Sunday, February 17, 2013

Valentine Hearts

This week was Valentine's Day. I hope you all felt the love! I was so prepared this year. After our family being sick for most of January, I wanted to be sure to do some fun things with the boys in February for Valentine's Day. So, we baked sugar cookies and decorated them - the boys helped with everything! They loved watching me roll out the dough, then being able to take their cookie cutters and cut the dough into hearts and little animal shapes. We waited until Atlas was napping to do the decorating (because I just knew how that could go!) Otto loved mixing the icing and sampling the red and pink Mike and Ikes we got to decorate the tops. He decorated the big ones we made for the grandparents and Pappy (Andy), and a few small hearts, then decided he was done.

Another other crafty thing we did for Valentine's were these beautiful hearts! They were so simple. I got the idea from here and it was perfect for both boys to do. They ripped tissue paper, then used paint brushes to glue them to wax paper with Kid's Mod Podge. Atlas especially loved the gluing part! Otto helped me cut out some of the hearts (then announcing that he was done), and I strung them into a banner for the window. It looks so pretty in our window! Definitely a project we may have to add to next year!

The boys and I also made some Valentine playdough. I tried to brew some tea to make it smell nice, but it really didn't work, so I added some almond extract... and then some more, and then some more... but it just didn't take! I guess the salt smell is just too powerful. I've seen blog posts by others on how they fragranced their playdough, so I'll have to try again. Or maybe it doesn't work as well with herbal tea? Not sure.

Happy Valentine's!