More V-day fun.

I am trying to do more holiday decorating at my house. We are on a budget so I kept it simple and decided to use staple items and just rotate out the contents. I filled my apothecary jars with stuff I already had on hand (pink tulle & red crinkly paper strips) and stuck a printable I found on Pinterest in the same frame I used for a Christmas countdown printable. Then I just slapped some 49 cent candles in my flea market find and I think it all turned out pretty cute. I'm not sure if I want to decorate for all the holidays so I need to find some good jar filler ideas that are non-seasonal. I'm thinking wine corks for one but I haven't decided on the other. Now I just need to get to drinking lots and lots of wine...after all, it's for the sake of home decor! ;)

I made these matching shirts (and bib for my reflux queen) for the kids to wear for all the Valentine's Day festivities. They were super easy and inexpensive. All three items cost under $5 to make and I didn't even bother to get out my sewing machine. I wanted a chunky, hand stitched look on the felt so I spent the car ride to Dallas chatting with my mom with a needle and thread in hand. I had intentions of also machine stitching the edges for better quality, but yeah, that never happened.

I was into crafting this Valentine's Day. I think it's all the Christmas projects I always want to do but then never get around to doing since December is so crazy. I think it's also because it's one of my favorite holidays. What's not to love about love and hearts and kindness and candy and red?

Here are Harrison's valentines that he passed out to his friends. I took a couple of different Pinterest ideas and adapted them to get what I wanted. Then I just made a collage in Picasa, uploaded the picture to Word, printed it on card stock, and cut, folded, and stapled it over a sandwich baggie. Easy peasy*.

{bear hugs & sweet kisses}

Our playgroup had a little Valentine's Day party a couple of weeks ago. We thought it would be fun to have the kids do some crafts. But more importantly, it provided a perfectly acceptable excuse to consume lots and lots of delicious calories!

I made this banner out of supplies I already had in the craft closet. My house is short on closet space and it is actually supposed to be a linen closet, but who needs towels and linens, anyway? (we do. I hate our lack of storage.)

Here 6 out of our 12 kids patiently waiting for lunch.

And two out of our six mamas:

Trina & Kerri

I didn't think to take any pictures until we had already dug into the food. When hungry kids are involved there is no waiting around for the camera. 

cheese tray.

pb&j hearts

white chocolate raspberry cheesecake & fruit kabobs

Sadly, I'm afraid I may have ended my intimate relationship with cheesecake. I indulged on a fairly generous piece and unfortunately it was the last thing I ate before coming down with a stomach virus later that afternoon. All night when I was up getting sick I couldn't get the haunting image of what used to be one of my favorite desserts out of my mind. Almost 2 weeks later and I still can't stand the thought of it. Don't you hate it when food gets ruined for you like that? And the fact that is was cheesecake? Come on. Totally not fair.

The kids made hand print hearts on big doilies and then glued them to construction paper to make into valentines. Or I guess I should say they made hand print hearts and then their type-a mamas took over the decorating. :)

Harrison's Pee Wee School class had a Valentine's Day party as well.

I put Harper in the seat next to him and they both loved that.

Something else Harper loved? The kids decorated cookies and before I could even hand Harrison's his, she went in for the steal. She swiped it right off his plate and took a giant bite. I seriously couldn't believe she did that...we jump through hoops to get her to eat baby food and here she is going to town on a cookie. Apparently we are supposed to just feed her sugar for dinner and skip the vegetables.

After school I got an unexpected surprise when I checked the mail. I love getting mail and getting my first letter from my child? Totally made my day! They are learning about mail at school and sent out letters with a picture to their parents snail mail style. What a great idea! (Have I mentioned that I love his teachers?? Oh, I have? :))

My sweet hubby volunteered to cook me dinner that night since going out to eat isn't really an option these days. I was a little apprehensive and was fully prepared to fake my enjoyment of the meal, especially when he told me was going to make lasagna. Rick doesn't cook very much, and bless his heart, the last time he made anything remotely italian was probably 8 years ago when he attempted spaghetti. I say attempted, because he only cooked the noodles for about 4 minutes and they were still bent when they made it to the plate. Ha ha! But I was SO impressed with his lasagna. He pulled out all the stops. He followed a recipe and even measured out all the ingredients into little bowls ahead of time like they do on the cooking shows. We put the kids to bed early (and they actually cooperated!!!!) and it was so nice to just sit back and enjoy each other's company while he cooked. How sexy is a man in the kitchen, right?! ;)

See? Not too shabby!!

A start to my cork collection

Hope everybody else had a great Valentine's Day, too!




*The project itself was easy peasy. Getting my toddler to a) sit still for pictures, and b) make a face at least somewhat resembling a kiss...yeah, not so much! We actually had to resort to bribing him with a cupcake. Here are some of the outtakes: