Our Valentines

Each year, since the kids have been in school, we have made Valentine's cards for their classmates.  I was planning on showing ones from years past, but apparently, I never took pictures of them!  Oops!

Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to pin a bunch of ideas for Valentine's Day, & here are the cards the kids chose to make for their classes:

Zeke chose to make these Valentine's, which say "Have a TOAD-ally awesome Valentine's Day!".  I made them on the computer, cut them out, & had him sign them & glue on frogs from Dollar Tree.  I saw the idea from Crap I've Made & she actually even has a link to print them, but I wasn't sure if it would print okay on the red paper I had already bought, so I made my own.

Elie chose to use glow bracelets & make these Valentine's that say, "You make my heart glow!".  I found the idea at The Teacher Wife & she also has a cute printable for these!  (I really wish I would have noticed that before I bought the red paper!)  Hers are much cuter than mine!  Anyway, I just made them on the computer, printed them, cut them out, & had Elie sign her name & tape some glow stick bracelets on the back. 



We always give the teachers & bus drivers candy bars wrapped in festive paper.  It's nicer than giving them a kid card, but not as extravagant or expensive as a gift.  (Right now, I am trying NOT to eat the extra candy bar that's sitting on the counter!)

So, what are your kids handing out for Valentine's Day?  Do you buy cards or make them with the kids?  I'd love to hear some more ideas!

Teacher Christmas Gifts

This is what we made for the kids' teachers for Christmas last year:

{Teacher Travel Mugs}

Last year, I bought a few "Color a Mug" travel cups from Dollar Tree.  Then, I purchased some black & white polka dotted vinyl & hot pink vinyl stickers from Hobby Lobby.  I traced the paper template from the cup onto the back of the vinyl & cut it out.  Then, I added a vinyl letter sticker of the first letter of the teacher's last name to the black & white vinyl & inserted it into the cup.  Inside the cup, I added a Starbuck's gift card & topped it with a hot pink bow to match.

I also gave the teachers a snowman ornament the kids made by putting their white hand print on a ball ornament & adding details to make the fingers look like snowmen.

{Snowmen Ornaments}

This year, as seems to be the theme, I decided to take a more simple route!  I simply grabbed some takeout boxes from, where else, but Dollar Tree.  I filled them with red shredded paper & a $5 gift card to Little Caesars (where you can get a large "Hot & Ready" pizza for $5 which includes tax!) & a $5 gift card to a local cupcake bakery.

{Take Out Teacher's Gift}

{The Wrapping}

I topped the boxes with an easy snowman ornament the kids made from a Popsicle stick.  (We make ornaments every year!)

{Popsicle Snowman Ornament}

So, what are some other good ideas for teacher gifts?  Feel free to leave a comment with the link to your gift ideas!  I always love to file away great gift ideas!

Linking here:

Centsational Girl Holiday Craft Link Party



Halloween Costume Ideas

Since Halloween will be here in a few weeks, it's time to start thinking about costumes.  I thought I would share some of my kids' costumes from year's past.  Maybe you'll find some inspiration!

{Zeke's 1st Halloween- 2004}

Of course Zeke didn't go trick-or-treating when he was eight months old, but I wanted him to look cute & festive sitting on the front porch with me!  I taped some raffia to the insides of a hat, flannel shirt sleeves, & some overall pants and used red lipstick & an eyeliner pencil to make his nose & mouth look like a scarecrow.  I'm pretty sure he was the cutest scarecrow ever!

{Zeke the Lion- 2005}

Not a whole lot to explain about this one.  We bought the top part of the costume at Big Lots & added some brown fleece pants & a brown shirt that my mom made.  His chubby little face looked so cute in that lion hood!

{Zeke- 2006}

{Eliana's 1st Halloween- 2006}



2006 was the year of hand-me-down costumes.  I have yet to figure out whether Zeke was a dinosaur or a dragon!  This would have been his first year going trick-or-treating at a few houses, but he ended up with a stomach bug, so I guess it's a good thing we didn't spend a lot of time or money on his costume!  I was quite a bit less creative for Elie's first Halloween, although she still made a cute little caterpillar!

{Japanese Beetle- 2007}

{Ballerina- 2007}

2007 was the year Zeke began telling us what he wanted to be for Halloween.  He has always loved bugs, so it was no suprise that he wanted to be dressed like a Japanese Beetle!  Luckily, my husband's mom took on the task of replicating the beetle by making the wings & body with some irredescent green fabric she found.  Other than that, we dressed him in a black jogging suit & added a headband with some pipecleaner antennas.

Elie was a simple ballerina.  My mom made the tutu and my mother-in-law made the pink leg warmers.  Then, I just added a pink long sleeved onesie to complete the look.  Her sweet little baby face makes me wish I could go back in time & squeeze her cheeks!

{Robot- 2008}

{Raggedy Ann- 2008}

Zeke was really into robots this year.  We made his costume out of boxes (turned inside out, hot glued together, & spray painted silver).  We added some aluminum foil antennas & a red spray paint cap on top (you know, for a light!).  For the body of the costume, we added a compass, light switch, some other trinkets from Home Depot, & some battery opperated Christmas lights.  We used silver dryer vent piping to cover his arms & legs.  He was a hit this Halloween & his costume protected him from a hard tumble!!

I dressed Elie as Raggedy Ann.  She hated it!  My mom has a large Raggedy Ann doll, so she took the clothes off the doll & we put them on Elie.  Somehow, I made the wig & added some red tape to her white tights.

