Valentine's Day Craft

Today, my kids and I made these crayon hearts using Martha Stewart's instructions. As a kid, I loved crafts that involved melting crayons, so I thought it would be fun to do this with my kids. I think their favorite part was pealing the paper off the crayons as normally they are not allowed to do that.

This was the point where Eli decided he had done enough. He's becoming less and less interested in crafts lately.

I used construction paper to protect my iron and ironing board from the wax paper and crayon shavings.

Next time I'll use less crayon shavings as it turned out a little thick and not as transparent as the ones Martha Stewart made. But then again, kids crafts aren't supposed to be perfect.

Upcycled Valentine's Day Dresses

I don't usually like getting outfits for my kids that are too holiday related because then I feel I can't get much use out of them. But I found this tutorial on Pinterest and thought it would be really cute to apply to the Sienna dress pattern (from LilBlueBoo) that I use ALL the time. I decided to not add the ruffles to the heart because I wasn't sure how it would look after being washed. And also it looked like a lot of work! I used 4 t-shirts (from by basement stash) to make the two dresses. I call them Valentine's Day dresses, but I think they could be worn past Valentine's Day as well because they aren't too "Valentinesy".

Anja loves layering, so this dress can be worn all year round!

I added little diamonds using Jewel-It Embellishing Glue, which is supposed to withstand washing. This is the first time I've used it, so we'll see how it holds up in the wash.

Now I need to find some cool boy patterns.

This is totally unrelated, but Anja just learned to stand!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

We celebrated Anja's 3rd birthday last Sunday. Since she doesn't really have a group of friends yet we just did a family party. I was a little concerned she'd be disappointed since the week before we celebrated her Nana's birthday and Anja asked where all the people were. Thankfully she was so excited for cake and presents, that she didn't mention anything about the lack of guests.

About a year ago I found a package of Eric Carl birthday decorations and bought it thinking that I wouldn't have time to hand make decorations for EVERY birthday party. At first I wasn't crazy about the theme (I tend to shy away from bright colours), but as I planned her party it really grew on me and I ended up really liking it.

Since I didn't have to make the decorations for this party, I had time to make some outfits for my girls. I used old t-shirts to make Anja's dress & flower clip and made her legwarmers from some knee high socks.

I used the left over fabric from the t-shirts I used for Anja's dress and decorated a plain blue onesie for Isla. I also made her legwarmers out of knee high socks.

We celebrated her birthday in the morning (because Anja was too excited to wait) and had pancakes before cake. I added green dye and we made them into Hungry Caterpillars.

This amazing cake was made by Tanya English. Anja was so excited when she saw it. Check out Tanya's other fabulous cakes at her facebook page what-a-character cakes. And if you'd like to contact her about making you a cake you can email her at: whatacharactercakes@hotmail.com.

You know those cute pictures where kids pose with their hands nicely folded under their chins? ...we tried.

She LOVED her cake and was so excited to blow out her candles.

Even the inside of the cake looked pretty.

Buzby's piece of cake.

Pin the Tail on the Elephant: I taped some fabric inside an animal mask to make a cute blindfold.

Happy 3rd birthday to my beautiful girl!