Celebrating Valentine's Day

I think that Valentine's Day is a pretty fun holiday - especially if you've got a house full of little girls (which I do).  Let's see... hearts, pink and red, sparkles, chocolate... yep that's right up our alley.

Here's what we've done to celebrate Valentine's Day so far:

Heart Themed Crafts

We've been doing lots of colouring of hearts - tracing them, painting them and colouring them in.

Decorating

I pulled out my Valentine's decorations from last year, and still like them.  I posted a picture of the felt heart wreath last year here, and the heart garland is made from felt heart shapes and ribbon.  The picture is of the Calgary Temple, taken by my lovely friend Laura.  And those snowy branches are from my sister's wedding reception last year.

 

 

Making Valentine's

 

 

My oldest is a planner.  Before February even hit, she was eager to start making Valentine's cards for her classmates.  I convinced her to make some to mail first, so we could wait for the list that the teacher sends home.  (There are a lot of names in her Kindergarten classroom with many spelling options).  I printed off these Cute As A Button cards.  My two year old had fun gluing on buttons, and my five year old, got much more creative.  For her classmates, M picked out these cards, and is drawing a picture on the back of each.  

 

 

Valentine's Party

 

 

As a reward for awesome behaviour, my five year old, earned a Valentine's party.  She got to invite four friends.  Oh, this party was the most talked about thing in our house for weeks!  On the menu we had mini heart shaped pizzas, strawberries, watermelon, veggies, and chocolate cupcakes.  We played some games, did a craft, and even had a wishing well, with a prize for each guest.  I gave M $5 to spend at the dollarstore and she had so fun fun picking out what she needed, and planning all of the activities.  The day of the party, my two year old was recovering from being sick, and things got a little crazy, so the camera only came out one time.  I can assure you the party was a good success, despite the lack of documentation.

 

 

 

I still have a few more Valentine's activities planned: heart shaped pancakes are a must, and we will also make a great Valentine for Daddy. 

 

How are you celebrating Valentine's Day?

 



Good Morning Muesli

It is snowing buckets here.  This morning I wanted nothing more than to cuddle back up in my duvet and go to sleep until the snow melts.  Of course, that wasn't exactly an option. 

At least I had a yummy breakfast waiting for me.  Mr. Emily had just made a big batch of muesli, and it did make my morning a little bit better.  We don't eat muesli very often, but the Mr. had just gone to a whole foods store, saw the price of the muesli, and thought "I could make that at home for cheaper."  So he did.  And now I have a renewed love of the Swiss breakfast food.  Be warned: this is not a meal that you can eat quickly.  There is a lot of chewing involved.  Or as Dr. Seuss would probably say, "If you like to chew, this breakfast is for you!"

Want to make your own?  Here's the recipe:

Good Morning Muesli

 4 cups rolled or flaked grains (we used a mix of oats, rye, barley and triticale)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped apricots
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds

1. Mix together and store in an airtight container.
2. Serve cold topped with milk or yogurt and fresh fruit.

Making Christmas Presents

This year, mostly in an attempt to save money, but also in an effort to limit commercialism, I decided that the gifts I gave my kids would be homemade.  I also limited myself to only using the supplies I had on hand.  No buying expensive fabric! 

Luckily, my kids are only 2 and 5, so their expectations for Christmas gifts are pretty low.  Santa will still be bringing non-homemade presents, or at least the kind he makes in his workshop (ahem Amazon.com).  I just finished the presents today, and thought that I'd share.

For my two year old, I made little placemats for the play kitchen.  She is always getting my fabric napkins, laying them out, and setting out an elaborate meal, so I thought that her own set of placemats were in order.

 



 

I cut up an existing piece of pre-quilted fabric intended to be bound into a baby quilt.  It had sweet little "blocks" just the right size for mini-placemats.  The fabric is a stiff polyester, I think salvaged from my mother-in-law's stash.  It was too stiff and scratchy to be used for wrapping a baby in, but perfect for making little placemats.  After cutting rectangles, I bound the edges in bias tape (my first attempt at machine sewn binding), and called it good.  I think my daughter is going to love these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my five year old, I made an apron.  I had made her one when she was two using this awesome pattern, but it is a bit small for her.  Besides, the little sister needs to wear an apron too.  Since I last made the apron, the pattern has been updated to give a size for 5 - 8 year olds.  Perfect!  I used pink fabric from my eternal source (see here and here), and embellished with some retro Strawberry Shortcake pieces.  I think this fabric originally came from our Grandmother, Mary Frances, but it came to me via Carlee.  I am also sure that the new apron will be well-loved too.

