Loom Bracelets and Valentine's Day

Loom bracelets are the rage right now with elementary age kids.  Addison didn't know much about them until she was given a package of loom bands for Christmas.  Her niece taught her how to make the most basic bracelet without using the actual loom.  And she loved it!

While she was at school one day, I decided to look online to see if I could find a place to buy more bands for cheap.  Wow, there is so much out there on loom bracelets!  I ended up watching an instructional video on YouTube and learned how to make the fishtail bracelet.  And since we don't have a loom, I used a cork with two thumb tacks (saw that idea on pinterest).  Addison loved the bracelet I made her and immediately started making more!

We usually find a cute printable valentine online and print our own and we've seen several cute ones this year that involve giving a bracelet instead of candy.  So, of course, this is what she wanted to do.  She worked hard and made enough for her classmates.  She chose the You're Cool & Friends Forever valentines, found here.

And wouldn't you know, if Addison's giving bracelets, Mackenna wants to also!  Thankfully I talked Addison into helping me make them for her class.  I don't mind making them, but it went much quicker with her help! Mackenna chose the Let's Band Together valentines, found here.

Painting

The girls and I enjoyed painting today.
There's a new painting place in town where you paint through a project together.
Addison loved it!
We painted a Christmas ornament.

 Here's all of our finished paintings!

We'll definitely have to go back again sometime!

Embroidery

Not long ago, I bought my first embroidery project.  I loved this print, so I thought I would give it a try!  I plan to frame it now that I'm done.

I really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would.  Every time Travis would see me working on it, he would tell me I was becoming like his mother! (She's always working on some sewing project!)

I bought the print here!

Learning to Sew

Addison's been begging for me to teach her to sew for some time now.  She's only 7, so I had no idea where to start.  Until I saw a new series, Get Kids Sewing, on this blog.

She loved it!  And as you can see, Mackenna really wanted to do it too.  We haven't done any more yet, but I plan to do more of the projects with her this summer.  The projects are simple and have step by step instructions.  Perfect for me, since I had no idea where to begin!

Homemade I Spy Bottles

Before we left on our long road trip to Oregon, our friend Ashley made these for the girls.  She filled two bottles with rice and lots of little items (beads, paper clips, buttons, screws, pennies, etc).  Each bottle had about 20 items.  The object is to find all the items in the bottle, kind of like an I Spy book.  Addison loved it and it kept her busy for long periods of time.  Mackenna loved shaking the bottle as her noise maker!  She also gave them 2 packs of stickers which they ended up putting on the bottles (another activity that kept Mackenna busy for a long time!) 

Homemade Valentine's

Addison wanted to make her own Valentine cards for her classmates.  She was asking weeks ago to make them, but I told her we would when it got closer to Valentine's Day.  On Monday, the day I was sick and not moving off the couch, she was begging to make them.  I told her I couldn't, but that didn't stop her.  She went upstairs and got the red construction paper and went to work at my desk.  She drew a heart and cut it out.  Then, she traced it 20 some times and cut them all out and wrote "From Addison" on all of them.  She glued her hearts onto the white doilies and taped a sucker on the back!  This took her quite awhile and kept her very busy!  I also signed up to bring treats to school for her Valentine party.  She helped me cut out heart shaped rice crispy treats.  We added red food coloring to the melted marshmallows.  It was super easy to make!

 

She also had to make a Valentine mailbox for school, so I took her to Hobby Lobby and let her pick a few things to decorate with.  After looking at pretty paper and paint, she decided she wanted to cover her shoebox with fabric.  She picked about 7 different fabrics she liked and stacked them all on our cart.  I told her she could only pick two.  I did guide her a little bit in trying to get her to pick the ones that looked more Valentine-y.  Then she said she wanted some "wavy ribbon" (ric rac) so I let her pick out a roll.  We had fun doing this project together.  I covered the box with the fabric and then she did the rest.  If you know me very well, you know that it was very difficult for me to not want to do it for her or to tell her what to do, but I tried extremely hard to let it be her project. 

Sewing

Last Saturday, I got to spend some time sewing! 
It was fun...and relaxing...except when I couldn't get the bobbin to wind right.
Anyhow, I don't get to sew very often at all.
My mom gave me her sewing machine at Christmas.
This was part of the reason I don't sew very often...my old machine was hard to use.
I love my "new" machine, it's so much easier!
I made each of the girls a Valentine shirt and a bag for Addison.

Art Project

I saw this on my friend Amy's blog and Addison has loved it.  It's a really simple art activity. 

All you need is some construction paper, coloring pages, tape and a push pin.  I went online and printed off lots of simple Christmas coloring pages.  Tape the coloring page to the construction paper and lay it on the carpet or on a towel.  With the push pin, gently poke holes along the lines through both pieces of paper.  Make sure you leave space in between each hole or it will tear.  Once you have gone over all the lines, remove the coloring page and tape the construction paper onto a window.  Addison is still working on pages and taping them up on our back door.  We started with the word Joy so she could get the hang of it!  We worked on the two bottom pictures together...I enjoyed it too, it was kind of therapeutic!