Valentine Afternoons

I love Valentines. It is really one of my favorite holidays because I love red and pink, I love glitter, I love cards, I love words, and I love making Valentines. So this year we had not one but two Valentine Card Making Lunch Parties. The first was with our friends and the second with members of our family.



I found this cute apple idea on Pinterest. And got the vintage looking paper plates, napkins, and cupcake picks at Hobby Lobby. I set out all kinds of papers, stamps, beads, glitter, etc for the craft time.




FRIEND TIME!!!


FAMILY TIME!!!


I got a bit smarter after the first party and changed the tablecloth to a vinyl wipe down one from Walmart.
Now this is a craft table that is being well used. Chaotic and Messy and Beautiful and Inspiring.

Valentine Favors

Delaney and I spent time today making our first of many Valentine treats. First we made arrow snacks that we saw the idea for in Family Fun Magazine. We used Pretzel Sticks and Brachs candy gummy hearts. One bag of gummy hearts made about 36 arrows.



For each one, you need a whole heart and one heart that you cut a triangle out of to make a tale shape for your arrow .

And this is how we bagged them up. I got these stickers printed from Pear Tree Greetings. We put them on solid card stock and stapled them onto the clear bags. These will be for Delaney's four year old class at school.



Next we made some favors for Ford's class. We have bags of crayons and pieces of crayons laying around. I found this great idea for what to do with them on Pinterest.

I found the heart ice cube trays at Ikea. We filled them up and put them in the oven for 15 minutes at 250 degrees. Let them cool and then pop them out of the silicone mold. They turned out great. We bagged them the same way we did for the arrow treats. But we did add a note to the back of each that they are not edible just in case the three year olds in Ford's class think they look good enough to eat.

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving around here as I am sure all of you are. Today we made pilgrim hat cookies. They were so easy and turned out really cute and perfectly age appropriate for my kids. AND you only need 3 ingredients....Chocolate Wafer cookies, Orange icing, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Thanks Pinterest!


I haven't added the little buckle detail yet but thought I'd get this posted just in case anyone out there wants to make a few of these before tomorrow.

While on Pinterest looking for these cookies, Delaney saw this turkey craft without me even knowing it. She ran and got all the supplies and brought them to the table and told me all she needed was some googly eyes. She did a great job with it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween Party Time!!!

I warned you that I would make way too many October posts but luckily this month is almost over! Tonight was our annual Halloween Party which is my favorite party of the year because there is nothing I like more than people in costumes. I love dressing up which I owe to my grandmother who's favorite holiday is Halloween and who has dressed up as a very scary witch for my entire life. You can see her below scaring the latest generation of little kids!


This is my spider cider holder and it is my very favorite Halloween decoration. I filled him with punch this year for the little kids and found these great cups with lids by Solo. Below are my shelves that I change out seasonally. For Halloween, I use all B&W photos of all my childhood Halloween memories. The really amazing painted calendar is by my friend Ann and I love it so much. The shelves are from IKEA and I trimmed them out with green spider ribbon for this season.



We served delicious Mole Chili and Rosemary Tomato Soup followed by many sweet treats including these Pumpkin Joe Joe's from Trader Joes. The kids and I made these acorns with mini Nutter Butter cookies, a hershey kiss, and a chocolate chip.


Here is my grandmother scaring Buzz and Woody, her great grandchildren!


And here are all our little guests in their splendid costumes!


My dad came as Two Face from Batman because that is Ford's favorite villain. But Ford calls him "One Face Good, One Face Bad". I love this grandparent picture of my parents with my kids.


And here is my costume which is my favorite one ever. I got the idea on Pinterest and then my mom had the idea of adding the bubble to be a more authentic Lichtenstein girl.


Our craft for the evening was making fabric owls. I found giant fabric sample books in the dumpster and kept them for something someday. I cut all the owl shapes out of the fabric and set up our owl making factory.


Here are the finished products and their proud creators. I think they turned out just wonderfully.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU ALL!!!!