Growing Up So Fast!

Wow how the time has flown by! It feels just like yesterday I started this blog. I was doing a little browsing back through the blog and came across the first pictures I posted of Audrey when she was one month old! Oh how she's grown! She is now 14 months old and we just had her pictures taken again. Time is sure getting away from me! My New Year's resolution this year was to slow down and enjoy every moment (especially with my daughter). It's been a bit difficult as I am still doing home daycare (though right now part time - but soon I will be back to full time), Tyler has been working out of town a lot recently and lots have been going on with extended family members. I'm struggling everyday to make every moment count and to enjoy them all. I'm taking a moment here to do some reflecting and re-enjoying these recently taken photographs!

St. Patrick's Day treats and crafts

St. Patrick's Day is on Saturday. So this week was spent preparing and celebrating with the daycare kiddos. We love holidays around here and they make for wonderful learning opportunities with the kids. This week I made and gave out little treats to my daycare families, close friends and family members. I got the idea off of pinterest but adapted it to use items I already had on hand. The only things I had to go purchase for this project were the candies!

Materials:

• Clear cellophane goodie bags (pre-purchased for another project from Party America, but I've also seen them at Walmart)
• Rollo candies (any candy in gold wrappers would work. I found these were the cheapest at where I was shopping so I got them)
• Colorful Twizzlers (cut in half to fit in the bag and to make more goody bag treats to hand out)
• Staples and stapler
• Green construction paper (cut into a square then folded in half)
• A circle label stating "YOU ARE MY POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW" printed on white card stock 
• Glue 
• Cutting board and knife (to cut twizzlers in half) 

Here is a craft I did with the daycare kids. I used it as an opportunity to work on matching and colors. Older kids could work on cutting skills as well.

Materials used:

• White construction paper
• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper cut into small pieces (and scissors)
• Box of crayons
• White cotton balls 
• Glue

Here is a leprechaun craft: 

Materials used:

• White paper plate 
• Orange and black crayons
• scissors (to cut out pieces and to cut along beard)
• Googly eyes 
• Green, black and yellow construction paper
• Glue

Patriotic Wreath

I love wreaths on my front door. I think I have one (maybe even two) wreaths for every holiday. Most of them are store bought. So I decided to make one of my own (with the help of pinterest). It didn't take me all that long to make (maybe a little over an hour) and was much easier than I thought it would be. It was also very affordable!

Materials used:

• Styrofoam wreath (purchased on sale and with coupon from Micheal's Craft Store)
• Red, White and Blue Yarn (also purchased at Micheal's on sale and with coupon)
• Ribbon (for loop on top to hang on nail or door hanger)
• Hot glue 
• White felt sheet 
• Star cutout (printed using the computer on card stock, then cut out. I used it to trace around the stars on the felt)

Valentine Crafts

Here are a few fun crafts I did with my daycare kiddos for Valentine's Day:

Materials:

• Pink construction paper glued onto a thin cardboard (could also use card stock paper)
• Red ribbon (bought on sale and with a coupon at Micheal's Craft Store)
• Stickers and foam stickers (bought for $1.00 in the dollar section at Target and at the Dollar Tree)
• Crayons
• Scissors 
• Hole puncher (I made the holes but older kids could do their own) 
• Tape (I taped the string onto the back)

Materials:

• Red construction paper 
• Scissors 
• Googly eyes 
• Glue
• Crayons

Valentine Goodies

While grocery shopping with my husband and daughter I stumbled upon some cute heart shaped cake sprinkles in the bakery of our local store. They were priced at $1.98 for a large container of them. I wasn't sure what I'd use them on but found several ways to use them over the next couple of days. 

1) As an extra special treat I made Valentine cupcakes to give as treats to my family and close friends for Valentine's Day. 

I used a white cake mix. Following the directions on the box. Added some store bought vanilla frosting and the cake sprinkles. 

 

To dress them up a bit, I put them in a clear plastic punch cup. Then set the cup with cupcake inside down into a winter treat bag (I purchased after Christmas at Walmart on clearance for about 50 cents a package). I then printed off a cute little tag stating "Happy Valentine's Day! Made with love, Diana, Audrey and Tyler". I then hole punched the tag and slipped it on with some pink and red curling ribbon. And ta-da!! I got lots of compliments on these! They were cute, quick and easy to make!

 2) Again using a cake mix (this time I used a chocolate one), I followed the directions on the package. I divided the batter by pouring half of it into a circle cake pan and half into a square cake pan. After the cake baked and cooled, I cute the circular one down the middle and used it as the top parts of the heart. Again using a store bought frosting I frosted the cake and put the cake sprinkles on top!

3) I still had some of the cake sprinkles left over so when family was over visiting we offered warm hot chocolate with cool whip and sprinkles. Everyone thought it was a wonderful touch!