Valentine Fun

I thought Eleanor would really enjoy getting a little crafty with Valentines this year, so Friday afternoon, we worked on our project (or "projeck" as she says it) together.

Here she is gluing hearts onto the paper. We made "love bugs." I did one so she would have an example.

We cut out the hearts together. Eleanor loves to cut paper. I thought she would just do her own thing with paper and scissors while I cut out hearts, but she wanted to make hearts just like me. At first, I helped her guide her scissors around the curve while I held the paper. Then, she wanted to do it herself. I let her give it a try, but then she wanted more help. She had me hold the paper while she did the cutting. She did pretty well. These are some that she cut out except the top one. She cut the inside heart out of the top one.
After we cut one heart, I told her I just wanted to cut off a little pointy part that needed rounded out. After that, there wasn't one heart that could be unfolded without her cutting off the pointy part. I had to convince her the bottom point was supposed to be there, but the other end of the heart was fair game.
Here's the example I made. We gave it to Daddy.
This is the first one she did. She did a great job.

She had so much fun, and so did I, watching her enjoy herself. We told Daddy it would be a surprise when he got home. She kept saying, "We are making him a party!"

Here's the second one she did. She included some of the shapes she cut out. The far left is a butterfly, followed by a bat.

That night, Phaedra and I went shopping for a while, and we came home to this:
a sweet surprise

"Will you be my Valentine?" Seeing this messy faced girl ask me to be her Valentine sure made my day.

Grant and I even got to go out on Valentine's Day. My mother came over and watched the kids. We tried to go to a movie, but the show we planned to see was sold out. So, we joined the crowd trying to get into the Olive Garden for lunch together. It wasn't as long a wait as we thought it would be, and we had a really nice time. We realized it had been a really long time since we went there without kids. It's a whole different experience when you can actually just sit and talk during the meal.

Hope you all had a fun holiday remembering the people you love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To: the man in our life

From: the girls in yours

We love you!

"We Got Our Hairs Cut!"

Inchworm

Inchworm, inchworm

Measuring the marigolds

You and your arithmetic

You'll probably go far

Inchworm, inchworm

Measuring the marigolds

Seems to me you'd stop and see

How beautiful they are

Wild Tangent Tuesday: Help Wanted: Shoppers

Shoppers . . .

I need your help. One of my first priorities upon moving into this house was to put some different curtains in Eleanor's room (different from the ones left behind by the previous owner). Five months later, I haven't done anything to change them. So, I'm applying to all of you, my blogger BFFs, to help me out.

I'm not much of a decorator in the first place, and window treatments are my weakness. I keep telling myself to look at them when I'm near a store that might have options, but I forget every time. Plus, I basically just don't know what I'm doing. So, I thought maybe my friends could help me out. If you happen to see what I'm looking for when you're out and about, or if you come across it surfing the net, or if you just want to take this on as a challenge, let me know if you come up with anything.

Oh, and Plllllllease don't suggest that I sew some myself. I would probably get excited about it, buy some fabric (eventually), tell myself that the curtain project had to wait while I finish ___ number of current projects I have going. And then, when it finally came time to get out the fabric for the curtains, I'd either have changed my mind on what I wanted to do with the room, or I'd just get too intimidated by the sewing project to even start. I'm wimpy about sewing. If you want to sew some for me, you're more than welcome to do so ;)

Here's what the windows look like:

And these are my requirements:

• Function (first priority): They must block out AS. MUCH. LIGHT. AS. POSSIBLE. It's my only hope in getting her to sleep as it gets dark later at night. I'm not holding my breath on naps, but if it helps that too, I'll take it. Plus, I think she will feel safer at night without the street light shining in her window. She has had some bad nights, waking up scared, since we moved here. I think it has to do with the curtains (maybe).
• Form: I just want something fun, happy, girly.
• The walls in the room are currently tan but subject to change (eventually). Feel free to suggest a wall color to go with your curtain suggestion, or just ignore wall color altogether.
  


"Take a picture of me."
Another note on function: this is the inside casing of the windows. Since they open upwards, there is no place to put a rod within the casing. That basically rules out black out shades, blinds, or anything that would be installed there.
I have these two quilts I really love that were given to me for Phaedra. (This picture really doesn't do this one justice --grumble.) I'd like to possibly hang one of them on the wall. Actually, I'd like to rotate between the two, hanging whichever one isn't in use at the time. They don't have much in common, but they do both have a little bit of everything. So, maybe it wouldn't be too hard to find a curtain that could work with them. If not, oh well. It's just an idea.So that's that. I need you're help. I think that together, we can find a decent window treatment for Eleanor's room that will have the form and function we need. Did I mention they need to be affordable? These are trying times . . . Keep your eyes open, and let me know what you find. Thanks!