Sweethearts Week 2011: The Game of Love

"Love is a game that two  (or 5 in our family) can play and both win".

Sweethearts Week is one of my favorite family traditions. 

I stole it from my best friend, Stephanie, and I love it. 

You can see what I did in 2009 and 2010.

This year my theme will be based on games.

I will be giving the girls a game we can play together each day of the week leading up to Valentine's day.

Here are a few printable games that I have come up with so far so you can enjoy them, too.

Mending Broken Hearts

Valentine Scavenger Hunt

Cupid Cruisers

Snowman Preschool Lesson

I'm back...this week anyway. 

Here's what we'll be doing next week:

Lesson Plan

Songs and Finger Plays

Snowman Face Literacy Game

Marshmallow Math Mat

Shape Snowman

Faux Snow Science

Snow Dough

Snowman in a Bottle

Enjoy!

*Graphics from LetteringDelights.com

My Homemade Christmas Gifts

This year I didn't have many plans for making Christmas gifts, but I really wanted to do something. Thanks to a suggestion from my friend, Stephanie. I bought the book, Wee Wonderfuls, and LOVED it. 

I picked out three projects - one that I thought would fit each of my girls - and got sewing. 

I was happy to find that they weren't too much work. I finished in about 4 days and I was just sewing at naps and night time. I varied the patterns a little bit to my own liking and I think they turned out great for my first doll making projects.

CK's ribbon haired doll:

 L's topsy turvey doll (she was the most time intensive because of a lot of hand sewing):

 And C's Ellie bag (I added a ribbon bow to the back):

By far my favorite gifts to give the girls....and they actually like them.

Oh! and the best part, I just used extra fabric/supplies I already had so they were priced just right.

Gingerbread Cookies (delicious!)

I made gingerbread cookies today with the girls. They were so good that I had to post a link to the recipe. I followed it exactly except I omitted the black pepper. That just didn't sound like something I would want in a cookie. 

Try it. It was so easy. 

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

While the dough chilled, we read a couple of great gingerbread stories:

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 

and

The Bakers Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale retold by Aaron Shepard

Christmas Advent: Couples Style

This is SO last minute, and I haven't taken pictures of my completed advent, but I thought I'd share it anyway in case anyone is looking for advent ideas to do with your spouse. I tried to make most "kid less" activities that are easy and fun and should help strengthen your marriage. I am excited to have something to do with my sweetheart and count down to Christmas as well.

Here are my activity ideas, if you're interested.

Thanksgiving Sound Shopping

One more Turkey Day preschool activity:

Thanksgiving Sound Shopping

A wonderful place to find literacy ideas.

*I don't know why people can't download this. I changed my sharing setting in Google documents. You can try that to see if it helped. If not, I'm not sure what the problem is. The link is working for me.

Thanksgiving Guess Who

I found these cute graphics at letteringdelights.com and had to make one more Thanksgiving game.

Thanksgiving Guess Who

Here is a better explanation of the Guess Who game rules, if anyone needs them.

Thanksgiving Games

Here a few Thanksgiving games I put together. I won't be posting a Thanksgiving Day lesson plan because:
#1. There will be millions created by other people (why recreate the wheel, right?)
#2. I already have some activities I am doing with the girls.

I did, however, put together a few easy games if anyone is interested.
I love this activity from Family Fun, so I modified it using turkeys rather than squirrels.

Turkey Hide and Seek/Memory

Turkey Bingo Game

Don't Eat Tom 

I'm having trouble with this link. I'll try to fix it later.
*Edit* I can't get the Don't Eat Tom game to upload completely. If you'd like a copy, I can email it to you.

2010 Family Halloween Dinner

We celebrated Halloween with our traditional holiday dinner. This year we themed it around monsters. The girls helped me make the decorations and everyone helped with the food. The most fun was monster mashing in our monster feet.

Favorite things: 

The Watermelon Monster

Monster Sandwiches eating the carrots

Eyeballs in our soup

Our pom pom monster garland

Great dance moves!

Monster Lesson Plan

It's been a long week and I am so tired, but I had to get these on here. Next week we're learning about Monsters in preparation for our annual family Halloween dinner which happens to be Monster themed this year. I haven't had a lot of prep/planning time, but I still feel like there are some great activities. Hope you are able to enjoy some of them.

Lesson Plan

Songs

Alike/Different Literacy Activity

Monster Say and Clap

Eyeball Sorting/Match

Math Clipart

 Slime Recipe