Valentine's Week Post 3

Like marshmallows and campfires we're better together. 

Happy Valentine's day to my man. 

Excited to spend the rest of my valentines with you.

#andyletterboard

Valentine's Week Post 2

She is sparkle and sunshine.
Joy and delight.
Strong willed and determined.
She is half of me but more of him.
Passion all wrapped up in one small girl.
"Though she be but little, she is fierce." -Shakespeare
A little bit of Valentine for my BitBit, my #littlegirlandy #andyletterboard

Valentine's Week Post 1

It's Valentine's week and while my hubby and i have spent many valentine's day and sort of feel like it is just another day for people to go out and buy stuff and have huge expectations (wow doesn't that sound romantic, i sound cynical) and truthfully early on we have had some bad valentine's day experiences. but we want to celebrate in a fun way for and with the kids. 

since February i have been leaving them little hearts with things i love about them on their bedroom doors. with it being Valentine's week i thought i would leave them a quote on our Letter board.

Here is Golden Boys.....  

A letter board to the kid who made me a mom.
For the many many adventures you have taken us on
Sports, star wars, grooming, clothes and shoes scattered on the floor.......a little bit of childhood and growing up all tied together.
With three days till valentines I wanted to say i love you and i'm glad you are mine. (When "Winnie the Pooh" won't fit you improvise, "Pooh Bear") #andyletterboard

Valentine's

We finished the valentines for the kids class this weekend. Golden boy wanted to give the kids in his class Pokemon figurines.

I placed an order on Wednesday for the figurines. (so thankful for Amazon Prime)

I made some card stock cards that said "I choose you Valentine"

and then he wrote the kids names in the to section and signed them from him. 

after he got to decide who he would give each character to and we hot glued them to the cards.

I love the way that they came out

i saw these bracelets in Michael's craft store and asked Little girl if that would be something that she would want to give to the girls in her class. she has 9 of them in her class. so after making sure they would fit a kids arm, i went to the store and purchased 9 bracelets that all said something different. they said things like: love, blessed, peace, free spirit, happy, imagine.

The card stock says: Valentine: You're a Gem.

I got the idea for the wording from the blog Positively Splendid

I didn't have a colored printer so just created the same wording in a word document and printed them on card stock.

after she addressed them and signed them we chose which one she would give to each girl and used washi tape to attach them to the cards.

 my daughter likes the Pokemon cards too so for the 11 boys in her class we bought a pack of Pokemon cards and attached washi tape to the back of them. she picked out which one she wanted to give each of the boys and then signed the tape on the back.

a few years ago i got a picture of the valentines before we addressed them but i forgot to take that picture this year. so that is why there are little hearts all over the picture.

We didn't get together as a group to to decorate the cards

we just decorated them at home and then met up on Sunday to deliver them.

 

Decorating valentines 2016

Decorating valentines 2015

this year we just got a picture of the kids that were there.

Two babies were missing from this picture and one little sweetie that didn't want her picture taken

2017

this is all of us last year that went to deliver valentines.

2016

This year we met up with another small group to deliver the valentines. it was the last year that both of our groups met together to do this.

2015

we had met in 2014 to deliver them but i don't think we got a picture of all of us

2013

Simple

I have been working through AshelyAnn's Snapshots photography course and trying to take what she is teaching and really apply it. hoping that it all sticks. here are some of my photos that tried to capture simple.

every year for the past few years our small group has made valentine's cards for a local nursing home and delivered them close to valentine's day.  last year we got the kids together and made them together but we ran out of time to plan for that this year so we just decided to make them at home and on Moday we will all meet together to hand them out.

2015 and a photo of us from 2013 (we are still unsure about where our 2014 picture is)

I love this one because you can see the one that she crumbled up and threw to the side but she is still smiling as she moves on to make another card

this picture has no relation to the card making but little girl asked me to play a game with her. it took forever to get set up but then we started to play. games have been a big thing for her recently. it has been fun playing them with her and she is getting really good at some of them. we are still learning and working on how we act and react when we don't win. this shot was random. my camera wasn't snapping and I angled it away from her face and just shapped. I was fooling with the focus bottons or something. anyway I got his picture and loved it even though it doesn't have her face in the shot.

Valentine's

Pinterest is just swarming with cute ideas for valentine's day.

I posted earlier about what little girl and I did for her classmates.

below are some ideas that I came across for teachers and for golden boy's class mates.

lets start with the teachers

 

I came across this pin that my sister actually pinned to make for her hubby. (he is a robot and building stuff kind of guy, it is pretty awesome)

I loved it so much and remembered that I still had some small nuts from my sister's baby shower.

the pin is actually a compilation of valentine goodies that links you to the original source. kind of what I am doing there. so here is the original link for the "I'm 'NUTS' about you" pin. I just loved the way they came out. they are for golden boys teacher and his hearing and speech specialists/therapists.

 

next we have the valentine's for little girls teachers. she has two teachers in her class.

I stumbled upon this pin and just loved the idea.

Wal-Mart had a double pack of the original burt's bees so I grabbed that.

the link opens you up to a free printable to make this and instructions on how to go about it all.

I don't have a colored printer so I improvised. I had the letter stamps that I got in Targets $1-$3 section last year, sharpies, card stock, ink pads and washi tape. after writing and stamping and taping the card stock, I had my daughter finger print some little yellow thumbs on the card and then we turned them into cute bees. I wrote Happy Valentine's Day! on the bottom and presto! they are completed.

this last one for golden boy's classmates is a compilation of two different pins that I found.

this one  and this one

I found the air heads in the dollar section of Target. I got two bags of them and they were just the right amount for all of his classmates and for he and little girl to each have one too.

I took the idea of the cut out heart from the first one (but instead of printing "Love is in the Air" on the hearts) I had wrote them and then took the idea from the second one, covering up the 'Head' word on air head with some paper and tape and then writing "Love is in the...." and the word Air from the "Air Head" is there. he addressed the back of them with to: and from:

there were other air head ideas like this one and this one.

in the end I love the way they came out and I think that he does too.

 

Adventure #6

I am going to be a little honest here. first let me say that I am an introvert for those who may or may not have know. here comes the honesty part.......Older people scare me and make me nervous. not like scare me, like i have bad dreams, just scare me like, i don't really know what to say, or do, or how to act. I know that is silly but it has just about always been that way. blame it on the social awkwardness of an introvert or just me, I don't know.

now i will clarify that "my old people" don't scare me. my two grandparents are wonderful and they are mine and i love them and they love me and they don't scare me. and then there was by great aunt, who is now with Jesus, but before that, when i was around her she was far from scary. she was sweet and loving and not scary at all. now that i have shared that strange fact about me tonight our small group got together, including kids, to decorate valentine cards for a local nursing home.

they guys were even right in there making cards. I don't really know what the count is on how many they made.

this will be the third year that we have done this and while, like i said the elderly make me nervous (and the day we hand them out I am sure I will be nervous all over again) i enjoy getting together with friends, loving on people that God loves, and stepping out of my comfort zone and into the lives of others. it helps to have friends close by too. i admire people who love and are comfortable around the elderly. they make me want to be brave, step out and share love with them.

check out Lily's Blog to link up with your adventures.

here we are in 2013
I am not really sure where out 2014 one was. I know that we have one but I have yet to locate one
it will for sure be posted though when in find it, along with this years. we are just that kind of group, picture taking people.