Snow Day Valentine Crafts

The weather guys hyped up this ice storm we were supposed to have today. They talked it up for days, and the school guys decided to cancel classes pretty much everywhere in the region. They didn't want thousands of kids riding buses home in treacherous conditions. Of course, it only ended up raining for a little while, but at least nobody got hurt (that I know of anyway). And I suppose there is still the potential for more rain and more freezing.

Anyhoo, Nora's teacher sent home a note last week telling us that we were to make a Valentine's box at home and bring it in this week. So that was our major activity today.

I started things off by tracing some heart cookie cutters onto sponges and cutting them out. Then I got really creative and cut an empty toilet paper tube in half so they could make circles, too. I got some containers and lids out of recycling and squirted in some glitter paint in Valentine-y colors: pink, purple, red, silver and gold. And the girls got busy stamping hearts and circles onto big paper.

Dana is safest painting in her underoos because she is not that clean about it. It saves me some major laundry headaches. I have plenty of those as it is.

Then they went outside for a couple of hours to play in the soft, melty snow. They brought out some Barbies and horses and occupied themselves for a lovely amount of time. I stayed inside to vacuum and wash the floors and strip the beds. That is how I get my kicks on Mondays. Woohoo!

Eventually, the paint was dry and the girls were ready. We took two empty coffee cans and covered them with the fancy glittery stamped paper. Then the girls added paper hearts, gold foil hearts, ribbon, yarn and marker. I love that they have to pull all sorts of stuff out of the craft box to see if it will work: pipe cleaners, pompoms, oogly eyes. You can see Nora putting a Valentine note into Dana's coffee can. Pretty sweet!

The note says this:
hape valintins day dana I hop you hav a gud vanintinz day
fram Nora
lov Nora

I am head over heels for that spelling. Probably I should want her to have perfect spelling, but this is only going to last a little while and I am enjoying it while I can.

The girls steal a smooch while showing off their completed cans. They found this pretty entertaining. Now I need to go put it all away because dinner is almost done and, well, you saw what our table looks like. I am half hoping for another ice storm day tomorrow so we can make Valentines for Nora's classmates.