"Owl" Be Your Valentine

I love making crafts! So when I can do one together with my kids, it is even more enjoyable (well, most of the time!) Henry, and even Lucy, and I worked together to make these cute owl crayons for Henry's preschool class!

 First, we took the wrappings off of the crayons. This was not as easy as it sounds! I got out a small kitchen knife, made a cut the full length of the wrapper, then peeled off the wrapper. Cutting it first made it much simpler. 

 Even Lucy enjoyed helping! We also sorted the crayons by color. I thought this would make a better crayon rather than one big dark blob of colors.

 Next, we broke the crayons up and put them into the owl mold. 

 We placed them in the oven and baked them for about 5 minutes at 350. After they had melted quite a bit, we added more crayons to make the mold completely full. After all the crayons had melted, we put them in the freezer to cool. When they were completely cool, we popped them out of the mold! We had a great time doing these!

Lastly, I made a card on Microsoft Publisher, printed it on cardstock, and cut it out. Don't you love the cute graphics and background from mycutegraphics.com! Love their clip art and backgrounds!! And best of all, they are all free! 

Henry signed his name on the "from" spot. We placed two crayons in each bag and stapled on the folded in half paper.

  Copy and paste this picture into Microsoft Word or Publisher and make this cute Valentine's Day project with your little ones!

The BEST Hot Chocolate EVER

When I was at my friend Jenny's house about a month or so ago, she made the best hot chocolate that both of my kids just inhaled!! I asked her for the recipe, and she told me that it was on the box of the Hershey's Cocoa. (Did any of you know that there was a fabulous recipe on there??) I followed the recipe, and my kids are now asking for it all the time!

I am not a chocolate fan, but the rest of my family sure is! Hershey's refers to this recipe as "Perfectly Chocolate Hot Cocoa". My family agrees!

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of Hershey's Cocoa (yes, the unsweetened kind)

Dash of salt

1/3 cup of hot water

4 cups of milk (I used almond milk)

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Marshmallows for topping (optional - well not in my family!)

Mix sugar, cocoa, and salt in saucepan. Stir in water. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Stir in milk and heat. DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat; add vanilla. Top with marshmallows and enjoy!

This is a perfect treat after playing in the snow.

Heart Banner

I love (no pun intended!) decorating for the different seasons and holidays of the year. So when I saw this adorable heart banner on Pinterest, I knew that it would be the perfect addition to my Valentine's Day decorations. 

On Pinterest, they took pages out of an old book and cut out hearts for the banner. I know that I may be crazy, but I just couldn't cut up pages of a book. Maybe it's the teacher in me?? So I found 1 Corinthians 13 online then copied and pasted it into Microsoft Publisher. I wanted an "antiqued" look to the page, so I searched for a marbled background on Google images. After I had the page looking like I had envisioned, I printed the page on cardstock paper. 

Next, I traced hearts on the page. I was able to get 8 hearts on one sheet of paper. I probably could have gotten more, but I did not want any of the text to be upside down. 

Then I cut the burlap the size that I wanted for the banner and hot glued each heart on the burlap. 

After each heart was glued on, I hot glue twine to the back to connect all the pieces. I put one line of hot glue about one inch down and attached the twine, then I added another line of hot glue and folded the top down. 

Lastly, I hung the banner on my old mirror on our dining room buffet. 

I LOVED the way it turned out! I paired it with my Scrabble "LOVE" letters. I used my planter once again this month and filled it with blue Ball jars and some silk peonies.