Valentine's Day Banner

Upon seeing this super cute Valentine's Day banner, I knew I had to make something similar of my own for our kitchen/dining room. I decided to incorporate a scripture into my banner and chose 1 Corinthians 13:13- "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

I like the idea of using book pages, as in the original, but since I was adding more words, I figured it would be better to use a combination solid and printed paper. I cut my paper into 4" by 6" rectangles. I then folded the top half inch over to be able to hang each piece on the string. Once I cut a triangle out of the bottom of each rectangle, it was time to add the words. I typed up the scripture and printed it out, then cut apart the words and used double-sided tape to attach them to each flag. A little more double-sided tape and some string through the flaps on the back, and the banner was done.

If you would like to make a banner of your own, my document with the scripture is available here. Please print this for your own personal use only. Thanks!




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V Week- Making Valentines

Spoiler alert for Trip's grandparents, aunts, and uncles: This post contains pictures of a a card that will soon be in your mailbox, so if you want to be surprised, don't look! :)

I wanted to make valentines for some family members, so I got Trip set up with some paints. I tried a couple of new mixes that turned out great. The dark one is red and blue finger paint with some glitter. The other is a modified version of the "snow paint" that I made last week. This time, I mixed equal amounts of white glue and shaving cream and then added some red finger paint to make it pink.

Trip was excited to get to work and liked knowing that he was painting for his grandparents.

He was quite fascinated with the puffy paint. (And also felt the need to stand up in the chair to explore it.)

Once the paint was dry, I traced some hearts on the back of the paper and cut them out. I printed out the text, and began the assembly.

Happy Valentine's Day!

V Week- Valentine's Lunch

I put together and simple but cute Valentine's Day lunch for Trip and he was quite pleased with it.

First, I made these delicious fruit gummies. They are basically a healthy version of Jell-O Jigglers, made with fruit, applesauce, juice, and plain gelatin. They're easy to whip up and keep well in the fridge for several days. I'm pretty sure I liked them just as much as Trip did. They're not too sweet and have nice berry flavor. I will definitely make them again.

I also cut hearts out of red bell peppers and cheese. I made some Vs too, because I like to make our letter of the week appear on Trip's plate whenever possible. He was excited to dig in and actually went for the peppers first instead of the fruit.

We enjoyed a dessert of Greek yogurt (so thick, creamy, and delicious!) with a few red sprinkles and a heart marshmallow.

V Week

Our V week was full of Valentine, vacuuming, and volcano fun. Click on the links for the full post with more details about each of these activities!

Trip had a fun and simple Valentine's lunch with some delicious homemade fruit gummies.

We made valentines for some family members.

I made a Valentine's Day banner for our kitchen/dining room.

Trip loved vacuuming up tiny letters.

 And finally, Trip discovered that volcanoes are super fun through a science experiment

and a snack afterwards.

I found pictures of vegetables in magazines and Trip helped me glue them onto the V. He was excited to be in charge of the glue stick but wanted me to put most of the veggies on the paper.

Check back next week to see our N week fun!

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Penguins in the Snow Sensory Tub

I had the pleasure of creating this sensory tub for a little friend of ours. She just recently turned two and likes penguins, so I wanted to come up with something that would interest her.

After a little research online, I came across the pattern for these super cute penguin finger puppets. They were fast and easy to make and turned out great. The two larger ones pictured are from the pattern. Once I made those, I figured they could be the daddy and mommy penguins. Since our friend is going to have a baby brother in a couple of months, I decided to freehand some smaller penguins to be her and her brother. I put the penguins on popsicle sticks so that they could stand in the "snow" but they are not glued in place, so they can still be finger puppets.

I filled the tub with cotton balls, stuffing, small squares of bubble wrap, pieces of two different snowflake ribbons, scraps of light blue paper, white foam circles, and pipe cleaner snowflakes. 

I also made some fun white and glittery snow dough to accompany this tub. I sure hope she enjoys it!

Shaving Cream "Snow"

A great indoor activity for any time of year is shaving cream "snow." Trip loved this activity because he got to take off his shirt. And then, since his shirt was off, he wanted all of his clothes off! Considering the potential for a big mess, I figured he might as well be naked.

I had Trip choose between playing with animals and cars. He chose cars, so while he found a few cars, I sprayed some shaving cream on a cookie sheet. As soon as he came back to the table, the cars got very "snowy."

Right about this point, he got very upset that the car was "all mess" and wanted me to clean it.

With a clean car in hand, it was time to get his fingers in it.

And then some of the shaving cream ended up on his tummy.

Shortly thereafter, Trip was ready for something else, so he played with water in the sink for a while (a new favorite pastime).

Meanwhile, I mixed up some "snow" paint (which could double nicely as "cloud" paint as well) with the shaving cream left on the cookie sheet. I discovered from this pin that equal parts shaving cream and white glue makes a fun paint that dries puffy. Trip was too busy playing in the water to care about painting, so I started making him some snowy letters. I ended up having enough shaving cream to make the whole alphabet.

The paint doesn't dry quite as puffy as it starts out, but it has a really nice silky feel to it and does retain some dimensionality. In the future, these letters will be great for Trip to practice tracing out letters by following along the lines with his fingers.

Snow Painting

The idea of painting snow with colored water is all over the Internet, and for good reason. It's lots of fun! Trip loves using a spray bottle, so I knew he would like taking one outside filled with water and a few drops of food coloring.

He had requested to bring a couple of small toys out with him and I obliged, but they quickly fell by the wayside when he discovered what was in that spray bottle.

"Mommy, I so excycle (excited)!" (You just have to hear him say it in his cute little voice!)

He had a blast spraying the trees,

the fence,

the cinder-blocks,

and the icicles.

Then, it was Mommy's turn. He wanted me to make a boy and I also made him a T.

Trip enjoyed this activity so much that I have a feeling we will be taking a spay bottle of colored water out in our next snow, too.