Valentine's Day

There were lots of celebrations at preschool today. We of course celebrated Valentine's Day and also Eli's birthday. I stayed to help out. It was fun to see how my boy interacts at school. I'm so proud of him. All the kids exchanged Valentine's cards. Eli was so excited that he spent the majority of his time at preschool guarding his Valentine's box. With the help of photoshop I created Eli's Valentine's cards.

I made the kids heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and gave them a few Valentine's chocolates.

Eli decided to decorate his pancake with his chocolates.

Anja had them all eaten before I even got her pancake on her plate.

DIY Knight Helmet

My son has been asking to make a knight helmet for months. I wasn't exactly sure how we would do that, so I put it off until I came up with the idea of creating it out of paper mache. This is what we came up with:

Paper Mache Knight Helmet Tutorial:

1. collect  your supplies:
- flour
- water
-  measuring cup
- mixing bowl
- newspaper
- balloon
- paint
- paint brush
- brads
- scissors (and utility knife)

2. mix flour with water (ratio 1:2). For one helmet 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of water
3. cut newspaper into 1 inch strips
4. blow up balloon about the size of your child's head

5. dip paper strips in paste, pull through fingers to wipe off excess paste and place on balloon.

6. once several strips are on balloon it helps to place balloon in a (cereal sized) bowl to hold it up.
7. apply about 5 layers of strips to balloon covering top 4/5ths of balloon. It helps to place strips in different directions for each layer to strengthen helmet.
8. allow to dry overnight (or longer)

9. paint (wear safety goggles if you wish, for extra style make sure they are swim goggles)

10. pop balloon and remove balloon
11. cut out helmet shape. Use piece you cut out for mask part. Cut this part into an oval shape and use your utility knife to cut slits from the middle.
12. Use utility knife to poke holes in sides of mask and helmet where you want to attach it.
13. Poke brads through these holes to attach

Cardboard shields

*This is how Anja dresses pretty much every day when at home.

...And now you have a knight to keep your house free of dragons. :)

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!

My New Year's resolution for 2012

2012 is here in 2 hours! So, I guess this means it's time to make resolutions. There are many things I'd like to improve on this year ...I'm not going to list them all, but one of my resolutions that I think will be fun to commit (or TRY to commit) to is the following:

Only buy the absolute minimum when it comes to clothes for the kids. I've been going through boxes and boxes of clothing that they have outgrown and selling them (...the clothes, not the kids). I'm sure they did not need so many articles of clothing and it seems so wasteful! So this year I am determined to simplify. My resolution is to reuse fabric from our clothing rejects. I have a few boxes of clothing in the basement that are waiting to be turned into something new and useable. I'll still buy jeans, shoes, and anything that's too hard or time consuming to make, but I'd really like to make the rest.

This past year I have made a few outfits for my kids using fabric from my basement stash. Anja recently acquired her dad's old sweater that I refashioned into dress. I used this tutorial from the blog Make It and Love It.

So, now that I've shared this resolution I feel the pressure to follow through. ...Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... Happy New Year everyone!

Homemade Play Kitchen

Anja and Isla got a play kitchen set (made with love by mommy and daddy). I fell in love with this kitchen. So, I begged my husband to build it and I did the painting, sewed the curtains and made the hardware choices. We were able to make the whole kitchen for about $125, which considering how much the plastic ones are, I think is a pretty good deal.

They LOVE it!!!