One of my favorite holidays is Valentine's Day. I have always loved hearts and flowers, and that fits right into the decorations of Valentine's Day and after that... Spring, which is my favorite season!
(Maybe 'cause that's when my birthday is?... I digress...)
So one of the things that my kids and I have done is based upon "
Winnie the Pooh's Valentine", by Bruce Talkington. In the beginning of the story, Pooh is decorating for Valentine's Day by hanging felt hearts. Roo comes in to Pooh's house, and surprises Pooh just by saying his name. Pooh hits his head, and Roo asked "
Are those hearts felt?" Pooh answers, "I
don't think the heart felt it at all..." completely confused by Roo's question... It makes me smile, a little Pooh misunderstanding. So one year I bought a few rectangles of felt at the craft store, then we used our heart cookie cutters and traced lots of hearts onto the felt. We cut them out and hang them all around the house. The kids love to hang them and move them around. Pretty easy decoration, right?!
 |
| A heart placed on the rocking chair... :-D |
Another decoration we made is one that I think I saw in a home & garden magazine once. I took a approx. one yard length of pink ribbon. I took fine red ribbon and hung dollar store (or cheap from Wal-mart) cookie cutters on it, and hung the garland in my kitchen. Super easy and cute!
 |
| My garland hanging in my kitchen... |
After Valentine's Day, I like to take my kids' Valentines that they received from their friends (and family, in our case...) and make them into a placemat. Then they can be preserved and they can see their fun cards under a layer of laminate or clear contact paper! If it gets dirty from food or fingerprints, just wipe and
viola! Clean again!
 |
| Caleb's placemat... |
 |
| Rebekah's placemat from preschool days... |
Another year I made a book with my Valentines, called "
One little, Two little, Three Little Valentines". It is a simple counting book with the phrase "One little Valentine" (and moving the numbers on up each page in the book) and the coordinating number of Valentines on each page. Toward the end it got hard to fit ten Valentines on each page, so I made and decorated hearts for some of the end pages. I laminated it and bound it into a book. (Back when Joshua could easily bind it for me... This could be done easier by punching three holes in it and holding them together with rings. I think office supply stores will also bind for you for $$).
I love the book because you can tell what characters were popular that year I made it based on the Valentines in the book! :-D
 |
| Front cover... (sorry for flash...) |
 |
| Sample page... |
 |
| Another sample page... |
So have fun decorating your house easily and cheapily for the season of LOVE!
And remember
Jesus is our ultimate Valentine, since He showed us His
love by giving us His LIFE!
"
For God so LOVED the world, that He GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting Life." John 3:16
 |
Another simple wall-hanging- printed, cut into
heart shape and mounted on red cardstock! |
That is reason enough to celebrate!
Posted by
Love the placemat idea! I need to do that with some of the kids' favorites from school next week. Instead of picking them up off the floor! :)
ReplyDelete