LM's 2014 Valentines

We worked on LM's Valentines last weekend. A few weeks ago, I printed off some ideas I found on Pinterest and other places on the Internet for "boy valentines", and let him choose which one he liked. He chose "You're a Reel Catch" - a printable I could purchase from this cute store on Etsy and then would be attached to bags of gummy worms. Let's be honest here - choosing the valentine, for LM, was all about what candy he wanted to have. Ahem. Here are some photos of the nice time we had together, assembling the creations.

I found a great deal on these little cello bags at Jo-Ann's - way cheaper than at the party store.

The bags came with twist ties, but I decided to class it up a little with some orange ribbon.

I ended up having three spools of ribbon unused.

I returned them, for a savings of $4.19.

S teased me for saving that big amount with my return.

It was really just about getting it out of my house. ;-)

LM's job was to count out six worms and put them into each bag.

I then strung the cards onto the ribbon and tied them to the bags.

He took his work very seriously. 

Of course, there was some quality control checking along the way...

He seemed thrilled to be part of the activity.

So serious!

I thought they came out well in the end.

He will take them to his classmates on Friday.

We mailed a few to his cousins in Indy, 

and delivered a few to his cousins in Dallas.

We enjoyed doing this craft together, and I think he will take pride in handing them out on Friday, telling his teacher and classmates that he helped make them. 

See you soon.

Star of the Week

Toward the end of October and the beginning of November, LM was "Star of the Week" in his class at school. As Star of the Week, the kids get to bring in a poster board that tells something about them, answer some questions about themselves, bring in their favorite book, and be the line leader whenever they go somewhere, among other things I don't know about. LM was very excited to be the Star. During this time S, was at home, and he and LM devised a cracker jack plan to really make his poster stand out. S found sound and lights to add to the poster, and we took these photos of LM in all sorts of dress-up outfits to put on the poster:

The Halloween outfit

Race car driver

Fireman

The Knight

Batman!

Super Mr. Super Hero

Astronaut

Officer Krupke

Yee-haw!

Soccer player

Baseball player!

With Echo

With Norman

Then he decided he needed to use this special hat from Nonna and Papa's house 
on his first day as the Star.


Installing the lights and sound.

And the final result, in his classroom.
With the special hat...

See you soon.

A Boy-Friendly Valentine: Superheros!

Again, I found this on Pinterest and copied the idea to make it my own. The original blogger has a template you can use with white card stock. I didn't read it carefully and had purchased colored card stock, so I used her template to trace out my own capes and masks.

I should say that S and I did this little craft exercise on our own, without the help of the boy, while he took a massive four hour nap on Saturday. I should also say I am incredibly stressed out with work and life in general at the moment, and this little arts and crafts activity was JUST what the doctor ordered. It got me out of my own stressed head and let me just do something fun for a while. Here are the photos and more information if you want to copy this cute idea:

There is Zakka's template, used as a tracing card.

S traced out the masks - which look a little like bikini tops here. 

We made all red masks but varied the cape colors between red, orange and pink.

S cut out the capes

I drew in the little eyes on the masks

S was very proud of this photo, so I'm including it.

While S cute out all those masks, 

I trimmed the edge of the capes and punched a hole.

Then I decorated them with the saying.

You craftier people could make this part cuter.

Then we opened the pops!

And I assembled one prototype.

So cute!

What are YOU lookin' at?

Then we assembled the other 19. Ahem.

Who was that masked man?

Only your friendly neighborhood valentine!

Fun, fun fun. LM will take them to school on Thursday for his class party. I really wanted to figure out a way to incorporate a photo of HIM in his mask on the valentine, but this will have to do, as the aforementioned stress won't allow for anything more! 

But, it would have been cute, say, on the underside of the cape.

Maybe next time.

I hope your Valentine Week is a good one. Ours will be more fun with the boy to celebrate it with, as usual. I'll share some of the other stuff we do later on.

See you soon.