All Things Valentine-y

Making Valentines for their friends.


I made these heart-shaped bird feeders for the kids in our Joy School.  Unfortunately, they started molding so I had to throw them away!  The recipe uses plain gelatin, and I put them in these bags after they were made, so I guess the moisture and room temperature was perfect for mold.  In hindsight I should have 1. not bagged them up immediately 2. kept them in the fridge until the morning of.  I even made up a cute poem to attach to the bags.  Oh well, maybe next year.


Counting buttons on the first day of Joy School that week.


Snack time!


This was our letter V craft.  V for Valentine and Vase.


These are the girls' Valentine treats.


Opening up their presents on Valentine's Day.


Gum is her favorite thing in the world.


Chess liked her multi-colored pen.


Chess took this candid shot of me making a Valentine breakfast.  It's fun to see life through their perspective sometimes.


Heart-shaped nutella and strawberry French toast with whipped cream.


They ate it all up!


At Joy School, we decorated heart sugar cookies.


The girls really liked the pink and purple swirl icing.


Working hard.


A finished product.


Lera really enjoyed this activity.


Chess ate every bite of her cookie.


Cute kids!


This project was definitely too hard for most of the kids.  Some of them got the hang of it, but didn't have the longevity to finish.  So, while they were having some free-play, I did all the weaving and gluing - they turned out pretty, though!


Exchanging Valentines.


All the Valentines were really cute.


My cute Valentines after the other kids went home.


We were going to do this experiment of making "love potions" with the Joy School class, but we ran out of time.


They added baking soda, colors, and vinegar.


This is Lera's potion bubbling over.


They really enjoyed this activity.


And, the last Valentine thing was our family dinner.


The girls helped me make the table really fancy for when Daddy got home from work.


We did this last year for the first time, and I think it will stick as a family tradition.


A blurry picture of me and my Valentine.


I made a cheesecake for dessert!

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!