love for your kiddos

Valentine's Day is right around the corner!  I've been pondering on these super Valentine's treats since I spied them on Zakka Life on February 15th of last year.  Yeah.  One day late.  I gotcha this year.  I even remembered to buy bags of Tootsie Roll Pops at Halloween.  Yuh-huh.  It's happening this year and it's gonna be SUPAH.  (Who's project is this anyways?  mine or the boys'?  hahaha!)

Oh, but there are so many cutsie treat ideas for your kiddos to bring to school to their classmates 

floating over the web.  Here's a few I spied on Pinterest.  Follow the links for more on each idea.

 monkeys and lions from Fiskars

 'On-a-Roll Scroll' from Disney Family Fun

Amy's Free Printables from Living Locurto

(some cute owl Valentine's Day card printables here too.)

'Bear Your Heart' from Disney Family Fun

print these cute Butterfly Cards here from giver'slog and add a pretty pencil.

 

 

The boys and I have made these recycled crayons together.  

Super fun and a great little treat for classmates.

 Find all the details here.

 

 Skip to my Lou has a long list of printables to make these butterflies as well as lilies for any occasion.

 

one of my favourites!

Get the label printable here.

another fave!  Find it here on Disney Family Fun.

Enjoy prepping for Valentine's Day with your little loved ones!

back in the saddle

whew!  What a difficult time I've been having getting back into routine.  A good bout with the flu/a cold over the holidays and beyond had me in neutral for waaaay too long.  One real routine week DFO (Done, Finished, Over.  Mike's term) and it was a doozie:  home reno's to work around, field trip, early dismissal, lots of errands including a trip to the fabric store (yay!) and a hubby back to work.  I think we're riding again.

This morning I took some 'me time' -- as far as 'me time' goes with three kids at home; there were plenty of interruptions -- to sew a little number for Paityn.  I'm planning on putting girls dresses into the shop over the next month and it's time to start sewing.  Paityn gets the trial run?  guesso!  I finished it up while she was napping after lunch then waited, waited, and waited for her to wake up.  I needed the model!

 Just a peasant dress but I do love them.  This particular style was largely a tutorial from Prudent Baby with some alterations from me.  PM's pattern is for a peasant top but as you can see, Paityn's a peasant dress.  Partially because of the style and sizing but also due to the 2.5 inch ruffle I added as well as a bit of legnth to the body.  The dress came together lickety split until I started adding ruffles and pockets.  This fabric was my nursing cover for Paityn and the green dot was the lining from her car seat cover.  I couldn't bear to cut into new fabric on a trial run with an online tutorial.

And here she is modeling the dress (I couldn't part with that smile on the blurry photo) with a bulky onesie underneath but please!  It's January and we live in northern Alberta.  Pardon the socks and Robeez too.  It's quite the fashion statement, isn't it?  The lovely thing about peasant dresses is the ample fit which grows with your girlie.  So you can pretty much count on it fitting as a dress to start and a tunic a year or more later.  This dress is fitting Paityn pretty big.  So much for it being a size 2T!  But it's cute and she's growing and I can now adjust the sizing to make more. 

reflections

The holidays are done.  We had a fabulous time with family.  We let this much family stay in our house. 

 

and as usual, it was too short a visit.

Today was one of those lovely afternoons at our house with just our little family.  kinda nice after all the hoopah of the holidays.  baking cookies, eating cookies, building with Lego, colouring pictures, eating clementines, drinking tea, a little Zac Brown Band, toddler dancing, a lot of Veggie Tales Tunes -- loud, an easy supper that everyone ate/tried, mousse whipping, bowl licking, pj's on, teeth brushed, kids tucking in.   and all sleeping.  (Mike's still Lego-building.)  just nice.  just us.

Can't resist posting a few 'see how they've grown' photos today....

 

Logan & Carter, January 2011

 craft time gone crazy, October 2011

 

 Paityn, January 2011 and December 2011

yeah, Paityn wins for 'most changed' in the past year. 

and on to 2012!