Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

On Presidents Day, we invited friends over for our annual Valentine cookie decorating.  This was a lot of fun. Prior to this day, I mixed up the cookies. Natalee rolled out, cut, and baked almost all of the cookies (about 10-11) dozen. Brady made all of the cream cheese icing.  (Amie was birthday shopping) First everyone decorated. Notice that everyone is still decorating, except for one.  He's eating! Then, everyone went outside.  They all seemed to get along very well.  First, they played kickball.  Some rode bikes and scooters.  Some played basketball.  Then, they moved on to four square.  My kids taught everyone how to play.  That was very worth my time to paint the lines.  We sure have enjoyed four square games!

Happy Valentines Day!  We don't typically do anything special for Valentines Day.  In fact, my biggest Valentines Day memory may be when we went skiing in Sandpoint, Idaho, and our friend Andrew injured his collar bone on his first run down the mountain.  However, we do enjoy making heart shaped cookies with the kids.  We love to make cookies! First the rolling and cutting the hearts. We thought it was really funny that a few times Amie got overly anxious to cut when she really did not have enough dough left.  So, some of the hearts look like they already have bites taken out of them! After lunch came time for the icing and decorating.  We used our natural food coloring and sprinkles for this.  In fact I used the "mess up" icing from Christmas when I failed to make green cream cheese icing.  The grey (supposed to be green) icing gradually turned yellowish in the freezer.  I added red to it and we got a pretty pink c...

Since we did not have school today, we put together a craft for Valentines Day.  I was supposed to complete this craft with Natalee's class this morning.  However, that's been post poned due to no school.  It is only 10 degrees and windy outside and Brady is still feeling sick with the stomach bug.  (I had to pick him up at school early yesterday)  So, we decided to do the craft ourselves. We had transparent contact paper.  I drew a heart on the nonsticky side so that later we would know where to cut.  The kids placed cut pieces of tissue paper onto the contact paper. Please pardon the pajamas on our lazy day!!! You can see Brady's flushed cheeks here.  He was feeling better in the morning for breakfast and craft.  However, after lunch and nap is not as good. After they were done placing tissue paper onto the contact paper, I put another piece of contact paper on top of their creation.  We also cut a heart border out o...

.  Did you take the time to delight in the beautiful Valentines Day morning?  The snow that came overnight provided a beautiful display. I was wishing that I had my camera on my drive on the pike the morning.  The snow covered trees were absolutely breathtaking!  Although, the snow covered secondary road kept me from looking at them too much!

Kelly and I got together again to make Valentine cookies with the kids.  We were a bit sad as we were thinking that in the future these gatherings will be harder to do since the two oldest will start school next year.  Although, as wild as they were today it made some of the sadness go away!  This is one of the things I'll miss the most when the kids are in school.  Yes, we will still do this activity, but it probably won't be a fun thing to look forward to when Jesse is at work.  I guess next year I'll need help containing Amie anyway! The kids are really good decorators now.  They have the process down!  At Christmas, we were told that they missed having paint brushes to brush on the glaze.  That was easier for them when they were younger.  We had opted for cream cheese icing in a bottle instead, which worked great.  So, this time we provided both options.  Of course, they all wanted the one squirt bottle of cream cheese icin...

 While we are not typically big on a huge Valentines Day celebration, the kids definitely enjoy the holiday and the crafts and baking involved.  Let's face it-- I'd rather have the big celebration be my upcoming birthday!  I did want to take the opportunity to teach/show the kids more about the concept of love during our pre-school time.  We created this heart stamp out of a paper towel center.  I liked this craft because both kids enjoyed it and it was easy for them both to do.  Natalee stamped the pink hearts and Brady stamped the red hearts.  I got the idea from Rust and Sunshine .  I liked the result so much that I decided to display it in a frame.  Then, we did these heart hand print pictures from The Idea Room .  I thought these turned out to be really adorable.  So, I had to put it in a frame, too!  I accidentally put them on upside down.  I did change one other thing, though.  I picked to Bible vers...

 This morning, we cut out and decorated valentine cookies with Will and Kelly.  We learned from our last experience making Christmas cookies .  This time was not nearly as chaotic.  And, it was MUCH more fun for kids and adults! First, we cut out the cookies.  We only had 3 cookie cutters this time, so they had to share. Then, we took a little break while the cookies were baking.  The kids ran around like crazy.  I'm not kidding, either.  They really did not get out any toys.  They just ran! **Notice:  This time, we made them wait to decorate until ALL the cookies were baked and cooled.** When the cookies were cool, we started to decorate.  This time, we returned to what we did last year-- paint on a glaze icing.  We have paint brushes that I have saved just for this purpose. After they painted some glaze on, they could use their fingers to get a pinch of sprinkles or a few M&M's.  As a counting exerc...

Today we made some sugar cookies.  We cut them into hearts and decorated them for Valentines Day.  This activity is right up Natalee's alley, of course.  She was really looking forward to it.  Of course, I was DREADING all of the mess.  It was worth it, though. We used paint brushes to put a glaze on the cookies before we sprinkled on the decorations and stuck on M&M's. ICING!!!  (Hmm...Do you think Mom will notice if I sneak a taste of this stuff?) I noticed today that Brady came a long way since we did this activity at Christmas time.  He has obviously been watching me mix things up in the kitchen (and pretending to do so with Natalee).  He dumped A LOT of red sprinkles into his cup of glaze icing while I wasn't looking.  That turned into a messy goop!  Then, he kept dumping in M&M's despite my pleas to stop that.  I fished them out and stuck them to one of his cookies.  So, two of his cookies are red-c...