The Aftermath of Art

Who says art has to end after the project is complete?

We made a guitar Valentine for the Farmer (silly me forgot to take a picture of the final project and it is now at his office) and painted the pieces. Sweet P loved to paint so I knew she'd enjoy making this. What I didn't know is that she'd have more fun cleaning up the aftermath of the art than she did actually making the art.

I laid down a drop cloth (it's a plastic sheet from a Potty Party we had last year) and when we were finished, I asked her to help me clean it up. I handed her a wet washcloth and she happily scrubbed off the paint that had dripped onto the sheet during our project.

Sweet P LOVES playing in the kitchen sink and would happily wash dishes all day long (think I can bottle that for the teenage years?) so I asked her to pull a chair over so we could wash the paint brushes. This turned out to be the highlight of Sweet P's day! She poured out the water we had used to rinse the paintbrush while we painted and after we'd cleaned up our breakfast dishes, I plugged the drain.

I handed her the foam brush and watched as she marveled over the water changing color while she rinsed the foam brush.

Once the brush was clean she moved on to the smaller brush and said, "He is taking a  shower!" as she rinsed it with the sprayer.

Sweet P also loves to pour so I handed her our painting cup, her pitcher, a measuring spoon and medicine cup for some water transfer fun.

I'm slowly learning to encourage Sweet P to be part of the entire process because each step of creating art has something to teach her.

Heart-shaped Pancakes

I know Valentine's Day is done and over, but that doesn't mean you can't have heart-shaped pancakes year round! I made Sweet P pancakes for Valentine's Day along with a blueberry smoothie (it would've been strawberry, but I used them all in the pancakes!).

Shaped pancakes are such a simple and creative way to make meals fun for kiddos. Sweet P loved these heart-shaped pancakes and asked for them again and again and again (so I made them again on Saturday). These were made with a little bit of almond flour (we get ours at Trader Joe's) and SO yummy!

The Recipe: Heart-shaped Pancakes

What you need:
1 1/2 c of whole wheat flour (organic if you've got it)
1/2 c of almond meal/flour (if you don't have/can't find almond meal, use another 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour or oats)
1 1/2 c organic soy milk (or regular milk)
1/4 c water
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c frozen strawberries (without syrup and organic if possible)
1 organic egg
1 tbsp flaxseed (optional)

Turn on skillet to medium-heat. Drizzle olive oil in the pan. Heat frozen strawberries in microwave for 1 minute. They should soften and make juice. Blend strawberries with immersion blender or leave whole (I wanted them juicier). Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in egg, milk, water and strawberries. Stir until moistened and easy to pour.

Pour into metal cookie cutter to form heart (or cut after you've cooked the pancakes). Allow pancakes to cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until cooked thoroughly. Yields 6-8 medium sized pancakes

I only had 3 frozen strawberries so I added some MonaVie to try to make the batter pinker. It never really did get as pink as I had hoped, but I blame that on the whole wheat flour (and lack of strawberries). The strawberries gave them a good flavor though, so I'd like to try it again when I have more.

Valentine Tot Preschool: Trays

Here are a few of our Valentine tray activities:

Counting/Opening and Closing/Sorting Activity: We started with blank hearts and I handed her stickers to stick on the lids of each heart container. We counted them, then talked about putting the appropriate number of eraser into each container. She did the number 3 first because she had 3 erasers in her hand, then she seemed done with it. I showed her how to shake the container to hear the erasers and she wanted to do more. After she did another one, I told her to shake both at the same time and she felt how they were different. She really felt/heard the difference when she shook 1 with another number.

One to one correspondence: She started out with tweezers, but quickly left them aside and did it with her hands instead. 

Counting bears sort: Sweet P actually came up with this tray on her own and filled half the tray with red bears and the other half with red. She called it a cake and came around asking the Farmer and I if we wanted a piece. Too funny!

Sorting: I bought this tray at the $ store this week for this exact purpose. The foam pieces are also from the $ store. Sweet P wanted something in each section so we added erasers and sparkly 3D hearts as well. After she sorted the items, we did a few patterns. I did one for her and then she did one for me! 

Broken heart puzzles: I used textured paper that I have a TON of and some crafting scissors for these puzzles. I cut each heart with a different pair of scissors and she matched up each broken heart. I thought it'd be more challenging for her, but she figured it out pretty quickly!

