Thursday, February 14, 2013

My Little Valentines

Yesterday was our Homeschool Support Groups Valentine's Party.  I had recently found some Meyer Lemons (love them!) and decided to use them to make the lemon bars The Food Librarian made here.  Myer lemons are a cross between a lemon and an orange.  It’s skin is thinner than a regular lemon and it has a milder, sweeter flavor too. 

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I cut these smaller than The Food Librarian did.  I wanted them to fit into mini cupcake wrappers.  I just love tiny desserts:

Cute + Portion Control = Awesome!

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The first thing we did at the party was decorate our bags or boxes. 

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Everyone brought whatever supplies they had and we shared.

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Later, after we ate, we lined the bags along the wall in the hallway. 

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We got in line.

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And we put a Valentine into each bag.

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When that was done, we went back to our table and checked out the loot.

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For the party, and many other kids we know, Liam and Sophie gave store bought Valentines.  But they also handmade a few for some family and friends.  I’ve said these are the Valentines to make people think I’ve got it all together.  Because, surely, if she has time to make those, she’s got everything else under control.  Feel free to think that if you wish. I’ll allow it.

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For this cute owl, I printed the text and glued it and the body of the owl onto a 4x6 unlined notecard.  Sophie then glued the parts on.  She decided to use two patterns for each owl, which gave us several combinations.  To make the pattern, I drew the owl pattern pieces on a blank piece of paper. Then I just trimmed my scrapbook paper to fit my printer and scanned the pattern onto the backs of my scrapbook paper.  Then I cut the pieces out, (no small feat!) Sophie did a pretty good job gluing if I do say so myself.

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For Liam’s Valentines, it couldn’t be more appropriate than to use the sign, “I Love You”.   To make these, just trace a hand print onto flesh colored paper, cut out and glue the middle and ring finger down.  You could fold the paper at the “knuckle” but I just let it bend slightly.  You can glue these to whatever heart shape your heart desires, but store bought paper doilies was the easiest thing for me to do.  After cutting out all those owl bits, I was ready for easy!

The kids are learning Sign Language from Pop and the Old School Sesame Street books you can find here and here. These are the same ones I had when I was a kid, and I found them used for a great price.  The kids are enjoying learning to sign.  Pop is an interpreter, so he is a great teacher!  Liam is really picking up on it and loves to sign, “I Love You.” 

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Hope you are having

a lovely

Valentine’s Day!

 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

A Grocery List For You

 

In my attempt to be more organized, I have created a grocery list to help me keep track of what we need.  And because I love you, I’m making it available to you too!

grocery list preview

Click here to download this file for free!

Since I don’t fancy printing one of these babies each week, I printed mine on cardstock and have laminated it and put it on my fridge with a dry erase pen and small eraser nearby.  I plan on keeping track of what we are out of there, but will write a separate list just for going to the store.  We live so close to a grocery store that we don’t generally go on giant shopping trips anyway, so this will work out well for us.  However, I won’t judge you if you want one for each trip.

Please enjoy this and look forward to more freebies in the future!

Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for making this and many more graphics available to use!