 

 

 

 

What about you?  Are you making anything for Christmas?  What will it be?  Do share!  I am thinking of making one more small thing for each, but haven't decided what yet.  Any suggestions?

 



 

 

Rag Rug, or It's Okay to Give Up

I started working on this rag rug back at the beginning of September.  I had a lot of pink fabric, and thought that a cute little rag rug would be the perfect thing for my girls' room. 

It started out as an easy project.  I cut three, three inch strips - I think I had nine feet of fabric.  I did that again, sewed the two strips together, and had three really long fabric strips.  These I braided together; it was pretty easy up until this point.  From here, I was supposed to hand stitch the rug together.  It turned out to be trickier than I imagined.  The fabric was too thick!  I was breaking thread, bending the needle, breaking the needle, and really hurting my fingers.  Eventually, I gave up and put the project away.  A few days later, I had a revelation:  I could hot glue the rest of the rug together!  When faced with the idea of never finishing the project, or just doing a half-job, I thought that I should at least finish it!

Okay, if you look really close, you can see a bit of hot glue bursting out.

And here we are!  A hot glued rag rug.  At least it is finished.  It looks cute, and it is a fun place for my girls to sit in their bedroom.  Will it hold up?  Who knows?  But at least it isn't sitting in the corner of my sewing room, barely completed, and never to be looked at again.  I gave up, and it's okay.

Healthy Raspberry Peach Crumble

For the month of September, I attempted a refined sugar free diet.  I say attempted because I wasn't vigilant with every food, and mainly tried to avoid sweet treats with loads of sugar in them.  I also let my hair down a few times and enjoyed treats on three specific occasions over the month.  I liked this way of living and think I will continue.  My theory is that sugar is not evil, it should just be limited and reserved for special occasions.

I have a major sweet tooth, so I had to work a bit harder to get my sugar fix this past month.  I ate a lot of fruit, but had a few other baked staples that I will continue to make.  This Oatmeal-Raisin Breakfast Cookie recipe is awesome, and this Simple Gourmet Granola is a staple at my house. 

Since October 1st was the first time I was allowed a sugary treat, I indulged and made dessert.  I made a Raspberry Peach Crumble, something that is still healthy enough, I ate the leftovers for breakfast.  I could have made it last month had I substituted the sugar in the topping for maple syrup.  I served it with ice cream, but I think it would taste awesome with a creamy thick yogurt.

 

 

Raspberry Peach Crumble

(from the Usborne Healthy Cookbook)

 

 

Topping:

 

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

4 T butter

1/2 c. ground almonds

1/4 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. oats

 

Filling:

 

 

14 oz. canned peaches with 4 T of juice reserved

2 c. raspberries

 

 

1. Mix the topping together.

2. Mix the fruit in a 9x9 pan.  Pour 4 T of peach juice over the fruit.

3. Spread the crumble over the fruit.

4. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.

 

 



Outdoor Fairy Party

It has been an unintentional birthday party month over here at The Mary Frances Project.  Don't you love the masks that Carlee made?  If only I could convince my daughter to have a super hero party....

We celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday last weekend with an outdoor fairy tea party.  It was a beautiful day (especially for September!), and we had so much fun. 

I loved all of the birthday party tips that Carlee gave, and I want to share a few more highlights and tips from our recent birthday party experience.

Ask for help.  I was lucky to have a few of the other parents offer to stay and help with the party.  It was great to have some extra adults around.  When one of my friends arrived, she said "Hand me your camera.  I'll take the pictures."  I loved having a "photographer" to document the party, and take pictures of all of the little details (like our wooden fairy path below).

Play games.  I think the classic kids party games are pretty fun.  We played pass the parcel (the gift inside was a teeny chocolate), and bean bag toss.

 

 

Keep the food simple.  We served a fruit tray, a veggie tray and honey sandwiches.  Everyone could find something that they liked, and it wasn't too difficult to prepare or messy to clean-up.

 

 

 

Serve mini-cupcakes.  I have a set of mini silicone cupcake liners and I love them.  Most adults only want a taste of cake, and most kids don't finish a whole cupcake anyway, so I think that mini-cupcakes are the way to go for little kids parties.



 

 

Give a gift suggestion.  Many people will bring a gift to birthday parties, even if they told that they don't have to.  This year, I included a note that said, "Please don't feel obligated to bring a gift, but if you would like to bring one, I know that my child would love _____."  I think that most people want to give a gift, and want to bring something that they know will be liked.  I gave the suggestion of art supplies, and my daughter ended up with some great art supplies, books, and a few other really lovely things.

