Valentine's Day Pillowcases

These are nothing to brag about but I'd thought I'd post them anyway. I made these Sweetheart's Week Pillowcases as a fun holiday reminder for the girls. Lucy cannot wait to put hers on her pillow.

Picture Perfect Dad

Here is our Father's Day 2009 card. I got each of these pictures developed (that old fashioned practice) and gave Brigham the packet of pictures to flip through. When he opened it, he found these two cute girls with a special message for him.

To go along with the picture theme I also scheduled a daddy daughter photo shoot for him and enlarged a family picture we had taken this past spring.

Father's Day Edible Ties

So here's a quick, easy and fun activity/gift for Father's Day: an edible tie. My sister-in-law, Candice did this a few years ago and I've always thought it was such a cute idea. Today our cousins came over and we gave it a try.

What you'll need:

Sugar Cookie Dough

Frosting

Candy for decorating

We made sugar cookie dough and I free-handed the ties before baking. Right after baking you can use a sharp knife to straighten any edges out or you can bake a rectangle and cut the tie directly from the hot, baked dough. You'll get sharper edges that way. The kids had a lot of fun decorating with icing and candy (and probably got sick from eating a large quantity of it).

Jester for the Day

For April Fool's Day, little Miss L got to be a Jester for the day. The days events included making a jingle bell jester hat, painting and decorating bird puppets, a puppet show, learning how to juggle and entertain, and practicing jokes.

Lucky Day

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day. I actually didn't have much planned until my sister called and inspired me to do something, so I ran to the store, bought a few supplies, and went to work.

Much to mini L's delight, a leprechaun visited during the night and left some cute, green footprints in our kitchen. They led to a lucky breakfast treat and a note for the girls. It turns out we have a family leprechaun named O' Conner (whoever thought of his name, didn't think about logistics because miss L has a friend named Conner and I think she confused the two all day long). O' Conner told us to try to catch him, so she spotted him many, many times (in the grass, in the trees, in the clouds, etc). Oh, and that crazy leprechaun kept sneaking in and turning our food green. Miss L LOVED her green milk. We made snickerdoodles, but O' Conner changed them green so we're now calling them Luckydoodles. To cap off the night, we had cherry lime floats. Yummy!

Miss L's Luckydoodles aka Great Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (we used 1 tablespoon of lemon juice because we didn't have cream of tartar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
(optional) green food coloring

2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

St. Patty's Jingle Bracelets

The girls are going to a little St. Patrick's Day party this weekend and after thinking for a long time, they've decided to bring these for everyone:

We wanted to help out and bring an activity. Since the invitees are all under 2 (actually the majority are under 1), I had to think about something that little ones could do. Enter jingle bracelets. The kids can shake them or wear them on their wrists while we listen to a St. Patrick's Day song. The bells are supposed to form a 3-leaf clover.

What I learned during this project: glitter and jingle bells do not mix well. While the glitter is definitely cute, the glue got inside and effected the "jingle" of the bell...:( If you're careful, you can probably get it to work.

Valentines 2009

The sweetest holiday of the year is over. Here's how we celebrated this year:

I Choo Choos You Sweethearts Week Valentines.

The kids Valentines for friends

Love Bugs, clothespin fastener, and melted crayon hearts.