A lot of the activities were completed alongside playing with our Valentine Sensory Bin (all the objects we needed were in it!). 

Linking to:

 

Heart-shaped Button Snake

I made this for Sweet P last year and didn't get around to blogging it before Valentine's Day. She also didn't play with it much because she wasn't ready for the skill of buttoning and unbuttoning the pieces onto the snake.

She's a pro at it now, although she did figure out if she pulled fast/hard enough it would come right off. Maybe we need to work on some gentleness. It's a great activity for car rides or church, too.

This was a quick, simple and inexpensive project. It seriously took about 10 minutes total (okay, maybe it took longer than that to cut out the hearts). I had everything for this laying around the house (again, not really just laying around the house, it was all put away in a craft box in the basement).

All you need is some colored felt, scissors, ribbon and a button!

Cut several hearts out of different colored felt (or use the same color, it's up to you). Sew the button to the end of the ribbon and sew a loop in the opposite end. Cut a slit in each heart large enough for the button to fit through but small enough to stay on the ribbon. Button the felt hearts onto the ribbon and you're done!

Yummy Ways to Say I {Heart} You

What's the best way to someone's heart? Through their tummy of course! 

Around here, we think it's pretty fun to make themed food. We do a LOT of muffin tin meals, but I also try to make pictures, shapes or games out of her food as well. What do we do for Valentine's Day? Hearts galore, of course!

Here are a few simple ways to say I {Heart} You with a Valentine snack, meal or treat:

I made these heart-shaped pizzas (love bites) for Sweet P last Valentine's Day and they were a big hit! I even cut the cheese and mushrooms into hearts!

Growing a Jeweled Rose also has a heart-shaped pizza and her little one helped! She also spelled out LOVE in peppers!

My personal favorite heart-shaped meal is this heart-shaped tofu meal from Critters and Crayons. As vegetarians, this would be a big hit at our house!

 

Like I said, we love muffin tin meals and Rockabye Butterfly and JDaniel4sMom have some fun ideas for Valentine muffin tins! It doesn't have to be super fancy or even heart-shaped, just stick a few heart-themed muffin liners in!

Rockabye Butterfly's healthy heart-shaped lunch

JDaniel4sMom's heart-themed lunch with a heart-shaped muffin tin and empanadas!

Tinkerlab has a fun heart-shaped snack idea: a cream-cheese snack that looks like a cookie without all the sugar!

These cheesy heart-shaped crackers from Kitchen Counter Chronicles put goldfish crackers to shame! Look how good they look! What a great snack for a kid to wake up or come home to!

Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without a sweet treat or two!

Maggy at Red Ted Art whipped up these awesome Whoopie Pies as part of the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. Don't you wish you were Maggy's neighbor?!

These waffle bowl cakes with cherry pie filling from Glittering Muffins look heart-filled!

And finally, these awesome stained glass heart cookies from The Outlaw Mom and Nurture Store are the perfect way to say I {Heart} You! Eat them or give them as ornaments! I love all the different color options for these cookies!

The Outlaw Mom

Nurture Store

Do you have a Valentine go-to meal? Share the link in the comments!

Valentine Sensory Bin 2012

Sweet P had a ball with her Valentine Sensory Bin last year so last night I made a new one for her. Most of the items were leftover from last year, but I did get a few new things (heart boxes, erasers and heart necklaces) from the $1 spot at Target.

When she came downstairs the bin also had 2 little Valentine projects from Gammie and TK, a Valentine book and the purple and red cups from her sorting bears.

What's in it?

• Purple/Red sorting bears
• Purple/Red pegs from her geo pegboard
• Purple/Red pompoms
• February perpetual calendar tile
• Heart shaped boxes
• Heart erasers
• Heart necklaces
• Valentine-themed stamps
• Valentine-themed erasers 
• Sparkly hearts 
• Felt hearts I made last year
• 2 red yarn balls
• Red jingle bells
• String of pink pompoms

We sat together after her nap and sorted the red and purple items into the corresponding cups and made a pink pile for the pink things. Each heart box has erasers in it and she likes opening them to see how many are in each one ("This one only has one, mama!"). Later in the week I'll put number stickers on the boxes and we'll try some counting games.

She and the Farmer also had fun with it after her bath yesterday. There are a lot of items that would be fun with playdough so we may try that later this week, too!