Sweet as Candy

Don't you just love holidays?  It gives you an excuse to decorate, make treats or food that you don't usually make, buy presents, and do fun crafts.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner our house seems to be filled with festive holiday activities.  What can you do with  heart shaped balloon and a piece of ribbon...create a volleyball game.  I found these cute heart shaped balloons that resemble conversation hearts.  They come in many colors and have phrases written on them.  We blew a few up, attached a piece of ribbon from one end of the family room to the other and the kids played "Valentine Volleyball."

I know it's hard to see the ribbon...it's black and kind of blends in...and yes...Ava decided to play in her shirt and undies.  Here they are passing the ball back and forth over the "net."

Even Daddy got in on the action...look at that form!

Ava running after the balloon

Last night we made these fun valentine suckers.  If you have been a follower of our blog since the beginning you would have seen these last year.  I got this cute idea from the Family Fun website.  They are so easy to make.

You need mini candy canes from Christmas...so buy in bulk next year!

Line a cooking sheet with parchment paper and put the candy canes together to form hearts.

Bake them at 235 degrees (I know...random temperature) for 10 minutes.

Remove and immediately insert a sucker stick (I found them at Hobby Lobby)

Pinch the softened candy cane onto the stick

Then melt almond bark or white chocolate chips.  Add this to a zip lock and then cut the corner off so you can easily add the melted chocolate to the center of the heart. 

Then add sprinkles of your choice and allow time to harden.

I put ours in little treat bags and added Valentine ribbon.

Super easy and very cute!!!

Ava and Isaiah were adding the sprinkles

The kids made a little treat with the left over almond bark, Rice Krispies, and raisins.

Wrapped and ready to go

Since I'm on the topic of valentine treats, I have to share this story that Isaiah told me the other day.  He was watching a show on TV and they had a commercial for Little Debbie valentine cakes.  He decided that he wanted to make a valentine cake.  I asked him, "How would you make it?"  This is almost exactly what he said...as he talked I took notes because it was so cute!  Notice he says "valentimes."

"I will make valentimes cake for Valentimes Day.  You need 2 eggs, 10 sticks of butter, 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 cups of white sugar, 5 salts, and 1 vanilla."  I asked him, "How long do you think you cook it and what should you turn the oven to?"  He said, "5 degrees for 5 minutes.  Then we need to mix it up and put it in the oven, then open the oven and then eat it.  It will be really yummy.  That's how we're goin' make it...I'm goin' help you make it." 

My Three Happy's:
1) Listening to Ava read books to me.  It's so fun to see her make connections to what we're learning and to recognize the things we have been working on in our stories.  We were reading the other day and she came to the word "then."  I said, "Oops Ava...we may have to sound that out."  She said, "It's the word /then/...that's one of my word cards."  My baby is growing up!

2) Tonight I worked with Isaiah on writing his name.  I'm a firm believer on teaching a capital for the /I/ but lowercase letters for the rest.  It would be easier to just write his whole name in capitals, but I know he needs to learn it the right way.  He traced over his name that I wrote a couple of times and then he wrote it on his own.  He was so proud and so was I!

3) Catching up on shows tonight.  I've been in a REALLY BAD HABIT lately.  I'm beyond exhausted every night.  No matter who I put to sleep, I always seem to fall asleep with them while we are listening to their music.  It's terrible.  Sometimes I don't wake up until 10:30...other times midnight.  Tonight I'm going to try my best to stay awake!