 



 

Our fairy party was a great way to celebrate my daughter, and have fun with friends.  She is my oldest, so maybe in a few years, I will see birthday parties a bit differently.  Over all though, I think that we hit on the essential elements for a successful party: friends, fun, and food.

 

 



Birthday Party Goody Bags

Kid #1 just turned five, and tomorrow is her birthday party.  I think my child may have a future career as a wedding planner - this party has been talked about and planned for months.  We just finished making the goody bags today, so I will share that now, and share the rest of the party details later.

The theme that was requested for this birthday party was a "Fairy Princess Lavender Tea Party."  Why not, right?  Although my kids have not been to a whole lot of birthday parties, they have been to enough to know that an essential part of a birthday party is the goody bag.  I do like the idea of giving a little gift to friends as of way of thanking them for coming to celebrate with you.  However, I am not super keen on spending a lot of money, or buying something unnecessary.  (This New York Times article on the topic describes the extreme.)

For our goody bags, my daughter and I decided on a list of inexpensive items that we could mostly make, and that we thought her friends would enjoy.  Kid #1 is so excited about these goody bags and is really hoping that one of her friends doesn't come tomorrow, so that there will be one left for her.

Do you want to see what we put in them?  Here it is!
























Playdough

I made playdough using a recipe I found here.  It looks quite blue in the picture, but it is a purple colour. 

Raisins

As Carlee has already mentioned, I am not eating refined sugar for the month of September.  Kid #1 is really taking the idea of no sugar to heart, and insisted that we have raisins instead of candy in the bags. 

Notebook

Something that my daughter really wanted in the goody bags was a notebook.  I did look at the dollar store briefly, before realizing that I would never find a teeny fairy notebook for a reasonable price.  Instead, I laminated a fairy picture, found here, and bound it up with white paper. 

Seeds

When Kid #1 requested flower seeds, I thought it was a really sweet idea.  After checking out a few stores, I realized that 1) you can't buy seeds at the end of the summer, and 2) we have a ton of seeds in our own garden.  We harvested a bunch of sunflower seeds, put them in a little bag, and added instructions for planting next year.

Glitter Pen

This was the one purchased dollar store item.  At $0.20 each, it was my biggest "splurge."

Fairy Ring

The fairy flower ring printable was found here.  I cut out the rings, laminated them, and then cut them out again.  It was a bit labour intensive for a goody bag present, but cutting is a kind of a fun thing to do while watching TV at night.

We loaded all of the gifts into a brown paper bag, and stapled on a cute fairy picture that says "Thank-you fairy much!" (found here). 


So, what's your take on goody bags?  Too much work?  Totally fun?  I will have to see how the party guests react, but this has been a fun project to work on with my daughter, and a nice way to teach her that giving gifts to others can be rewarding.

 

Gardening

It seems that we have taken an unofficial break from blogging this summer.  I have been consumed by maintaing my garden lately.  Every afternoon, and every evening I am out in the garden, mostly harvesting.  I love it.  There is something so satisfying about planting a seed and watching it grow into something that can sustain you and your family.  Most of the planting work was done by Mr. Emily, but now that the work is more rewarding, I am in! 

We are currently housesitting and live on a big lot with a giant garden and many perennials that bear fruit.  (Think rhubarb, raspberries, nanking cherries, chokecherries, gooseberries, chives and winter onions.)  Here's a peek at some of the things we have successfully planted.  

Potatoes

Beans

Tomatoes

Zuchinni on the left, on the right squash, cilantro, lettuce, cabbage and even soy beans!

My favorite part about having a garden is being able to harvest my meal seconds before I eat it.  Here are some of our recent garden meals.

From the garden: Potatoes, beans and zucchini.

From the garden: Lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and spinach and zucchini on the pizza.

It is obvious why summer is my favorite season!  I hope that you are enjoying just as many lovely fresh foods too this summer

At Home this Summer

I just realized that it has been over a month since Carlee or I have posted.  In case you have been dying to know what I have been up to, the answer is: "Not a whole lot."  (Carlee is a different story, but she'll tell you all about her move later.)

I have been really trying to focus on just being with my kids in the day.  Kid #1 will be going to Kindergarten next year, and although it's only half days, I know I'm going to miss her tons.  I have been trying to savour the time that I've got with these little ones, as I know that it's going quickly.  So, what have we been up to?  Playing outside, going to the Zoo, and enjoying our time together at home.  It has rained a lot in the month of June, so we have been spending quite a bit of time inside and at home.

