Valentine's Day Celebration 2012

I was so excited to celebrate Valentine's Day this year. Usually, my hubby and I enjoy a nice date without the kids. He often gives me flowers and we might buy the kids some special candy as a small token of love to them. I have always mostly celebrated Valentine's Day as more for my husband and I. This year I found several great ideas I wanted to try!

I love ice cream and I love ice cream sandwiches even more! This recipe I found online was exactly what I was looking for. Although it called for strawberry ice cream and I was only able to get vanilla, they were still YUMMY!

The kids really enjoyed them and I was even able to give some of them to each of our church people and to some ladies when we got together right after Valentine's Day.

One thing that I had wanted to try to do this year and now that we have moved into the new house is to spend more time "doing" things with our children individually. This idea that I shared with you in a previous post was a perfect way to give the kids Valentine's cards that include an activity to do with Mom and Dad each month.

I used the DIY scratch off Valentine's Day card idea from Come Together Kids. We decided to do things a bit differently and give the kids one card each month to scratch off revealing this month's special activity. This way the kids look forward to receiving a new card each month and Momma didn't have to make 36 cards before February 14th! Now do you understand me?

The kids LOVED this idea and were so excited to scratch off the cards!

So, for the month of February, Rebekah gets a movie night with Mom. 

Ryan will enjoy lunch with his Dad. (He is voting for trying out the new Papa John's that just opened in town! Can you believe it?)

Timothy was SO excited to see that he had a "date" to read some books with Mom. He can read on his own but since he has to do this every day in school, he was very excited about the idea of snuggling on the couch with me so that I can read to him.

This Valentine's Day turned out to be very special and I am so thankful for the "Valentines" in my life to celebrate it with!

You're Going to Love This!

One of the great things about blogging has been finding other great blogs and making new friends as a result. This blog, It's Just Laine, has been a great blessing to me and a great source for recipes and ideas. 

I love how she decorates and does such cute things with her kids. She is a cutie herself! Right now she is having her first giveaway and it is a great one that I would love to have! I had to laugh when I read her giveaway post about being a "wannabe scrapbooker"! Her description of herself fits me as well! Check it out and be sure to enter to win her giveaway.

Great Idea for Valentine's Day

I have tons of other things to post about but I saw this idea on a great blog I follow called, Come Together Kids, for Valentine's Day to make for our kids and I thought it was so cute I HAD to post it here for you to see it. I LOVE this idea!

You could also easily use it to make a great Valentine's Day card for your hubby with a secret message to scratch off! I also am super excited because I wanted to try this idea and I needed silver paint. Just in time for Valentine's Day,  a new hobby store opened up here in our city of Krasnoyarsk! This is the first ever "supermarket" of hobby stuff here in Krasnoyarsk. 

When my dear hubby was so nice to take me to this new store yesterday I found "Folk Art"  brand paints of all colors and even in Sterling Silver as I needed. I am thrilled that this new store opened here in Krasnoyarsk! They have everything crafty and even scrapbooking supplies and albums. I was in shock at the stuff I have long wished to be able to find here! Thank you, Lord! Now I can use up some of those precious craft supplies I have been hoarding for VBS and Sunday school because I can replace them without shipping them from the US! 

Take a look at this craft idea for making valentines. I am sure you will like this very original idea!

Burnt Flowers

Alright ladies, remember the burnt flowers that another missionary wife and I did here for the 8th of March (Women's Day) tea party? I know it has been a while but since we lost our internet connection I had been unable to post this until now. (By the way, have I mentioned how happy I am that we are back online again?) As I promised here are a few pictures of our process and here is the link to blog on which I found them. Thank you ladies at Achieving Proverbs 31 for giving us this great idea!

This was our finished product displayed in the shape of an "8" for the Women's Day holiday

Now, I know this is quite a humorous photo of Katie and I making these flowers. We were in the new house because the smell given off from burning the edges of certain colors of the fabric we found would not have been too pleasant in our little house.

So thankful for Katie's helpful hands to get all of  the flowers done!

If you have any questions for me after reading the link I posted which gives the directions for making the flowers please feel free to ask! Have fun trying them at home (with proper ventilation of course!)