{Apple Tree- 2009}

{Flower- 2009}

For some reason, Zeke really wanted to be an apple tree for Halloween.  The local art teacher was willing to help us out, by creating the tree shape out of cardboard.  I spray painted the tree brown & then Zeke & I glued on some artificial leaves.  I found some apple Christmas ornaments at Dollar Tree.  I glued some of them on & hung others by thread so that it would appear they were falling.  Can you spot the squirrel, bird's nest, & cardinal in the tree?

Zeke & I decided that Elie should be a flower, so we could have a theme.  I used hot pink felt to make the flower headband, which was a total nightmare!  My mom sewed the green tutu for me after I made a botched attempt at doing so!  I dyed her tights & white shirt to match, added a hot pink sash, & gave her a couple of gerbera daisies to complete the look.

{Cheerleader & Basketball Goal- 2010}

Last year Zeke wanted to be a basketball goal!  We dressed him in all black, for the pole.  Then, I made the backboard using white foam board & red posterboard.  We used the hoop & net from a nerf goal we had.  The most difficult part was getting the backboard to stay up.  The poor kid had dowel rods going down his shirt & duct tape around his stomach (He had two shirts on, so nothing was touching his skin!)!  He survived & didn't complain though!  Oh, I guess I should explain why Zeke looks like the devil...I thought it would be neat to paint Zeke's face like a basketball in the net.  As always on Halloween, we were down to the wire on getting everyone ready to go, so my husband decided to do the face painting.  I'm very thankful he did it, but maybe next time he'll added a little white to lighten up the orange!!

We borrowed a cheerleading costume for Elie, so thankfully, she was pretty easy to dress!

So, have your kids been anything unusual for Halloween?  I'd love to hear about it, especially since I need some ideas for this year!







Sharing here:

Blue Cricket Design



 

Birdhouses

A few weeks ago we went to Michael's as a family to pick out unfinished birdhouses to paint.  Within a few minutes, Eliana picked out a castle birdhouse, Zeke picked out a pirate ship, my hubby picked out a log cabin, & I picked out a barn (nice & easy...I know my limits as a painter!).

Here they are before we transformed them:

{Before}

Since the temperatures here have been in the upper nineties with a heat index of over 100 degrees, this indoor project was a welcomed escape from the heat!  We sat down as a family & painted our birdhouses.  As a perfectionist, I had certain ideas on how I wanted them to turn out, but tried to let my children freely choose how to decorate them!  (I may have cheated a little, since I touched up some of their paint, but the colors were definitely their own choosing...You'll see.)

{Elie's red, green, & pink castle & Zeke's pirate ship}

{Mark's log cabin & my red barn}

Now, you'll just have to wait to see what is next for these birdhouses!  Once we get a protective water seal on them, I have a fun place to hang them!  (Crossing my fingers this idea works!)

Sharing these here:

Metamorphasis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Debbiedoos Newbie Party

Crazy Camp Days

Last week my son went to basketball camp.  Wednesday was "crazy shirt day".  Zeke & I both agreed he didn't have a "crazy" shirt.  I didn't think much about it on Tuesday night.  Zeke mentioned that he wanted to color polka dots on one of his old undershirts, so I figured that's what he would do.

I woke up really early on Wednesday morning & couldn't get back to sleep.  As I layed in bed thinking about anything & everything, the thought occurred to me that we should make a basketball jersey out of duct tape!  The idea seemed to come out of nowhere.

When Zeke woke up, I had to convince him to go along with my idea, which he did with some initial hesitation!  We ran to the hardware store to pick up some red duct tape & black electrical tape for the trim.  By the time we got home, we only had about 40 minutes to create the jersey.

I wanted to mimic the look of the local high school's jerseys, since the camp was being run by the high school basketball coaches & team (hence the red tape!).

Since we had limited time, I didn't snap pictures of the whole process, but hopefully enough that the idea can be duplicated.

First, I took an old jersey of my son's & traced it with a permanent marker onto a plastic garbage bag.

Next, I taped red duct tape completely covering the lines on both sides.  (The garbage bag was thin enough that I could see the lines on the other side.)

Then, I re-traced the jersey onto the red tape, so I could cut it out.  (There's a possibility the first step was pointless...)



The next steps were to cut the jersey out & tape the shoulders & side seams together on the outside & the inside.

{This picture was taken PRIOR to taping the shoulders & sides.}

The slow down began at this point.  Since the original jersey was stretchy, I had to keep cutting down the neck (of the duct tape jersey) so it would fit over his head!

The final steps were to add black electrical tape as trim around the neck, arm holes, & bottom.  Lastly, (I was really running behind at this point...) I added the letters & Zeke's basketball number to the front & just the number on the back.

Here's a very quick snapshot of the finished product:

{Front}

{Back}

It's not perfect, but it was a big hit at camp!  The coaches & high schoolers thought it was pretty cool & Zeke won "Craziest Shirt" for the day!

I should mention that my seven-year-old son totally helped with this project.  He gathered supplies, pulled the tape off for me, captured some of the pictures, & was my gopher for about 40 minutes!  Plus, I made him try it on about 10 times in order to get the neck to fit!  If we would have had more time, he would have done more of the work!  Last year, we made a duct tape pouch that Velcros closed for him to keep his lunch money in, & he did most of the work on that. 

This would be a great rainy day project.  Let your children design & decorate their own duct tape shirts & accessories.  Then, they could put on a fashion show & model the finished product!  This duct tape comes in all different colors & patterns, such as orange, teal, & animal prints!

So, do you have any creative ideas for crazy shirt day?  What about crazy sock day?  (That was Thursday & my idea of taping feathers to the top & duck feet at the bottom of rainbow striped socks didn't end up working out!!  I wish I would have had time to get some fake fur.  I thought it would be funny to add it to some long socks to make it look like Zeke had really hairy legs!!)

Wendy