On Monday I took the girls to a grocery store and on our way out, by the cash register, they had these adorable little crafts. They might have been left over from Valentine’s Day, but they had a lot of them, so maybe not. They only cost $0.49 and consisted of a little plastic box containing red, pink, and white edible beads, and two different strings. I knew the girls would love it.

We came home and made edible necklaces! Except… I did not want the girls to know they’re edible because I am not huge on them eating hard candy. So we pretended they weren’t! The girls had fun and loved them!

Showing off their finished necklaces!

I’ve never been one to care for Valentine’s Day, but when you have small kids and see all the adorable Valentine’s gifts in stores, well it becomes a different story. Buying for your kids is a lot more fun than shopping for yourself.

Natasha has been asking for blue nail polish for a while now. Because pink is boring, right? She also wanted a purple one. I dropped by Claire’s and they had the perfect set! Moreover it’s scented (bubble gum, cotton candy, grape…). Mmmm. She loved it!

While in the same store, I saw these adorable stuffed… raccoons? They light up and make sounds… perfect for my little snuggle bear! She loved it, too.

Now, Matthew and I don’t really exchange Valentines gifts, but I wanted him to have something from the girls. A few days ago (together) we made him this:

Then we made some cupcakes and the girls decorated them with little coloured candy-stars. We also made some with pink icing and fresh blueberries. Then we ate them :P

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

So I really wanted to do some Valentine’s Day crafts with the girls. They LOVE crafts and all the “special” supplies I pull out which they never otherwise see. However, while Natasha is ready to deal with scissors, glue, paint, etc… Veronika isn’t. So it was quite the challenge to keep her focused and not eat anything that wasn’t edible.

Anyway – we managed to do this craft: 2 Valentine’s “bears”. Veronika wanted hers pink, and Natasha wanted purple, of course (her favourite color).

The girls love them and I think they turned out cute. Although, we ended up hanging them on the wall in their room because due to some rough-play, they have lost an eye or an ear about five times too many and I had to fix them up. =)

I had ideas for another 3-5 crafts, but I am not sure if we’ll be doing that many. Maybe just one more.

Natasha has finished yet another session of gymnastics (her 3rd). She has learned so much in the past 1.5 years and is learning something new each and every class. I think her self-confidence has improved and she isn’t scared of trying new things. Her 4th session begins next week.

Doing a head-stand

Trampoline

Receiving her “graduation” ribbon, report sheet, and sticker sheet.

I saw this idea on a craft website months ago, and last weakened finally had a chance to create it. Apparently it’s really good for kids’ creativity, imagination, and general development so I figured they might enjoy it.

All you need is a few different bags of dry beans – red kidney, white, black, etc. or just an assorted bag of all. Place the beans in a large plastic container that has a lid. Then add a plastic scoop and whatever else you want. I stopped by the dollar store and picked up a few packs of little rubber animals, red rocks, and 2 plastic trucks.

They had a blast and asked to play with their “bean boxes” every single day last week. They’ve buried and unburied their choo-choo trains a hundred different times and they loved digging and un-digging the little animals. Cost of craft, about 10 dollars per box.

My friend Erin crocheted these beautiful beanies for my girls. I am keeping them for the spring, but the girls have been bribed to pose for a few pictures. I love them!

Yes, that’s right. We have registered our little girl for Junior Kindergarten for the Fall of 2010. School will start the week of September 7th, only days before her 4th birthday. She will be going mornings and taking the school bus – sigh – where did my little baby go? I am sure these next eight months will fly by…

She is very excited, though. I don’t know how much she understands, but I am sure all the open-houses and prep. teacher/student meetings the school offers will prepare her over the next few months. At this point, all she cares about is the concept of taking the school bus. =) It’s exciting but bittersweet at the same time.

… when you can put choo-choo’s in a highchair and feed them hamburger??

For the record – my girls do like baby dolls; rather Veronika does. But they definitely love their Thomas trains best. Anything Thomas-related makes them very very happy.

The girls wanted to play in the snow today so we went out for a bit. But the snow definitely wasn’t as “fun” as they had hoped. Natasha kept asking where the grass was, and Veronika was pretty frustrated she couldn’t run. Needless to say, they were done 25 minutes later and all ready to head back home.

But they did have some fun!

The girls had a wonderful Christmas this year; it was fun watching it through their eyes, and while Veronika took everything as it came, Natasha really understood what Christmas was all about; I think next year Veronika will get into it as well. The family was very generous and the girls got a lot of wonderful toys and clothes. And of course, Santa visited our house while they slept and in the end, they really made out like bandits!

While they visited their family Christmas Eve, Santa dropped by and left them each a gift under the tree – new pj’s and stuffed reindeer!

Natasha then left cookies & milk for Santa, and carrots for his reindeer so he has a snack to grab when he dropped off the presents. Unfortunately, “Santa” ate it all before I could take a pic…….. Santa was good to them!