey for their fridge collection - theirs had more variety of stickers.  We used the leftovers to make one for us another day.


Decorating a Pumpkin
needed: pumpkin, stickers (we used foam stickers)
We decorated a small pumpkin with foam stickers yesterday for our craft project.  You can use regular stickers too, we had the foam ones on hand.  I really like foam ones for little hands because they don't tear easily and a have more heft for her little fingers.  Allison normally needs me to pull the backing off, so that way mommy is participating too.  She picks out a sticker, hands it to me, I peel, and then she places it.  She gets to do all the creative parts, but I'm still involved with her.  I love when we can do things together.  Afterwards we talked about the colors of the stickers and counted the different shapes (how many stars, how many crosses, etc).

Pampering in a Jar

Last week I made these adorable jars for Allison's preschool teachers. We took them to 'meet the teacher' night at school and they were a big hit.

I used quart jars and trimmed them with some leftover paper from Allison's birthday invitations. I made the label myself and cut it out with a scallop punch. In each jar I included - fuzzy socks (Ulta), a gourmet hot chocolate mix (Mama Lee's), a large travel size body wash (St Ives oatmeal - one of my favorites), two pretty nail files (Ulta), and three mini perfumes from my stock of samples. I had some chocolates to put in a well but ran out of room!

I found the idea on pinterest, here is the original website:
http://livingpractically.blogspot.com/2011/12/pampering-in-jar.html

If you don't have jars (or want to save them for canning), you could call it pampering in a bag and put a label on a little gift bag. You could also call them pampering socks and stuff the other items into the socks as a cute touch.

Painting

Last night the YP went to Creative Canvas for the monthly fun event. I couldn't talk Kevin into going so he and Allison had some daddy daughter time. Not sure where to put this, but it was fun!

Christmas Stocking - Then and Now

Here's a picture of Allison with her stocking one year ago for her first Christmas, and one from yesterday.  Its amazing what a difference a year makes.  It has been such a wonderful year for us - watching her grow, moving to a wonderful home in a new city, and finding a church home.  

Dancing with daddy

Allison is 15 months old today. You can see how happy she is in this video twirling around the living room with her daddy. Note the baseball cap Kevin hung on the tree instead of putting it away earlier.

We've had a fun afternoon. A couple friends from church came by to help us make some homemade treat baskets for the church nursery staff. In between watching the kids play (reason ornaments not up yet) we made hot cocoa mix, granola and Oreo truffles. Our house smells amazing.

Learning to sew

Our last trip to Lufkin I had my first sewing machine lesson. I successfully made a new dog bed cover. When the dogs wouldn't sit still for a photo Allison took over. So far it meets kid and dog approval. Next step - curtains for the master bedroom.