Mardi Gras

It totally slipped my mind that yesterday was Mardi Gras already until Adam reminded my in the morning. So we had a very thrown together celebration! Picked up Paczkis for dessert, made a family sized box of Zatarain's Jambalaya with Polish sausage, and listened to the Cajun Pandora station while the kids and I made face masks. I once again found this fun idea from Pinterest! The original idea came from About.com family crafts.

Supplies you need:
bright colored construction paper
Elmer's glue
bright sequins in all shapes and sizes
bright colored pencil or popsicle stick
scissors
pencil

Start out by tracing both hands on the construction paper, and then cut out. Draw in where you would like the eye holes (in the palm somewhere) and cut out. Best to do that before gluing them together.  Next up, glue the hand together at the wrist. We made sure that our thumbs were pointing up to make it even more festive! Then have fun decorating. You could use sequins, markers, stickers, tissue paper, really whatever you have on hand at the house already. When all done decorating, we used masking tape to attach the pencil to the mask. Let dry for at least 1 hour before using as a fun party costume.

Here are the fun masks we made last year!

President's day crafts!

We celebrated President's day this past Monday at the library with the moms group, and L was very happy that he has school off and was able to join us. All the projects we did this year came straight from things I found on Pinterest! You just HAVE to love that site!!!! The original blog to post these was Mrs. Karen's Preschool Ideas!

We also made a flag with just strips of red and white paper, a blue rectangle, and some silver stars I found. Somehow I didn't get a picture of those, but they were very interesting! We had kids between the ages of 2-11 doing these crafts this time, and it was so fun to watch the difference in concept of how these should all look. Not one looked the same!

The first craft we did was the Abe Lincoln log cabin.
Supplies needed:
brown construction paper
Elmer's glue
popsicle sticks
triangle, square, and rectangle cut out of paper

The kids first glued the sticks in the shape they wanted the cabin to be in. Most just put little dots of glue on each end and the middle of the sticks. I didn't even have to tell them, they did it on their own. I was very impressed! Then they figured out where they wanted the roof, window, and door.

Next up was the George Washington face. This was my favorite!
Supplies needed:
red or blue background paper
red or blue hat shape
red or blue star
white circle
6 cotton balls
coffee filter
markers
Elmer's glue

The kids picked out which colors they wanted to make this in. First we glued the circle for his face on the background paper. Then came the hat, star, then the cotton ball "wig", and the coffee filter ruffle shirt. I didn't draw a face on mine so the kids had to use their imagination to draw a face on theirs. I LOVED seeing all the different faces of Washington!


Here is what we did last year! I read all the same stories because we really liked them. At home the kids and I read some other books for a little bit bigger kids. I will post those below.

2012 Valentine's Party

We had our annual moms group party last week at the library. As usual we had tons of fantastic treats all thanks to the moms that attended! We had all the kids bring a kleenex box to decorate, and then I also had heart paper plate hats found at Filth Wizardry. I then also revisited the punch game that we used at the Winter Solstice party. Each kid brought a valentine treat or card for all the others. We find that it is easiest to just have the child's name in the from spot. We also line the kids up sitting on the floor, with their boxes in front of them, then the moms passed out all the cards. Soooooo much easier!

We also had a few stories to read. The kids did such a great job, everyone had a blast, and it was my last party to host as the organizer. What a fantastic way to end my run. Thank you everyone!

The punch game all ready to go. It was filled with heart tattoos, heart bracelets, heart notepads, and heart "rockets".

 Our fantastic food spread!

 Working hard at decorating!

 Lined up ready for story time!!

 Hm, what is in there? And how do I get it out?

                                                   
                                                
                                                          
                                                            
                                           

Groundhog's day!

Now, I know, I am a bit late on this, but it has been pretty hectic over these parts this month.  This year's groundhog's day was just 4 kids, but they all had a fun time.

Supplies needed:
brown construction paper
white paper
black paper
scissors
glue stick
brown marker
large half heart tracer
small heart tracer
eye tracer
nose tracer

To make this a little easier for the kids, I folded the brown paper in half. I then traced the large half heart tracer along the folded edge. Next I folded the small heart tracer in half, and traced in on the same brown paper, but along the opposite side. I had the kids cut out the pieces them selves. Using the half of small brown heart as the ears, the white heart as the teeth.

The books we read were:

Valentine painting day

The kids and I have been really slacking in our Valentine crafting this year. Usually I can't wait to get started right after Christmas, getting ready for Valentine's day. But for some reason this year, we have all been dragging our feet. Today I told D that we were going to paint. I tried that a few days ago and was met with a tantrum. So I tried again. We used potato stamps, cookie cutters, and the base of celery. I have done the cookie cutters and potato stamps in past years, but we always have fun with them, so we pulled them out again.

The celery roses were something I saw on pinterest floating around this year. I may have seen it places last year and just didn't remember, but I knew we needed to try it this year! To find the original site, go to Maureen Cracknell Handmade!

Supplies needed:
paper plates (for the paint)
red, pink, and white paint
cookie cutters, and potato stamps
celery (cut a bunch of celery from the rest of the stalk, the closer to the bottom you cut, the more closed the rose will be)
construction paper

We made tons of fun stamps of hearts and roses with our stamps. D was having a blast mixing which paint color went with what paper color.

 We then tried this handprint heart that I also saw floating around pinterest. For the original post for this one, head over to The Happiest mommy on the block. For this one you just need to paint the palm of each hand and place on to a sheet of paper, making a heart shape. We do have one that D insisted doing on her own, and it looks like a sad broken heart. She let me help after that again.

 And lastly, we made other roses with the sides of our hands. I can't find a link to show you where I saw this one originally, but D loved it! I think this was her favorite. Make a fist, and dip your fist (thumb side down) into the paint. Print it on to a sheet of paper, and you have a closed upright rose. Fun! We ended up making tons of prints today. I don't have to worry about L getting mad that we did this while he was in school, because I know he did some of these at school already!

I put together a card making box for the kids a few weeks ago, and they have been having fun churning out the cards. After these all dry, they can cut these out and use them to make even more cards! We can't wait!

(I also have a fun surprise planned for them. I have friends from all over the States sending them Valentines, and we will plot them on a US map to see where they are all coming from!)