When we are at home, I try and have a mix of just letting (and hoping that) my kids play by themselves, and setting up games and activities for us to do together.  Here's a sampling of what this has looked like.

Number Lines

Write the numbers 0 through 10 on a strip of paper.  Give your child 55 small counters.  Instruct your child to put the corresponding number of counters below each number on the line.  I usually model saying the number, counting out the correct amount of counters, and then double checking to make sure it is right.  My daughter is often very engaged by this activity.

Old Office Supplies

We have a book of cheques from a closed bank account.  Kid #1 thinks it is so funny to write cheques to different people and things for crazy amounts and reasons.  The cheque below is for "Everyone," in the amount of $600, to buy "The Earth."  If you can get your hands on old cheques, receipt books, cell phones, computers, or anything else that kids are usually not allowed to touch, your kids will thank you!

 



Make Your Own Toys

After reading the book, Megan Gets a Dollhouse, Kid #1 decided that she would make her own dollhouse.  She used stuff from the recycling bin, wooden blocks and scraps of fabric.  I really want to encourage creativity in my kids, and having them make stuff is a perfect way to do this.

Playdough

I will never tire of playdough and I hope that my kids never do either.  Playdough is great for: creativity, fine motor skills, imagination, the list can go on and on.  I love to set out different toys and tools with playdough each time such as: marbles, toothpicks, utensils, plastic animals, Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, or feathers.

Dandelion Painting

The sight of a field full of dandelions is such a happy thing for me.  Dandelions give me so many memories of being outside in the spring and summer.  Now that I have kids, I love dandelions because my kids can pick a million of them, and there are still more dandelions left to pick.

Once those dandelions are picked, the perfect thing to do with them is paint! 

This was an activity that both of my girls (almost 2 and almost 5 years old) did together.  They had so much fun, and I think that the finished product is pretty neat looking.

I started out by giving my girls a paint palette with washable finger paints, a big empty piece of paper, and some dandelion "brushes."  Kid #1 insisted on having q-tips to paint with too, but those were hardly touched.

My toddler used her dandelion more like traditional paint brush, and my preschooler went with a print-making approach.  Both were great ways to experiment with a new tool.

I love the way the flower pattern looks.  The dandelion held up nicely, despite being mashed and squashed repeatedly. 

In other news, the city that I live in has just gotten warm enough to plant our vegetable garden these last few weeks.  Our days and nights have been filled with planting, planning, and hoping that we'll get a good harvest come August.  Mr. Emily has been the hardest worker, but the kids have enjoyed getting their hands dirty too.

Decorating Laminated Pictures

Our family has been laughing and laughing at this super simple, super silly activity.

Original pictures by the lovely Laura.

Take a picture. 
Laminate it. 
Decorate with dry-erase or washable markers. 
Laugh and laugh. 
Repeat.

At first, I just printed and laminated pictures of my children, but Kid 1 liked this activity so much, that I added pictures of me and Mr. Emily to our collection.  I think that there's something about being allowed to draw all over a picture that is so fun.  I'm allowing the forbidden!

If you want to make your own laminated pictures to decorate, look for pictures that have simple backgrounds that are light in colour.  I hope that you have as fun much with this as we are having!

My Family Recipe Book

A few years ago, Mr. Emily decided to make a Family Recipe Book.  He spent hours going through cook books and my messy recipe file folder, typing up our family's favourite recipes.  I thought that this was a COMPLETE waste of time.  We already had them all written down!  I knew exactly which place to go to to get what I wanted.  I was quite annoyed at the fact that he was wasting time typing up recipes, and that he was forcing me to choose which ones I wanted to have included.

Well, fast-forward a few years - I love our Family Recipe Book!  Other than the Internet for new ideas, it is the only place I go to when searching for a recipe.  I might as well get rid of the rest of my cook books, for all that I use them.  I love having all of my recipes in one place, and another added bonus of having them all typed up, is that they are ready to email to friends, and are saved online, so can be accessed from anywhere.  Thank-you, Mr. Emily!  It actually wasn't a waste of time!

Every other year, the recipe book gets an overhaul.  Recipes that aren't used are deleted, and new favourites typed up and added in.  Between editions, I hand write my favourite new recipes in the margins and on back-sides of the pages.  I also love being able to write notes to myself about specific recipes: how to modify them, what I've tried, and warnings or tips. 

So, what about you?  How do you organize your favourite recipes?  Do you do it online?  Do you have a folder, a recipe book collection, or just one favourite book?  I'd love to hear what you do!