Post (Valentine's Day) Weekend

{Valentine's projects}

{Valentine's snacking}

{Valentine's selfies}

{Valentines from my Valentines}

{Valentines for my Valentines}

Valentine's Day Snack Mix

Just a quick post as we get ready for a Valentine's-themed playdate tomorrow morning.  I wandered the aisles of Target yesterday (it's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it) looking for things to combine into a Valentine's Day snack mix as our contribution to the festivities. I thought it would be an easy thing to throw together if anyone is looking for a way to add more Valentine's fun to their weekend!

Kashi Heart to Heart cereal (because: hearts, duh), chocolate covered pretzels, Craisins, strawberry-flavored wafer cookies (only used about half the package, chopped each wafer into four pieces), Valentine's Day M&Ms, and mini marshmallows, which I found in the cabinet after I took the above photo.

It's a bit more sugary than our normal snacks around here (replace "a bit" with "a LOT"), but I don't mind making exceptions for holidays.  Gotta love a snack mix: open packages, dump in a bowl, and mix!  (Especially great if, say, you happen to be almost 38-weeks pregnant and don't have the energy for baking or anything much more elaborate.  Just a hypothetical situation there.)  Super simple, a bit festive, and I think a bunch of toddlers (and their mamas!) are going to enjoy it tomorrow morning!  

Projects: Valentine's Day Canvas

The Christmas decorations are put away.  Even the toys are organized and structured back into some semblance of "tidy", instead of the post-Christmas chaos of new-toys-meet-old-toys-meet-where-did-we-even-get-you-from-toys?

I enjoyed the cleanliness, the openness (doesn't your living room feel so much more spacious once the Christmas tree is down?!?), the neat and tidy and uncluttered look, free from any and all holiday decor.

Then I got the itch.  Maybe it was too mundane and uncluttered.  We don't really have any Valentine's Day decorations.  Neither Tyson or I are very big on V-Day itself, but I AM big on all things holiday and festive, so immediately began thinking of ways to remedy that situation.  By enlisting the help of:

Toddlers.

Super easy, a little messy, and they LOVED it.

Supplies: 8x8 canvases, acrylic paint, foam brushes, felt heart stickers, scrapbook paper (not shown above).

Let's do this.

(Please excuse the long photo montage of twin toddlers painting, but they were all just too cute not to.)

(I love foam brushes for toddlers because they are easy for them to hold and control.  Also it's pretty difficult to pick up too much paint with one, unlike a traditional paintbrush, which can be more awkward and "gloopy".  Foam brushes are also easy-peasy to rinse out, or cheap enough to toss if that doesn't happen!)

(Don't forget to rinse out your toddler(s) as well.)

(Maybe I should back up to say that step one is to cover your floor with a sheet.  Caden accidentally flipped his paper plate of paint onto the floor, where it landed upside down (of course), within the first 20 seconds of painting.  #oops)

(The above is an example of how most of the photos of Caden painting turned out.)

I added the letters after the paint had dried, cut out of scrapbook paper that I already had. Print out your words in the size and font of your choice, trace, and cut.  Or trace very carefully directly off of your computer screen, if you moved approximately three months ago and have yet to set up the printer.  Your choice.

Caden and Brooklyn then went to town with the felt heart stickers.  No pictures, because somebody had to carefully remove each tiny, annoyingly stuck-on paper backer from each individual heart sticker before they could be used, and I couldn't move at a speed that was acceptable even for one toddler, much less two.

They were pretty proud of their creations.  They love all things paint and stickers, so this was super age-appropriate and fun for them, AND held their attention for awhile (major WIN for any toddler mom!)  So easy for me, too.  Besides peeling all the backs off those darn heart stickers.

Operation Valentine's Decor complete.  For now...

(Obviously this could be adapted for any holiday or for no holiday at all, with different word choices.  These would also make fun gifts for dad or grandparents!)