valentines day is for the birds

We woke up to a snow day! It was a pleasant surprise after a late evening watching the Super Bowl. It was unexpected so I don't have any specific plans for us today, but sometimes that is the best kind of day. When searching for ideas for a Valentines Day class party for the kids I was thinking it would be fun to make all kinds of different bird treats and then hang them on a tree at school. I LOVED this one. We decided to go with a different theme for the class party, but I thought it would be fun to make a bird treat with the kids today. All you need is some round cereal and string or pip cleaners. All three kids sat down and started stringing cereal, we even had a discussion about patterns, and the older two decided to make rainbow bird treats.

If you do use pip cleaners you will be able to easily bend them into the shape of a heart. We have two bushes outside the dining room windows where we often see little birds. We thought this was the perfect place to put our valentines treats for them.

 

 

I love how colorful the hearts are against the snowy branches and this has proved to provide a lot of entertainment for the children. They have spent nearly an hour sitting in front of the window waiting for a bird to come enjoy their treats!

 

We made chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for lunch and will go play in the snow a little later.
Check out some other fun snow activities that are easy and provide great entertainment for the kids. Or, take out the kids sleeping bags and pillows and pop some popcorn and snuggle up for a movie.
Whatever you do I hope you all enjoy a slow paced, snowy day wherever you are reading this from!
Come back later this week for some fun details from a "mad about Plaid" party we attended over the weekend.

 

winter "one"derland

Yesterday we had the winter "one"derland party.  The party started at 10 and guests were invited to come in their pajamas.  We served doughnuts and coffee and set up a few activities.  We kept the guest list very small since it was in our home and the party was for a one year old.  Since the food was not gourmet and the guest list was short I was able to focus on the fun details.

Here is our console decorated for the party.

The snack bar consisted of jars of cheerios, goldfish and a snowman trail mix.  The red and white paper cones held blue popcorn.  There were small paper cups and acrylic scoops for everyone to help themselves.

The  snowman trail mix was similar to my hoppin' down the bunny trail mix and Kung Fu Krunch.

(Rainbow scarf, pretzel stick arms, chocolate chip buttons, Oreo hat, carrot nose, and marshmallow body)

We also had a hot cocoa bar.  I am thinking that next Christmas I am going to leave this on my counter so it will always be ready when friends stop by.

We also served milk with snowman straws.

The cupcakes were shaped like tiny doughnuts.  I found the idea here.

I used the shutters to display pictures of the birthday boy from every month of the past year.  I found tiny red glitter clothespins at Michael's. 

For the activities I put out some snow books, filled our touch table with fake snow and snowman parts, supplies to make a clay snowman.  We also hung donuts from a string and had the kids try to eat them without using their hands. It was very funny to watch.

And finally the favors..... Mini tins of hot chocolate and boxes of marshmallows.  I displayed them in a tiny radio flyer wagon.

Sorry for the long post and so many pictures!  I hope you enjoyed everything as much as I enjoyed putting it all together!

baby a

Here is another simple and sweet decoration I made for the babies party this weekend.  His first name starts with the letter A so we always call him Baby A. I knew I wanted to use that for some sort of  decoration at his party.  You can buy paper mache letters at Joann Fabrics in different sizes.  I used some for my parents surprise anniversary picnic that you can see here.  I used gold glitter on them and had planned to use white glitter on the A, but I didn't like how it looked on the brown background.   Instead I just wrapped the entire letter with some white yarn that I had in the house and I like it even better than the glitter!  I love when that happens.  Now if only if I could make it snow this weekend in Connecticut......

thanks a latte

I am sure that you have seen something like this little guy all over the web.  I know I have!  But, I could never find out what was used for the nose and face so I made up my own.  I used mini powdered donuts, a candy corn with the tip cut off and some mini chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth.  So easy!  I placed one in a small box and attached a gift card to a local coffee shop.  The note said "thanks a latte".  This is a nice and thoughtful gift for so many people on your list that you want to thank with a little something.  I think I may make the donuts for my sons birthday party in January too!  So cute. 

snow fun!

In Connecticut we woke up to more snow this morning! I know some parents are dreading another snow day so I thought I would share some fun things to do with your kids with all of this white stuff. I put some water and food coloring in bottles and let my kids paint the snow. They had a blast squirting different colors together on the fluffy white canvas and I think were secretly channeling their inner Jackson Pollack. Another fun activity is to make colored ice cubes and hide them in the snow. I used red food coloring and made heart shaped ice cubes. I hid them outside and let my kids search for them. For both of these activities all you need is some fresh snow, food coloring and water. Inexpensive and fun. How do you have fun in the snow?