Bepuzzle Your Valentine

Before Christmas, we made Rudolph magnets out of puzzle pieces.  I recommended saving puzzle pieces for crafts, and a few people asked me to post more puzzle piece craft ideas.  I finally have one.  I have seen puzzle piece frames made with craft sticks, but I thought it would be cute to make a heart shaped frame with puzzle pieces for Valentine's Day.

First, paint the back of your puzzle pieces with red or pink paint.  We used acrylic paint.

Next, cut out a heart shape from a piece of cardboard and cover it with aluminum foil.

Hot glue your dry puzzle pieces around the perimeter of the heart.  I recommend that you take a minute to figure out where you want your pieces before you start gluing.

Attach a photo (or a few photos) to the center of your heart, and stick a magnet on the back. Here's another tip - always keep those free magnets; I use them for crafts.  I just hot glue them to the back of whatever I want to turn into a magnet.  You can cut them to whatever size you need.  For this heart, I used two business card sized magnets.  They work great.

Here is our finished Valentine on our refrigerator:

A Jam Session at Papa and Grandma's House

We had breakfast at Papa and Grandma's house this morning.  After breakfast, there was a little jam session.  Papa and C played the accordion and R played the harmonica. 

After playing some fantastic music, C and R enjoyed some arts and crafts time with Grandma M. 

They love Crayola Color-Filz.  C and R have made these a few times and they enjoy the process, as well as the final result. 

Right before we left, Papa broke out his harmonica and joined R for an impromptu duet.  

It was a great morning!

The Children's Museum

Yesterday, we spent the morning at a children's museum.  Here are a few highlights from our visit:

Doesn't this fun house mirror make me look so attractive?  

 

We got there right when the museum opened and had the place to ourselves for a while.  We had a great time.

Pecos Bill

I love tall tales.  This weekend, we watched Disney's cartoon version of Pecos Bill.  I just wanted to send out a big thank you to Ticia from Adventures in Mommydom.  She recommended that we watch this tall tale as part of our Texas studies.  I'm so glad she did.  We enjoyed every minute.  Thanks Ticia!

Valentine's Day Tree

I love the Valentine's Day trees that have been popping up all over the place.  I think I first saw one on my friend Jenny's blog, Our Nifty Notebook.  Then, Amy at Teach Mama wrote about the learning benefits of making a Valentine's Day tree.  We could not pass up this fun, educational experience! 

We filled a clear plastic container with foam and sequin hearts and sticks we collected from our yard.  Then, C and R wrote the names of people they love on hearts cut from card stock.  Glitter glue and stickers were added to the hearts.  Holes were punched and ribbons tied through each heart.  Finally, they hung their hearts on our "tree".

This was fun.  C got some writing practice,  R strengthened her hand muscles by punching holes, and they both worked hard at threading ribbon through those holes. Now we have a great centerpiece for our dining room table.

Most importantly, sometimes it is just nice to think about the people you love.

Sun Catchers for Valentine's Day

This tissue paper sun catcher is definitely one of the most popular decorations for Valentine's Day.  It's easy and fun.  My kids enjoy cutting tissue paper into little pieces, sticking it on the super sticky contact paper, and helping me place more contact paper on top to seal it shut.  They also love any excuse to use a hole puncher so we had to punch holes in them and tie them up with ribbon. 

Boy Meets Girl in the Toy Store