King of the (Snow) Hill

I'm not sure if we've gotten enough snow over the last week. The last doozy was supposed to be 1 inch that turned into 8. As much as I feel I complain about it, I really don't mind the snow that much as long as I don't have to drive in it, which I haven't, recently. Plus the kids have been *loving* it! Now that we have mini-mountains in our yard, the kids have been having a great time attempting to climb them and build forts in them. I remember how much fun I had playing in the snow when I was a kid and I love watching my kids enjoy it just as much.

Love Day Activities

Something I'm discovering about myself is that I take a lot of inspiration (and motivation) from holidays. Even with a Hallmark holiday like Valentine's Day, I've gone from feeling completely stir-crazy to feeling like I just don't have enough time to do everything I want before the said holiday has come and gone. Granted, I really don't have 2 weeks worth of V-Day projects to do with the kids - this is *not* like the 25 days of Christmas - but I do have a few projects up my sleeve.

We started with making heart-shaped cookies. I have actually been looking forward to doing this since probably January 2. I always seem to be looking for good excuses to bake scrumptious treats. It feels more justified if I involve the kids and even more justified if it's theme-related. We used a strawberry frosting that I've been craving ever since we attended a TPG Valentine's Day party 2 years ago and decorated cookies with this frosting. It was so worth the 2 year wait!

  

Then Colin helped me create a "conversation hearts" banner. I was originally going to make a different craft involving a toilet paper roll (which we may still do) but Colin insisted he wanted something to hang on his door. He's been very influenced by the "Toy Story" movies and wants to add lots of decorations to his door and walls so he can be more like Andy. Back to the craft, Colin helped me cut out hearts. Then he helped me come up with something to write on each one. Last, he helped me glue them all together. Voila! A love-day themed art project that he can use to decorate his room.

Having activities that I want to work on coupled with Punxsutawney Phil's predicition of an early spring, makes me not mind so much that we just got hit by a blizzard. In my mind's eye, winter is practically over and I'm already envisioning sunshine, green grass, and less layers. Ahhh!