love bug

We took advantage of our "Snow Day" and worked on some valentines for the grandparents (the grandmas are reading so I can't show you those yet though *wink*), but I can show you some of our other v-day projects from this weekend. I've collected quite a bit of valentine themed art supplies over the years which makes it fun for the little pumpkin. Mostly, I try to buy everything AFTER the holiday at deep discounts and save it for the next year. This year I also bought lots of red/white chenille stems for 25¢/pack after Christmas since I knew we could use them for valentines. Here's the before: Oh, and on our snow day since we were in full on valentine mode, even our "Lunch in PJ's" was heart themed. How about some heart shaped tortillas to go with our make-your-own-taco buffet. It really doesn't take much effort to make it fun for the little ones. Grace just loves this kind of stuff! And you know what else she loves: "Stoplight Peppers" - red, green, & yellow peppers cut into strips with ranch dressing. Anything to get her to eat those veggies! Alright, so our first project was "Butterfly Kisses". For this one all you need are pom poms (we used three big ones, one medium one, and two little ones), pink cardstock (or any color you choose, but around here it's PINK, PINK, PINK), a chenille stem/pipe cleaner, a couple of googly eyes, and Elmer's glue (or if you're like me and realize at the last minute that you are out of Elmer's, you can use a hot glue gun but be verrrrry careful around the little ones!) By the way, Michael's has a valentine craft pack right now for $4.99 ($2.99 if you use their 40% coupon) that has most of these supplies in there. So just cut two hearts out of your cardstock (the wings) and cut and bend the chenille stem into hearts to fit your wings. Glue the pom poms together, three big ones and a medium one for the tail. Glue the googly eyes to the "head". Cut your antennas out of the remaining chenille stem or a different color altogether and glue on the little pom poms to the antennas. Of course, Grace wanted to add glitter, so we made our antennas extra sparkly ;) And there you have it, your very own Valentine Butterfly. Isn't she cute? You can even write a sweet valentine message on the wings. Next, we have "Love Bug". Same supplies - easy peasy! And same directions, just cut, glue and enjoy. In just a few minutes, you'll have your very own Love Bug! Grace kept calling hers a spider, hence why she insisted we add 8 legs instead of the caterpillar's 6, but she wanted the caterpillar's body. Whatever works, after all it's a "Love Bug" and who knows what that really looks like anyway! One thing's for sure, the Love Bug is silly, silly :) and sure to bring out the giggles! Thinking about it now, it may make more sense to make the Love Bug first and then Buttefly Kisses. A cute and fitting book to tie it all in for the preschool set is Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer . You can find it HERE.
Grace still loves playing with the coiled spring that makes up the caterpillar's body in this cute book.

And a simple little switcheroo that made ME smile I found that frame while cleaning this weekend. It's from Target, two years ago I think, and I just framed one of the valentines from LAST YEAR. Love how it looks as part of my table centerpiece!

Can you tell we ♥ Valentine's Day around here?